‘The Company You Keep’ 1×10 ‘The Truth Hurts’ Review

After nine exciting, con-filled, romantic and tense episodes, it’s all come down to this – the The Company You Keep season one finale titled ‘The Truth Hurts’, which ties up several loose ends, sees several characters make bold and ambitious career moves and gives fans of a certain ship several moments to smile about, all while setting up the possibility of a fun second season.

Fran and Leo are mulling over the offer made to them for the bar last week by Frankie. While it’s obvious the pair are genuinely considering it, Charlie, and Birdie in particular, are more hesitant. “…this bar, this neighbourhood – this is who we are. You don’t walk away from that” Birdie says. I mentioned last week that I’d have very mixed feelings were my childhood home (that I still reside in) to ever be sold, so Birdie’s comment certainly resonated with me.

The car bomb last week has Emma feeling both guilty – “This wasn’t meant for you, David” – and mad. Her old supervisor Cas uses an old alias of hers, ‘Dr Park’, and a message over the hospital tannoy system, to get her to the east stairwell where he informs her he’s being tailed and that she needs to watch her back. Charlie meanwhile, having heard on the news that an unidentified female had been critically injured in the blast, makes his feelings towards her considerably clear as he races to the hospital and envelops her in a hug when he sees her outside.

“I heard you when you said you wanted your life back,” she informs him. “Now you have it.” As much as Charlie wanted and wants out, he refuses to walk away now, given what’s happened. “Let me help you,” he says, almost pleading. “Not because I have to, but because I want to.” Emma uses the guise of a hug to inform him she has a tail of her own; a grey sedan with two CIA operative passengers, and the pair decide to use the fact the CIA still think they’re dating to their advantage. “The best lies start with the truth” Charlie reasons, as they agree for Emma to take a few personal days, making her boss and colleagues think she’s spending time with her boyfriend, while in fact they’ll be working on taking down Patrick and Connor.

With the CIA watching, they head back to the bar and upstairs, where Daphne is waiting. Together the three of them plan out what they’re going to do and how. Having already proven himself somewhat of a mastermind when it comes to thinking up ways to pull off jobs, Charlie tells both women exactly what they need to do. In Emma’s case, she needs to reconnect with Vikram Singh, played by Sachin Bhatt, who viewers last saw in episode 7 ‘Company Man’ when he helped Emma out at Pine Grove by not scanning Charlie for surveillance devices, in order to have the FBI present when the Wilford deal goes down. She meets with Singh and shows him what’s been going on. “I’ll get you Maguire dead to rights” she vows, asking that his team be standing by before appealing to his more emotive side. “…I don’t know who I can trust.”

As for Daphne, she has to play on Patrick’s worst fear – losing control, in order to make sure he implicates himself in the deal. She meets with Patrick and expresses her concerns over Connor being the one involved in the exchange. “He’s lost you $10m – twice…” she reminds him, pointing out her persona connection to Wilford and how it’d be more suitable if SHE did the job instead. A sly smile crosses Patrick’s face. “You’re right,” he replies. “I can’t trust Connor. So, I’ll do it myself.”

Despite his injuries, David is still very much concerned about having upset his parents with his comments and behaviour during the debate, but that’s not something they’re thinking about. As he looks out of the window at a growing number of supporters outside the hospital, Grace tells him: “I guess voters found your honesty refreshing.” Well, an honest politician certainly is a rarity!

Mason sees Daphne, then Emma and Charlie enter the bar and a few minutes later, she calls her friend informing her she’s also in the building. The pair meet, with Birdie bringing them a drink, and Emma fills Mason in on what she’s been and is currently doing. Emma explains that the CIA’s interest in Patrick Maguire (they want to recruit him) has something to do with Dalton Bridges – something her bosses don’t want her looking any further into. “This con-man of yours; do you trust him?” Mason asks. It’s a nice moment to see Emma reply, with a smile, “I do.” That’s enough to get Mason on board.

Ever the businesswoman, Daphne asks Charlie if they’re really going to let the FBI take Patrick with $20m in his pocket and suggests they could take it for themselves. She then asks how he pulled off the crypto wallet theft that viewers saw in the pilot. Charlie demonstrates, using the very same card trick shown in the very first shot of the show. “The trick is easy – it’s the confidence you need to make sure the other person believes it” he tells her, before asking what she’ll do when the job is done. “…there’s really no end to what I could do…” she says with a firm, ambitious tone to her voice.

Frankie arrives at the bar to talk to Fran and Leo about selling the place. “…you’re making the right choice – finally; taking care of your family” Frankie insists, sounding like a money-grabbing douchebag making one hell of an awful sales pitch. Across the bar, Simon and Birdie are sat together and he asks for her thoughts on the sale. “…they say change is good, right?” she queries, a sad smile on her face. Ollie finds the leaflet about the development Frankie’s a part of in his bag and shows it to Birdie – it reveals the entire community area, including the bar, will be renovated and revamped with the bar becoming mixed-use apartments. No-one in the family, unsurprisingly, is happy and as Charlie joins them, he informs them that, working on something upstairs, he might have a way to “kill two birds with one stone.” It’s Fran who suggests their ‘City Slicker Sucker Punch’ play and, to get the ball rolling, as Frankie walks over to announce the investors are in, Leo and Fran pretend they are too.

Emma practices Charlie’s card trick while standing by the window, CIA tail still outside. “I only ever wanted to tell you the truth” Charlie admits as they discuss how things between them have gone since they met. “I know I hurt you,” Emma replies, moving closer to him. “I’m sorry.” The tension and chemistry sizzles between the pair until finally they give in and – much to the pleasure of #Hilletti shippers everywhere, myself included – share a kiss and end up in bed. In the morning, they hop into Emma’s car and, with the help from a neatly positioned delivery lorry, then jump out as Birdie and Simon take their places. As the lorry moves, the car pulls away and the CIA follow, just as Charlie and Emma pull out of the alleyway on his bike.

Leo signs a document in front of Fran, Frankie and the rest of the investors, confirming the sale of the bar. Fran suggests they all go to The Barge to celebrate and have “the best crab cakes in town.” Frankie isn’t thrilled at the idea. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your roots” she chides, and it’s enough to make him change his mind.

Emma and Charlie meet with Singh by his FBI truck. Charlie tells him that, in order to get Patrick near the guns, he’s going to tell him the truth. A short while later, Charlie, Daphne and Patrick watch as a drone goes up in the air, following the gun loaded truck. “It’s your deal,” Patrick tells Daphne. “So go close it.” As she heads out, Simon gets a call to his Wilford burner phone from Charlie who, with Patrick watching, tells him that Maguire’s moved the location for the deal to go down to warehouse 7B at the dock. Hearing this, and watching Daphne head to the original location, Emma realises Patrick’s setting Daphne up.

At the dock, Patrick and Charlie stand close together as the REAL Wilford turns up. Just as he said he would, Charlie confesses all, introducing Patrick and Brad to one another properly for the first time. Patrick grabs the tablet and checks over the drone footage. Seeing two identical trucks pull out of a tunnel, he gets mad and thinks there’s been a switch. Charlie insists his guns are in a container across the way, and points it out. “…your life depends on it” Patrick hisses.

Daphne walks into a room and finds a photo of her car and explosive materials on a table. Moments later, she turns to find herself in front of Connor who is holding a gun. “It was never going to be you,” Daphne tells him as he turns her around, puts the gun to the back of her neck and pushes her to her knees. “It was only ever going to be him.”

It’s always interesting to see one character misjudge another, and that’s exactly what happens when Emma turns up, gun pointed at Connor, forcing him to drop his. “Once you’ve taken a life, you can see in someone’s eyes if they’ve got it in them. You don’t” Connor tells her, confidently. That confidence is mis-placed as, when he draws a second gun, she shoots him, and he drops through a hatch. Emma and Daphne head outside, following a trail of blood that leads to the water, but there’s no sign of Connor.

At The Barge, Leo and Fran are working to turn off the investors, something that is helped a few moments later when gunfire can be heard close by. That gunfire is the result of Patrick not listening to Charlie when he says he shouldn’t be near “this container” and that the Feds are watching. Patrick believes the container is empty, but it isn’t; it’s filled with his weaponry. “The trick was – there was NO trick” Charlie tells him as sirens sound and the FBI move in. “Fool me twice” Patrick says with a smirk, drawing his gun and thinking the raid is a false one, like in the pilot. For the second time in seemingly as many minutes, he’s wrong and a shootout ensues.

“Are we safe?” asks one of the investors at The Barge as the level and sound of gunfire increases. That comment is enough for another investor to think they should head back to the city; the look on Frankie’s face says he knows his deal is done for. Back at the dock, Emma arrives and goes looking for Maguire, but he finds her first and makes her drop her gun, leading them to where a car has just arrived. Charlie spots the two of them and shouts Maguire’s name. He turns, holding Emma in front of him, and shoots Charlie twice, seconds before Emma floors Patrick and a sniper shoots him. The FBI march up to Patrick, confirm he’s dead and Emma goes to Charlie who, thankfully, was wearing a Kevlar vest.

As was his position last week, David, watching the news and learning that he’s leading the Senate race, tells Jennifer when she wakes that “…I’m done trying to be someone I’m not” and she asks him a question in response: “What if you could be the first politician with nothing to lose?” This brief conversation leads him to later announce to his supporters and a few members of the press outside the hospital that: “I don’t think we’re honest with ourselves enough” and that he’ll run for one term, “…free from obligations, except to the people who put me here.” Jennifer gets a phone-call later from her mom who, speaking French (I think?) informs her: “You handled him perfectly. Now the real work begins” – what the heck does that mean?!

In a highlight of the episode, Leo calls Frankie out on his behaviour and the way he’s living his life when he walks into the bar, frustrated that the investors have pulled out and aware that Leo and Fran get to keep the escrow deposit of 450k. “You ain’t better than me,” Leo says, firmly and with conviction. “…the deck has always been stacked against us…I’m busy protecting my own.” As Frankie leaves, Birdie pours everyone a drink.

Emma is packing her bag at Charlie’s place when she receives information and a photo regarding Bridges. Charlie recognises the guy with him in the photo as a money launderer, which leads to Emma asking him: “What if we kept doing this? Kept working together – being together?” Charlie isn’t up for it – cue the start of my #Hilletti heartbreak. “…Charlie, I love you” Emma confesses, in a nice throwback to her first declaration. “I love you too,” Charlie replies, honestly. “I do, but – that’s not gonna be enough. There’s no world where you can be who you are, and I can be who I am – and we can be together.” *cue tears and feels*

Emma then gets a stern telling off from her boss, but she’s now confident in herself and her actions enough that she quits – YOU GO GIRL! – and meets with Mason and Cas to set up a covert unit. Having seemingly mastered Charlie’s card trick, she informs them that funding won’t be a problem, and holds up the crypto wallet she stole from Patrick after he was shot. “…you gotta play the cards you’re dealt” she tells them.

Birdie and Charlie reflect on how things have been lately. “I keep thinking about what pop said – the deck being stacked against folks like us” Charlie tells her. “What if we could do something about that? What if we set our sights a little higher?” she replies. You can almost see the cogs turning in their heads as they discuss working to level the playing field for everyone. It’s a real brother-sister moment, and a great showcase of how in-sync they are with one another.

The final scenes of the episode, and the season, find Emma sat at a bar having a drink (fun fact: the scene was shot in the same place she and Charlie had their first ‘official’ date) when Charlie joins her, reciting the first line she said in his vicinity back during the pilot: “Relationships – what a racket.” He passes her a flash drive of information on the money launderer and there’s a comfortable silence between them for a moment. “…no reason why a yoga instructor and a rocket scientist can’t share a drink from time to time” Emma muses. I for one will and do take that as a reason to have some hope for #Hilletti – and a much deserved season two. C’mon ABC – renew it already; you know you want to!