The Company You Keep (Season 1) Episode 8: Recap & Ending, Explained – Does Leo get out of prison?

The Company You Keep (Season 1) Episode 8: In the last few episodes, Emma and Charlie has become distant. Since Charlie revealed that he is a con man, Emma felt deeply hurt and betrayed. She did not expect him to turn out like the people she fights against. However, learning about her father’s affair with Claire Fox made her rethink her definitions of morality.

Now the latest episode shows Emma taking a few steps further to acknowledge the moral complexities. With Charlie and the Nicolettis, she tries to get Patrick and Daphne behind bars for good. Meanwhile, Leo tries to settle some old scores in the wake of his recent medical tests.

*Spoilers Ahead*

The Company You Keep (Season 1) Episode 8 Recap:

Episode 8: The Art of the Steel

Thanks to Charlie’s (Milo Ventimiglia) help during the defense budget convention, Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) now has a better idea of Daphne’s (Felisha Terrell) revenue streams. Daphne controls the drug market once dominated by gangs using the distribution network of Taiwanese triads. Using that revenue, she buys illegal weapons and sells them to combat zones, and keeps them circulating to make a never-ending cycle. With this intel, Emma hopes to put both Patrick Maguire (Timothy V. Murphy) and Daphne behind bars for good.

Daphne, meanwhile, hopes to acquire the keys to the empire. For that, she decides to bribe Judge Bishop (Kim Estes), who is assigned to Patrick’s case. He refuses to help her on account of Maguires being criminals. So, Daphne brings in Charlie to get the job done. She invites him to her apartment while Emma listens to their conversation from a van with Birdie (Sarah Wayne Callies). Despite the bad blood, Emma and Birdie join hands for the safety of both families.

Back in the bar, Leo (William Fichtner) is joined by his co-workers from the days he used to work at a steel mill. They gather on account of the death of one of their pals – Maurice. It makes Leo think of his mortality. So, he wants to leave his family with enough in his absence. Besides, he wants to get what is rightfully his from his ex-employer – Davey Slocum (Matthew Glave), who lost his pension worth $208 grand. To settle this old score, Leo joins Davey for a golf match in Virginia.

However, at the time, Leo was supposed to go for his neurologist’s appointment. Fran (Polly Draper) asks Charlie to join Leo out of concern for his fading memory. Charlie cannot find Leo at the time and, thus, gets Birdie’s help to track him through GPS. He reaches a gold court and joins Leo as a caddie. After losing five consecutive shots to Davey, Leo finally wins one. It makes him raise the stakes to a higher amount. Charlie warns Leo how he is letting his feelings get the better of him. Still, Leo manages to win the next round and returns with a check of 200 grand, i.e., what Davey owed him.

Outside the club, the father and son have an argument about this rogue job. Leo fires back, saying how Charlie joined hands with the feds. Charlie defends his decision for how it helps in keeping their family safe and sound. Back in the bar, Fran also gets angry at Leo. He then reveals that he did not bail on his neurologist’s appointment. He says that the appointment was in the previous week and that he got poor results. That was another reason why he was so desperate to get this money at the earliest.

On the other hand, Charlie and Emma still haven’t gotten over their differences. Charlie reveals how Leo was not in favor of joining hands with the feds since their family experienced torture from cops while mobsters helped them with necessities. Emma can’t get her brain around this moral ambiguity. Later, when Charlie reveals Leo’s con attempt, Emma again looks at it as a plain and simple crime. So, their relationship remains sour.

Nevertheless, Emma builds a great rapport with Birdie while plotting to get Patrick out of prison. Birdie sees it as a prison break, while Emma calls it an OP. Their CIA vs. criminal banter ensues. Anyhow, Emma learns that Charlie has never been completely honest with anyone. His trust issues also seem to stem from his series of failed relationships.

Anyhow, Emma and Birdie sketch out a plan to get Judge Bishop to work for them. They see a pattern in his old corporate cases, where he ruled in favor of ‘legitimate criminals.’ So, to gain the Judge’s confidence, Emma poses as Deborah Nam, a power-hungry heiress running a family business. She bribes Bishop to rule against a merger so that she solely can inherit all the wealth. The Judge accepts her proposal, and later, Daphne uses her knowledge about this to blackmail him into ruling in favor of Patrick.

On the other hand, Leo apologizes to Charlie for putting pressure to be just a conman and leaving him with no other choice. Later, Shelby (Essence Atkins) arrives at the bar in the wake of her father’s death. Leo feels guilty that only he got his money back while everyone’s pension went busted. So they plot another plan to get money from Davey’s wealth. Leo brings in his old pal, Pike (T.K. Carter), to help in this mission.

Later, Leo meets Davey and entices him with a tax loophole opportunity by donating some of his wealth to a charitable cause. He brings Davey to the River Hospital, where Pike, Fran, Shelby, and others pose as the construction crew members. Fran demonstrates their plan for this medical arts center and then makes Davey drool over a way to boost his ego. Davey will get his name on the building if he donates $10 million instead of what they spoke about before.

The man agrees, and Leo takes him out of the site. Unfortunately, while Davey’s on his way out, Pike pokes him in a way that gives him a hint of their identity. So, Leo gets arrested by the cops for the crime of stealing Davey’s expensive watch. Looks like Leo could not help himself but steal it from the man who looked at wealth as nothing while exploiting others.

Meanwhile, David (Tim Chiou) returns home with Jennifer West (Andrea Cortés) while smiling over their recently successful campaign trail. Until then, Grace (Freda Foh Shen) was oblivious to the fact that Jennifer was appointed by Claire Fox. So, she and Joseph (James Saito) decide to warn David about Claire’s tricky motives. That is the first time David learns about Joseph’s affair with Claire. So, he feels betrayed for trying to live up to Joseph’s legacy.

Anyhow, David’s relationship with Jennifer had reached beyond professional courtesy by then. So now, he does not want to keep any secrets from her. As a result, he asks her directly whether she is using him for Claire’s benefit and whether he can trust her. Jennifer decides to leave David’s campaign so that they can be in a relationship.

The Company You Keep (Season 1) Episode 8 Ending, Explained:

Does Patrick Maguire get out of prison? Does Daphne finally get the  Maguire empire throne?

Because of Daphne’s efforts, Patrick Maguire becomes a free man and gets out of jail to meet Connor. He knows that Daphne rescued him. Still, instead of handing over the throne to her, Patrick decides to use her until they need her intellect and then discard her. Later, he visits her apartment, and she invites him with a wide smile. She believes that this is her moment of victory, where she finally proved her worth. To her surprise, Connor follows Patrick and invites himself in. He also insults her for how she has her expensive apartment owing to the Maguire empire’s wealth. So, Daphne sees another moment of betrayal where she is side-lined for the good of the male heir.

Does Leo get out of prison? Who helps him with it?

Back in the bar, Nicolettis are worried sick by Leo’s arrest. Fran laments why Leo felt the urge to steal Davey’s watch in the first place. Anyhow, while they try to find a way to get Leo out of jail, he suddenly arrives in the room, followed by Emma. Turns out, Emma had a change of heart about her stringent stance on morality and decided to help them instead. She said that Leo was an asset working for the CIA and got him out. She believes that Leo is a good person, and this act does not define who he is. Besides, she looks at it as an opportunity to return the debt of Charlie; for aiding her in controlling the information of her father’s affair from becoming public knowledge.

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The Company You Keep (Season 1), Episode 8 Links – IMDb
The Company You Keep (Season 1), Episode 8 Cast – Milo Ventimiglia, Catherine Haena Kim, Polly Draper

Where to watch The Company You Keep