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91 Days
Episode 10

by Gabriella Ekens,

How would you rate episode 10 of
91 Days ?
Community score: 4.6

At first I was surprised to see Corteo alive and well without much fanfare. But when the show transitioned into an idyllic recollection of their childhood friendship, complete with Avilio smiling in a way that doesn't make him look like he just stabbed someone for fun, I knew that this was the end for our bootlegger cinnamon roll.

Following the revelation that Uncle Ganza was the secret scribe behind the letter, Avilio makes a deal with him in exchange for the opportunity to abscond with Corteo. For as drawn out as this mystery was, Ganza's motives are pretty banal – he wants to be head of the family because of the money and booze and girls. He wrote to Avilio on the long shot that the kid would drop everything to murder some bros, and the gamble paid off. Ganza's deal is so boring that it'd be a disappointment if that weren't the whole point. Avilio was played for the same old reason as most gangsters – some other guy wanted more. It's almost like the show is calling the ruthless pursuit of power a bad thing. It's no coincidence that this is revealed during the episode when Avilio finally drops his infatuation with gangster power brokerage, discovering that he's now lost something much more valuable by playing with fire.

To hide out, Avilio takes Corteo back to that apartment he rented at the beginning of the series. Upon seeing the sheer squalor of Avilio's previous circumstances, Corteo finally understands the depths of his friend's sorrow and desperation. Living together for a few days reignites their previous friendship, which easily slips back into its previous childhood intimacy. Unfortunately, it can't last. Avilio refuses to run out on the Vanettis, so he's soon implicated in helping Corteo escape. The Vanettis have him pinned as a traitor until Corteo himself rushes in to deny any involvement on Avilio's part. When Avilio's back was against the wall, Ganza called Corteo to rush over and sacrifice himself, and Corteo took up the offer.

So Avilio is forced to execute Corteo to clear his name with the Vanettis, as Corteo submits willingly to death at his best friend's hand. Remorsefully, Avilio complies, at last aware of everything Corteo has sacrificed for him. Strangely, this murder is Avilio's way of choosing Corteo's side in this moral quagmire, since the options at that point were for either one or both of them to die. In the end, Corteo's motivation was to save his friend from this ridiculous place, and he's succeeded in that Avilio won't be tempted to stick around any more. For a while, it looked like Avilio might abandon his revenge to embrace his newfound mob authority. But now he's back on track to killing Nero and Vincent – and probably Ganzo, now that he pushed Corteo into his own death. While Avilio's methods are hardly laudable, this will do some good by stopping the institution terrorizing this small town. It's too late for Avilio to turn his back on the path of violence, but at least he can eliminate the instigators behind this bloody tragedy. He's using all of their methods against them in the pursuit of mutual destruction now, rather than his own aggrandizement. If it results in the biggest bloodbath yet, so be it. It's not like he started all this.

Avilio has had a character arc, albeit one that's played out obliquely. He's grown from wanting revenge against the individuals who personally wronged him into an embodiment of karmic retribution against gangsterism as a whole. At least, that's how I see it. This idea will need to be substantiated by subsequent episodes, but it feels like the emphasis has shifted from “you hurt me, here's payback” to “here's what it feels like to be on the receiving end of what you do to the world.” I'd hesitate to call Avilio a good person after all he's done, but he is now, at the very least, on the side of justice in his reaffirmed desire to end rather than abet the Vanettis. It's only a shade or two of difference in this morass of moral greyness, but I'd say that it counts as his redemption because he's become a character that I can root for, at least relative to the other shamelessly destructive weasels. He's a beast, but one that the Vanettis unleashed upon themselves. Now that he has nothing left to lose, they have no idea what they're in for.

Corteo's motivations were also somewhat oblique as usual, but not hard to suss out with some inference. He made this choice for the same reason he sold out to Fango – he felt responsible for his involvement in the Vanetti family's rise to power and was willing to try to undo it at his own expense. That previous experience kind of broke him, so he decided to die in order to ensure that Avilio wipe them out. It would be some Machiavellian manipulation if Corteo weren't such a sweetheart. In this tragedy of bros, Corteo was just too good for this bro-ken world. I wish you could see him again in the afterlife, Avilio, but you're probably not making it into heaven.

Grade: B+

91 Days is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.


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