Drew Starkey as Cary Masterson and Anya Taylor-Joy as Luciana ‘Lucky’ Armstrong in Lucky
Apple TV
Major spoilers ahead for Lucky episode 4
Lucky’s fourth episode, “Too Close To See It,” reunites Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Cary (Drew Starkey) only for tragedy to strike and put the con woman at even greater risk.
What starts as a tense exchange between betrayed spouses devolves into a chase as the FBI, as well as Priscilla (Annette Bening) and Dutch (Clifton Collins Jr.), try to catch the duo. But when Cary makes a choice that endangers them both, the couple are forever changed by the outcome.
Since the beginning, it’s been obvious Lucky and Cary don’t have the same training. She is clear-headed and quick on her feet, using circumstances and a knack for being underestimated to her advantage. He fairs better in conversation, letting intimacy and love tip the hand in his favor. The situation at hand calls for more than charm, and it’s Cary’s inability to think ahead that ultimately seals his fate.
As for Lucky, by the end of the episode, her problems have gotten a whole lot worse thanks to Cary’s decision-making. While he pays the price, she’s left to fend for herself again with the possibility of even direr consequences awaiting her.
Drew Starkey as Cary Masterson in Lucky
Apple TV
Why Cary Took The $10 Million In ‘Lucky’
“Too Close To See It” picks up right where episode 3 left off. Lucky and Cary are in a stand-off over the money they stole as Lucky demands he give her the 12 word seed phrase to his bitcoin account. In trying to explain himself, Cary goes to touch her and ends up with a bloody nose for his trouble. He gives Lucky a bag of ice for her bruised knuckles and the two hash it out.
Cary’s excuse for leaving Lucky is that he did it to protect her. He tells her that he found out about the $10 million John (Timothy Olyphant) stole from Whittaker (William Fichtner) when his mom was released from prison. He thought he’d been invited to her home because they hadn’t seen each other in two years since Priscilla insisted he couldn’t visit her when she was incarcerated. But she wanted more than a hug and a chance to catch up.
Priscilla wanted Cary to convince Lucky to bring her the money that John had stashed away. First, she tried to manipulate him into it by poking holes in the mundane life he was building with Lucky. She belittled her son for working a minimum-wage job when he could be a part of Whittaker’s crew and running scams like she has.
He didn’t bite because he knows how her boss operates and that Whittaker doesn’t care about anyone, certainly not him and definitely not her. So she changed tactics. Priscilla filled him in on the secret Lucky had been keeping from her beloved husband, she’s the reason his mother was locked up.
Initially, Cary didn’t believe her, but Priscilla laid it out plain for him. Lucky was arrested but barely held. She wasn’t questioned and she wasn’t charged. She’d known enough about her father’s dealings and the bio-diesel scheme to go down for accessory and yet no heat landed at her door. That’s not possible without being the one to give up information to the feds.
Priscilla drove the knife deeper by reminding Cary who the real threat is. Whittaker would kill Lucky, no doubt. But to save her own skin, Priscilla has no problem handling the situation herself and clearing Lucky off the board. Knowing his mother, Cary took her warning seriously.
Seeing that he’s made an inch with Lucky after his explanation, Cary tries to take the mile by flipping the script on her. She’d lied to him for two years. Saw him struggle over his mother being imprisoned and never said a word. He pins the blame on John for the mess they’re in and her inability to say no to her father. It works, but their argument rightfully keeps circling back to Cary leaving her for dead.
Cary says that he didn’t, that he always knew that she’d find him. He just didn’t think she’d do it so quickly. Originally, he was going to stick to the plan. He drugged Lucky so he’d have enough time to get away with the money and deliver it to his mother. But he veered from what he was supposed to do because he saw Priscilla laughing.
She and Dutch had been waiting for him in a diner. They were talking, he could see them through the window. Priscilla was happy and, in contrast, Cary was miserable. He’d hurt the woman he loved, abandoned her because it’s what his mother told him to do, and she wasn’t affected at all. It made him angry enough to ditch the plan and go back for Lucky, but cops were already swarming Caesar’s Place.
He believed it was too late to help her and decided to focus on his next steps. Cary admits that thinking his mother would go after him and not Lucky was a miscalculation. But he digitized the money so that no one could get their hands on it, not even his wife.
Frustrated, Lucky grabs his gun and tries to threaten Cary into giving her the seed phrase. He, however, doesn’t believe she’d shoot him. Short-sighted, he leaps all the way to her not being willing to kill him, to which she points out she never said anything about killing him, she could very well shoot him in the leg or the foot to get her point across.
But Lucky doesn’t have the chance to do either because Billie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Gates (Mo McCrae), and the FBI fugitive task force have arrived at Cary’s beachfront property and they’re banging at the door. Cary throws Lucky the keys to his Bronco and the two make a quick escape through the wall of his garage.
Drew Starkey as Cary Masterson in Lucky
Apple TV
How Cary Dies In ‘Lucky’
Cary knows having Lucky in the driver’s seat increases their odds in geting away from the police. However, he can’t help but comment as she flies through La Jolla trying to shake their tail. It makes it difficult for her to concentrate and think the way she needs to, but she does manage to throw Billie and co. off when she sees a car similar to Cary’s on the freeway.
Lucky drives right beside it as they head under an overpass and then hits the breaks so that the eyes in the sky following them think they’re still on the right vehicle. It buys her and Cary enough time to ditch his Bronco and scale the wall so they can try to escape on foot.
They pop out in a marketplace only to be discovered by Priscilla and Dutch. Priscilla demands they get in. Lucky runs and Cary follows, the two of them dashing through the crowd until they hit a garage.
Once again playing a terrified woman, Lucky stops a man to ask for his help to save her from Cary. However, the man wants nothing to do with the situation and flees. He’s unaware that Lucky took the keys to his sports car during the exchange.
With a new vehicle secured, the couple pull out onto the street. They don’t tip off a cop they’re idling by at a stoplight, but they catch law enforcement’s attention when they’re spotted by Priscilla and Dutch once again and start speeding to get away. The feds on their tail because of this and Cary makes a life-altering decision. He pulls out his gun from his bag and begins to shoot.
Though Cary is aiming at the tires of Billie and Gate’s vehicle, he’s now engaging cops with gunfire, which is a terrible choice. One that sends the agents’ car careening to the side when he finally shoots their tire and results in his and Lucky’s flipping when their tire is shot, too.
They survive the wreck, but Cary’s been shot in the stomach and is losing a lot of blood. Lucky tries to get him to focus on her. He does as much as he can though he knows he’s going to die. Cary’s last words are, “You were happy,” a callback to the life they were building together. That’s what he didn’t hold onto that he wishes he had.
Shooting at the police was a bad choice in a series he’d made since he decided to listen to Priscilla, and it’s cost him his life. Lucky only has a moment to grieve before she has to leave. By the time Billie and Gates make it to the car, she’s gone.
Billie passes out from the injuries she sustained from the crash. The paramedics work on her and Cary, but they call his death just as Priscilla and Dutch arrive on the scene, parked away from the wreck but close enough to see what’s happening. Priscilla screams for her son, but Dutch drags her back to the car.
“Too Close To See It” ends with an agent down and a grieving mother. Lucky’s on the run, but the target on her back is even bigger than before. She was involved in a street car chase, injured law enforcement in the process, and now will likely be blamed for Cary’s death by Priscilla. Any chance of coming out of this unscathed is off the table.
Now she needs to concentrate on making it out alive, which will be made harder by a broken heart since she just lost her husband.
New episodes of Lucky stream Wednesdays on Apple TV. Follow Sabrina Reed on Forbes for weekly coverage of the series and news about the business of TV.