Penultimate Problems
Episode 5 of Little Birds begins with Hugo phoning Grant at 4am pleading for help with the gun deal. As Grant chuckles to himself, he tells Hugo to cough up the cash himself. Only, the cash advance he gave has been chewed up with Hugo’s family debts, meaning he can’t afford it. Eventually, this leads to Grant slamming the phone down. Tied up and in chains, Adham finds himself face to face with Vaney. He apologizes but Vaney ignores him and questions Leo about Cherifa. As Vaney starts to get down and dirty, he tortures Leo and beats him to a pulp. Only, this is nothing new for Leo given his dark past and he laughs through the torture. Eventually Vaney leaves in disgust, as Leo breathes heavily and winces while lying in a heap on the ground. In the morning, Lucy apologises to Contessa and her daughters for Chico’s death. She tells Lucy to leave and shuns her, forcing the girl out the mansion. Only, Lili overhears and decides to leave too. Things are not looking good for Hugo, but equally so for Lucy when she shows up. The barman senses something in her and takes the girl backstage to show off his artwork. As they spend time together, that talking soon turns to them getting covered in paint and creating modern artwork. Talking turns to kissing but Lucy quickly figures out Bill’s game and calls him out for being a spy. As we soon find out, that’s not far from the truth given he’s actually working as an undercover agent for the CIA. When Lucy returns home, she finds Hugo passed out on the floor with her pill bottle. It turns out he didn’t take the pills but is blind drunk. He couldn’t bring himself to swallow the pills. Instead, he admits that he’s in over his head and can’t deal with the business he’s got himself wrapped up in. Instead, Lucy takes charge and decides to try and fix this mess. She heads down to the docks and meets the Irishman. Instead of handing over the cash, she drops her wedding ring on the table and tells him to keep the change. Straight after, Lucy arrives before Bill demanding the truth – and the truth is what she gets. It turns out Bill has been watching her Father for quite some time as he’s been selling firearms to anyone who will take them. As Bill confronts her, he asks whose side she’s on. Unable to answer the question, she excuses herself and hurries away. Interspersed around all this simmering drama is Adham, who wanders back into town and overhears his lover speaking to a group of eager listeners. He encourages Adham to sit with him and they talk together, eventually telling the man to “love himself” over whatever he decides to do going forward. Cherifa makes her decision and marches up to Vaney’s residence. She pleads with them to let her talk to Vaney given the man they have is actually innocent. As Cherifa and Vaney find themselves face to face once again, she walks right into his trap. Cherifa admits the truth about what happened with Frederic. She pleads with him to see Adham and eventually he caves and lets her see his beaten body. As she turns on him with a gun, Vaney reveals one of his own. “Disappointing,” He grins coldly before shooting Leo in cold blood. Vaney then turns the gun on his right hand man and fires, calling him a traitor. As the episode closes out, Lucy phones home and speaks to her Father. She feigns being estranged and tells him that the French secretary wants to see him personally. Eventually Grant caves and agrees to show up. All of this actually happens to be a trap sprung by herself and Bill together. The game is afoot!
The Episode Review
With empowering moments for Lucy, she’s finally decided to pick a side and team up with Bill against her Father. While her character arc has been pretty good, some of these supporting characters are disappointingly forgettable. This has, unfortunately, been a theme felt right the way through the show. So far, this one has felt pretty formulaic which is a real shame, especially given some of the good work done here with the visuals. There’s some decent acting though and Juno Temple has certainly done a great job portraying Lucy. As the episode bows out, all eyes now turn to the finale for how this one is going to end.
