‘Too Old to Die Young’ Episode 7 Recap: Baby Did a Bad Dad Thing

The seventh episode of Too Old to Die Young kept calm. The eight brought the storm. And to paraphrase the wise men of Slayer, it’s raining blood.

Let’s put it another way. If “The High Priestess” was uneventful even by Too Old to Die Young standards—Jesus and Yaritza move back into his late mother’s mansion, meet their underlings and neighbors, and indulge in oedipal kink—”The Magician” is violent even by Too Old to Die Young standards.

Martin brutally stabs an abusive foster mom to death while Viggo shoots her abusive husband. Viggo shoots the dead mom for good measure.

Martin has a series of gruesome flashbacks to dead bodies and crime scenes during Janey’s 18th birthday party. He and she both wake up covered in the blood that leaks from his still open stab wound.

Martin brains Janey’s dad with his gun, then takes off his own belt and chokes the guy with it till his neck snaps.

Martin and Viggo pay a visit to Damian’s house to discover all his guards have been killed and his hands have been chopped off.

Jesus lords his newfound power over poor mutilated Damian until the captured crimelord reveals that Martin was the cop who killed Jesus’s mother. Damian laughs hysterically until Yaritza shoots him to death.

There’s nothing pretty about any of it, and aside from some striking shots of Martin as he kills Daddy Dearest there’s nothing even stylish about it in that Nicolas Winding Refn way. It’s all just gross and awful. Indeed, Refn and co-creator/co-writer Ed Brubaker do everything they can to maximize the unpleasantness: Viggo’s needless post-mortem gunshot, the crash-cut editing of Martin’s flashbacks in the middle of a fantastic party scene (soundtracked by “Homicide” by 999 in what is surely one of the best music cues of the year), the endless slow camera movement that reveals Damian’s severed hands on the bloody floor of an empty room long after Martin, our ostensible focal-point character, has seen them and moved on. By the time Jesus spells out his plan to slowly dismember Damian alive—remember the “to the pain” thing from The Princess Bride? Imagine that speech, but with Prince Humperdink lying in an empty pool covered in his own blood first—that level of violence feels not over-the-top, but inevitable.

Why all the violence? Why in this episode? Is it gratuitous, or is it all connected to something?

Let’s see. In this episode, Martin’s fellow cops talk endlessly about their penises and sex drives (“Please, tell me that motherfucker isn’t a real cop” says Damian after overhearing one of them talk in the biggest laugh line of the series so far), make racist and homophobic jokes, and talk about exterminating minorities one by one to make the country what it used to be, quoting Ronald Reagan quoting the Bible about the shining city on a hill.

In this episode, Martin lies to Viggo and Diana about his statutory-rape relationship so that he can visit violence upon people who commit crimes of which he himself is guilty.

In this episode, Janey’s dad gets up in front of her birthday guests and talks about how hot she is, and how in five years he’ll be dating her friends, and how hot she is again.

In this episode, Janey’s dad screens a film for Martin in which a pair of cops very much like him and his late partner sexually assault a woman they pull over.

In this episode, Janey’s dad tells Martin he spied on him and Janey having sex, and says “if she wasn’t my daughter…” before masturbating to the thought of having sex with her himself.

So, we have fascist, racist law enforcement officers who prey on children. We have a grotesque billionaire who declares, publicly and repeatedly, that he’s sexually attracted to his own daughter. And we have a tremendous explosion of horrific violence.

I dunno. Think there’s a connection to be made there? Think there’s a topical subtext to Too Old to Die Young‘s vicious, vacuous killers and their flimsy yet fanatical justifications for murder? Think there’s something about Janey’s dad that trumps his role in the story—something that connects him to the real world, and invites thoughts of not just punishment but retribution? Think there’s more going on here than just what shows up on the screen?

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.

Stream Too Old To Die Young Episode 7 ("The Magician") on Amazon Prime