'The Westies' Episode 7 Recap & Ending Explained: Is Sean Dead Or Alive?

In episode 6 of The Westies, Keenan wanted to go after Dukey and then put the squeeze on him until he squealed about Sweeney’s business. Once Polk gave Keenan the go-ahead and arranged an arrest warrant for him, Keenan cornered Dukey in an alley. But instead of straight-up arresting him, Keenan beat Dukey to a pulp for humiliating him early on. Brendan’s assassination plan for Markham went sideways because Bridget was not okay with the idea of collateral damage. Brendan and his crew had crafted a car bomb that would be detonated when Markham exited the British Consulate. Bridget and Mary were tasked with getting the job done. However, when Bridget saw Markham get mobbed by Irish protesters, she aborted the mission because she couldn’t sacrifice all those Irish people just to kill an anti-Irish criminal. Sean introduced Tad to Jimmy and his gang as their new buyer, but Tad turned out to be Gotti’s man, whose job was to expose the fact that Jimmy was doing business with Nelson and the Colombians. Gotti got Nelson to stop working with Jimmy, took Jimmy’s drugs without paying for them, and ordered Jimmy to work with him if he wanted to make any money. In order to sell drugs to Tad, Jimmy had taken a loan from Stein, who advised Jimmy to shake hands with Gotti, because that’d allow him to repay Stein. Hence, Jimmy and Mickey went into business with Gotti, and the deal was signed with blood; Tad’s blood, to be specific. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Bridget Wants To Honey Trap Markham

Bridget meets up with Father Michael, because he has collected the info on Brendan that she had asked for, and it’s not looking great. The word on the street is that Brendan didn’t escape from jail; he made a deal with the Brits and is working as their informant. Bridget doesn’t believe that, because if Brendan is in cahoots with the Brits, he wouldn’t be planning to assassinate Markham. Michael says that he doesn’t know the reasoning behind Brendan’s actions; he is simply the messenger. Coming to the topic of the assassination plan, Michael advises Bridget to give up on Markham because killing him, even with minimal collateral damage, is going to make her the British Intelligence’s prime target; and this time Michael won’t be able to help her escape the country. Later on, we see Bridget attending another Markham assassination planning session with Brendan, Mary, Logan, and Donal. Brendan tells the gang that Markham is going to speak at a Protestant Loyalist fundraiser in Midtown. Since the first assassination attempt was a failure, they have all the Semtex they need to kill Markham, and this time, Brendan says that the remote detonator will be in his hands instead of Bridget’s. Bridget reiterates the same points she made before the first assassination: the security will be tight, and the risk of collateral damage will be high. Mary scoffs at Bridget’s empathy, while Brendan says that they have to accept the fact that some people will die in their attempt to kill Markham. Bridget disagrees, and says that they can exclusively target Markham by setting up a honey trap and then murder him at the Mayflower Hotel, which is where Markham is currently staying. Brendan points out that while that’s going to reduce civilian casualties, it increases the chances of Bridget’s death. Bridget convinces Brendan that this is the only way; even though Brendan doesn’t agree with Bridget, he signs off on the honey trap mission. 

Bridget Honey Traps Markham

Bridget heads back home and sits beside a sleeping Jimmy, probably to internally rationalize her decision to honey trap Markham as something that she’s doing for her safety and to avenge her family. When Jimmy asks Bridget what’s up with her, she doesn’t say anything specific, because she knows that if she confides in him, he will talk her out of it. She does insinuate that whatever she is doing is her way of exorcizing all this hate that she has inside her so that she can love Jimmy properly. On that note, they have one last sexual romp before Bridget goes after Markham. After that, Bridget heads back to the IRA’s HQ, where Brendan is going over the assassination plan with Mary. As Bridget is changing into the costume she’s about to wear, Brendan gets distracted, and that irks Mary a lot. So, Brendan sends Mary away for a while so that he can have a chat with Bridget in peace. After Mary leaves, Brendan starts complimenting Bridget for how much she has grown, and then he tries to kiss her. Bridget criticizes Brendan for being such a creep, and Brendan defends himself by saying that he deserves Bridget’s affection because he has come all this way to help her avenge her family (which is super weird). Bridget makes it clear that she isn’t there for fun and games; she is committed to the mission of killing Markham, and she wants to stay focused on that instead of dealing with Brendan’s oddball delusions. How does Bridget’s honey trap go? Swimmingly, I will say, because Bridget manages to convince Markham that she is a sex worker who is looking for a customer to support her family, and Markham takes her to his room for some “private time.” We don’t get to see if Bridget kills Markham after getting to his room or not. Guess we’ll have to wait till next week to find out.

Sean Gets Arrested

As if Sean hadn’t made a massive blunder by assuming that Tad was a genuine buyer, he goes ahead and makes yet another mistake by getting himself arrested after prancing around in a strip club with a massive bag of cocaine. Later on, Jimmy, Sweeney, and the rest are seen discussing this matter at their Javits Center HQ. Jimmy and Mickey get into a verbal battle with Cliffie and Breen, and just as things are about to escalate, Sweeney gets everyone to shut up. Once everyone has settled down, Sweeney wonders what they are supposed to do about Sean; Jimmy advises him to hire a good lawyer and bail him out. Sweeney says he’ll do that, but first, he wants to know where Jimmy has been getting his coke from. Instead of lying that it’s the Colombians, Jimmy states that Gotti is his new supplier. Sweeney and Breen almost lose their cool, but they know that what’s done is done, and they have to think about next steps. So, Sweeney tells Breen to get in touch with Victor Paulson to represent Sean, and he advises Jimmy to put an end to his professional ties with Gotti. Jimmy agrees with both of those things. Amidst all this chaos, Mickey decides to move in with Erin because he is in love with her. He wants her to leave her job as a sex worker because he assures her that he will provide for her for the rest of their lives as he is earning more money than he can spend by selling coke. Erin doesn’t explicitly accept Mickey’s terms; she just gets naked and has sex with Mickey to distract him from this topic. Later on, we see Erin telling one of her customers to get out of the house so that Mickey doesn’t find out she’s still a sex worker. Since the customer doesn’t know why he is being told to hurry up, he takes his sweet time to get dressed. That’s when Mickey arrives and beats the hell out of that guy. Mickey almost shoots the customer as well, but Erin gets him to stop this insanity. Once the customer has left, Mickey wonders why Erin is still doing sex work when he has told her that he’s going to take care of her financial needs. Erin says that, after some time, Mickey is bound to lose interest in her, and then she’ll have no way of earning money because, by then, she would have lost her market value. Mickey tries to assure her that that’s not going to happen because he loves her enough to marry her; Erin just tells him to take his meds properly, thereby insinuating that his infatuation with her is a byproduct of his mental instability.

Keenan Grills Sean  

Polk and Keenan are seen having a conversation about whether or not Sweeney is doing business with Gotti. Keenan says that he can’t inform him if Sweeney is doing any actual business with Gotti, but he does know that Sweeney plays nice with Gotti to stay in control of the Javits Center project. Since this coke bust can be traced back to him and even Paul, Keenan believes that Sweeney must be extremely afraid right now. Polk wonders what they can get out of Sean now that they have him in their custody; Keenan theorizes that since Sean has never been jailed, the threat of being imprisoned can be used to get Sean to spill the beans on Sweeney’s business and turn him into an FBI informant. Keenan tries his best to get Sean to flip and betray his gang, but Sean doesn’t budge, and tells Keenan to get him his lawyer. Later on, we see Jimmy, Mickey, Paulson, and Sean (who has been bailed) having a brainstorming session because Sean isn’t out of the woods yet, he is facing jail time. After a lot of back and forth, Paulson arrives at the conclusion that he’s going to go for a plea. Without a plea, he’ll be in prison for two decades; hence, Paulson will ask for a decade; with good behavior, Sean will be out in five. Paulson asks Sean if he’ll be able to handle five years in jail, and Sean says that he can. Jimmy passes on this info to Sweeney, Breen, and Cliffie, who is afraid that Sean will shake hands with the Feds to avoid going to jail. Jimmy assures Sweeney that he won’t, especially since he didn’t fall for the Feds’ tricks even when they brought Sweeney’s “cop friend,” Keenan, into the picture. Sweeney clarifies that he isn’t friends with Keenan anymore. Breen points out that the Feds must be aware of the fact that Gotti is their supplier. Jimmy thinks that it doesn’t matter, because Sean isn’t the one who’ll be pointing the Feds in their direction. Sweeney says that Paul has FBI officers on his payroll; therefore, there’s a possibility he will learn about this whole affair and punish Sweeney and his gang for dabbling in drugs. As Sweeney and Breen start berating Jimmy for putting them in this position, Jimmy goes ballistic and reprimands them for their hypocrisy; because, on one hand, Sweeney doesn’t have a problem profiting off of Jimmy and his boys’ hard labor, and on the other hand, Sweeney is whining as he faces the repercussions of selling drugs. Moreover, he criticizes them for sucking up to Paul so much, while not putting their trust in Sean. On that note, Jimmy leaves Sweeney’s office.

Keenan Manipulates Jimmy

After Paul has slipped through their fingers, Polk informs Keenan that the Westies are using Paulson in this case. Polk says that Jimmy is the one who posted bail, and Keenan tells her about Jimmy’s association with Sweeney’s gang. Polk wonders if Jimmy can be flipped, and Keenan confidently says that that’s not even a remote possibility; he says that he can turn Jimmy against Sweeney, but that’s about it. In the short-term, that won’t yield any big results, but in the long-term, Jimmy turning against Sweeney will hurt the latter in a major way, because Jimmy is the legs of the business; without him, Sweeney will grow weak and agree to testify against Paul to wiggle out of the Feds’ clutches. Speaking of hurting and weakening people, Polk reveals that Keenan has beat up Dukey so brutally that he is in a coma and useless as a witness. Keenan claims that Dukey tried to attack him and he merely acted in self-defence; Polk doesn’t buy that, but she has no choice but to accept this narrative. With that out of the way, Keenan says that he is going to have a chat with Jimmy and see if he can turn Jimmy against Sweeney. In addition to that, Keenan advises Polk to make up a reason to pay Gotti a visit and then plant a bug in his headquarters. Maybe they’ll get some clue regarding this Italian-Irish nexus. Polk does exactly what Keenan says and raids Gotti’s place, installing a listening device there to eavesdrop on his conversations in the process. Meanwhile, Keenan pays Jimmy a visit, takes him to the alley behind the pub, and tries to convince him that if Sweeney has to choose between the Javits Center deal with Paul or saving Jimmy’s coke business, he’s going to go for the former and cut ties with Jimmy and his boys once and for all; which also means that Sweeney might have Sean killed in jail. Additionally, Keenan tells Jimmy that Sweeney is the reason why Pat is dead (Keenan leaves out the part that he himself killed Pat). Jimmy doesn’t react, but since this is the second time someone has accused Sweeney of having Pat killed, it’s possible that Jimmy has started to believe that Sweeney is not on his side.

Sean Is Dead

Sweeney goes over to Gotti’s place to have a chat about Jimmy working for Gotti. Gotti wonders if word of Sean’s actions will reach Paul’s ears; Sweeney assures Gotti that Sean won’t backstab him. Gotti brings up the FBI raid, and while Sweeney isn’t worried about that because Gotti isn’t in jail currently, Gotti is afraid that the FBI are going to use anything they have found on him to flip Sean. Even if Sean doesn’t flip right away, Gotti theorizes that, in jail, Sean might break and reveal some kind of damning info about the cocaine trade and ruin Gotti and Sweeney’s businesses. Sweeney realizes that Gotti is advising him to kill Sean instead of living in perpetual doubt about Sean’s loyalties. We see Sean enjoying a drink with Jimmy and his gang so that he takes some sweet memories with him to jail. Breen interrupts that conversation and asks Sean to come with him because Sweeney wants to meet him. Nobody suspects there’s anything shifty about that, except for Jimmy. Keenan checks in with one of his associates at the FBI to learn if they have picked up anything damning via the bug in Gotti’s house, and the Fed says that they haven’t. Keenan takes over the Fed’s job and starts listening to the recordings. Going back to Sean, he goes to the Javits center to have a sit-down with Sweeney, who butters up Sean and assures him that he’s going to take care of his family and have a job waiting for him once he gets out of jail. I think Sweeney will take care of Sean’s family, but he’s obviously lying about the job part because as soon as Sean exits Sweeney’s office, Breen shoots him in the head and, with the help of Cliffie, stuffs his dead body in the car. Keenan tells Polk that Sweeney and Gotti are planning to murder somebody, but he is too late because Sean is already dead. Keenan asks for a copy of the wiretaps but Polk can’t allow that because that’s against Federal Law. Keenan wonders if she always does things by the books; Polk basically tells Keenan to unofficially make a copy of the tapes that he needs and she’ll turn a blind eye to it. 

Jimmy And Sweeney Are Officially Done

In the ending of episode 7, Keenan gets a hold of Jimmy, gets him to sit in his car, and then plays the tape of Sweeney’s conversation with Gotti about having Sean killed. Jimmy says that they could be talking about anyone, since Sean’s name wasn’t uttered during the conversation. Keenan agrees with Jimmy, but he points out that Sean hasn’t turned himself in yet; which means two things: either Sean’s on the run, or he is six feet under. Jimmy rushes to Sweeney’s office and directly accuses him of killing Sean. Sweeney, without beating around the bush, admits that Sean is dead. This leads to a full-fledged argument between the two. Jimmy accuses Sweeney of killing his own people for money. Sweeney corrects Jimmy by saying that he’ll kill anyone for power; power that he was ready to give to Jimmy once he felt that he had done enough. However, after this little tantrum, Sweeney is sure that Jimmy is not ready to handle that kind of responsibility. Jimmy almost kills Sweeney over this statement, but he eventually puts down his gun and walks away. Jimmy and Sweeney are officially done. That said, I do feel that this is kind of a Whiplash situation (which also features JK Simmons in a mentor position) where Sweeney is coaxing Jimmy to level up. He is purposefully aggravating Jimmy so that he can take his mantle. He knows that his actions are going to force Jimmy to prove that he is better than Sweeney; and through that process, Jimmy will become the mob boss that Sweeney actually wants him to be. Sweeney might get overshadowed by Jimmy but, deep down, Jimmy will know that Sweeney is the one who subtly motivated him to realize his potential. What do you think is going on here? Is Sweeney coaxing Jimmy out of his shell or is this the birth of a more straightforward rivalry? Let me know in the comments section below.

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