Smoke Recap ‘Manhood’: Stipachio

In the sixth episode of Apple TV+’s Smoke, Calderone, Esposito, Englehart, Burke, and ATF Special Agent Dawn Hudson team up.

Smoke Season 1 Episode 6 Recap and Review

When the two serial arsonists – serial killers – finally came face to face, it was at the end of a taut, tense episode that delivered on Smoke’s early promise. One had reached the end of the road, and had decided to spend his final moments torching the woman who gave him some kindness and hope inside her own warm, lovely, memory-filled home. The other had decided that the way forward as his marriage fell apart was to focus on his investigator persona. That final scene of Gudsen coming to the rescue was part a relief, part dark comedy, part chilling character moment, as the camera panned toward his very visible erection. Slowly, Smoke peeled the genial colleague mask, so that even when he was doing the work of the righteous, the doer remained the monster. 

But first, the one he hunted. Freddy Fasano’s brief encounter with Brenda Cephus, combined with the revelation of his final journey into the foster care system, felt like a cautionary tale on the danger of a little hope. For 11 years, Freddy did not miss a single day’s work at Coop’s. He was not exactly content with his lot in life there – he was setting fires and killing people – but it was a place that gave him an anchor, a place where he went to regularly, provided him with a steady income and most of what he needed to survive. When Brenda innocently planted the idea of becoming manager in his head, it gave Freddy direction, a purpose, a career goal. For a brief time, it cleared his head, and the fire settings stopped. He went to Brenda’s salon and experienced the kind of care and kindness that he probably has not experienced in a long time, if ever. 

Did Brenda really think he had a shot at becoming manager? She was a good person, all she probably wanted was to see him try, to help him see that there were possibilities that were open to him, that his life need not be confined as a crew member of a fast food chain. She had no idea of the darkness within Freddy, the darkness that he has carried since he was very young. 

Based on Gudsen’s investigation, Freddy was in 27 foster homes from the time he was a baby to the time he aged out of the system. Rejection was a common thread in his life, until his very last foster home, where he stayed for two and a half years, until he was 19 and needed to leave because the government was no longer going to pay for him. This house burnt down six months later and killed everyone inside – two adults, two teenagers, and two kids under the age of six. This was very likely Freddy’s first murder. 

When Freddy later came to Brenda’s house which he doused with gasoline, he spoke to her as though she were Mrs. Yolanda, his last foster mother. He spoke of how he did not ask for much, of his pain and confusion when he was asked to move out, the feeling that never really went away even after 25 years. Freddy’s loss of a home just when he thought he had finally found one created a wound that never really healed. His failed move toward management at Coop’s woke this deep anger within him, which created a loss, too, of the one place that had been a constant in his life for the past 11 years. It took all the strength he had to try and reach for that management post, and the rejection was the final rejection in a life that was filled with it. 

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Adina Porter were incredible in this scene. It reminded me of their salon scene back in episode two, but dialled way up, as Freddy processed his trauma with a container of gasoline on his hand, and Brenda, good, kind Brenda, still tried to talk to him despite her fear for her life.

Lee did the same thing earlier that day. As the only person at Coop’s who ever seemed to have at least a conversation with Freddy, it was to him that the new manager Dev turned to when Freddy, who had never previously missed work, did not come in for the day. At the very least, Dev wanted to know if Freddy was still alive. Lee called Freddy, and when Freddy asked him to meet him at the closed Paragon Park, Lee agreed.

The empty theme park was a good, atmospheric choice to set Freddy literally burning his ties to formal society – his Coop’s handbooks, his legal documents, bundles of cash he must have saved from all those years of working and living as simply as he did. It was a scene filled with some of Smoke’s best imagery, like Freddy sitting on an unmoving carousel, or walking past a haunted house with a painting of a man in a clown suit juggling fire, or that upside down shot of Freddy as he arrived alone. The way Freddy spoke of the Park, like a tour guide through its history, Lee got the impression that Freddy spent much time there when he was young. But no, Freddy only went to the Park once, for a whole day; it was a rare happy moment that he kept cherished in a tight box as bitterness grew within him.

When young Lee trashed talk work, he was simply letting off steam. Even when Freddy suggested that Lee kill Dev, to go to his house and burn him whilst he slept, Lee still thought it was a joke. But when Freddy recited Dev’s address and said he lived there with his mother and sister, Lee began to look at his friend differently. Lee remembered how an HR manager burned to death in his house the night before.

Dakota Daulby did great work as Lee, as he tried to get out of his freezing fear, with the slow realisation of what Freddy was and what could happen to him alone with him. With no threat, with just his presence and a second of sudden high pitched voice, Freddy got Lee to hand over his phone and his car keys. 

Freddy gave Lee directions on how to get to the bus stop and let him go, but he followed him as though reserving the right to change his mind. Those were tense and brilliantly shot moments as Lee walked unsteadily through the Park with Freddy behind him. He looked back once, twice, and Freddy was still there, a mere short distance away. The third time, Freddy was gone, and Lee broke into a run.

Gudsen got into Freddy’s trail soon after the Tillman murders. The Crawford investigators had already zeroed in on their suspect, Malcolm Allen Brewster, who was suing Roger Tillman’s wife for malpractice. But the moment Gudsen heard that the husband ran HR for a fast food chain, Coop’s, he knew he had his thread to follow. He had known from the start that the Milk Jug arsonist used fryer oil as accelerant and had long suspected that he worked at a fastfood place.

Gudsen got Freddy’s image off a surveillance camera from the convenience store where he purchased milk, and got his name from the corporate office at Coop’s. Dev at the Trolley Town Coop’s had no information on Freddy, though Gudsen violated his personal space and let some of that inner Dave out.

So far, we have seen three Gudsens – Dave the charmer, Chaos who is a firebug and a murderer, and the arson investigation in his book who is Dave but meaner, cooler, and more cared for and admired. It was notable that one of his fantasies in this episode after he found out that not only did his wife Ashley want a divorce but that she almost hoped for the release of his death was a doctor (via a nurse) wanting to keep him in the hospital for observation. The reality was that the hospital could not get him out of there fast enough because they needed the bed.

Gudsen told Harvey and Calderone that he was taking a recovery day and going home, but though he was clearly still injured from the vehicle crash, he was laser focused on finding Milk Jug alone. After a quick stop to look at evidence from the Tillman fire and child services, where he got the information on Freddy’s likely first murder by arson, his next stop was Freddy’s house. He broke in and searched it, and found accelerants in the closet already ready and bagged in black. In his trash, Gudsen found Brenda’s Tress for Success card.

Freddy, who was conflating Brenda with Mrs. Yolanda, looked ready to commit suicide by fire and take Brenda with him. Gudsen got there in time. He had his gun out, but when he realised that there was gasoline everywhere and that Freddy was holding a lighter, he ejected the clip, tossed the gun at Freddy, grabbed the nearby fire extinguisher, and used it to douse the fire from the lighter and subdue Freddy. 

And he laughed.

Gudsen had been unravelling, and the inner him that he had kept hidden all these years kept surfacing, sometimes, perhaps without him even noticing. And now the one person who believed in and supported Gudsen all these years knew with certainty that he was the D&C arsonist.

Ezra Esposito got the ball rolling. He showed up at Harvey’s office and declared that Gudsen was the arsonist. There were fires in and around Leighton and along Route 7, the same route Gudsen was on when he got into an accident. The fires stopped when his accident happened. Harvey, of course, dismissed it, but Calderone stepped in and stated calmly that Gudsen was the D&C arsonist.

Harvey initially dismissed all the admittedly thin evidence that was presented to him, even as he agreed to be a team player and join the informal investigative group that included Calderone, Ezra, Burke, and Special Agent Dawn Hudson of the ATF. Ezra had a list of attendees of the last three arson investigator conferences where there were a rash of arsons; Gudsen was on all three lists, along with two others, but he was the sole Chief Arson investigator. So far, they had identified seven real fires in Gudsen’s book that were based off real fires they believed he set. There was footage of Dave’s car driving past all the fires that were set along Route 7 the day before. The incendiary device Calderone found in a field was tested for DNA, but the sample was insufficient and the DNA was inconclusive.

Harvey was about to walk out of them when he heard from Dave’s recording the words ‘stipachio’ ice cream. That was when he knew. The Old Sully fire resulted in the death of a three-year-old boy and his grandmother. When Harvey interviewed the grandfather, he told him how the boy pronounced pistachio ‘stipachio’. He did not write that information anywhere. The only way Gudsen could have known that was if he were right there at the scene and overheard the boy say it.

Greg Kinnear has been doing solid work all season, but he really shined this episode as a good man who had to process betrayal and his own failure to see a serial arsonist and murderer who was right in front of him. His friend Dave Gudsen was responsible for a staggering 256 fires so far. His daughter tried to comfort him, but there was no comfort, not at this time, not with Harvey so convinced in all these years that Gudsen was a good man.

Chilling, tense, atmospheric, heartbreaking, and many times visually arresting, with some of the cast’s strongest work, ‘Manhood’ is Smoke’s best episode yet. It was packed without feeling overstuffed, it moved the story with the pacing remaining deliberate. With only three episodes left, let’s hope for a strong closing to the series.

Rating: A+

Strays 

🧑‍🚒Word of the episode: epiphany - a sudden perception or insight into the essential nature of something

🧑‍🚒Harvey was surprised that Gudsen did not call Calderone about the Crawford fire, a callback to the past episode when he specifically told Gudsen to fill Calderone in.

🧑‍🚒John Leguizamo’s Ezra Esposito, with his colourful language and his messy life, was a welcome addition to the cast. He injected a much needed burst of energy and vibrancy into the show.

🧑‍🚒Ezra: ‘Of course I got morals. My dck doesn’t. Hence the dualism that’s at the heart of mankind.’

🧑‍🚒Burke had patrol keeping an eye on Gudsen. 

🧑‍🚒So Calderone was not nervous that ATF was back in her life given that she previously lied to them?

🧑‍🚒Calderone’s brother Benji waited for her at her house to let her know that their mother was getting out of jail. Calderone did not take this news well. 

🧑‍🚒Just as Freddy only went to the theme park once, he also only went to the movies once.

🧑‍🚒Who was the guy Gudsen saw in the mirror?

You can access Recap Lab’s coverage of Smoke via this link.

Episode Title: Manhood

Episode Writers: Steven Hanna and Steve Harris

Episode Director: Dennis Lehane

Original Air Date: July 25, 2025

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