Razorblade Tears

Ike and Buddy Lee go to their sons’ house and talk about their former mistakes as criminals. Buddy Lee’s prison time was the result of taking the fall for his half-brother, Deak, who would not have survived in jail.

They split up and search the house. Buddy Lee finds a picture of Christine, his ex-wife, and Derek. He remembers asking Christine to dance after meeting her. She had moved on during his second incarceration, and he hadn’t blamed her. Buddy Lee finds a notepad on the refrigerator that has a drawing of shoes, fruit, an arrow, and an exclamation point. He takes the note after seeing that it has a series of numbers on the bottom.

In a notebook, he finds the phrase: “Does she know?” with a sketched frowny face next to it (71). The machine has 12 voice messages. The final message is a nervous voice saying: “I changed my mind” (72). There is an apology, a goodbye, and nothing else. He writes the number down.

Andy and Oscar break into Isiah and Derek’s house. Two men enter the house while Andy and Oscar search for clues. Buddy Lee greets them from the kitchen. When Andy reaches for his gun, Buddy Lee throws a jelly jar at his face and tackles him. Oscar pulls him off, and Buddy Lee headbutts him, breaking his nose. Andy hits him with the gun.

Andy and Oscar tie Buddy Lee up with the wire from the TV, then kick him in the stomach. They hear a crash down the hall, and Oscar goes to investigate. In the bathroom, Oscar notices the top of the toilet tank is missing just before Ike hits him with it. When Andy is distracted, Buddy Lee kicks him in the knee, making him drop the gun. Ike appears and stomps on Andy’s hand, then knocks him out with an uppercut.

Andy wakes tied to a chair at Ike’s landscaping company. After beating him, Ike and Buddy Lee take off his shoes and question him about their sons. Andy says they are looking for someone named Tangerine who was talking to a reporter. Buddy Lee shows Ike the note from the fridge. Ike had found a bunch of bar napkins with a similar drawing, and they think it may be the bar where Tangerine works.

Andy twists one arm out of the zip tie and hits Ike with the chair. When he tries to hit Buddy Lee, Buddy Lee stabs him with his knife. Ike hits him in the head with the tamper, a blunt tool used to tamp down earth. Ike smashes his head with the tamper until it is pulp. They plan to dispose of him in the woodchipper and compost from Ike’s truck.

Oscar returns to the clubhouse. Dome, Gremlin, and a man they call Too Much see him and bring him inside. Dome calls Grayson, who says they will meet in 20 minutes. Oscar says he thinks his attacker was one of the kid’s fathers, and he saw the name Randolph on the truck.