To Isaiah Stiles, Coltrane Wilder has too many faces to count. Trane’s out here conducting high-end robberies, with his identity insulated behind various masks. He’s flaunting his wealth and status as a philanthropist, making Stiles feel small at charity events. And in another bold play Isaiah takes personally, Coltrane “think he Nino Brown on fucking Thanksgiving.” He’s at LAPD Robbery-Homicide, using New Jack City references to complain to Cruz about his nemesis, who just showed up at Noah’s AAU basketball game to hand out boxes of fresh Nike kicks to the players. Isaiah finds it maddening, and doubly so because nobody at RHD sees it. Stop making it about you, says Detective Cruz – because Coltrane really is a philanthropist. “We still have no hard evidence connecting Wilder to any crime.”
And meanwhile, Trane, Deon, Stro, and Choi are straight-up committing their next crime. The job they bought from Andrei in Episode 3 is a strongarm robbery at Americana Pharmaceuticals. With the benefit of an inside man, the crew emerges from a shipping container in the warehouse, weapons out and full of shouty menace. They corral the workers, collect their phones. They locate their target, remove any electronic trackers on the load, and in the space of two minutes, they drive away clean with 90 million single-gram vials of Ketamine. Millions in street value. Back at their hideout, Trane compliments Deon for keeping his head during the heist, and raises a toast to the crew. “Happy holidays!”
With Ebony, as they marvel over the ability of sex to calm her morning sickness, Coltrane says he’s all hers, and the baby’s. “No more jobs. The guys will be fine, about to clear a little over two million each. I’m really done.”
Has this ever been true of any professional thief we’ve ever met in any television series or film? As soon as the pharma job is complete, Andrei says their deal is off, and again threatens to harm Charlie if she protests. Coltrane tells the crew this does not change his trajectory – he’s still done – and they are pissed. In Deon’s words, “we assed out nine million dollars.” And Deon has no patience for Trane’s “new age life coach kombucha bullshit” about needing to better himself and free Ebony from the crime life. He decides he will move the ketamine on his own.
Another thing we know from many a crimers-and-cops show is how ominous it is whenever we meet a character’s loved ones. Nemesis leans into this, introducing us to Big Mama (Cleo King), Deon and Stro’s lovely grandmother, as well as Deon’s adorable daughters with his wife Rena (Sydney Mitchell). It’s Big Mama’s birthday, and everyone is in high spirits, but Deon can’t let it rest. Remember his call-out from Episode 1: “Chill don’t pay the bills!” He wants the payday from the ketamine doses. And Trane supposedly being out of the game isn’t Deon’s problem.
Over a lunch that’s mostly wine, Candace Stiles vents to Ebony Wilder about Isaiah’s behavior, as her secret thief pal just listens. Part of Ebony’s play with Coltrane is to disrupt the Stiles’ marriage, which they sense is on a fault line, and to that end, she encourages Candace to have coffee with Malik. Isaiah is a “cold, distant, hyper-focused ghost”? Well, maybe it’s time she explored what she didn’t with Malik, back at USC. (“Time for you to do you.”) Candace, with legitimate concerns over her marital separation, has no idea she is a pawn in their larger crime game.
Without Trane, without Stro, and without Choi, Deon has made moves to sell the ketamine from the Americana Pharma heist. Through a Crips contact, he has secured a buyer, and is at the crew’s warehouse hideout waiting while Nemesis cuts to RHD and Stiles. Deon is about to do a drug deal with Marc Johnson (DeLaRosa Rivera), an LAPD narcotics detective working undercover.
The cops roll up hard on the warehouse, lights blazing and guns drawn. Stiles gets on the megaphone and encourages Deon to surrender. Think of his daughters, being raised without a father. But Deon has made his decision. He tells the cops he’ll come out, but calls his nephew first, and while Deon reminisces about a wonderful day of laughter they once shared with Big Mama – “it was a good day” – Stro realizes his baby uncle, really more like his brother, is about to commit suicide by cop. He cries over the phone, and it’s heartbreaker, because he can’t do shit.
Deon spreads gas around the warehouse, all over the crew’s work cars, the stolen drugs, their crime supplies. He lights the fire, takes a long pull off a blunt, steps outside, and sprays bullets from the submachine guns hidden behind his back. Chill don’t pay the bills, but neither does getting killed. Coltrane Wilder might think he’s done, but his crew is exposed, and now down a man.
Cops & Robbers for Episode 4 of Nemesis (“It Was a Good Day“):
- The cars in Nemesis are many and unique. We like how Trane’s black-on-black Audi S8 is sufficiently sleek, but also appropriate as the vehicle a successful real estate mogul might drive. We’ve seen Stro’s personal vehicle, a cherry red vintage Ford Bronco. And in Episode 4, Deon’s driving a Chrysler New Yorker complete with landau top, a car likely not seen on the small screen since its 1988 model year.
- Stiles, man. He makes some bold plays of his own. His gift of a necklace to Candace is not that at all, but a device bugged for sound and visuals. While she wears it to lunch with Ebony, Isaiah watches and listens for intel on the Wilders, but is angry to learn Candace is considering coffee with Malik.
- Stiles also gains access to the Wilder home, under the auspices of picking up Candace. He conducts an illegal search of Coltrane’s office, takes screenshots of his thief’s journal, and can’t resist making a move on the nearby chess board. Trane, later: “King’s gambit. Nice move, Stiles.” Nemeses!
- Let’s also remember Deon and Stro in better times, hours before the confrontation with the cops that would kill him, as baby uncle and nephew did some footwork to “Everybody” by LA’s own Kalan.FrFr.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.