‘Animal Kingdom’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Pope Learns [Spoiler] Killed Baz

The Cody family is going to pull off another heist, but receiving help from an outsider could be a big mistake. On “Animal Kingdom” Season 3 episode 7, one member of the Cody family will step up in a time of financial troubles, while the others search for answers.

On the Tuesday night episode, titled “Low Man,” viewers find J (Finn Cole) in the Cody family home cleaning up Nicky’s (Molly Gordon) blood. While she was high on Billy’s (Denis Leary) drugs, Nicky shot herself in the leg and left a trail of blood around the house before J took her to the hospital.

After J washes off Nicky’s blood from his body, her father, Paul (C. Thomas Howell), shows up demanding her belongings. He tells J that Nicky is fighting for her life and he will never see her again.

Overwhelmed, J forgets about the plan to do recon for an upcoming heist and instead meets with Smurf’s (Ellen Barkin) lawyer. The attorney warns J not to leave his grandmother feeling alone while she is locked up in jail. She explains Smurf is being offered deals to snitch and J is considered expendable.

Elsewhere, Deran (Jake Weary), Billy, Pope (Shawn Hatosy) and Craig (Ben Robson) are following around a truck as they attempt to work out the final details of the heist that Billy wants J excluded from.

Although Pope demands J be included in the plan, he gets distracted by a call from Lucy (Carolina Guerra). She tells him to come down to Mexico because she found out some new information about Baz’s (Scott Speedman) murder.

In order to sneak away to check out Lucy’s intel, Pope tells Craig to watch Billy and keep him away from Deran. While spending the day with Billy, Craig talks to Frankie (Dichen Lachman) and learns she grew up in a van and is an expert on vehicles.

Pope heads down to Mexico, where Lucy introduces him to an inmate who heard a rich woman put out a hit on her son after he stole from her. The man claims he heard about the killing from the same gang that is being paid to protect Smurf in prison.

Although Pope doesn’t want to believe Smurf could hurt Baz, Lucy reminds him that all she cares about is her money, which Baz stole. Lucy wants revenge, but Pope warns Lucy not to get someone on the inside to go after Smurf.

In jail, Smurf, who is awaiting her court date, learns the inmate she set up, Alvarez (Tracy Perez), has returned to general population and is her new cellmate.

Pearce (Gil Birmingham) pays a visit to Smurf, who now has a black eye and accuses him of purposely assigning Alvarez as her cellmate.

The detective mentions the jail is overcrowded, which means Smurf and Alvarez will have to work out their problems, but Smurf wants a deal.

She states she wants to be moved to another prison and will only do a maximum of three years. For that, she will give Pearce the Cody boys.

Elsewhere, J admits he has grown tired of being Smurf’s errand boy and tells Mia (Sohvi Rodriguez) he doesn’t have the payment to keep Smurf protected.

J then visits a frustrated Smurf and reminds her she would die in jail if it wasn’t for him, before he walks out on his grandmother.

Later on, J shows up at Mia’s job with a mischievous look on his face and she asks him what he did. Instead of answering the question, he begins making out with her.

At the detention center, Smurf meets with Pearce once again. This time, he offers eight to 10 years in prison if she gives up her boys. The light sentence for a murder charge convinces Smurf that he doesn’t actually have a witness to testify against her.

Pearce tells Smurf he will see her in court tomorrow, but when the day comes, she is released. As Smurf walks out of jail, she is met by Pearce just as the boys begin to carry out their heist.

Pearce offers her a ride home and Smurf happily gloats in the back seat after realizing the detective was forced to drop the charges against her because he had a weak case.

“Animal Kingdom” Season 3 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EDT on TNT.