Animal Kingdom Recap – Birthday Bonanza: Season 1 Episode 4 “Dead to Me”

Animal Kingdom Recap - Birthday Bonanza: Season 1 Episode 4 "Dead to Me"

Tonight on TNT Animal Kingdom airs with an all-new Tuesday, June 28 season 1 episode 4 called, “Dead to Me” and we have your weekly Animal Kingdom recap below. On tonight’s episode, Pope’s (Shawn Hatosy) birthday approaches as Smurf (Ellen Barkin) probes whether the boys are playing by her rules.

On the last episode, Craig recovered from a wound as Baz and Craig sharpened focus on old associates in Mexico. Did you watch the episode? If you missed it we have a full and detailed Animal Kingdom recap, right here for you.

On tonight’s episode per the TNT Synopsis “pope’s birthday approaches as Smurf probes whether the boys are playing by her rules. Meanwhile, J makes discoveries about his mother’s estrangement from the family.”

Tonight’s Animal Kingdom recap looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live Animal Kingdom recap at 9:00 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about season 1 episode 4 of Animal Kingdom.

Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!

#AnimalKingdom starts with Pope sitting on the edge of his hotel room bed stiffly. His alarm goes off and he leaves. Deran wakes J and tells him sorry about the pool and J says it’s cool. Deran offers to let him punch him and J says no.

J asks him what the carving on the bed is and Deran says if Smurf asks, tell her we’re cool and J agrees. Baz and Pope are at the house and Pope can’t figure out the espresso machine. Deran comes in and wants to know where’s breakfast.

Smurf didn’t cook and Deran says Craig is coming later to play paintball for Pope’s birthday. Smurf comes in and the boys tell her they’re taking Pope out skydiving. She kisses her son and says it sounds fun. Pope says that’s all stuff they want to do and walks out.

Smurf asks the boys if they need money and they say no and Deran tells her things are good with J. She walks out. Baz tells Smurf they need to get back to work and she asks about Lena. He says Catherine has been sick and Smurf says she can help.

Smurf suspects something is up

Baz says she’s pissed because she took her kid and Smurf says I hope she feels better and walks off. She finds J undressed and she says I changed your diapers every day. He gets dressed and she asks if he needs anything like money. She lays down some hundies.

Then she says don’t tell your uncles because they’re on me for weeks and asks him if he knows how the boys are planning to pay for Pope’s birthday. He says he’s heard nothing. Smurf goes back and tells the boys she’s getting some things for dinner.

She threatens them if they get any paint on the house. Craig is getting busy – looks like with the girl he buys drugs from. Deran and Baz shoot each other outside running around with paintball guns. Deran shoots Pope in the back and then lies down a paintball gun and runs.

They tell him to shoot them and he tosses it aside then bashes it with a sledgehammer. They tell him that’s a new gun. Baz says Smurf got arrested and tells them let’s swap the phones. They text Craig the emergency code and he runs out on his girl.

Smurf runs an emergency drill

They load up the trucks and are ready to leave town. Craig pulls up and they grab cash and head for the safe house. Baz tells J to get in the car. Pope is mad and says they can’t leave him behind. They all load up and peel out of the house.

They pull over and Pope gets out and checks things out and they head inside. They unlock a padlocked door and sit down their food and supplies. Baz says we have to sit quiet and J tells them he doesn’t have a passport. They wonder why Smurf got arrested.

Pope tells Baz to send Catherine. They hear a car and they all pull guns and go check. J watches with fear. Someone bangs on the door – it’s Smurf. She says try not to shoot me. She comes inside and asks if they brought the passports.

Baz asks if this was a test. She asks for the cash and keys to Chula Vista then says the cash stash is light. Baz says he didn’t touch it. Derain yells at her for putting them through this for nothing. Smurf says they are running bullsh*t jobs behind my back.

Bros before… mom

She tells them someone better come clean and tell the truth. The boys all look at each other. Smurf says there is no next job and says no more money, they’re on their own. Deran says what are we supposed to do but she says she’s done talking.

The other boys walk out and J follows them carrying the bin they told him to carry. Smurf and Baz hang back. Smurf says this was meant for all of you, not them. Baz says he did nothing behind her back and she says put all this shit back where it belongs.

Nicky asks J why he was late to school and if he’s okay and he says his morning was weird. She lights a joint and offers him a hit out behind the bleachers. She asks what four year olds like to eat and she shows him she’s wearing the watch.

She asks about it being his moms and she says it’s a big deal then kisses him. She says she’ll never take it off again. J says don’t wear it at his house and says the family was arguing over some of his mom’s sh*t. A teacher comes over and catches them with the joint.

Hot for teacher

The teacher sends Nicky off after J says it’s his. The guys head to the airfield to go skydiving. Deran tells Craig he’s worried that Smurf knows they burned the SUV. The teacher asks J what’s going on with him and he asks if she’s going to kick him out of school.

She asks for his lighter and he hands it over. She goes to stand by him and lights the joint and tokes with him. She asks if he surfs and tells him a photographer friend has an exhibit on surfing and asks him to go with her.

Deran asks Craig what he brought back from Mexico and Pope asks what they cleared. Pope says they did a job with the kid and made more than they did. Deran and Pope argue about Deran running. Craig throws Deran out then jumps out too.

Aerial antics

Baz and Pope bicker and Pope jumps out next. Baz follows. Smurf finds Nicky waiting on the curb at the house and invites her to wait inside by the pool. Catherine is at the house when J comes by with food for Lena and says he heard Lena was feeling bad.

Catherine asks why he didn’t go with the boys today and he shrugs. He brought mac and cheese stuff over and Catherine lets him inside. Baz goes to his dad’s place and he’s not there. He checks the trailer but the guy is nowhere.

He checks his cash stash and sees the money is still in the lock box. He rehides it and then looks around again. Craig goes back to Renn’s place. She looks dead of an OD in the bathroom with froth on her mouth. He loots the place taking drugs, jewelry, and then pulls cash out of her drug money spot.

Macaroni and snooping

J cooks macaroni and Catherine realizes it’s his mom’s birthday too since she’s Pope’s twin. He says no one even mentioned her. He asks if she knew his mom and about her and Baz. Catherine says Baz tried to get his mom help then she started to take money.

J says his mom told him that Smurf turned against her. Lena runs in ready to eat macaroni. J asks to use the bathroom. He spots a pic on the wall of Baz as a kid with his mom. Smurf asks why Nicky wanted to thank J and she says they got busted for smoking pot at school and he took the blame.

Craig comes in and goes to his room and locks the door and puts down the drapes. He flips out in frustration over Renn. He dumps out some coke and rolls up a $50 and snorts it. Baz calls the ER looking for someone named Blackwell.

Baz can’t find his dad

It’s his dad – he tells the ER he would have come in as a John Doe and he ends the call. Baz comes home and says he needs to talk to Catherine. She says Ricardo called because the rent it past due. He snaps at her because they won’t live cheap in one of Smurf’s place.

Catherine rants at him for blowing money on Pope’s birthday. Lena asks for more macaroni and Baz finds J in his room looking at pics. Baz says you can’t just come around here then asks if Smurf sent him. Baz says this is my house and family and you can’t show up.

Catherine gets on to Baz and reminds him it’s J’s mom’s birthday too not just Pope’s. Baz looks frustrated and nods. Catherine rants at Baz for asking her to say sorry to Smurf after she stole her kid. Baz screams at her to fix it.

Catherine asks what’s going on with him and he says nothing. He says Smurf is icing him out and says he’s trying to handle it. He says he messed up and feels like sh*t is getting out of control. Catherine hugs him. She says Smurf will get over it because she needs him.

J reminds his grandmother 

Baz tells her to call Smurf and make things right. Later, Smurf lights a candle on Pope’s birthday cake. She calls Pope her beautiful boy and toasts her first born. They all drink a shot. J sits and stares. Pope starts to blow it out when J speaks up and says it was his mom’s birthday too. Smurf says yes it is then tells Pope to blow out his candle. He does.

Smurf cuts the cake. Later, the guys are at a strip club and they took J along. Craig tells them that Smurf knows about the jobs but Baz says stick together and don’t say anything and she won’t know shit. They call girls over and Pope asks for a girl who gives good tongue.

Pope pays Pepper to give J the ride of his life. She takes him and the cash to a private area. A girl comes over to give Pope a real special private dance. It’s Camryn Grimes from The Young and The Restless playing the stripper!! OMG!!

Soap star Camryn Grimes guests as stripper

They go the dressing room and she kicks out the other dancer then tells Pope he can touch her. He says he has a hard time getting an erection and she says she can fix it. He tells her to stand over there and she does. He has her turn around with her back to him.

He tells her to take off her clothes. She does. He looks at her and then says turn around. She does. He comes over and she says got to wear the rubber. He gets close and touches her arms. He says says “we can’t” and she does.

He tells her to say “We can’t Andrew.” He unzips and grabs the condom. He says say it like you love me. She says it over and over and he does her standing up. She grimaces as he does it roughly with her back turned.

Pope pays homage to his twin 

Pope paces and asks J where’s Deran and he says in the back with girls and tells J let’s go and says screw Baz. He takes the car keys and they leave. Pope pulls the car over and J tells him he didn’t say anything to Smurf. Pope says good.

He turns off the car and tells J to get out. He does. Pope asks if he reads the Bible and starts talking crazy Revolution about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. He asks if that’s them and J asks who. Pope says me, Baz, Craig and Deran and J says he doesn’t think so.

J tells Pope he said nothing to Smurf and he tells J to go over the fence. They both climb over a fence and they’re in a cemetery. He asks if he remembers where Julia is. Pope says he thinks he brought him to the wrong side.

Pope says no one even says her name and J says yeah. Pope and J sit down on the ground and Pope asks if his sister ever talked about him and J says sometimes. Pope says when they were kids, on their birthday, they would tell each other their candle wishes.

Pope says it felt like a secret between them, just the two of them. J asks about Julia and Baz. Pope asks what he means and J asks if they were close too. Pope says Baz has a way of getting what he wants. Pope says he didn’t know she would never come back.

J tells him it’s not his fault and he gets why they thought they had to kick her out. He says it was the drugs right and Pope asks who told him that and he says Catherine. Pope says it’s cold and stands up to leave. He walks off and J follows.

Baz caves and rats the boys

Smurf is rolling a joint when Baz and Deran come home. She asks for J and they tell her he must have gone with Pope. Baz asks if Cath calls and Smurf says no. Smurf asks if either of them have anything to say to her then tells them they can sleep at their own places.

Deran says yeah right. She tells him he can’t sleep her tonight and he throws down the sandwich he made and walks out. Baz tells Smurf that Pope pulled a job with Deran and the kid. She’s shocked he took J. She asks about Craig.

Baz says Craig brought a package back from Mexico and hid it from him but says he made sure it wouldn’t happen again. Smurf has a guy over and he shambles out and asks about the joint. Wonder if that’s Nicky’s pot dealer. Smurf walks away.

Craig in a corner

Craig goes to see Renn at the ER after she called him. He asks what happened and he says she OD’d and the neighbor found her. She says she got ripped off and some bastard stole everything and left her there. He asks if she knows who and she shakes her head.

She says she’s going to find out who did this to her and he’s going to hurt him for her and she’ll make it worth his while. Craig is stunned. J comes home and finds Nicky passed out in his bed. Smurf asks him to come kiss her goodnight.

He goes to her in the dining room and Smurf says she told Nicky she could sleep over. She tells him to come sit. He does. She hands him a cupcake with a candle and says it’s for him. She says he told her the boys did nothing behind her back but it’s not true.

She says he’s a good liar and he’s his mother’s son. Smurf says the mistake she made with Julia was to give her too many chances. Smurf touches his face then says don’t ever lie to me again. She walks away. J lights the cupcake candle and stares at it.

THE END!