'Bloodline' recap: 'Part 3'

We’re back in the rain and future scary John voice-overs. Meg, he tells us, is a good person and wants everyone to be happy. Future Meg frantically freaks the f— out, particularly when her phone rings and we see it’s Danny calling.

Back to the past/present and the hospital: Meg sits by her father’s bedside. Dad Rayburn is still unconscious. Back at home, it’s real hot and the AC doesn’t work. Meg has a copy of the will of Robert Rayburn. Marco is all, what are you doing up? This leads to the old “is this my place or our place” discussion. You know the one. Marco is incredibly nice, but this is so not helping Meg right now. She surely agrees with me because she waits about two seconds before calling up that other guy we saw her doing it with in the car in the first episode, Alec (hot campaign guy from The Good Wife!).

John Rayburn looks at gross autopsy photos. His wife asks him about it—and he’s shaken by the girl who drowned and was burned and clearly died a horrific death. This marital chatter wakes up Danny. Great. He can’t sleep in the heat, he tells John.

Meg enjoys opening up her robe and flashing the AC and I enjoy the sight of shirtless Alec in her bed. Florida, how do you guys sleep in that heat? She asks Alec what they’re doing and how many times they’ve done this. Answer: 5. She’s able to open up to Alec in a way she clearly can’t with Marco—she’s messed up. When she first got out of law school her dad did her a solid and put her in charge of estate planning. But she didn’t do what he asked.

Meanwhile, back at John’s house, John tells Danny that he should stay. No, for real this time! “Come home like you wanted to.” Danny, rightly, is all WTF. He slyly asks what their father will think (since he’s playing along that he still thinks it was Rob’s decision, and that he’s not wise to the fact that it was the siblings). John weasels out of that one pretty well and it all seems to be settled. But then John is all like, cool, listen: You cannot hang out with Eric O’Bannon. Danny protests a bit and John is all, listen, I know O’Dirtbags when I see them basically. We have a family name to think about.

Speaking of the big O’D, the next day O’Dirtbag gives Danny an envelope of cash. He says he has another job, but Danny passes and brushes off Eric’s protests. He leaves the house only to see the very fetching Chelsea riding around on his bicycle. They flirt and flirt and she tells Danny that John came by looking for him. “You boys are always up to something.” Danny takes his envelope of cash and mails part of it somewhere. Interesting.

The other three siblings discuss the Danny situation. They play worst-case scenario: who can take over Rob’s responsibilities. Meg is clearly stressing about the will for her own reasons and blows her stack when Kevin and John bring it up innocently.

Meg is in full lawyer mode at work. She’s talking about the Keys development board and environment board and general development laws. Something tells me I should be paying closer attention, but I cannot. The big boss is missing…who could that be? Did you guess hot Alec? I did. That’s why I wasn’t paying attention. They engage in a little “great to see you again” theater for the others. Eye-roll.

After the meeting they chat on the balcony. He offers to send a plane for her if she ever wants to come up to New York. Man. This guy. “It’s a standing offer for whenever.” He’s leaving the next day. Meg is all, well… what are you doing tonight? Word, Meg.

At the hospital Danny hangs with his mom. He convinces her to leave her vigil and to let him cook for her. At the house, he seems to really be in his element while cooking and the siblings seems to like his food at least. Oh this is nice. But not for long.

John calls a little family meeting about how to handle things with Rob in the hospital. Sally is all, oh not to worry: Danny’s got this. The siblings give a collective gulp.

Meg and Kevin walk out to their cars, chattering about what a bad idea this Danny situation is. (It’s tough in big families when there are cliques among siblings, but I guess not entirely uncommon.) Meg is thinking about going to have last-night-in-town sex night with Alec, but Kevin asks her to come out for a drink. Begs, more like it. Good sister that Meg is she says yes. She calls Alec to tell him she won’t make it after all. He’s just getting to the hotel, the Sunset Palms. I’m sad for her.

Danny sneaks up on a woman… I think he calls her mister? That is cute and random. There’s a weird nervous energy between them even though things appear normal enough. She’s jittery and drops her bag, spilling things everywhere. Danny watches her drive away with a fairly indescribable look on her face.

Back in the rainy, terrible future we’re back to Meg freaking out about the Danny phone call. Scary future John says that Meg was happy when Danny came home. As we watch Meg pick up the phone with horror, she looks out the window to a white car parked outside. “But what she really wanted was to fix the past. To make up for what was lost.” What the what? Why is future John so mysterious?

NEXT: Rob Rayburn wakes up 

Back in the past/present at drinks, Kevin fesses up about the split with his wife. Turns out his wife suffered a miscarriage and things went south from there. Also it bothered her that Kevin is a hothead who drinks too much and is immature. Clearly not picking up on his sister’s pain, he asks her how she and Marco are able to be such a perfect couple. Poor Meg—I bet that air-conditioned hotel room is looking real good to you right now.

The next morning Danny is organizing for the charter boats. Sally seems a little worried—she asks him not to smoke in front of the guests, and he asks to be put on the payroll. Hmmm.

At the hospital Rob Rayburn wakes up! Phew. The doctors still don’t know what the deal is. He had a bunch of mini strokes but they don’t know where the main clot is. The doctor warns that some disorientation is common.

Danny is charming the wetsuits off of the charter guests. Maybe he is going to be good at this after all! They dive into turquoise waters and Danny leads the group into a world of fish and underwater statues. Maybe the heat down there is worth it after all? 

Meg goes into her office, which is filled to the rafters with flowers. People love her dad. Meg (who gets to dress pretty office casual for a lawyer) hurriedly gets to work on what’s been bothering her—her father’s will. And it appears like maybe she left Danny in the will when Rob didn’t want it—so there’s a delete button for that. Say byeeeee to your inheritance, Daniel Rayburn.

Meg goes to the hospital to talk to her dad. Rob Rayburn—still not so chatty. It tumbles out of her: She knows that he told her to redo his estate, but she never did it. She hoped that her dad might reconsider cutting Danny out of the will and that she hoped he would change his mind. She apologizes and tells him she rewrote it all and all he has to do is sign. But… Rob Rayburn isn’t looking like he’s got it all together. For example he doesn’t remember that she’s already handed him a pen. He starts talking what seems like nonsense. Then he smiles a giant and heartbreaking smile and calls Meg, “Sarah.”

The doctor thinks it could be another clot. Meg looks devastated. She talks to Kevin. He thinks it’s simple: have Rob sign this new one. Meg points out that legally their father is not of sound mind. Kevin tries to help but fails. What is Danny being cut out of? Answer: the inn and a lot of money. Kevin asks if she thinks Danny deserves a piece of it. Kevin sure doesn’t: He thinks Danny will peace out within a week.

John Rayburn goes into a storage unit with his son Ben. There are old boxes, filled with videotapes. His son finds a picture of Danny, Kevin, and John on a boat called The Angelfish that seems to bring John down memory lane.  

Meg and Danny sit down for a little chat. He grumbles about not getting a paycheck. She sniffs around about Danny’s long-term intentions. Danny: “When did you become John?” Heh. She asks if he’s invested in the place—he points out he’s 10 years plus older than her and she has no idea what he’s already invested. She tells him she’s happy he’s home (we know he knows that’s not true).

Cannily, he points out that she’s sounding awfully lawyerish and flat out asks if their father disowned him. Meg is all question marks and ha ha ha ha why would you say that? Danny calmly replies Rob told him. She gets really edgy and says it never happened. Wow, it’s hard to see Meg get backed into a corner on this one.

But on the flip-side, cute things are happening at Coach Rayburn’s house. They’re looking at the old family movies that one of those kids got onto a computer which will supposedly help Rob’s memory loss. Diana calls the younger John fat. He replies the camera adds 10 pounds. God, nothing makes me happier than Kyle Chandler joking around. Nothing! Why do I feel like we are not going to see so much of that on this show?

Danny comes in and then they’re all watching their younger selves clown around. Meg used to be a little nerd with glasses! But Danny is riled up and pulls John away: His first paycheck is not what he expected. Why does John always have to be in the middle of all this? John agrees with me. He tells his brother to do the work and offers to lend Danny money in the meantime. Danny stomps off.

And he goes to go hang out with Chelsea in a bar and to play pool. Fun. The flirting is out of control. Chelsea wants to know why he even bothers with his crappy family. She particularly seems to hate John, but Danny sticks up for him: John can’t help it. “It’s my little sister I have to watch out for.” Interesting. Turns out Chelsea and Meg were in the same class. Apparently all the boys liked Meg and she had an army of boyfriends. Chelsea thinks that the reason Meg is still unmarried to the gorgeous Marco is that no one is good enough for her.

NEXT: Is there another Rayburn?

At the hospital Sally and Meg sit in the waiting room. Sally and, apparently, Rob worry about Meg’s unmarried status. God, you can’t even get away from these uncomfortable parental conversations in a hospital waiting room? Danny shows up and Meg seems not super psyched to hang out with him. So she says she has to go say goodnight to Rob, leaving her bag for just anyone to go through.

Danny pops a pill and does just that. Ack. He goes for her phone first, but can’t get through her passcode. Next he rifles through the pockets and finds the hotel key to the Sunset Palms. Hey, at least he didn’t find the will?

The next day Ben wants to show John something. Apparently Ben was told to use only video footage after 1984 but a tape was dated wrong. We watch a cute clip from Meg’s birthday.

Meanwhile Meg sits on the beach and has a vision of her father, gloriously restored to full Sam Shepard health, walking down the dock. He waves big at her. She smiles.

Back in the clip, we see a pretty little girl who is not Meg. Ben asks, “Is that Sarah?” Yes, says John, looking sad. He tells his son not to add it to the reel. “No, he doesn’t need to see this.” Oh my god, there was another Rayburn! In the clip we see little Sarah dance with her Dad while young Meg looks on jealously.

On the beach Meg realizes that even her fantasies of her father are of him preferring her (I’m assuming dead) sister.

At home Marco tries to help Meg determine what to do about the will. She responds by calling a state of the union talk. Whoops. He tries to back out, but Meg presses on. Suddenly Marco is all, maybe we should stop. As in dating? Meg too seems taken aback. Marco also, I must say, does not seem all that broken up about this but asks if there’s a reason why Meg is holding back. She say she doesn’t want to stop.

Danny interrupts this awkwardness by dropping by and asking to speak to his sister alone. Hmm. He does a little farce of how he’d hate for Marco to find out about the Sunset Palms key. Meg plays it great: deny, deny, deny but Danny keeps pressing. He finally gets to it: Meg can keep him from being disowned in the future. She calls him out on trying to blackmail her.

Danny goes for the low blow: “I felt sorry for you. Dad hated me, but at least I got his attention.”  With this elegant yet subtle blackmail on the table Danny’s tone shifts. He tells her she doesn’t have to marry Marco just because she thinks that’s what their dad wants. “I’ve watched you try to please him and try to please him. You can’t. You never will.” Why? “Cause you’re not her.”

Oooof.

Back to the rainy future of doom, Meg goes outside and opens the trunk to her car. Danny seems to be calling her again, but when she answers the phone she hears John’s voice: “What did you do?” And that’s when we see the body—Danny’s probably—in the trunk. Dun dun DUN.