Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
In 1950 Kansas City, Black crime boss Loy Cannon and Italian patriarch Donatello Fadda trade their young sons, hoping the old mob custom will keep their families from war. Donatello’s death leaves his sons Josto and Gaetano fighting over control, while Loy pushes to expand the Cannon business beyond the limits imposed on him. Their shaky peace breaks down around a disputed slaughterhouse, political favors and retaliatory killings. Across town, nurse Oraetta Mayflower poisons patients and draws Ethelrida Smutny, the observant daughter of a funeral-home family, into her orbit. Ethelrida’s aunt Zelmare and partner Swanee bring their own trouble when they escape prison and rob a bank.
As the gangs close in, Rabbi Milligan takes Loy’s son Satchel on the road to keep him alive. In the black-and-white episode in Liberal, Kansas, they shelter at a divided hotel and pick up a dog called Rabbit. Rabbi is caught in a tornado while fighting Constant Calamita, and Satchel eventually leaves alone with Rabbit. Back in Kansas City, Ethelrida gives Loy Donatello's ring, which she found in Oraetta's apartment. Loy uses it to convince the Italians that Josto conspired with the nurse to kill his father; Josto and Oraetta are executed. Satchel makes his own way home, but the negotiated truce forces Loy to surrender half his business. He returns home to his family, but Zelmare, still seeking revenge for Swanee, stabs him on the porch. Satchel watches his father die; a later scene identifies the boy as the future Mike Milligan.