Mike Episodes 3 & 4, Recap and Ending Explained: With Trevante Rhodes at the helm, Mike narrates the story of Mike Tyson’s life with an eccentric approach. The first two episodes introduced the viewers to the beginning of Tyson’s career, how he made it to the top of the game, and his relationship with his former Coach – Cus. It conveys the aspects that inspired him to become the fearless fighter inside the boxing ring and the anger that his fighting spirit stemmed from. With its over-the-top narration, the series kept the viewers glued to the screen with the ups and downs of his personal and professional life during those early years of his career.
Mike Episodes 3 & 4 Recap:
Just like in the last two episodes, we find Mike Tyson (played by Trevante Rhodes) indulging in self-talk in front of an auditorium full of an audience. While before, he speaks primarily about his persona inside the boxing ring and the way through which he perfected it, the third episode titled ‘Lover’ shows his many love affairs during the following years of his career. He calls himself ‘Pig’ out of hatred for who he became by that time and for his compulsion to hook up with any girls he came across. In an interview clip, he even goes on to mention how these women don’t want him but his money, which is what attracts them to him. He even accepts his lack of self-respect during that time.
While riding on the high of his fame during those years, Tyson finds Robin Givens (Laura Harrier) on the television screen and gets instantly mesmerized by her looks. While being engaged in sex with another lover at the moment, he still goes on to say with bravado how Robin is going to be his lover. Later, he manages to set up a date with her despite feeling how uninterested someone like her will be in someone like him. With this role model, with this ‘it model’, he gets to spend some time in a fancy restaurant – but only in her mother and her manager’s presence – since her mother is protective of her against going out with someone such as Mike.
She does not want her daughter to be someone who gets punched and punches back for his bread and butter – someone who sees fighting as his way of living. In the further episode, we find how it stems from her own failed marriage where she suffered from domestic abuse from her spouse – which is why she does not want Robin to go through the same struggle and hardships.
The dinner starts their journey on a sweet note and they keep going out together for a while. They speak about their parents and how unaware they are of their lives. It’s his mother for Mike and for Robin, it’s her father. While he brings up the subject of being in a relationship with her, she laughs at it telling him about her dreams of making it big as an actress, the chance for which she won’t get as much as she would in her early twenties. Mike thinks that she would be attracted to his wealth while what she wants is to create an identity for herself like how he did. She does not wish to be just a wealthy person’s wife.
Yet, Mike being Mike keeps up with his silly attempts at persuasion and sends her one gift after the other. Even there, he engages in sex with the women from the stores where he buys these gifts. However, at this moment in his life, he had no one to share the joy of his victories with. Being smitten by his charm and insistent interest, she agrees to be ‘that’ person with him to share the joys of his life. This starts their relationship which marked the first time Tyson fell in love.
After some time, Mike learns that Robin learns that she’s pregnant with his baby, and to make their relationship official, he decides to tie knots with her. After their marriage, her expenses make his manager at the time complain to him. He learns that Jimmy doesn’t manage his money but a different person does. And after Jimmy’s death, he even gets Mike to sign a document giving him a huge chunk of his assets.
This comes to Robin’s and her mother’s notice who object to it after which he sues the man. Not just his manager, but everyone around him was trying to get benefit out of this sportsman who was in the prime of his career. There came another person named Don King (Russell Hornsby) who becomes his guide and companion. He makes Mike feel that Robin and her mother are only ripping him off due to his wealth and emasculating him with their demands.
Mike starts sleeping around, which angers Robin and starts their domestic quarrels. Robin thinks that medication would be a solution for his manic depression. But that actually worsens his situation and mixed with his daily drug use, keeps him dazed for most of the time. Even at one moment, he goes to the length of throwing a television at her. Later, she expresses her fear in a TV interview where Mike appears high on drugs and unaware of the things around him. She decides to sue him for a big part of his property. And despite her being the victim of domestic abuse, her public image gets maligned where the media makes her the villain in their story. He successfully evades these issues and suggests how this very adoration towards his image irrespective of how he behaves is what he will keep using in the future.
The 4th episode titled ‘Meal Ticket’ focuses on Tyson’s complicated relationship with his promoter Don King. While the media villainized Robin and made her the most hated woman after their divorce, Mike was rightfully ridiculed for his behavior by the media, which took a toll on him. The interview made him an unforgivable monster in the eyes of the majority who despised him afterward.
Don came to his rescue and appeared as his father figure. Especially after Cus’s departure, he filled up that big hole in his life. However, while Cus focused on Mike being a better fighter and for him to improve his skills, Don only focused on money – to make Mike money, and to make more money for himself. He even advised how Mike shouldn’t buy into what the white people made him feel himself to be – a monster. Instead, he wanted Mike to be a figure of aspiration for black folks. Unlike Cus, he taught Mike how to be a black man in America.
Don booked him several projects and advertisement gigs that rose him to a level of tremendous popularity. It also made him spend ridiculous amounts of money for things that didn’t matter – only for the sake of showcase. When his sister Denise finds out about his stupid expenses and the way Don is enjoying from money out of Mike’s pocket, she warns him about Don – how he is only using him as a tool to churn out more and more wealth for himself. She even brings up the subject of his money management and how oblivious he is about the amount he has. While he ignores her at the time, he goes on to inquire Don about it. Yet Don, who knew the keys to his heart and the ways to manipulate him, cleverly redirects their conversation to a different route and shuts him up.
He forgets about it and keeps pampering himself with all the things that money could buy. This changes at a match, where he loses not just the fight but the glory and respect he had garnered over the years. Until then, Mike was unbeatable. However, that one defeat changed the course of his life, perhaps making him realize on a deeper level how dangerous Don was to him, his sport, and his wealth.
Mike Episode 4 Ending, Explained:
Mike is shown walking around with his nephew offering to buy him a Nintendo. This nephew mentions that Mike’s sister won’t allow buying it. Mike claims how unafraid he is of anyone, let alone his mother. Then, he enters a store to purchase it and finds a few kids around who are his big fans. Mike promises to buy even them some of the Nintendos. He asks the cashier to give him a magazine along with it, on whose cover he featured as per his knowledge. Later, he learns about some white fighter replacing him, which makes him understand how he has lost his worth as a boxer. It makes him reevaluate his life decisions. While his promoter made him lose his focus on the sport and sunk him deeper into this pitfall than what he imagined, that is just the beginning of his downfall.
<< Previous Episodes
MIKE MINISERIES EPISODES 3 & 4 LINKS: IMDB, HULU
MIKE MINISERIES EPISODES 3 & 4 CAST: TREVANTE RHODES, RUSSELL HORNSBY, LAURA HARRIER, LESLIE SILVA, GRACE ZABRISKIE
Where to watch Mike (2022)
