Antoine, meanwhile, takes out his marching band, who get a number of compliments on their proficiency. Riding high, he is undercut somewhat by a student wondering if he could learn to play modern jazz as well as he can do the standards. This puts him into a bit of a crisis, wondering if he is stagnating. He asks the council of an Indian Chief, and the implication becomes that Antoine is on the path toward expanding his repertoire.
Meanwhile, Chief Albert and his tribe take to the streets in costumes that he works on until the last moment, even as Del and his daughters watch Trouble the Water, the documentary about a woman who stayed behind and weathered the storm. The cameo by the camera woman – Tia Nessin – is another great piece of real life working its way into the show. Unfortunately, as we know, he let his chemo treatment languish until after the festival, and given the coughing fit we see at the end of the episode, this may have been a poor choice. Still, his strength caught Ladonna’s eye, and as she had to chase a threatening youth out of her bar, you can imagine she would be drawn to Chief’s enduring power.
Finally, let us take a look at Terry Colson, who spends the episode seeing the side of the city he loves before coming in a crime scene that crystalizes all of his issues with the way his department has been operating. While watching a strange burlesque display, Terry talks about the difference between sin and vice. “There’s a big difference between vice and sin,” he muses, “New Orleans gets that.” Vice is the lapse of a persons’ morality to indulge their human desires. Sin, he says, “is those bodies over in Central City.” Later, at a scene where a number of units are responding a bar fight gone bad rather than dealing with the very real shootings, he turns to his partner, who had earlier warned him about not seeming to be part of the team.
“Something is coming,” Terry says as they walk back to the car. “Something big and ugly and overdue.” He looks to his partner, and says something that could be intended for everyone who stands on the precipice of the end of the season. “Keep yourself clean.”
Everyone’s ambitions in this world depend on the way they work toward them and the foundation that they build for themselves. You keep yourself clean, and all the people out to get you can’t touch you. Knowing the difference between sin and voice is the difference between getting a knowing smile, and a world of hurt. Time will tell is those who stayed into sin will be found out, and those who dabble in vice can keep walking on the right side of that line. Three episodes to go, and this show shows no signs of slowing down.
