A Close Shave Recap: Rake

In the second episode of Rake, “A Close Shave” (1/30/13), Keegan Deane has to defend three Amish bakers who are accused of attempted murder. We see the attack in the very beginning when three men playing video games in a house are interrupted by the visit of an elderly man with a long beard. A girl named Mary appears and when the man calls to her the three younger fellows overpower the old guy and one takes out a razor.

At Ben’s house, the kids tease their “Uncle” Kee while he almost breaks the coffeemaker. Ben and Scarlet are having a recommitment ceremony and Kee scoffs at the idea. Scarlet says he is jealous because he is not capable of commitment. “The word commit is usually followed by a crime,” Kee deadpans. Ben says Kee’s last 5 relationships “have been like watching the bomb squad highlight reel.”

At his office, Kee’s secretary Leanne gives him the lowdown on his new Amish clients. They are out on $50,000 bail, which means they have money. She also gives him an app called “Joyrider” where he can get two free rides. Kee goes to court on his own case but first he has to submit to a full body search, because destroying Kee’s car didn’t totally satisfy the mayor’s ire. Kee gets a continuance after showing the judge some Bulgarian affidavits that have to be translated.

Then it’s off to see his Amish clients who are running a profitable bakery. Kee marvels at their modern conveniences and Jedediah explains they are a more progressive branch of Amish than the one they left behind in Pennsylvania. Jedediah also explains that they were not trying to murder the man they “attacked”, who is an Amish bishop, Abraham Guth. They were just shaving his beard off. Kee is a lot more impressed with their baking skills. They only use untreated organic stone ground flour and natural sourdough yeast and they give it two slow rises. They give him a bunch of bread.

Using “Joyrider” produces a young attractive woman named Brooke, who explains how she can be his “preferred Joyride driver.” She is also a sports and racetrack handicapper and gives him a surefire tip on a race horse. In short, she’s too good to be true. Kee is a bit suspicious that Ben and Scarlet put her up to seducing him, but she assures him it’s not so. She is into older men. Later when Kee visits his hooker girlfriend, Mikki, she smells Brooke’s perfume on him and gets angry. It’s not jealousy, she insists, it’s because the perfume is cheap and she doesn’t want her other clients to think it’s hers. She makes him take a shower, using up part of the time he has paid her for.

Kee meets with the bishop’s attorney and the prosecutor to explain about the shaved beard and that attempted murder is a stretch. They could try a charge of “forced grooming in the third degree.” They inform him that the beard is a very serious thing in the Amish religion, so not only does the attempted murder charge stand, they are upping the ante to hate crime status. Jedediah could get 15 years.

The best scene of the whole episode was when Kee tried to get info out of Mary, the Amish girl who was the reason for the bishop’s visit. He wanted to get her back to the less progressive Amish before she could produce more reformed Amish with Jedediah. Kee makes a number of inappropriate sexual remarks (…hiding all your backside goodies. Your parents must be beavers cause damn!)  and Mary keeps calling Jedediah. Kee informs her that he is just trying to give her a taste of what her life will be like if Jedediah goes to jail because he won’t be there to protect her when swarms of horny bees start buzzing around the bakery. Mary’s information exposes the bishop as a liar and the 3 Amish men are found innocent of the attempted murder charge, but they do get convicted of assault.

Kee takes Brooke to Scarlet and Ben’s recommitment ceremony. When Scarlet gets cold feet about going through with it, we find out that she and Kee had a thang going on at one time. It lasted 4 days but she definitely still has a soft spot for him. Kee talks her through her nerves but the ceremony is interrupted when Brooke announces that a man needs medical help. It turns out to be Ben’s father who had a stroke while having sex with Brooke! Brooke can’t understand why Kee is mad and shamelessly reminds him that she told him she was into older man. Flabbergasted, Kee can’t believe people think he is bad at commitments — look what he has to work with.

And what of Roy and that $63K Kee owes Victor? Roy made a couple of appearances but didn’t make much headway collecting money or beating up Kee. We also found out that Kee has a stalker and the temporary restraining order on her expired. Scarlet applied for an extension.

Let’s hope that Keegan pays the money to Roy in the next episode. That storyline is going to get old fast. And so is the bossy hooker and the vengeful mayor.

Cast of A Close Shave:
Greg Kinnear – Keegan “Kee” Deane
John Ortiz – Ben
Tara Summers – Leanne Zander
Necar Zadegan – Scarlet
Omar J. Dorsey – Roy
Bojana Novakovic – Mikki
Alexandra Breckenridge – Brooke
Joshua Close – Jedediah
Bruster Phoenix Sampson – Mordechai
Devan Long – Solomon
Rebecca Forsythe – Mary
Madison Mason – Abraham Guth
Josh Cruze – Arthur Leon
Anne Gee Byrd – Ben’s mother
Patrick Robert Smith – Howie
Kim Hawthorne = Gloria, mayor’s wife
Bill Cobbs – Judge