The Madness – Season 1 Episode 2 “Djibouti” Recap & Review

Djibouti

Episode 2 of The Madness begins with Muncie spiralling while news of Jennings’ death breaks. When the pair find out about the watch, his family are torn over what to do with it. I say family; Muncie is with his estranged wife Elena, who wants to get divorced. His son Demetrius is pretty chill with the whole family set-up, but also appears to be doing weed as well.

Muncie decides to visit Kwesi, Elena’s brother, who works as a lawyer. We saw him briefly in episode 1, and now we see the ties the pair have together. Unfortunately, Muncie’s reputation as a controversial pundit, alongside the “culturally fraught situation” at the firm, cause the lawyers at his current firm to refuse taking on his case.

Muncie is desperate and shows off the watch, claiming he’s being framed for all of this. They completely blank him and tell the guy he needs to find a new firm. Muncie does run into Kewsi outside though, who explains that he needs to be careful. He’s been warned that giving Muncie counsel from here onwards could result in him losing his job. The only advice he does give is to get out the country before something really bad happens.

Muncie next heads off to visit his daughter, Kallie. Speaking of estranged relationships, these two are frostier than winter in Antarctica, at least to begin with. His name’s not even on her birth certificate, although she does express concern over the current murder framing he’s going through.

After leaving, Muncie receives a message from Lucie. She apparently has info and needs to talk. She’s also one of those annoying people who messages all in capital letters too, which is a running theme in this series! Anyway, I digress.

Lucie holds a gun up to him at her garage, warning that he’s got her involved in something very dangerous. A body has shown at the morgue with a puncture wound in the neck, and although we’re not actually told this, it’s implied that the body is the assassin out in the woods.

Muncie manages to talk her down, and wants to get to the bottom of what’s happening. While they’re not going to work together directly, Lucie is shocked when she finds out that Mark is actually dead.

Muncie soon crosses paths with Agent Franco Quinones again, where the former admits to killing the assassin with a pen to the neck in the woods. He claims self defence, but is shocked when he sees the autopsy photos. Turns out, the body in question was found with 21 puncture wounds. Muncie shows off the watch, and how Laura was convinced he didn’t do it, and Quinones seems to be interested in trying to get to the bottom of this. However, he’s not particularly happy about Muncie withholding information during their first meet.

After throwing the watch in a burning barrel, Muncie decides to do some research surrounding the assassin’s tattoos. A big one on the chest links to a group called Profane Discord, another extremist gang but this one with a big grudge against the Forge. The group are apparently absolute psychopaths, but so too are those supremists that follow Brother14.

Kwesi encourages Muncie to head back over to Lucie’s place and squeeze her for info. Unfortunately, someone has already got there first, with graffiti scrawled up the garage doors. Lucie believes this was the Forge’s doing and it would appear too that Mark didn’t have a grudge with Profane Discord. To make matters worse, he’s not going to get anything from Jennings, given she’s just been declared dead at the hospital.

Muncie receives a note on his car telling him to “stop trying so hard”, which means he must be onto something. This only rallies Muncie on further to try and get to the bottom of this. After buying a pistol to protect himself, he soon uses it (by firing into the air) when four kids show up at his sister-in-law’s (where the family are currently hiding out). They soon scarper, but it seems Muncie is close to breaking point.

The Episode Review

So the plot is starting to thicken and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Muncie may have stumbled into some sort of gang-related feud that’s caused him to be caught right in the middle of this mess. As the paranoia and drama starts to escalate, so too is the amount of suspicion against him. Firing his gun into the air in that manner is not going to do his case any favours. 

There’s also the case that falling bullets could potentially kill someone too, so Muncie is lucky that those bullets didn’t drop onto the kids! 

The show has been a good one and it reminds me a bit of Clickbait and Rabbit Hole given the ties to online drama and the paranoia aspect. The slow, deliberate pace of this one, interwoven around the distrust and social aspects, make this a really intriguing watch. By the end of this episode, it seems Muncie is close to snapping but will he get some answers before that happens?