The Hightown Season 1 finale brings multiple shakeups

Multiple characters get a shocking surprise in the Hightown finale.

As if Junior’s death in the penultimate episode of Hightown Season 1 wasn’t sad enough, the finale has to kick-off with an adorable flashback of Jackie and Junior when they were much younger.

A panicked and strung-out Junior arrives at Jackie‘s apartment, chattering about Donna, the baby, and Donna’s labor. Of course, the two also get high within moments of meeting up, but Junior also says he feels terrible for missing his daughter’s birth.

He vows to be a good dad in the future, and Jackie encourages him. The two joke that babies are a blessing, and Junior is #blessed. All of this becomes much sadder when you recall he’s dead now, as the scene quickly cuts to Jackie standing over Junior’s body bag where she confirms his identity.

Osito makes a big mistake.

Thanks to testing performed on Junior’s final dose, the police force discover a unique blend of carfentanil in his bloodstream, something not seen before in the Cape Cod drug scene.

Ray and Alan press on Kathleen until she breaks and reveals Osito once took her to a guy’s house in New Bedford. With a search warrant, a team of cops  — and Jackie — descends on Wayne’s house. They don’t find anything of use during the bust, aside from a few guns.

As we saw a few episodes ago, Wayne did not keep his product in the house but a secret shed nearby.

Jackie is upset the entire operation turned out to be a dud and leaves to smoke a cigarette. However, she happens to go outside just as Osito pulls up. Despite telling people he was taking off for the Dominican Republic, he was really just keeping a low-profile at Wayne’s house.

Drawing her gun, Jackie demands Osito put his hands up, and that’s when he makes a big mistake, he pulls a gun and shoots Jackie. Even if they can’t nail Osito for his other crimes, they can arrest him for shooting a federal agent. Plus, Jackie manages to get off a few bullets too, making his getaway underwhelming.

Ray quickly catches up to him. Osito is officially down for the count.

Renee chooses between Frankie and Ray.

Many of the episode’s biggest shocks revolve around Renee’s character. For starters, while visiting Frankie in jail, he proposes to her! After several moments of hesitation, Renee says yes. We don’t get to see their moment of joy, but she does cry over the ring in her car later.

I feel bad for Renee. She is stuck in an awkward position, which explains the motivation behind what she does to Ray next.

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Ray thinks he’s having the best day ever thanks to Osito’s arrest. He’s confident he can get Osito to spill everything on Frankie and finally put the drug kingpin behind bars permanently.

Unfortunately, then Renee comes in and blows his vision to pieces.

She invites Ray over, and the two have sex, although this time, Renee performs oral sex on the cop. Without his knowledge, she videotapes the act and brings it to the police precinct.

Once word gets out that Ray was having a sexual relationship with a criminal informant — something he also did with Sherry Henry, he’s done.

He gets suspended without pay and, even worse, his chief announces they will be dropping the charges against Frankie.

They don’t want to risk bad press by word getting out about Ray and Renee, which would weaken their case and potentially cause a #MeToo scandal.

Later, at Xavier’s, Ray confronts Renee. She’s just as pissed as he is, both because Frankie is her baby daddy, and she wonders what Ray could have expected, but mostly over the sting of Ray’s own betrayal. Remember, she discovered he was cashing in on their dates, their relationship was “transactional,” as she called it. Still, Ray claims he loved her.

The Hightown finale sets up new plots for Season 2

Beyond the biggest shocks of the episode, the Hightown finale carefully sows in a few interesting plotlines for Season 2.

As Show Snob previously reported, the series has been renewed! While the finale could have functioned as a series finale, it would have left way too many strings loose for my liking, so I’m very happy about the renewal.

Among some of the most exciting prospects for the sophomore season are the rise of Charmaine and her sister, Frankie’s release, and Osito’s chat with Alan.

In the final moments of the episode, we see Charmaine (Wayne’s girl) and her younger sister traveling to Cape Cod on a bus. They plan to set up shop and “control everything” in town now, which is going to create tension with Frankie now that he’s out of prison.

Speaking of Frankie, we also get to see him waltz out of jail, dressed to the nines with a swagger in his step upon being granted his freedom. Renee and Frankie Jr. are there to greet them, and they look like a happy family as they head off in their car.

Guess whose watching them? Jackie. Like Ray, I get the feeling that her obsession with Frankie and putting him away for good isn’t going away any time soon. I wonder if she and Ray will work together off-the-book in Season 2.

She also asked Alan if she would be able to work for them in a more official capacity, like maybe as a narcotics liaison to the fisheries department. I’d like to see how that pans out.

Oh, and as for Jackie’s DUI charge? Alan pulled some strings to get the charges dropped altogether. She did take a bullet for them, after all.

Also of note, Alan visits Osito in the hospital after he gets taken off the breathing tube. With Frankie free, Osito could potentially be free from his ties to him. It’d be great to see Osito strike out on his own, perhaps working alongside Charmaine.

Alan says he could potentially offer him a deal, and Osito replies, “I’m listening.”

Odds & Ends from the Hightown Season 1 finale

• Jackie and Ed’s relationship is so sweet. I love their father/daughter bond.
• I’d like to see Jackie get a more stable love interest in Season 2, especially now that it seems she’s finally taking her sobriety seriously.

What did you think about the Hightown Season 1 finale? Are you looking forward to Season 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

All eight episodes of Hightown are now available to stream where Starz is available.