Heels Episode 4 Recap and Review…and a deeper look

We’re now halfway through the saga based on the wrestling business (the independent portion of it at least) known as Heels on the Starz network and things are developing well by this point. Much like the previous week, episode 4 garners 4 DDTs out of 5 once more, but for entirely different reasons.

*This article will not contain spoilers of Episode 4 but may contain spoilers of episodes 1 to 3, so if you haven’t seen them, go ahead and binge-watch the heck out of them and catch up to a show that definitely deserves your attention.

Learning to be a Heel

The decision to turn heel after the events of the first three episodes wasn’t easy for Ace Spade, the younger brother of Jack Spade, but he did it and seems to be coming around to it.

After a family dinner that goes to hell in a quick second (and not for the reasons you’d expect), Jack and Ace seem to come around on the topic, Ace suddenly inspired to help out with the direction of DWL creative.

Their interaction comes off the heels of a conversation that Ace has with his nephew, Jack’s eight-year-old boy. (The family is staying at Ace and Jack’s mother’s place because of a small fire at their home. *Not a huge spoiler, but just how the episode opens).

It was interesting to see, as Ace Space is pretty much Persona Non Grata in Duffy and in his circle of co-workers because of a backstage explosion that occurred in episode 3. But yet his nephew, who was a huge fan of his uncle’s (even more than his dad) still thinks the world of him, and it shows through in a scene they share, no matter what the rest of the town and his family think about good old Ace Spade. That’s the funny thing about nephews and their uncles.

But was the conversation with his nephew enough to help him become a better heel and a better man altogether? Or is a relationship developing with Crystal and another of the wrestlers on the DWL roster enough to send him crashing down once more?

"“Sometimes mad is how sad comes out…”-Ace Spade /Heels on Starz"

A deeper look at the Spade matriarch

Last week we saw a tiny glimpse into the mind of Ace and Jack’s father and what led to him taking his own life, but this time around we get to see the thoughts and feelings of their mom.

She is played by Alice Barrett, who is probably best known from her role on daytime soap opera, Another World as Frankie Frame Winthrop.

This development in the story helps us understand her and her boys a tad more and, interestingly enough, the character development for Jack’s wife is also explained through these developments.

The mysterious texts to Willie

We also get an answer as to what the mysterious text messages that Willie, Jack’s assistant, was getting all of last episode, and it has to do with Wild Bill Hancock, who also had a lot to do with the fall of Ace Spade’s babyface career in Duffy.

Trouble seems to follow this character around, and we’re left to pose the question: Does he mean trouble for the DWL, or will he play a hand in turning things around, despite his checkered and mysterious past with Willie?

Why it still gets 4 DDTs out of 5

There wasn’t too much wrestling in this episode, no, but I stand by the rating because they did a good job of character development on all fronts. We got more insight into many of the characters on the show and it’ll definitely help telling the story moving forward.

It’s worth watching for that reason and we’re reminded that these are very good actors, delivering a story that, as we progress, we learn is a dramatic tale more than anything else.

That dramatic feel to the show is preceded each episode with a theme song that definitely sets that feeling of melancholia I’m getting at. It is a collaboration between Band of Horses singer, Ben Bridwell and the series composer, Jeff Cardoni.

Looking forward to how the series ends, and they’ve only got four episodes left in the season.