‘Mayor of Kingstown’: Tobi Bamtefa Reveals Bunny’s True Reaction to Frank’s Betrayal

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 Episode 7, “My Way.”]

Bunny Washington (Tobi Bamtefa) is back with a vengeance. After being shot in a surprise attack that looked to be orchestrated by the Colombians, the gangster has been hospitalized in a coma in critical condition. At the end of Sunday’s (December 7) new episode, though, Bunny awakes to demand justice against his attackers.

Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) tells him the cartel isn’t to blame for this hit; rather, it’s his ostensible new mentor, Frank Moses (Lennie James), who has planted Lamar (Zuri James) in his crew to orchestrate the near-deadly ambush.

Bunny will have to wait to get his pound of flesh from his supposed ally, however, because Mike is making a move to get his brother released by getting Frank thrown in prison, and only then can Bunny’s crew inside have their way with him.

Considering how little Mike has been able to do to protect Kyle, let alone Bunny, why does the latter agree to this? And how does Bunny feel about Frank’s betrayal? TV Insider caught up with Tobi Bamtefa to break it all down!

At the start of this season, Bunny’s got a different attitude, it seems, with Mike… Where are they at the start of this season? 

Tobi Bamtefa: So where they’re at is, I guess it could be Bunny’s fault that all of this is happening — but also not really because it was bound to happen regardless, simply because of how things ended in the previous season. Taking out the Russians, it left a massive power vacuum; as a result, that sent out a signal to everybody else. So whether Bunny acted or not, people would have come in anyway. I think Mike is cognizant of that. The only person who isn’t, maybe — he might be a tad naive — was Bunny in that he is very much, at this moment in the series, the big fish in this pond. However, there is a huge ocean, and I think Mike warns him in the previous season, “There are real monsters out there,” and Bunny’s kind of, like pretty much any young man, really, “All right, let’s see what they’ve got… Let me test it out. Yeah, let me see how much testosterone I got.” It’s like that. It’s growing pains, essentially, is what we’re seeing.

When Mike asks him to protect his brother, Bunny almost acts like Kyle is an extension of his family — or that Mike is, and thereby Kyle is — whereas in previous seasons, he might’ve hesitated. Do you agree with that? 

Bamtefa: Yeah, I mean, the hesitation would have been because, at that time, their relationship was just building. Bunny had a relationship with Mike’s older brother, Mitch [Kyle Chandler], who was killed in Season 1. Season 2 was really about them finding their feet, and I know a couple of times, Bunny kind of called him out on not acting properly, not acting in time, and stuff like that. So he kind of had to take matters into his own hands. But they found themselves, they found a groove. But the reason they were able to find a groove was because both of them have… It’s not really a softer side, but there is an intimacy with how they both see the world and what they want out of it, and they’re almost… I wanna call them reluctant gangsters, but, really, what it is is that they are just very hellbent on protecting people that they love. I think that’s their driving force, and I think that’s where they both meet and agree on, and so their relationship is built off of that. So Bunny’s relationship with Mike is perhaps more brotherly than it would have been with Mitch. With Mitch, it was probably just strictly business. Do you know what I mean?

Dennis P. Mong Jr. / Paramount +

What do you think it is that attracts Bunny to Frank? Is it that he’s avoided prison and that’s Bunny’s goal, or is there more to it? 

Bamtefa: I mean, Frank is Frank. Frank is O.G., and he’s been O.G. for I wanna say 20 plus years… He’s the boogeyman that everybody knows about, but there is just no proof, and he is in a position that Bunny wants to be in — not be in his position, but Bunny wants that position for himself, which is because that position allows him to, again, protect his family much better. If he quits all of this today, it’s not like he can go and get a job in some company… No one’s gonna give him a chance, and this is it. It’s do or die in this world. There is so much attached to this business that they’re in, that they’ve grown up in, that Frank is essentially the goal, in that sense, for people in that world. And yeah, Bunny just aspires to be there. He would just like to learn what the O.G. has to offer.

How do you think he really feels about him calling him Deverin all the time? It’s almost a little bit of a power move? It seems like he’s school teacher-ing him.

Bamtefa: It was kind of like a school teacher’s thing, but not quite, because, like I said, Mike is not quite in that world. Mike is the “mayor” of Kingstown, right? But he hasn’t been slinging all manner of drugs and weapons or whatever it is all across the nation. Mike doesn’t do that, so Frank calling Bunny by his first name… When I first heard it, in character, I definitely felt like, “Hm.” You know what I’m saying? And there’s a little bit of posturing going on here, I’m kinda like, “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but I know you’re O.G., so I’m gonna let that slide.” Do you know what I’m saying? It would be the equivalent of someone like Snoop Dogg calling me by my first name. I’m not gonna argue with him and be like, “You know what, sir? Nice to meet you. Thank you, Snoop. Thank you, Doctor Snoop. Thank you.” It’s kind of like that. So yeah, he calls me by my first name, it may grate my gears and stuff, but he’s O.G., so, OK, fine, we’re gonna let this one slide.

In Episode 7, when Bunny first wakes up, he summons Mike and he’s looking for revenge against the Colombians. How do you think it feels to him when he finds out that it’s Frank that’s done this to him?

Bamtefa: The real surprise is not, perhaps, that it was Frank because I don’t think Bunny ever really fully trusted him anyway. In the previous episode, Mike and Bunny had a conversation about this, and Bunny assured Mike that he’s not going in this with his eyes closed. He’s very aware of what Mike is, of what Frank is capable of, and all of that stuff, so I guess what the real surprise is, is just how close Frank got to Bunny, despite Bunny even not trusting him. Frank and Bunny had a conversation at the railroad in [Episode 4] when Frank asks Bunny, “Do you trust me yet?” and Bunny says, “60%.” So it’s like, it’s just over half, but it’s not enough to be like, “Hey Pops.” You know what I’m saying? It’s not like that. So I think that the real surprise — well, how I envisioned it anyway — was that Frank got really close, and that was Bunny’s bad. He got way too close.

Dennis P. Mong Jr. / Paramount+

And it’s Mike’s bad in a way, right? So I gotta ask, why does he trust Mike to postpone his vengeance plan so that he can help his brother with this legal option? I mean, it just seems like Mike’s been so ineffective this season. I just wonder why Bunny trusts him, or does he have doubts? 

Bamtefa: Because Mike always pulls through at the end — always, always pulls through. There’s always a bit of a negotiation when it comes to things like that, but ultimately, Bunny is often forced to trust that maybe Mike perhaps has a much wider perspective than Bunny does, simply by proximity. He has the police on hand, he has the detectives on hand, and he has the legal side of it, [since] he had, at the time, Evelyn Foley [Necar Zadegan]. So that is an advantage that isn’t afforded to somebody like Bunny. Bunny has to go about getting that kind of information through various other means that aren’t necessarily as established. They’re a bit rocky. So yeah, Bunny, as the character, how I envisioned it, Bunny recognizes that advantage and is often soothed into just trusting that Mike perhaps has a bigger view of it and then taking advantage of that bigger view. It’s like that.

I wanted to back up just a little bit to the scene where Bunny’s sister was giving this beautiful monologue at his bedside. For you, what was it like to hear that, to find out how much she genuinely cared about the guy? It wasn’t just a transactional relationship.

Bamtefa: I mean, that was a very beautiful moment. Shoutout to Khalilah Joi, who played Bunny’s sister Whitney. It was very affirming. And I know this because I have women in my life who pray for me like that also. I’ve been in positions where I’ve been in hospital and stuff like that, and the women in my life have prayed for me in that way. They’ve held my hand, and they’ve prayed life into me, and so it just felt very familiar for me, and it was just lovely.

What do you think fans should prepare themselves for in these final episodes to follow Bunny’s revival? 

Bamtefa: I’ll say this: Listen, if you ain’t got seatbelts on your sofa, you probably should try to get that fitted in as soon as possible, because it is crazy.

Mayor of Kingstown, Sundays, Paramount+