Kaleidoscope - The Gree Episode Recap And Review

Episode Recap 

The Green episode of Kaleidoscope jumps back seven years before the robbery when he catches up with Leo. He's in jail and reveals that criminals come in all shapes and sizes. Stan is also there, behind bars and actually becomes his cellmate.

 Leo's bitter situation is caused by the face he betrayed, which explains why he is behind bars. She and Stan work together and run a good operation using their foreign daughter, Judy, to move goods inside. She has an affair with Stan and he believes she is the one.

  There are those who are not happy with this deal, especially when Stan sells a phone belonging to the Peckerwoods, a gang in prison. There are three of them, and after hitting Stan on the head with a rolling pin in the kitchen, leave him bleeding profusely. Leo shows up and manages to save her from a bad outcome.

  Leo is not entirely good. Seeing the doctor, he says that he has Parkinson's disease. This explains the quip about "shaking" in the Yellow episode, and that diagnosis is not a good one. As a result, Leo, thinking clearly and already forming an idea for the robbery, decides to act.

  In prison, Stan meets Bob, Judy's right-hand man. He's as obnoxious as ever and struggles to pull himself together when he pisses off Stan. However, Bob agrees to buy the cards he needs. When they leave, Stan decides to join Leo's plan.

  Leo manages to track down the guard's key thanks to some brilliant coughing and grabbing the guard's hip, while Stan sweeps up the food and drives the whole mess wild. As the entire security detail leaves to investigate what's going on, they leave Leo and Stan alone in the medical bay.

  Leo breaks free of his cuffs, but Stan is caught before he can escape. Leo manages to get out of the parking lot, avoiding them when the guards appear in droves.

  Inside, the doctor shrugs off the prisoner's condition, insisting that it's just magic mushrooms and that they'll be fine in a few hours, joking that they should throw on some Pink Floyd instead. They don't call or anything, and eventually Leo is able to run away.

 Leo goes to see Ava, where he tells her his Parkinson's diagnosis. Then he comes to Hannah and tries to explain himself. Here we learn that Hanna is actually Leo's daughter. While together, the police realize (finally) that Leo is missing and try to find him.

  Leo looks up to Roger Salas, who is closely related to Hannah at SLS. When a burning body is found by the police, it is assumed to be Ray Vernon (Leo's real name), giving Leo a whole new identity to move forward with.

  Episode Review

  Aesthetically, it's interesting that the dominant color here is green, and we'll have to watch and see if that's a recurring visual motif. Additionally, we get to see more of Leo and Stan's history, which makes sense given our prediction that everything would be a thing of the past after the Yellow episode.

  However, the writing is sloppy, and anyone who knows anything about prisons or has watched prison dramas in the past knows that it's nearly impossible for Leo to escape. No roll call and doctor just shrugging off drug prisoners? Without even checking the food? And all this with Leo's back smuggling himself in the trunk of the doctor's car, which should be there for a while.

  Such sloppy narrative issues keep it from being a better heist series, and the gimmick of switching to different episodes can only hold it back for so long. Hopefully this is just a blip along the way.