Skylines – Season 1 Episode 3 “What I Mean” Recap & Review

Two Worlds Collide

Episode 3 of Skylines begins with a brief prologue showing a shady deal being discussed before cutting back to Skylines where we see Ardan beginning his drug operation. At the same time, Jinn arrives and is immediately eager to get on with his work, asking Nura, one of the prolific female artists, to ad-lib to a beat.

Managing to infiltrate the gangs, Sara’s informant feeds back information while Sara deliberates over her police academy exam. After a tough day, she’s greeted by Ri and her partner and they share Asian food together. Unfortunately her work gets in the way again, causing rifts to grow in the family. As she receives the name “Ardan” via text, she gets up and leaves in the middle of dinner. At their usual spot, she learns that Ardan is gathering people up for an operation but quite what this entails, or how deep the operation goes, remains to be seen.

Back at the label, the other rappers try to coerce Jinn to join them out on the town for some drinks but instead, he decides to settle in and work on his beats. As the group return and listen to his beat after drinking, offering critique and praise in equal doses, Jinn is invited up to speak to Kalifa. Only, he’s not there and instead, Zilan spits venomous lyrics over the top of one of his beats. It’s ferocious stuff too and her aggressiveness catch him off guard. Nura says goodbye to Jinn before he tells her he’ll hopefully see him at the songwriter’s camp as he struggles to nurture Zilan’s talent.

As gang wars heat up, Sara heads back to the station where she’s warned against deviating from the Kelmendi Case after offering up the name Ardan. Out in the streets though, Sara runs into Kalifa and they immediately get talking, rekindling their past as we learn more about their history together.

Unable to stick to the beat, Jinn despairs over Zilan’s rapping and it’s here we learn that Kalifa has sidelined Jinn because he’s a rookie. Clearly threatened by his talent, Jinn is then called into Semir’s office where he tells him Zilan has no talent. He waves it away and instead gives him the bad news – they’re not sending him to songwriting camp.

Having not told Tonik about his exclusivity deal, he hears Jinn’s beat on Azad’s new record as it’s released to the public and he immediately asks Lily about it. Meanwhile, Jinn sees Zilan’s aggression first-hand as he sees her beat down someone inside a shop with her associate in the streets on the way home. Unsure what to do, he drives them away before returning home himself.

It’s here he’s confronted by Tonik and Lily who ask him about the beat and just what’s happening. As things get heated, Jinn headbutts his friend who calls them both selfish and leaves. Breathing heavily, Jinn tries to gather his composure as his sister tells him to pack his stuff up and leave. As the episode closes out, Mr Kampshoff arrives at the hotel.

Once again Skylines delivers another pretty dramatic episode, one that does well to solidify the different relationships and blur the line between the criminal world and the music scene. With Zilan and Jinn becoming entangled together with the music and Tonik now angry at his former friend for his betrayal, Jinn looks set to walk a thin tightrope between loyalty and fame from here on out.

Plenty of questions remain hanging over this one though and quite what’s in store for our various players remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure though, Skylines’ drama is really starting to heat up now.