Editor’s Note: The following recap contains spoilers for Episode 4 of “Bad Monkey.”

All our burning questions about the crime thriller on Apple TV+ Evil Monkey were unexpectedly answered before the middle of the season. At the end of episode 3, we wallowed in a crazy revelation: The alleged murder victim Nick Stripling and the private contractor Christopher (Rob Delaney) are the same person. Episode 4 briefly leaves Andrew Yancys (Vince Vaughn) and Rosas (Natalie Martinez) hot investigations that delve into the past, particularly Nick’s past, and completely change our perception of the events of the present timeline. But just because we know how each of the mysteries played out in the past doesn’t mean the investigation is over yet, because episode 4, titled “Nothing’s Wrong With It, I Just Don’t Need It Anymore” ends with a bad mood which puts our impetuous but lovable ex-detective in a precarious situation in several respects.

Flashbacks in episode 4 of “Bad Monkey” reveal past crimes

Episode 4 of Evil Monkey dives straight into a long flashback that goes back to the fateful night when Nick kidnapped his daughter Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence), went to a party to expand her model contacts and met Eve (Meredith Hagner). Eve was a failed actress with only one commercial to her name and had been fired from numerous other jobs because of her inability to shed tears on command – a trait that almost got her caught by Yancy. Nick recognizes Eve from the commercial and awkwardly flirts with her, but they don’t hit it off until Nick promises to give Eve the lavish life she deserves. Meanwhile, Caitlin’s alcoholism and drug addiction seem to have started that night. As we cut to the couple’s wedding, Nick is completely smitten with Eve, while a not-quite-sober Caitlin storms out of her wedding. which led to alienation between father and daughter.

Then we see Nick with his buddy, Dr. Israel O’Peele (Zach Braff) as they both begin to set up the phantom patient scam under the name Midwest Mobile Medical. Eve, unlike Israel’s wife, is also in on the scam and plants Nick’s head in fantasies of a Miami beach mall and urges him to increase the scope of their scam so they can afford it. We also see Neville (Ronald Peet), the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner Smith) and Ya-ya (Scott L. Caldwell) are becoming increasingly suspicious of Nick’s continued presence on the coast. Unfortunately This development puts them on the radar of federal agentsand Nick faces a 20-year prison sentence. He tries to buy time by making excuses about the mess in his paperwork, and then throws himself headlong into Eve, desperate for advice. After her outraged reaction, he makes a plan to fake his deathand finally suggests that he cut off his arm to complete the deal.

Who is the real villain in “Bad Monkey”?

In this flashback Nick/Christopher is miles away from the villain we first thought he was. Before Eve, he had a close relationship with Eve as a proud father who tries hard, and a goofy friendship with Israel – his only crime was a mediocre con, not a global crime empire. Eve proves to be the bad guy of the two, as her eyes glow manically when he suggests cutting off his arm, and her manipulative and psychopathic side slowly comes to the fore.

Israel performs the amputation of Nick’s arm, with Eve reluctantly and disgustedly assisting him – but she insists on taking off the watch. After all, it’s expensive. Israel also takes the penis into the shower and hides the clean cut by smashing the edgeswhich caused bone fragments to fall into the shower drain, which Yancy and Rosa found Evil Monkey‘s premiere. He strengthens the facade by bribing Phinney (Brett Cormier) to trick a tourist into thinking he had caught a severed body part, and it is also likely that Phinney manipulated the arm’s fingers into this rude gesture. Despite his brief appearance on the show, Israel played a crucial role in Nick’s scam and later in Nick’s moral downfall when Israel began to doubt their plan.

When Phinney begins blackmailing Nick for more money, Eve encourages Nick to settle loose ends, leading to Phinney’s murder. Her single-minded obsession with wealth and psychopathy slowly corrupts Nick as he also shoots Israel in the back of the head after he finds out that he wants to confess his love to Yancy. When he finally has a nervous breakdown in a parking garage and accuses her of having nothing to do with it, Heather is confronted with the weather (Lauren Buglioli) overhears this, leading to her own death at the hands of the merciless Eve. Back in the present, Nick begins to reconnect with his daughter and is horrified by Eve’s insinuations that Caitlin would reveal her secrets. He accuses her of plotting to murder Caitlin, but Eve’s story comes full circle here when She gives the performance of her life and sheds a single tear to get Nick back on her side.

A romance is brewing between Yancy and Rosa in “Bad Monkey”

Yancy’s love life is also further developed in this episode, as the flashback also shows his first meeting with Bonnie (Michelle Monaghan). Yancy is transferred to Keys and, as usual, arranges to meet his partner Rogelio for ice cream (John Ortiz). They joke about Rogelio’s anxiety about meeting his new friend’s children, and when Rogelio leaves to get a second scoop, Bonnie catches Yancy’s attention. Although their flirtatious interaction is brief and she shows Yancy her wedding ring, he is smitten. We also later learn that Bonnie was abused by her husbandwhich Yancy appears with a bruised face. Since she didn’t want to file an official report, Yancy does the next best thing: he runs into her husband’s golf cart and laughs as he staggers off the pier. This illustrates the reason why Yancy was suspended from the police force when we first met him.

In the present timeline, a very different romance develops between Yancy and Rosa as they share a tender, heartfelt moment in the morgue. Rosa tells him about her ex-fiancé and how she misjudged his character. In comparison, Rosa finds Yancy’s honesty refreshingalthough she knows that his impulsive behavior is not necessarily good for her. We can almost imagine the steam wafting through the cold, dead air of the morgue as Rosa and Yancy grow hot and heavy on a steel table that has already been littered with corpses.

Yancy is in big trouble in “Bad Monkey”

Evil Monkey The flashback of episode 4 also reveals the reason why Yancy cannot work as a detective in Miami again. He learns of corruption in the police force, namely by a cop we met briefly in episode 3, Officer Mendez (Gonzalo Menendez). Mendez had encouraged family and friends to call his office’s hotline for tips on already solved cases and earn free money. When Yancy found out, he immediately exposed Mendez, but his own disrespectful and sarcastic behavior led to him being transferred to the Keys. A physical altercation between the two officers further cemented their rivalry. When Mendez speaks to the witness who saw Yancy leave Israel’s apartment minutes after his murder, we know Yancy is in trouble.

The final scene of the episode also seals Yancy’s fate. He looks out the window at a three-legged deer he rescued and ponders Rosa’s story about misjudging her ex-fiancé. An inspired Yancy finally comes to a logical conclusion: A person can live without an arm. Therefore, they may have jumped to a conclusion when they thought the severed arm automatically meant the owner was dead. Yancy continues to connect the dots about Eve’s new boyfriend and suspects Nick is Christopher – he quickly caught up. However, this revelation is accompanied by a brutal blow to the back of Yancy’s head. He faints on the floor while Nick towers over himmore psychopathic and desperate than we’ve ever seen him before.

The first four episodes of Evil Monkey can be streamed on Apple TV+. The next episodes are released every Wednesday.

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