This post contains spoilers from Black Rabbit episode 1 on Netflix from this point forward.
If you're an Ozark fan who has been craving the same kind of crime drama series on Netflix, Jason Bateman delivers once again with Black Rabbit. The new limited series debuted its full eight-episode season on Sept. 18 as a star-powered team up between Bateman and Jude Law. The talented stars play estranged brothers who reunite and bring their past and present conflicts into a real mess.
In the opening moments of Black Rabbit episode 1, Jake Friedken (Jude Law) washes his face in the bathroom before getting to work at his busy New York City restaurant, the Black Rabbit. Outside, a pair of armed robbers approach the restaurant's backdoor as Jake readies a toast. He's keeping expensive jewelry in his office. During the toast, the robbers attempt to steal the jewels from the safe, but they aren't in there. They capture the chef and crash the party demanding money and jewelry.
Shots are fired into the air as Jake tries to calm the panicking crowd. Jake's friend Wes (Sope Dirisu) stands and approaches the gunmen, trying to talk them down. A gun is pointed directly in Jake's face, the situation not getting any better. As the tensions rise, the credits appear and the story flashes back to one month earlier. A waitress named Anna (Abbey Lee) looks worse for the wear and leaves.
Vince kills a man in Reno before returning to New York
While Jake rushes to pick up his son Hunter for school and give his ex Val (Dagmara Domińczyk) child support and school tuition, his brother Vince (Jason Bateman) gets approaches by two men at a coin show. He meets them in the car to sell coins, but the deal goes bad. They pull a gun on him and attempt to steal the coins. When the men leave the car, Vince throws his car in reverse to seemingly run them over. One of the men shoots his windshield and the other falls to the ground.
Vince runs the older man over while the other shoots again, now in front of him. He again runs the dead older man over and attempts to chase the other man on foot, but he gets away. Now that his car isn't usable, Vince steals the keys from the dead man's pockets and takes his car. It's a far cry from the stress Jake deals with while running the Black Rabbit and preparing for the Times critic to arrive the next night. He's forced to fire Anna after she misses two important shifts.
Even though the Black Rabbit has been a headache to run, Jake wants to branch out with a new restaurant and buy The Pool Room. While he's in the thick of things, Jake receives an unexpected phone call from Vince. He asks for a ticket from Reno to back home in New York to get out of his current pickle. Jake questions whether that's a good idea but agrees. The brothers haven't spoken in seven months, right after their mom passed away. There's a lot of questions.
Two deaths are teased in the Black Rabbit robbery
Apparently, Vince helped build the Black Rabbit from the start be he also nearly ruined its success somehow in the past. The next day, Jake picks up Vince from the airport. Over breakfast, Vince appears to weave a story about what he's been up to and what went wrong in Reno. He doesn't say a word about the coin deal. Jake doesn't completely believe his story. Vince doesn't plan to visit his daughter Gen and asks Jake for money. Luckily, money is coming in from their mom's house.
When they arrive at their mom's house, Jake reveals he can't find their dad's coin collection. Well, little does he know, it's in Reno. Jake also has a stack of lien notices for his brother, who apparently didn't pay back a gambling debt for three years. Vince catches up with an old friend, who believes his old debtors have moved on, but Junior (Forrest Weber) and Babbit (Chris Coy) follow him through the city and corner him in a park to get their $140,000. He promises them the money from his mom's house.
They steal his watch, cut his finger, and give him two weeks. After his run-in with his enemies, Vince crashes the Black Rabbit on the all-important critic night. He offers his help with the bar since it's a busy night and Jake accepts. The night appears to go off without a hitch and the pressure subsides. Jake offers him a fill-in position for Anna, but before he can answer, the story flashes forward to the opening sequence. Shots are fired, and Wes gets hit. Another shot is fired and body falls. Who is it?