American Rust: Broken Justice – Season 2 Episode 8 Recap & Review

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American Rust: Broken Justice Season 2 Episode 8 begins with a flashback to Billy as a child, walking home after his father, Virgil forgot to pick him up from baseball practice. He walks into his home to catch Virgil having relations with a woman. He reveals he won an award, but his father isn’t interested and casts him aside, telling him to get out. 

Present Day: Billy is holding a knife as he approaches his old cellmate, who is tied to a tree. Virgil is encouraging him to kill him, and Billy stabs his old cellmate in the leg. He bleeds out and dies. 

Turns out, Mrs. McKenna has killed herself in her cell, and Del Harris is baffled why she chose to confess before killing herself. He tells Burgos to get Cynthia to check the CCTV footage again to see if they can discover anything else. 

Harris meets with Fisher and is told that the attack on Burgos is taking place tomorrow night. Harris and Burgos then meet up with the FBI to inform them of the meet and discuss how to go about it. Harris tells them he isn’t willing to gamble with Burgos’s life, but she is happy to proceed and puts Harris in his place. 

Elsewhere, Russell comes back into town and goes to see Isaac, and meets Nate, which causes some awkwardness. Park meets with Gossage. One of the FBI guys is also there and informs him of a jacket that has gone missing from evidence, and they point the finger at him. They tell him there is no evidence linking Harris to the West Virginia triple murders and reiterate that he needs to back off. 

Grace is trying to get in touch with Russell after residents complain to her about certain things, including the drilling and the drinking water. But Russell is ignoring her calls, so she turns up at the offices of Landwill Energy and demands to speak with him. The people there haven’t heard of Grace, which concerns her. 

Park confronts Harris and Grace and accuses them of trying to frame him and getting the FBI involved.

Grace finally catches up with Russell, and it turns out he isn’t called Russell after all. His name is Mr. Cleveland, and he warns her to stop following him and wait to be contacted rather than hassling him. 

At the Snarly bar, there is a party of sorts going on, with Billy and Virgil doing Karaoke, and with Isaac and Nate watching on. However, Nate is tired and decides to leave, with Isaac staying on for the rest of the party. Russell turns up at Isaac’s house and breaks in as Nate leaves to head home. 

Harris and Burgos head to the location of the meeting where the so-called attack is going to take place, but Chief Bolt calls to tell them to go to a different location instead as there is an officer down and the episode ends as they turn up to the deserted location. 

The Episode Review

This was a tense episode, with all the moving pieces nicely coming together to link all the stories together. The episode began with a brutal killing, with the suggestion of more violence to come as the finale fast approaches.

There is a revealing flashback that shows Billy as a child, which explains a lot about his troubles in the show. There are some great performances from the supporting cast as the stakes get higher for everyone involved.