WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Animal Kingdom Season 5, Episode 6, “Home Sweet Home,” which aired Sunday on TNT.
Animal Kingdom‘s “Home Sweet Home” sees the Cody boys carrying out the risky job that Pam (Charlayne Woodard) proposed upon her unexpected and unwelcomed arrival. However, this time, the Codys bring in Renn (Christina Ochoa). While it’s no secret that Renn can take care of herself, her first heist resulted in a surprising emotion — raw excitement. Now, Animal Kingdom seems to hint that Pam may have unintentionally created a monster in Renn.
After Smurf’s (Ellen Barkin) death, the Codys were shocked to discover Pam — an estranged friend of Smurf’s — as the main inheritor of their mother/grandmother’s empire. While the reasons Smurf left Pam everything in her will aren’t entirely clear, Pam arrives in Oceanside to claim her inheritance nonetheless. However, she also comes with a proposal: if the Codys pull off a job to retrieve a safe allegedly containing a bloody shirt used to blackmail her son, they can earn Smurf’s house back. Although the boys are reluctant, they ultimately agree.
Animal Kingdom‘s “Home Sweet Home” spotlights the job. The Codys infiltrate the skatepark where the safe is located by posing as construction workers and breaking down the wall to the office from the building next door. Much to Craig’s (Ben Robson) dismay, Renn is on the inside, keeping the owner distracted and turning up the music when directed by the Codys to dampen the sawing noises. However, in Animal Kingdom‘s expected heart-pounding, dramatic action, things don’t go exactly as planned.
The owner catches onto the Codys’ phony construction front. Meanwhile, Renn — who snuck a curious peek at the commotion — is apprehended by the owner and his henchman. While the Codys manage to get the safe out, Renn also gets away from her captor by stabbing him in the leg. She proceeds to flee into an alley, where she discards the weapon and sinks to the ground with a wild grin and adrenaline pumping from her escape.
Later, she and Craig reunite at their house, where Renn is still clearly excited. As she begins to celebrate with a post-heist hookup, she says to Craig, “I get why you do it now.” Craig maintains that he does it for the money, but Renn laughs his response off by saying, “Yeah. Sure.” The moment is brief but may point to a future issue regarding the Codys running jobs.
While the Codys are known to get their adrenaline up during jobs, the lost-in-excitement-moments are usually short-lived. Smurf groomed them from an early age to successfully pull off crimes, encouraging them to carefully think things through. As such, Craig’s response that he does jobs just for the money is true. However, he has over a decade worth of experience under his belt. In contrast, Renn’s new to the game — and with novelty comes excitement.
As Animal Kingdom‘s storyline stands right now, it seems Renn enjoys the adrenaline rush jobs give and will likely want in on more heists in the future. Renn’s history of excessive drug use — which caused her to overdose in Season 1 — increases the likelihood of her addictive tendencies latching on to adrenaline. However, when people get amped up, they get sloppy. Combine that with Renn’s inexperience, and her involvement could spell disaster in the future. After all, there’s a reason Smurf never wanted to involve outsiders.
The Codys will navigate the aftermath of Pam’s heist as their story continues in Animal Kingdom Season 5. New episodes drop each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.
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