‘The Lowdown’ Season 2 Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained: What Lee’s Call to Big D Could Mean

‘The Lowdown’ returned with “Raw Milk,” written by Liz Blood and directed by Scott Teems, which premiered Wednesday night on FX. The hour takes Lee Raybon and Ginger to a county where everyone is supposedly a neighbor, yet nobody behaves like one. It is a road trip that leaves Tulsa behind and drops the investigation into far less friendly territory.

This ‘The Lowdown’ recap and ending explained looks at how the episode ties together a missing inmate, a dead young man in a county jail and a sheriff with no interest in cooperating. The AV Club says the hour raises the energy and intensity of the season, and it also introduces the boss whose errand boys keep hounding Lee and Ginger for the whereabouts of Mekko Dean. It closes on a phone number hidden in Lee’s boot.

The Episode Recap Starts With Lonnie in the Trunk

The hour opens with Lee and Johnny, played by Rafael Casal, speeding down the road with Lonnie locked in the trunk of Johnny’s car. Lee phones Cyrus, played by Killer Mike, to arrange a meeting and ends up retaining an attorney named Daymond for legal advice. By the time they check on the trunk, Lonnie has escaped.

That leaves Lee holding Lonnie’s badge and gun, and Cyrus is plainly unhappy about being dragged into the situation. The next morning Lee tells Ginger, played by Betty Gilpin, about the fight, and the badge points toward Woodrell county. Woodrell is where Nathan Spence died in county jail, which finally gives the search for Mekko a link to that death.

A review at Episodic Medium described the early stretch as propulsive comic mayhem and praised Casal as a dithering dentist whose panic plays well against Lee’s frazzled cool. A later scene has Johnny repairing Lee’s chipped tooth, which the recap calls hilarious.

Sheriff Vela Thorne Turns the Hog Contest Into a Confrontation

In Woodrell, Lee and Ginger meet a public defender named Jeff, who represented Nathan Spence. Jeff says he placed Nathan in a diversion program that never seems to have happened, and he adds that Nathan’s mother has been pressing him and the local newspaper about her doubts.

Ginger visits the mother while Lee heads to the newspaper, where the editor turns out to be Dale, played by Steve Earle. Lee calls him out for staying quiet at the request of authorities, even though those authorities look corrupt. Showsnob points out that Dale is the same man who gave Lee a ride the week before.

Lee finds Sheriff Vela Thorne, played by Martha Plimpton, at a hog contest after making the poor choice of drinking raw milk. She agrees to an interview only if he goes through proper channels, and then his stomach sends him running to a porta potty. The AV Club called the exchange contentious and described her dismissiveness as unpleasant and cruel.

Collider presents Thorne in its interview with Plimpton as a proud, unbothered political sheriff who plays the game to win. The same piece notes that Plimpton enjoyed shooting in Tulsa and found the set joyous and collaborative under creator Sterlin Harjo.

Frog and the Stolen Artifact Show a Different Kind of Ethics

Away from the investigation, Marty, played by Keith David, and Ray, played by Michael Hitchcock, meet Frog in the bookstore while they search through texts on archaeology. Frog is played by Tommy Lee Jones, and he describes taking part in an illicit dig in Mexico as a young man under the cover of a John Huston film. Jones joined the cast as Lee’s estranged father.

The story convinces Ray and Marty to bring Frog to a secret meeting of powerful people holding an auction of black market artifacts. Once there, Frog seems far more interested in the bar than in the bidding. Showsnob notes that the older man clearly has real knowledge and experience, even if the auction contact Vincent cannot figure him out.

Frog then lifts an artifact from a case in the lobby and leaves behind the pin that earned him several compliments. It reads as a signature, and since the piece is already gone, nobody can do much about it. He insists that everything in the building should go back to the tribe.

The TV Obsessive recap draws a parallel to what Lee’s own actions showed in the previous season. It suggests Frog may have ethics after all, even if they are bent by a deep disrespect for authority.

Ending Explained as Lee Reaches for Big D

Lee’s trip to the porta potty has consequences when Lonnie arrives and demands his badge and gun back. Lee hands over the badge but does not have the gun, so he is arrested. Showsnob notes that he soon finds himself in jail.

Inside, Lee learns that McMann is the sheriff’s cousin, and they threaten to pin Chili’s murder on him unless he reveals where Mekko is. Lee has no idea where Mekko is. The recap’s author also wonders whether the sheriff’s remarks about Ginger hint that she knows more than she admits.

Thorne wants Lee to call Ginger so everyone can have a civilized conversation. As the episode ends, though, Lee appears ready to dial someone else, using a number for Big D that he wrote in his boot. The recap’s author does not recall Big D appearing in the series before, so the identity of that contact remains an open question.

The AV Club notes that Lee begins the hour with a chipped tooth and ends it with a painfully upset stomach. It also flags Lonnie’s gun, currently wedged in the couch cushions at Dan’s office, as something that may resurface before the season ends. If you have a theory about who Big D really is and why Lee trusts a number hidden in his boot over Ginger, the comments are the place to make your case.