Claws season 3 episode 5 review: The status of Calvin Simms

Claws season 3 episode 5 found itself taking a rather unpredictable route to its big conclusion. We’ll be the first to admit that for the majority of “Zaddy Was a Rolling Stone,” we were fairly convinced that the entire story was building to the eventual death of Desna and Dean’s biological father Calvin Simms. We didn’t know him all that well but he was, without a doubt, someone destined to shake up the show.

When we first had a chance to see Calvin on the series, it was because of Desna confronting him — she wanted something resembling answers from him and he did everything within his power to try and retreat from that. Yet, when he was away from work her came back to her and insisted that he wanted to try and make things right and be there for both her and her brother Dean. It was at that point the perception around Calvin started to shift and evolve. He went from being someone who we were destined to strongly dislike into someone we actually wanted to root for to a certain extent. We’re not ever going to look past abandoning his family, but he was trying to make things right.

Calvin’s attempts to repair his relationships even went so far as him opting to pay a visit to Dean within the casino, where he was in the throws of a mahjong bender. The hope was that separating him from that and spending time with his father would cure him. At first, it worked — Calvin and Dean have a lot in common when it comes to their love of architecture. Yet, Mac and Melba had some other plans.

Here’s where things get a little bit strange with this show. We understand that Mac is obviously meant to be the Big Bad of the season alongside his partner, but his motivations for wanting to keep Dean in his life were a little strained. Is it really that he values the relationship to this extent? We hope that there’s something more to it since, at the moment, it all feels a little extreme that he wanted to pay off Calvin to go away, and Melba was willing to drug and humiliate him to make Dean not want to like him.

Mac and Melba’s work, for now, seems to be effective, given that Dean did spurn Virginia in favor of going back to the casino at the end of it.

Where are things with Polly and Joe?

There was an almost interesting role reversal in tonight’s Claws. Usually, it is the main characters who incur the most danger but in some ways, tonight Desna’s story was a little more low-key as she dealt with her father being back in her life. Polly, meanwhile, was realizing more that Joe just kills anyone who gets in his way. He may claim that he wants to be with her and for the two of them to have this lucrative side business together now, but how much is that going to change moving forward? Is there a way for it to feel different when the dust settles?

CarterMatt Verdict – Claws season 3 episode 5

This episode was emotional when it needed to be and also did show us that Mac and Melba are still fighting — but it’s hard still to buy into them as Big Bads just because 1) they’ve already got much of what they want and 2) it just feels strange that there’s this pull Mac has to keep Dean around. The Polly storyline is as weird and fantastic as you would hope, but we do still find ourselves needing even more of Quiet Ann, who has been almost invisible for most of the season. (Dare we say that she’s been a little too … Quiet?)

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What did you think about Claws season 3 episode 5 overall? Be sure to share in the comments, and come back soon to get some other news. (Photo: TNT.)