The fourth season of concludes not with peace, but with a weary pause. In the finale episode “Belly of the Beast,” the McLusky brothers achieve a long-sought, violent closure, while the power structures of the corrupt town shift, ensuring the underlying conflict is far from over.
The episode, which premiered on December 28, 2025, on Paramount+, delivers the intense, bloody confrontation fans expected. It brings a decisive end to one major storyline but deliberately leaves several others simmering, pointing toward an uncertain future for Mike, Kyle, and everyone caught in Kingstown’s crossfire.
What Happens in the Season 4 Finale?
The action picks up immediately from the previous episode’s cliffhanger at Don’s Diner. Three gunmen in full riot gear open fire on Mike, Kyle, Ian, and Stevie. While Mike and Ian manage to kill two attackers, Kyle tackles the third. The captured shooter is revealed to be Billy, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and a known associate of Merle Callahan. This confirms that Callahan, the man who murdered Kyle’s wife Tracy, never left Kingstown and is orchestrating the attack.
Mike interrogates Billy but gets little information before deciding to execute him, eliminating a direct threat. Meanwhile, Kyle is consumed by a singular, destructive focus on avenging Tracy, even retrieving his father’s old service revolver—a move hinting at potential self-destruction.
Concurrently, the pressure inside Anchor Bay Prison reaches a breaking point. Both Mike and the Colombian cartel’s enforcer, Cortez, pressure Warden Nina Hobbs to lift the ongoing lockdown. She complies, knowing it will unleash a riot. As gangs clash, prison guard Kevin Jackson—Bunny’s inside man—is discovered and brutally killed by the cartel’s man, Roberto Cruz, in the infirmary.
Outside the walls, Bunny Washington, now aligned with forces from Detroit following Moses’s arrest, launches an assault on the Colombians’ safehouse. His men capture Cortez, but the cunning sicario manages to escape, killing his captors and vanishing.
Kyle’s Confrontation With Merle Callahan Explained
The season’s central conflict reaches its climax when Merle Callahan, believing he will be safer in the prison system, turns himself in at the Kingstown Police Department. However, Captain Walter, declaring that “an evil man can never go right,” effectively hands Callahan over to Ian, who delivers him to the McLuskys at a secluded rail yard.
Mike arrives, expecting to be the one to pull the trigger. Instead, Kyle steps forward. Callahan attempts to taunt him, making vile insinuations about Tracy’s death. Kyle, showing a chilling calm, does not give him a quick end. He first shoots Callahan, making him suffer, before finally killing him with a shot to the head.
“Kyle doesn’t bite. He sees Callahan clearly now, not powerful, not feared, just cruel.”
The act is framed not as a moment of blind rage, but as a necessary step for closure. Mike is there to comfort his brother afterward, and together—with Ian’s help—they dispose of the body, ensuring Callahan disappears without a trace.
Key Character Fates and Unresolved Plots
The finale ties up one major thread but leaves numerous others dangling, highlighting the perpetual instability of Kingstown.
- Kyle McLusky: He achieves his revenge but is left facing an empty future. He must now decide whether to stay in Kingstown to raise his infant son amid the violence or attempt to leave and break the cycle.
- Mike McLusky: He remains trapped as the fixer of a town that constantly resists control. Callahan’s death removes one ghost from his past, but his position is as precarious as ever.
- Nina Hobbs: The warden is deeper in the cartel’s grip than ever, compelled to follow their orders under threat to her daughter. Her moral compromise is complete.
- Bunny Washington: With Moses out of the picture, Bunny’s power has expanded, claiming influence from Kingstown to Detroit. However, his failure to contain Cortez presents a direct and lethal threat.
- Cortez: His escape is one of the finale’s most significant developments. A patient, skilled, and ruthless enemy is now loose, guaranteeing continued conflict with Bunny and posing a major threat to Mike and Hobbs.
- Unaddressed Stories: Notably absent from the finale is Frank Moses, whose fate after his arrest is unknown. The status of Raphael after the prison riot is also left unclear, and Ian’s potential lottery win is a forgotten subplot.
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The Final Verdict on Season 4’s Ending
The Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 finale provides a cathartic, if grim, resolution to the season’s primary revenge story. The death of Merle Callahan offers the McLusky brothers a chance to rebuild their relationship and allows Kyle a path forward through his grief.
However, the episode makes no pretenses about a happy ending. As one recap notes, “Kingstown’s peace is like duct tape on a sinking boat”. The survival of Cortez, the unresolved cartel tensions, Hobbs’s compromised position, and Bunny’s rising power all ensure that the war for control of the town is merely on hold.
The season ends with the brothers alive and together, but with Kingstown’s relentless engine of violence merely idling, waiting for the next spark to ignite.
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