Treme Review: “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say” (Season 3, Episode 5)

Sonny, meanwhile, takes a gig on Christmas that keeps him away from Linh and her family, even though he is coached by a friend to reconsider. Odds are that he should have listened, given that he spends the whole night after the bar following a relapse into cocaine use. The bike rider who knocks into him and calls him a “crackhead” may be a jerk, but he is right. Sonny enjoys his new life, but there’s a draw to his old one, as well. I just hope in the coming episodes we get more clues as to why he chose to go back to drugs, as it currently feels a little out-of-the-blue.

Janette is likewise still worrying about the way the front end of her restaurant is being managed by Tim, the restaurateur. They still lack a liquor license, and he’s still picking beauty over talent. Still, a fellow chef from New York comes to look for a job, and her menu tasting goes over extremely well. The only downside is the snippets of conversation she hears regarding the business side, which trades on the economics of the local tastes, and commercializes her passion. Del, who is still meeting with developers to go over the National Jazz Center, could probably relate.

The final scene sees us with Toni and Sofia again, about to embark on a new tradition in order to craft a new kind of New Orleans for themselves before the old New Orleans comes knocking with trouble. A patrol officer stops by to point out to Toni that her windshield has been smashed, and while he claims to “hate to be the bearer of bad news” the unspoken implication is that this is yet another warning. Thus the episode ends as it began, with an institutional act of destruction – one to make way for a new future, the other to reinforce an old racket.

Everyone is standing on the precipice of great change, some further over the edge than others. Treme hasn’t seemed to move with this much certainty and speed in the past, and so the question now is this: will this season continue to gain momentum, and just where will we find our characters at the end of it? This precious new foundation each person is finding for their pursuits seems strong, but we all know that there is nothing the hands of man can build that the strong winds of fate can’t knock down.