They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but that’s not quite the case for a woman named “Lucky.”
In the series premiere of Apple TV’s latest crime thriller miniseries, Anya Taylor-Joy plays the titular character who’s on the run after lifting $10 million with her husband Cary (Drew Starkey). Despite feeling like there’s something she’s not seeing, she allows Cary to calm her nerves, and when the camera pans down, we see an overly stuffed suitcase stacked with cash money. But after a night full of celebration and dancing, Lucky awakens in her hotel room, only to find her husband and the stacks of cash are gone. She’s overly groggy too because that slippery Cary slipped a mickey into her champagne.
She starts to panic and for good cause. Outside of Caesars Palace, FBI Agent Billie Rand (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) pulls up with an arsenal of officers, and they’re all on the prowl for Lucky and her beau. Walking through a hotel bar, Lucky sees herself and Cary on the news. The secret’s out. They’re accused of stealing cash that went missing in a mob-related scheme a couple years prior. The newswoman reports that it’s unknown how the couple came into possession of the funds, as the FBI had been tracking it down for two years. And with that, Lucky tosses a hood over her head and gets to stepping. But just before she can exit the casino, another police car screeches to a stop out front. Looks like evading the law is first on her to-do list this afternoon.
Lucky’s great escape
Rand sees that all of Lucky’s things are still in her hotel room, and with help of the casino’s security cameras, they’re able to see the hooded Lucky sneaking through the hallways. But as Lucky hits the gaming floor, Rand spots her, and the chase is on. Her next moves prove that this isn’t her first rodeo. Lucky sheds her maroon hoodie and baseball cap. She grabs a tray of glasses and brings them to the kitchen. There, she swipes an ID card which she uses to access the loading dock. After making up a story about a jerk boyfriend who drinks too much, she cons a driver into giving her a ride outta there. And before Rand can unlock the loading dock door herself, Lucky’s ride leaves the loading dock and drives down the road, far, far away from Caesars and the arsenal of agents hunting her.
Lucky gets dropped off at a dollar store and makes a phone call, but the line she calls is dead. So she does what any thief on the run would. She chops her hair off and dyes it blonde. After hopping a bus, she gets a phone call from her father, John (Timothy Olyphant). She tells him that she’s “seeing the country.” “Just you?” he asks. Yep. She then tells him that she’s “traveling light,” a signal to her incarcerated father that the cash had been swiped. While trying to give her a pep talk, he says, “I’m right there with you… We will find a way just like always… we don’t lose.” Says the man in prison, she notes.
While Rand and her team watch more security footage, they notice a man named Dutch, who Rand tells us is a woman named Priscilla’s right hand. And according to their implications, Priscilla is a very dangerous woman. After her bus makes a lunch stop, Lucky hides out in between some tractor trailers, only an FBI agent finds her. The encounter leads to a cat-and-mouse chase scene, up, over, and through a collection of 18-wheelers, where our titular heist pro takes a hard tumble off the top of a truck. She’s eventually forced to her knees at gunpoint, until a large SUV slams into the agent. Before she knows it, Dutch is behind her and escorts her to the car. And that’s when we first meet Annette Bening’s infamous Priscilla.
A monstrous mother-in-law enters the chat
The mob woman asks right way: Where’s my money? Lucky says it’s not her money and from their first words, it’s crystal clear these women do not get along. Priscilla then asks where her son is, to which Lucky replies, “I don’t know.” Wrong answer! Cary’s mom doesn’t buy Lucky’s story about her son running away with the fortune, but Lucky assures her: She doesn’t have it.
Priscilla says that Lucky knows whose money it is, then makes a threat against Lucky and her father if the money isn’t recouped. The car slows down and Dutch pulls her out of the vehicle. He and another goon tie her hands together and throw her in the trunk of a sedan. The orders: “Take her back to the house.”
Using a lighter, Lucky snaps the plastic ties that bind her wrists. With her hands now free, she finds a flat-head screwdriver and sneaks into the car’s cabin. She sparks a flare and throws it in the front seat, setting the driver ablaze. As the car swerves all over the road, she evades gunshots until the car eventually rolls over. She pulls herself free, only the passenger-side ruffian throws her to the ground and begins to pummel her. Soon he’s on top of her, choking her and smashing her head onto the ground. But using the screwdriver that’s hidden in her back pocket, she stabs the guy squarely in the temple.
She passes out, dead man on top of her, only to be woken by a flashback of her father screaming, “Wake up!” She cops the dead guy’s cash, drags his body into the capsized car, and sets it ablaze. In the last shot, she begins her trek through the desert, as the car burns, burns, burns behind her.
So, tell us: Are you locked in on “Lucky”? Grade the episode below, then drop some comments!
