Mayor of Kingstown season 4 episode 4 ending explained: What does Mike discover about Ad Seg and Kyle's safety?

Though Mayor of Kingstown season 4 is well underway, episode 4 makes it clearer than ever that the uneasy peace Mike McLusky once maintained is slipping out of reach. Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon’s crime drama pushes things to a breaking point this season. Inside Anchor Bay Prison, a new leadership structure is quietly rewriting the rules, while outside the walls, cartel forces and street alliances continue to shift beneath Mike’s feet. 

In Episode 4, with Kyle trapped inside Ad Seg and Mike relying on limited, dangerous intel, the hour becomes a turning point for the season’s central theme. Mike’s authority is fading faster than he can respond.

Mike faces a new power struggle inside Ad Seg

The heart of Mayor of Kingstown season 4 episode 4’s ending, and the concern driving Mike’s every move, is the discovery of who’s really sitting inside Ad Seg with Kyle. For weeks, Mike has operated under the assumption that his brother was isolated and protected from the men who might want revenge on the McLusky name. Instead, Cindy’s late-night call shatters whatever peace he had left. Her reveal that Merle Callahan, a high-ranking Aryan figure with a personal vendetta, is locked in the cell beside Kyle shifts the episode into its most unsettling beat.

What makes it devastating isn’t simply Callahan’s presence, but how long he has been there, and how quietly Warden Hobbs concealed it. Mike asked her directly about Callahan’s location in episode 1. She lied. Now, it’s clear she didn’t just mislead him; she deliberately positioned someone who could manipulate Kyle from the inside. Callahan’s attempts to get Kyle dependent on pills hint at a deeper play, something aimed at weakening both brothers while giving Hobbs and Torres the freedom to run Ad Seg on their own terms.

In earlier seasons, he had eyes everywhere, guards he trusted, favors owed, alliances he could activate with a phone call. Whereas Episode 4 of Mayor of Kingstown season 4 proves he no longer knows what’s happening just a few feet from his own brother. Cindy may be the only reliable source left, and even she has limits. If Mike pushes too hard, he risks exposing her and losing the last thread connecting him to Anchor Bay’s real operations.

Recap of Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 Episode 4

Episode 4 of Mayor of Kingstown season 4 begins with Mike finally catching a brief moment of calm, something resembling normalcy, before Ian yanks him back into the chaos with news of the overnight assault on a Colombian safehouse. The house is packed with weapons, ammo, and enough supplies to outfit a small battalion. The cartel isn’t just defending turf; they’re preparing for a full-scale war. Mike presses Moses for answers, and while Moses insists he’s bringing in extra muscle from Detroit to keep the peace, his calm demeanor raises more questions than it answers. 

Back in prison, Bunny’s frustration reaches a breaking point. He’s done watching the Colombians chip away at his crew, so he calls Rafa and orders an in-prison counterpunch. The attack, swift and brutal, leaves Roberto Cruz bleeding in the yard. But instead of restoring balance, it hands Warden Hobbs exactly what she needs to punish Bunny’s side while letting the cartel walk free. She locks Rafa down, gives the Colombians a symbolic slap on the wrist, and quietly reinforces that Anchor Bay now operates under her own rules. The implications are clear: anyone connected to Mike will suffer, while anyone connected to the cartel will thrive.

Outside the penitentiary, Tracy wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of her car alarm, only to find someone has broken into her vehicle and tampered with her home. Mike immediately links the intrusion to Will Breen, the guard who previously threatened her, and orders Ian to post uniforms outside the house. It’s a bandage on a bullet wound. Tracy is terrified, Kyle is isolated, and Mike is stuck trying to hold everything together with fewer allies every day.

Meanwhile, Ian spirals further into damage-control mode. With Evelyn pushing forward on her investigation into Morrissey’s death and showing Mike the footage she secured, Ian panics. His solution, dropping a brick on her car from an overpass, is reckless even by his standards. He insists it was meant to scare her, not kill her, but the near-fatal crash proves how desperate he’s become. Evelyn, however, is unmoved. She’s sharper than anyone gives her credit for, and her claim that she has a witness placing Ian at the scene feels intentionally timed to rattle him. Mike senses something is wrong, but can’t afford another internal war. With Ian lying to him and Stevie caught in the middle, the circle that once held Kingstown’s fragile order is splintering fast.

Inside Anchor Bay, Kevin Jackson manages one major win: he discovers that the fueling trucks are the pipeline for the cartel’s drug supply. More importantly, he finds evidence that Deputy Torres is actively involved. Whether Warden Hobbs is complicit or simply turning a blind eye is still unclear, but the picture is forming. Ad Seg is no longer just a segregation unit; it’s a marketplace and power zone controlled by Hobbs, Torres, and their chosen allies. Mike tells Kevin to dig deeper, planning to either seize the next shipment or use it as leverage to force a reckoning inside the prison.

And then comes the final, devastating blow.

Cindy, who has quietly become Mike’s only reliable source inside Anchor Bay, calls with information he’s been begging for since episode 1. There are thirteen men in Ad Seg. One of them is Merle Callahan. The same Merle Callahan Mike asked about. The same man Hobbs lied about. The same man is currently whispering into Kyle’s ear from the cell next door.

The realization lands like a punch. Kyle isn’t protected; he’s being targeted. And Mike has been outplayed from the inside. Mike’s fury in those last moments of the latest episode of Mayor of Kingstown season 4 says everything. He doesn’t just fear for his brother; he finally understands just how far from the center of power he’s fallen.