There is magic everywhere for those with eyes to see. Which is exactly why, whether we’re talking about Rosa and Yancy or Neville and Gracie, it’s always a good plan to have Ya-Ya around. “That curse you made for young Neville?” the Obeah sage says to her granddaughter in Episode 9 of Bad Monkey. “The storm that draw everybody together? It’s coming.” Even though Dragon Queen longs to be only Gracie, and to get off Andros for good, neither of those things will come to pass. The generational magic she was taught, that she always felt even when she denied it, has finally come back for a reckoning. The havoc Nick and Eve created on her island cannot be left unchecked, especially now that the Striplings are onto Yancy and Rosa’s wealthy realtor ruse. The magical practitioner must rise again. And when she does, it’s with the full power of her ceremonial garb and an ultimatum for Eve that is powerful enough to drive back hurricane rain. “I’m the motherfucking Dragon Queen! Time to end this…”

Technically, it is not actually time to end this. There’s still one episode of Bad Monkey left. But the last third of the season has been real solid, as Yancy and Rosa’s romance found its footing – “Whatever this is, maybe it could be real” – and some of the show’s side character randomness finally seemed to fall into place. And now, in a penultimate installment that can only be described as rollicking, Bad Monkey really is anticipating a satisfying end to all the mayhem it presented. 

Once they sniffed out Rosa’s real identity – the giveaway was a Polaroid of her and Yancy tacked up at the local dive – it really seemed like Eve and Nick were gonna add the former Miami-Dade PD medical examiner to their body count. Eve did that thing where she goes from bubbly to psychotic in the space of two seconds, and Egg walked into the room brandishing a pistol. “Fuck you,” a smug Eve told Rosa. And Rosa being Rosa, she retorted with probably the only thing you can say in a situation like that. Fuck me? Pointed gun or not, the answer is more like “Fuck you.”  

The hurricane is brewing, and everyone on the island can feel it, but for our benefit, Bad Monkey matches a shot of Andrew Yancy bicycling through wind and rain to save Rosa to a brooding Nathaniel Rateliff cover of “Don’t Come Around Here No More.” (It’s only the latest Tom Petty cover in a show of many, but it’s one of the more memorable takes.) Instead of killing her, Nick and Eve took Rosa hostage, understanding how it would draw in Yancy. Which is exactly what happens, and once Nick racks a pistol-grip shotgun between his knees, Yancy’s fast-talking superpowers have never been more necessary. He grabs Eve’s beloved pomeranian, the one thing that can protect him from flying buckshot. Now who’s the hostage? “She cares more about the dog than you,” Yancy tells Nick down the barrel of the Ithaca. “You’ve got a daughter that wants a relationship with you. How the fuck did you end up here?”

Yancy escapes this scrape with an assist from Neville, who appears at the last second to distract the Striplings with the stump of a fishing rod plunged into Nick’s back. With so much danger on the island, Rosa wants to return to Miami immediately. But the storm is only getting stronger. And besides, even if Nick and Eve’s drug-running pilot pal is willing to fly them out under the radar, Yancy refuses to go. Going all the way back to Bad Monkey Episode 1, he just can’t let this go. He’s in agreement with Dragon Queen, though he doesn’t know it. NIck and Eve cannot be allowed to get away with it, all this disrespect of human life and property. Rosa gets on the plane. She’s angry with Yancy for staying, angry that his impulses will not let him choose their security over his sense of duty. And she swears that it’s over between them, just as it seemed like they were officially an item. Yancy doesn’t say a word, and his frown follows the plane as it disappears into the storm. 

As Ya-Ya says, there is magic everywhere. It’s just known by different names. Rosa’s devout mother calls it religion. Jim Yancy sees magic in water, wildlife and the trees. And Bonnie, well, she understands that magic comes from within, even when you’re doing an 8-year bit in federal prison. (Bonnie’s brief time in the pen ends when she manages to seduce a prison guard, and we last see her, they’re tearing down the highway in his 1956 Corvette convertible.) There’s a chance Dragon Queen gets to Nick and Eve Stripling before Yancy does. She has already nicked Eve’s chin with a knife in a wonderfully powerful and threatening gesture. But we have another theory, and it’s about the cosmic energy that brought Yancy into the orbit of both Neville and Dragon Queen. He can’t leave now. Not even for Rosa. The reckoning with magic that she felt and finally embraced? Yancy could use a little of it, in order to finally stop the Eve of destruction. Call it magic, call it religion, call it fate. You can give it whatever name you want, but it’s all happening. “There’s nothing for any of us who sold our souls,” Dragon Queen warns her blonde adversary in the wind and driving rain. “The storm is here, just like I said. I ready to accept my fate. How about you, Eve?” 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.