The Westies Season 1 Episode 3 opens on a brutal note, with John Gotti holding Mickey hostage and doing everything he can to break him. A bottle smashed over the head, a baseball bat to the body, Mickey takes it all and, somehow, still manages to laugh in his captor’s face. It’s a small but telling detail about who Mickey is as a character. Gotti knows this isn’t going to be a quick job. Cracking this kid is going to take time, but he’s clearly not planning on backing off anytime soon.
While all this is happening, Jimmy and his crew are stewing over how they even got here. If Mickey hadn’t handed Erin that bracelet, none of this would be unraveling the way it is. Then again, let’s not forget Jimmy’s own hand in lighting this fuse, killing Vincent Zaccaro is really what set this whole chain reaction in motion. There’s plenty of blame to go around in this crew.
Eamon, understandably, is rattled when he learns Gotti has Mickey. His gut tells him the kid will talk, and soon. Jimmy has other ideas, though, and starts putting together a plan to get him back before that happens.
Eamon’s Gamble With Big Paul Castellano
The plan hinges on Eamon paying a visit to Big Paul Castellano, arguing that Gotti has grabbed the wrong guy and using the Javits Center as his bargaining chip. If it works, it doesn’t just save Mickey, it also keeps a lid on the truth everyone’s desperate to bury.
Of course, nothing about this is simple. Eamon’s whole pitch depends on how convincing he can be, and things get a lot messier once a dead cop turns up off the highway. That’s not the kind of thing that quietly disappears. Detective Polk catches wind of the body fast, and he’s already smelling a setup, especially once a driver’s license shows up right at the scene.
Eamon meets with Big Paul, and the deal on the table isn’t free. Big Paul agrees to let Mickey go, but only if Eamon does him a favor in return. That favor centers on a nightclub called The Starship, tucked away in Jackson Heights.
The Starship Job: A Front for the Colombians
Turns out The Starship isn’t just a disco, it’s cover for a Colombian drug operation. One of Castellano’s own captains has gone rogue, running narcotics against orders, and Big Paul wants the Colombians taken out as punishment. It’s risky, but it’s the price for getting Mickey back alive.
Jimmy and the boys head to the club, where Jimmy talks his way past a dealer named Jose by claiming ties to Vincent. That gets him down into the basement, right into the heart of the operation, giving him the perfect chance to scope out the layout before making a move. Meanwhile, back up on the dancefloor, Pat can’t help himself and starts a fight, getting the whole crew tossed out of the club.
Gotti Gets Chewed Out, Glenn Starts Unraveling
Gotti shows up to see Big Paul and gets an earful for dragging drugs into the mix. Big Paul wants his operation to stay clean, above that kind of business, and tries to rein Gotti in, but it’s obvious Gotti isn’t the type to fall in line easily.
Elsewhere, Glenn pays Eamon a visit, clearly shaken by Polk’s investigation. He’s sweating the possibility of becoming an accessory to murder if his ties to Eamon come out. The thing is, Eamon genuinely didn’t know about the murdered cop until this moment, and once Glenn walks out, Eamon lets out a curse under his breath, realizing just how deep this hole is getting.
Glenn, meanwhile, is spiraling. He tracks down his estranged son and even strikes him a few times trying to force answers out of him. Eventually he learns Pat is the one responsible for the cop’s death, and he brings that information straight to Eamon. Glenn makes it clear, if he could dig this up this easily, Gotti’s crew could too if they start leaning on the right people. His price for handling Pat and keeping the secret buried: Danny stays out of the gang’s business entirely. Eamon agrees.
Bridget’s Gamble and the Raid on the Colombians
The Colombians aren’t an easy target, they’re heavily armed, and taking them down alone would be close to suicide for Jimmy’s crew. When Jimmy lays out the situation to Bridget, she sees an opportunity. She’s spent the episode trying to figure out exactly what Brandon is up to in New York, and this gives her the perfect excuse to use his weapons stash to help wipe out the Colombians, conveniently while their own firepower down at the docks is stretched thin.
With Brandon’s guns in hand, Jimmy and his crew storm in and clear out the Colombians without much of a fight. Before leaving, Jimmy can’t resist grabbing a stash of cocaine to sell off on the side.
Eamon holds up his end of the bargain, and Mickey walks free, much to Gotti’s fury. The episode closes with Glenn making good on his own deal, killing Pat outright to keep the truth buried for good.
The Episode Review: Did The Westies Episode 3 Deliver?
The Westies Season 1 Episode 3 slows things down considerably, and honestly, I felt that shift the moment the disco heist started eating up screen time. Watching Jimmy’s crew storm The Starship reads like filler busy-work, and that’s a strange choice to make only three episodes into a new season. When you’re this early in a show’s run, every episode needs to be pulling its weight, and this one felt more like a detour than forward momentum.
I also noticed the Irish subplot barely gets any air this week. Instead of building out that thread, the show funnels their weapons into the Colombian raid, which gets cleared out shockingly fast, just four guys taking down an entire armed operation with minimal resistance. I kept expecting Bridget to broker some kind of alliance between Jimmy’s crew and the Irish, maybe trading her involvement for their firepower, but the show never goes there. It’s a missed opportunity that would’ve added more tension to an otherwise straightforward heist.
That said, the brief scene with Brandon toward the end hints at consequences down the line. If Brandon figures out Bridget handed off his weapons without permission, she’s going to be backed into a corner she can’t easily talk her way out of. That’s the kind of setup I want more of this season, plot threads with teeth.
Where the episode does earn its keep is in the Big Paul Castellano material. Getting more screen time with him, and watching the tension ratchet up between the two crime families, gives the hour some real weight. And Pat’s death at the close is clearly meant to be the spark for the next round of conflict, especially with Jimmy almost certainly going to assume Gotti had a hand in it, even though it was Glenn all along. That misdirection has the potential to blow up in interesting ways.
Overall, this felt like a step back after a strong start. I’m hoping episode 4 tightens the pacing back up, because The Westies has shown it can move, it just needs to trust that momentum instead of stalling for a bottle episode this early on.
The Westies Season 1 Episode 2 | The Westies Season 1 Episode 4
