Smurf upheld a moral code despite her cold heart and ruthlessness. Now, J ignores it, but it could spell his doom in Animal Kingdom Season 6.
The following contains spoilers for Animal Kingdom Season 6, Episode 12, “Exodus,” which aired Sunday on TNT.
Even with Ellen Barkins Smurf gone, the matriarch remains at the heart of Animal Kingdoms story. The TNT series kicked off with J (Finn Cole) entering the messy world of his estranged criminal family, and it wasnt long before he became just as entangled with his grandmother as his uncles. Smurf recognized Js intelligence and molded him into her prodigy. J learned everything he could from her and became a competent leader with business-orientated goals. Despite this, it seems J failed to learn Smurfs most important lesson.
Now in Season 6, J has essentially become the new Smurf, even if his uncles arent always happy with the idea. But by gaining power, J has also lost a lot of his humanity. Episode 12, “Exodus,” finally confirms what many Animal Kingdom fans have suspected, J plans to rob his uncles and maybe even set them up. Its a risky move that could spell his disaster, and its all because J broke Smurfs number one rule: family above all else.
Early Life[]
Js mother, Julia, is Popes twin sister, and his dad was rumored to be Barry Blackwell (which was not confirmed until Smurf informed him while she was in prison). Baz was raised by Smurf from the age of 12.
Js mom, Julia, wasnt close to most of her family. An exception seems to be with Pope, her twin brother, to whom she was kind and attentive toward in childhood.
After she was thrown out of the Cody house, she didnt keep in close contact with them. After being kicked out while pregnant, she only took J to visit her mother and brothers when he was a young child. But she soon stopped having contact with her family all together. Baz, Js father, never acknowledged J as his son.
J grew up with his mother Julia as his only parental figure, however flawed. He had minimal contact with his mothers family, including his uncles and grandmother, until they completely cut off contact (sometime between the age of 6 and 8).
J was also acquainted with his mothers best-friend, Angela, during childhood. J remembers having to shoot her up as a child. In one instance, Angela robbed Julias drugs and disappeared, which forced J to go out and score for Julia while she began to suffer withdrawal symptoms. He, however, was given bad product, which landed Julia in the ER and left J to dodge DCFS for two weeks. This has caused J to harbor a continuous resentment and distrust toward her.
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Season 4[]
In “Ambo,” J informs Pete of Mias activities after she and Tupi rob the Codys. Pete kills Tupi, but leaves Mia for J to deal with. Mia attempts to turn J against his family and to continue their partnership, revealing that she was the one who killed Baz on Smurfs orders. Instead, J kills Mia, avenging Bazs death.
In “Ghosts,” Smurf set up a suicide mission for herself and Pope, not wanting to waste away of the cancer. With Smurf demanding Pope to shoot her after Pope saves her life and even threatens to kill Pope, J shoots Smurf through the head, killing her and helps his uncles plan with how to deal with her death. Despite having gotten rid of Smurf, as he wanted, J seems somewhat shocked by what he did.
FAQ
Who is Jay from Animal Kingdom?
By the end of season four, it seems like he has irrefutably proved his abilities as the new architect of the Cody family, which suits his INTJ personality type perfectly.
Is Pope J’s dad?
Is J Baz’s son?
How old is Jay from Animal Kingdom?
