Jeremy Renner's Mayor Of Kingstown Character Faced A Major Tragedy In Season 3's Premiere, But I Think It Could Change Him For The Better

Major spoilers of Mayor of Kingstown’s Season 3 premiere are ahead. If you aren’t caught up, you can stream the show with a Paramount+ subscription and catch new episodes every Sunday per the 2024 TV schedule. 

Don’t get it twisted, Mayor of Kingstown is an incredibly violent show, and it always will be, as proven by the Season 3 premiere. However, following the tragic event revealed in Episode 1, I can’t help but wonder if Mike will be changed for the better and hope that he’ll seek out less violent ways to solve problems.

What Happened To Mike’s Family In Mayor Of Kingstown’s Season 3 Premiere

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In the first few scenes of Season 3, we quickly learn that Mike and Kyle’s mom Mariam died after being shot in the Season 2 finale that saw the downfall of Aidan Gillen’s Milo. We see Renner’s character going to his mom’s funeral with his brother, friends and colleagues, and then there’s an explosion, proving that there is still trouble in Kingstown.

Along with all this, new big bads are introduced and the corruption that runs through Kingstown’s prison system and the town is ever-present. So, as expected, violence is inevitable as the Mayor works to solve the problems and broker the power in this town.

However, the episode also featured tender moments between Mike and Kyle, and it’s clear that they are more rattled by all this than they have been when tragedy struck in the past. So, while obviously incredibly sad, I’m hoping this might be a catalyst for positive change.

I Really Hope This Makes Mike Go About His Life With More Caution

I think this tragedy paired with the birth of Mike’s nephew has the power to change him for the better. He’s always been fearless, reckless and really good at compartmentalizing trauma. I hope that this moment causes him to reach a breaking point so he can actually grieve the family members he’s lost and reconsider how he’s going about life.

Luckily, it seems like that’s going to happen (at least a little bit), because following his snow plow accident and his return to work, Renner told me this while talking about how his personal life impacted Mike and Kingstown:

The opening of the show is the death of Mike's mother, and the grieving of that, and then the explosion just to double down on it, and that is emotionally how I was kind of feeling inside anyway. Delicate, maybe a little broken, grieving perhaps, and that use that because it was kind of congruent with the narrative and it went throughout the storyline to all the other main players and their relationships with them and how that changes.

So, fingers crossed that as Mayor of Kingstown continues its third season Mike will become a bit gentler and more cautious as he continues to navigate the murky criminal waters in his hometown. Between losing her brother and mother as well as welcoming a new baby into the world, I hope he is driven to keep his family safe by not ending up in incredibly violent situations.

And while I’m sure that will still happen – I mean Kingstown is a classic Taylor Sheridan high-stakes drama – hopefully, it’s a bit less because the last thing I want to see is more death and destruction in Mike’s life. He deserves a bit of peace.