‘Hightown’ Recap: ‘The White Whale’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When we last settled in to discuss the powerful and dynamic STARZ series, Hightown, we talked at length about how the show did a phenomenal job of portraying what rock bottom really looks like for both addicts and everyday people. Which in turn allowed for some powerful and realistic epiphanies to take place for both Junior and Jackie, the kind where they finally understood the gravity of their actions in regard to drugs. But what makes that important exploration of note today, is that the show wasn’t quite done with exploring the importance of rock bottom and what it really looks like and that’s a good thing. Because once someone has reached that point, they have to decide what comes next for them and that is just as important as the epiphany.
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Because in reality, a shocking realization about our life and our personal world, can have quite the incredible impact upon us, the kind where we simply go one of two ways. In that, we can rise to the occasion and pull ourselves into the light, which is the path most addicts take in storytelling… or there’s the far darker option. Where understanding the harm our actions caused, help us to slide into the darkness, where we could in fact be lost to the world and it just so happens… that the next episode of this series showed us both sides of that proverbial coin. For ‘The White Whale’ saw Jackie and Junior each take one of those paths and as it turns out, Jackie took the high road. Because she genuinely realized that her drinking cost someone their life and that she could never let that happen again and she finally buckled down and opted to get clean… and more.

But we will get to that in a moment. Because we need to talk about Junior’s sour journey. Because watching Krista die in front of him, thanks to the fact he chose to immerse himself into the criminal underworld of P-town… broke him. And he simply couldn’t reconcile his choices and where they brought him, and he quickly slid deeper into the darkness. To the point where he began to neglect Donna and his baby girl and he even went hyper aggressive in regard to selling the new drugs that Osito ordered him to, all because… the death of Krista made his soul numb, and he desperately needed a new high… the kind that would allow for him to feel something and eventually, he did get his wish. For a deal gone wrong in a hotel room with three strong dudes, brought forth a devastating beatdown for Junior, one that finally let him feel something other than the numbness surging through his body. Which was a powerful and visceral way to show us how easy it is to slide into the darkness when we’ve reached our lowest.

However, since we are closing in on the season one finale, there are still crime related plot threads that need to be resolved and thanks to Osito’s decision to take matters into his own hands, Ray and Alan were able to finally close in on him. For there was photo evidence galore and witnesses, the kind that dropped names. But they didn’t offer enough details to directly tie Ostio to Krista’s murder. Which in turn motivated Ray to just go for broke and bring Osito in, and while that didn’t quite end as he hoped since Ostio lawyered up fast, the fact that Ray was able to rattle him and get close to him speaks volumes to the borrowed time that Ostio is enjoying at the moment, and this also bring us back to Jackie’s journey. For she decided come hell or high water that she was going to make things right and help to solve this case, and that motivated her to use the agency’s database to uncover who took out the boat on that fateful night when her life changed, and what she found was shocking to say the least.

For now, she knows that Junior was the man at the wheel of the boat on that night and now Jackie will have no choice but to take this information to Ray, and that won’t go over well with Frankie or Ostio or Junior for that matter as well. But it has to be done, for the sake of justice and safety and that likely means the final two episodes of season one will be a masterclass in crime drama tension. Which also means our grand examination of addiction will likely take a back seat but that’s okay. Because already… this series has broken incredible ground on the subject and of course, there are still opportunities to examine it on a smaller scale in the next two episodes. But all pondering aside, this really was quite the powerful and amazing episode, one that really gave us an idea of how recovering addicts are lost to the world when it seems as though progress was made and, in the end, this is a story that definitely leaves you worried when it ends. Because Junior is in genuine danger right now on an internal and external level and hopefully can get to him soon… so he can finally enjoy the second chance at life that Jackie is chasing. Until next time.

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