Cormac recruits allies against Mickey

Cormac MacKay’s recruitment campaign against Mickey MacFarland turns a private claim to leadership into the beginnings of a clandestine coalition. Rather than call the family to open war, Cormac seeks individual assurances: allies must be ready to back him when he acts, or at minimum refuse to help Mickey against him. Their support gives him a foothold, but its cautious terms expose how thoroughly fear has fractured the organization.

Background and Stakes

The campaign begins after Cormac and Scarlet O’Bannon return to New York. For two days, they have stayed at Moira’s penthouse, where the arrangement seems safe for the moment, and spent much of their time together before agreeing that they needed to return to work. Their temporary refuge is also a reminder that safety is uncertain: a congressman has come to stay with Moira, and Cormac expects him to leave the following day. With the pair’s investigations underway, Cormac turns to the political and personal work of finding allies.

The immediate obstacle is not simply Mickey’s possession of power, but the force behind it. Patrick O’Hara explains that Mickey arrived with men recruited from across different states, including homeless men, ex-soldiers, and construction workers. The account suggests that Mickey had been assembling this personal force for years as part of his bid to become Don. He has numbers on his side, while many members have wives, children, and other reasons to avoid a conflict unless they believe there is a compelling reason to join it. The murder of Cormac’s father has not, by itself, made those members willing to risk war.

Recruiting Patrick O’Hara

Cormac first approaches Patrick at the docks. He is tense about meeting someone he has known since childhood, despite believing that Patrick was one of his father’s closest friends and allies and would not have joined Mickey. Patrick’s welcome is physical and immediate: he embraces Cormac and expresses disgust at what has been done to his father. That reception confirms their personal bond, but Patrick’s explanation soon makes clear that affection and outrage do not automatically translate into collective action.

When Patrick describes the scale of Mickey’s backing and the family’s suspicion, Cormac reacts angrily. He challenges the idea that killing the Don and taking over the family could fail to count as sufficient cause for resistance. Yet he also sees Patrick’s fear and lowers his voice rather than treating the older man’s caution as betrayal. He asks Patrick to be ready to support him when he makes his move, whether that means acting against one of Mickey’s men or simply refusing an order to shoot Cormac. The appeal rests on both inherited loyalty to Cormac’s father and the affection Cormac himself feels for Patrick. Patrick agrees to wait and be ready, giving Cormac his first explicit promise of support.

A Cautious Network

The next day, Cormac meets Smiley in a downtown bar called Lit, chosen for being quiet, out of the way, and unfamiliar territory to people who might recognize him. Smiley arrives visibly uneasy. Although Cormac has seen him fight men much larger than himself without hesitation, Smiley is now anxious about becoming involved in undercover work or anything that could endanger his pregnant wife, Sheila. His circumstances place a limit on what Cormac can ask of him: the request is not to spy or take immediate action, but to choose a side if the confrontation comes.

Smiley also gives Cormac a reason to see Mickey’s rule as more than a power struggle. He recalls Mickey abusing a young child at a bar after a barmaid rejected his advances, and says that Mickey’s surrounding men worship him. Cormac asks only for a promise to support him rather than Mickey if events turn against them. Smiley agrees. The exchange makes the recruitment effort depend on trust and restraint: Cormac does not demand that a man with a family put himself in danger before the need arises.

Cormac also meets Trevor, Dylan, and Liam behind a school during recess, using the bike shed as a place Mickey would not think to search. They describe Mickey’s treatment of a woman in public and the lethal response of one of his men when her partner intervened. Their stories add to the picture of a regime protected by intimidation and violence. All three agree either to help Cormac if the dispute comes to a head or, at least, not to shoot at him.

Over the following days, Cormac persuades seven more men to join his side. He returns exhausted each evening, aware that any recruit might betray the conversations to Mickey in hopes of winning favor. Still, he reads affection for his father in the men’s eyes. Their pledges are not proof that a rebellion is secure: some have promised active help, while others have offered only non-opposition. But together they give Cormac an initial base assembled through remembered loyalty and shared disgust, rather than through control of Mickey’s numbers.

The Cost of Building Support

The campaign leaves Cormac carrying both the work of organizing and the burden of what it may demand. After returning to the penthouse one late afternoon, he sits on the edge of his bed, head aching, and is frightened that he may cry. He tells himself that he must be strong because a Don has to be strong. Scarlet enters with a playful expression, but it falters when she sees his distress and asks whether he is all right. The contrast brings the strain of the campaign into view: Cormac is trying to become a leader capable of facing Mickey, even as the uncertainty of each promise and the weight of succession threaten to overwhelm him. The recruitment has begun to transform his claim into a coalition, but it has not yet resolved whether those allies will stand with him when the danger becomes immediate.