TNT's Animal Kingdom follows high schooler J Cody (Finn Cole) navigating life with his estranged criminal family after his mother's overdose. The Codys' expertise is robberies. While the jobs are often masterminded by their matriarch Smurf (Ellen Barkin), the Cody men do the dirty work. And given the heists' high-risk nature, it makes for plenty of suspenseful and heart-pounding moments. However, one of the show's most terrifying scenes doesn't occur on the job; it happens at home when Smurf returns from her prison stint in Season 3.
Before Baz's (Scott Speedman) shooting in the Season 2 finale, he framed his adoptive mother for murder after discovering her secret storage unit filled with cash and jewelry. While Smurf ultimately enacted her revenge, getting out of prison proved more difficult. Detective Pearce (Gil Birmingham) had it out for the Cody family and wanted to keep the matriarch locked up at all costs. Although Smurf continued to run things from behind bars, the boys took advantage of her vulnerability. Come Season 3, Episode 8, "Incoming," Smurf returns home to an empty house and discovers the boys have been running jobs behind her back and using her properties to launder the money she hasn't gotten a cut from. On top of that, some of her properties have been stolen and sold, which she suspects links back to J.
To put it bluntly, Smurf is pissed. However, she decides to have a family dinner. Not knowing she got out of prison, the Codys are surprised to find her in the kitchen. Smurf immediately switches on manipulation mode and turns to Craig (Ben Robson), saying, "Give your mommy a hug." Underneath the hugs and kisses, Smurf's anger simmers just below the surface. It is most apparent when she embraces J, scowling behind his back despite saying, "It's good to hold you again, baby."
Her boys -- and Animal Kingdom fans -- know Smurf too well to think she'll let their betrayals go. As such, the reunion scene keeps the audience on edge, wondering how Smurf will handle what she sees as a betrayal and lack of disrespect. After all, she didn't hesitate to take out Baz, her own adopted child. The other Cody boys might be blood, but it doesn't necessarily mean that alone will keep them safe. Therefore, it contributes to the scene's uncomfortableness, making the tension in the air almost palatable as the Cody boys prepare to face Smurf's wrath.
However, Smurf doesn't unleash her anger at that moment. While she's unhappy Craig didn't really visit her in prison and that Deran (Jake Weary) didn't come to dinner at all, she deals with that later. The same can be said for J, who she suspects of taking her properties with his Power of Attorney, and Pope (Shawn Hatosy), who's suspicious of her involvement in Baz's death. But as Smurf swaps her ruthless crime boss role for domestic goddess and loving mother, it's like putting on a mask akin to a horror villain. Fans know Smurf has something up her sleeve, which builds terrifying suspense as they wonder what exactly she has in mind.
Overall, it perfectly exemplifies Smurf's character. As Executive Producer Jonathan Lisco said in a behind-the-scenes table read, "In a nutshell, Animal Kindom is really about a powerful, perverse matriarch who has an incestuous hold over her four dangerous boys." While Smurf was in prison, the Cody boys got a taste of freedom, but they were sucked back into her orbit and held there by fear when she returned. With Lisco's quote in mind, Season 3's reunion moment is terrifying for precisely those reasons. Audiences get to see Smurf use that incestuous hold -- the hugs and kisses -- to lull her boys into fragile security as she calculates her next move.