“Mayor of Kingstown” season 4 ending explained: Does Kyle get revenge?
- - “Mayor of Kingstown” season 4 ending explained: Does Kyle get revenge?
Randall ColburnDecember 29, 2025 at 1:07 AM
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Jeremy Parsons/Paramount+
Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky in the 'Mayor of Kingstown' season 4 finaleKey Points -
Mayor of Kingstown wrapped its fourth season on December 28.
The season finale finds Mike chasing down escaped prisoner Merle Callahan, an Aryan who murdered the wife of Mike's brother.
It also culminates in a gang war between the Crips and Colombians with no definitive winner.
Justice is served in the ugliest way possible during the Mayor of Kingstown's season 4 finale.
Blood and betrayals have come fast and furious this season. Mike (Jeremy Renner) orchestrated the arrest of Frank Moses (Lennie James) to help facilitate the release of his brother, Kyle (Taylor Handley), from prison. But Kyle is suicidal after his wife, Tracy (Nishi Munshi) is murdered by Callahan (Richard Brake), who was furious over Kyle's refusal to join the Aryans.
Meanwhile, Nina Hobbs (Edie Falco), the season's new warden, is collapsing under the weight of her debt to the Colombians, who've forced her into doing their dirty work.
The finale begins with the long-simmering gang war between the Crips and Colombians about to boil over, while Mike, Kyle, and Ian (Hugh Dillon) are determined to make Callahan pay for Tracy's murder. First, however, they need to survive the masked shooters that opened fire on them at the end of the penultimate episode.
Ready to break down the Mayor of Kingstown season 4 finale? Let's rock.
Does Kyle get revenge on Callahan?
Jeremy Parsons/Paramount+
Taylor Handley as Kyle McLusky in 'Mayor of Kingstown'
Kyle's had a hard season. An incarcerated cop behind bars, he's got a lot of targets on his back, and Mike's coziness with the Crips can only help him so much. Callahan spent much of season 4 trying to worm inside Kyle's head and lure him over to the Aryans in order to undercut Mike, but Kyle managed to resist his twisted siren song.
Tragically, his strength resulted in the murder of Tracy, whom Callahan killed upon escaping from prison. And though Kyle eventually gets his revenge, it's as ugly as it is satisfying.
After outflanking the gunmen sent to kill them at the diner, Mike, Ian, and Kyle beat and torture one in order to ascertain Callahan's whereabouts. They don't get much, but it's clear that Callahan is still within the city limits. Mike and Ian vow to reach him before the local police can. In their eyes, he deserves old-school justice.
But Callahan, sensing their murderous intent, turns himself in to the police station. Ian tries to sneak him out back, but Captain Walter (Rob Kirkland) throws him in an interrogation room.
Walter, though, has come to a similar realization as his corrupt colleagues. "An evil man can never go right," he muses, acknowledging that prison isn't punishment for someone like Callahan. "F---ing hell is his home," he says. "Ain't nothing in our laws or philosophies to contain this."
He wipes his hands clean and turns to Ian, muttering, "He was never here." The captain then allows Ian to leave with Callahan after all, knowing full well he intends to kill him.
Thus, Ian brings Callahan to Mike at the railyard, ready to make him pay.
Who wins the gang war — the Crips or Colombians?
With the Russians vanquished from Kingstown at the end of season 3, several competing forces have worked to undermine the Crips for control of the city's underworld.
There was Detroit gangster Frank, who tried to take down Crip leader Bunny (Tobi Bamtefa) before Mike intervened. And then there are the Colombians, who have a terrifying ally in Cortez (Derek Rivera), a hitman with leverage on Hobbs.
Hobbs, we learned earlier in the season, is doing their bidding to protect her daughter, who's being threatened by the cartel. Her complicity has facilitated a drug smuggling operation through the prison that's lent them a foothold in Kingstown.
With Frank imprisoned, Bunny has aligned the Crips and Detroiters, giving him the manpower to "take out Bogotá" both inside the prison and outside of this. "End this s--- proper," he says.
As Bunny assembles his forces, he tasks Kevin (Denny Love), a prison guard and mole, to mobilize the Crips behind bars.
Hobbs has had the prison on lockdown to prevent an all-out battle between the gangs, but Mike convinces her to lift it. "Let it bleed and close it up and cauterize it," he says.
When the lockdown lifts, shivs fly and bodies fall. Kevin, who's spent the entire season fearing he'll be killed for his alliance with the Crips, is among the dead after he's knifed in the throat by a Colombian.
On the streets, Bunny ambushes the Colombians' headquarters, where they capture Cortez. Mike tells him to keep Cortez so they can find out who he reports to, but the hitman manages to escape, killing several Crips on his way out. It's very likely he'll return with a vengeance next season. Lest we forget, he previously told Mike that his associates are less interested in gang leaders like Bunny than they are "knights and rooks, mayors and kings."
So, while the Crips seem to have gained the upper hand, their dominance is not secured. Not only is Cortez still in the wind, but Frank could very well pull some strings behind bars to ensure they don't stay in power.
What happens at the end of Mayor of Kingstown season 4?
Jeremy Parsons/Paramount+
Hugh Dillon as Ian and Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky
Mike is waiting for Ian and Callahan at the railyard. There, Callahan mocks him, saying that killing him won't assuage Mike of his guilt. "You'll find new cause for nightmares, no doubt," he remarks.
But Mike doesn't plan on killing him. "You don't deserve my wrath," he says, and it's revealed that he summoned Kyle, who spent much of the episode in the ruins of the old McClusky house, which was burned down by Callahan and his allies. With Callahan in the wind, it seemed as if Kyle would pull the trigger on himself.
But Kyle arrives, shaking off Callahan's cracks about his wife's murder. "You're gonna wonder, wonder, wonder what I did to her," Callahan says with a grin.
A straight-faced Kyle unloads a round into Callahan's groin, sending him to his knees in shrieks of pain. When he puts his gun to Callahan's forehead, we see fear in his eyes for the first time. And with that, Kyle kills him, then unloads three more bullets into the body.
"It's over," Mike tells him. "You got him."
They walk across the tracks before Kyle breaks down, hugging Mike and sobbing into his arms.
Where can I watch Mayor of Kingstown?
Mayor of Kingstown is now streaming on Paramount+.
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