We went into this Black Rabbit finale with a determination that neither Jake nor Vince deserved to make it out of this thing whole. We reached bottom with these guys after Episode 7, as each Friedken brother dug deep, through the lies, denials, and violence, for selfish justification to keep on skating. To keep on pushing toward a resolution that was beneficial – for them. We wondered where it would end, and imagined Vince somewhere else, maybe ramming some other lowlifes in another K Car, while Jake crafted some kind of downtown creature deal with Campbell the fixit man. What we didn’t imagine was actual no lie this time contrition, but hey, we’re glad it happened. 

The big flashback in Episode 8 of Black Rabbit is full of promise. A younger, beardless Vince and an eager Jake are hashing out ideas in the days after securing the lease on their creaky old building. Wes is with them, flirting with a young designer named Estelle he met by the jukebox. Anna’s behind the bar. Roxie’s the chef in the place they’re at, Tony’s already her #1 assistant, and they’re all blown away by the food she’s cooking. “I love you, man!” Rox says, doing bumps with Jake while he pitches her on joining their new restaurant project. “You’re fucking crazy.” He just laughs. Nah, that’s his brother. Everyone looks cool and they’re full of keyed-up excitement, like it was the beginning of an alternate timeline Black Rabbit.   

Cut back to now and we’re back in the gloom. In a play to save Gen, Val, and Hunter, Jake makes the call, which frees Vince’s daughter but sends Mancuso and Babbitt to intercept him at Matt’s bar. Vince’s buddy is shot and killed by the shark, and while it seems like he’s resigned himself to be next, the energy in the scene shifts. Mancuso wonders if Vin knows why his mother called him that night, after the bowling ball bashed his abusive father’s skull. It’s another part of the kinship Mancuso showed Jake, the first time we saw them meet in Episode 2. “You were always funny,” the boss says. “So was Junior.” Another Vince trait, of course, is resourcefulness on the fly. He stuffs Babbitt’s face full of Matt’s bad coke and bolts from the bar, just as Jake’s rolling up in the XJ6.

Cue a “fuck you” round robin about the fenders of the Jag, as the Friedken brothers revert to absurd name-calling and brotherly bickering. The new idea is to blackmail Campbell into putting Vince on a private plane out of the country – as blackmail, Jake has a thumbdrive copy of the incriminating security footage. But he’s gotta get it out of the Rabbit first, and the NYPD’s sitting on the crime scene and neighborhood. They’re chased by a beat cop through the tight alleys and shopfronts of Chinatown, because Detective Seung put out a citywide alert on Wes’s killer, and we were thinking “Hold up, are these dudes gonna give the slip?” Are they gonna bounce with Campbell’s help and open Black Rabbit 2 in the Faroe Islands?         

But no. Surrounded by chalk outlines in the very center of the destruction he caused, Vince is finally contrite. Crying, he tries to apologize for “blowing a hole” in his brother’s life, for taking their father from them. Knowing as we do that Young Jake was awake that night, meaning he knew all this time, what appears in his face now is peace. His older brother found his way to honesty, unvarnished and soaked with tears, and it’s all he ever really needed. “It was a bad thing that happened, but you are not a bad person, Vin. It’s alright, bro,” and a tearful hug you can feel through the television. 

The cash from the diamond fence, that will be kept in the safe for Gen. Where Vince is going, he won’t need it. He’ll admit everything to the cops, take the fall, protect his brother one more time. And when Jake joins him on the Rabbit’s roof, back in the shadow of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, Vince has already made the call to Detective Seung. There is relief here for both of them, with different results. “I’ve been so scared that all this was gonna get taken from us,” Jake says. “From me. My God, I should’ve stopped pushing. Slowed down.” 

He turns around just as Vince lets himself fall backward off the roof. “You can now.” His brother owed the universe a jump, anyway.

“The great big city’s a wondrous toy,” Diana Washington sings. “We’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.” In the wake of Vince’s death, Jake hands the thumbdrive to Seung. “For Anna.” Though an armed Mancuso is waiting for him in his apartment – he seemed to expect it; another moment of contrition – something like respect or acknowledgment passes between them, as they look at a picture of Sheila Friedken with her little boys. Maybe it’s even tenderness. Jake will live with the memories, and carry them with him.

The funeral is for immediate family. Outside the cemetery, Jake finally tells Estelle he’s sorry, and they part ways. Gen is laughing with Val out on Coney Island, and Hunter is joining a prestigious dance program. Jules Zablonski is being arrested. And as we catch a shot of staff packing up the Rabbit, we also see Roxie opening the doors to her brand-new brasserie, with Tony once again by her side. The place is called Anna’s, and the line’s already out the door.  

And Jake? Well, he’s not lying anymore. Especially not to himself. He moves out of the loft; he could never afford that shit, anyway, and who needs affectation when you just want to be content and anonymous? He pulls a beer for a customer at the Manhattan spot where he now tends bar. Maybe someday he’ll open another place. Call it Vin’s. But that’s another downtown story. 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.