Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘The Instigators’ follows the story of two men who become part of a heist, which ends up changing everything for them. Rory is an ex-Marine who has been through a divorce and is trying to be there for his son but needs the money to show that he has something to offer. Cobby, on the other hand, has been to prison for a crime he didn’t commit and is dealing with a personal loss that has made him hopeless about the world, but not hopeless enough not to care about the money he could receive to change his life for the better. What should have been an easy in, easy out kind of thing turns into something completely different, and Rory and Cobby are chased by cops and hitmen while they try to make sense of their situation. SPOILERS AHEAD
What Happens to the Money?
In a heist, it is always about the money, but things take quite a few twists and turns in ‘The Instigators.’ The money that Rory and Cobby were supposed to steal from Mayor Miccelli leaves before they arrive, and the heist takes a different turn when Scalvo decides to take anything he can get his hands on, including from the Mayor himself. Soon enough, Rory and Cobby realize that this is not the only hoard of cash that the Mayor had been holding on to. The cash they targeted was what would come to the Mayor following his win (which didn’t happen). But that is nothing compared to the cash and millions of dollars that the Mayor has received in bribes and other corrupt activities over the years. Cobby believes that getting that money would solve all their problems, but it only paves the way for more problems.
While Rory and Cobby get their hands on the cash in the Mayor’s vault, they are forced to throw it down the building in a bid to make an escape route for themselves. The money attracts the crowd gathered outside the building, which causes enough chaos for Rory and Cobby to sneak out dressed as firemen. Still, not all is lost. Cobby hides some of the money inside the boots, but then, they are arrested, the boots are given back to the fire department, and the money is taken away by the government.
The only other way the duo could salvage the situation was through the hard drives in the Mayor’s vault, which is instantly surrendered by Alan, who hopes to save himself by showing that he was cooperative from the beginning. The two hard drives contain every proof of corruption against Miccelli, along with the key to millions of dollars. Cobby tries to use the hard drives to make a deal with Frank Toomey, but the officer arrests them instead, and the hard drives go to the prosecution. And with that goes away every penny they could have squeezed out of the two heists. At the end of the movie, they are back at square one with no money.
Why are Rory and Cobby Let Go?
After wreaking havoc on the city of Boston for a couple of days, it makes sense that Rory and Cobby would be sent away for quite a few years. They have committed all sorts of crimes—stealing, kidnapping, and arson, among other things. When they are finally caught, they both accept their fate; it’ll be years before they walk free again. But then, the very next day, they find themselves being sent out in the world with no charges levied against them. They are both surprised about it, but not shocked, at least, Cobby is not.
What happened here is that putting Cobby and Rory on trial would have meant them talking about the hard drives. They would have tried to use them as leverage to get reduced sentences, at least. It would have ensured the downfall of Mayor Miccelli, but it would also mean that the millions of dollars worth of those hard drives would go to the federal vault. The new mayor, Mark Choi’s advisor, tells him that if they drop the case against Rory and Cobby and they don’t have to show up at a trial, they will never talk about the hard drives. While this means that the case against Mayor Miccelli will be a bit harder to crack, it also means that the millions of dollars they would’ve been giving away would not belong to them. He asks what they should do about it, and Choi’s choice is clear.
Mark Choi had been an underdog in the candidacy against Mayor Miccelli. Some people were so confident about Miccelli winning that they bet everything they had on it. Besegai planned a heist because he knew the money that would pour in when Miccelli became mayor again, and even though Rory and Cobby asked him what would happen if he didn’t win, Besegai struck down their arguments as implausible. And yet, the tables turned, and Choi won, mainly because the tide had turned against Miccelli for his corrupt practices while in office.
But it turns out that his replacement isn’t as morally abiding as imagined by his voters. When posed with the choice between ensuring justice and getting millions of dollars for himself, he chooses the latter. While this would be sad news to his voters, it is great news for Rory and Cobby, who discover that the charges against them have been dropped. Essentially, everything that happened in the past couple of days has been erased, and they don’t have to revisit those events again. Their criminal history is clean, or at least nothing new has been added to it, and they can go about their lives as normal.
What Happens to Mayor Miccelli and Alan?
One of the things that we know about Mayor Miccelli is that he is an inherently corrupt man. In the several years he spent in the mayoral office, he has indulged in all sorts of corrupt practices, which has brought him loads of money. He had expected to win again, but then Mark Choi came along, and Miccelli found himself in a very difficult situation. Even as it became clear that he was going to lose, he refused to concede because this would mean moving out of office and letting Choi in. The first thing that the new mayor would do is look into Miccelli’s practices, and it wouldn’t need a lot of digging to see the mess Miccelli had made. He tells his staff as much as he can, stating that one look at the books would give Choi all the arsenal he needs to build a case against Miccelli.
While he had been trying to deal with this problem, another arises when some robbers show up and force him to give up his bracelet, which, unbeknownst to them, contains the codes to the vault, which has all the money Miccelli made while in office. Miccelli had planned to clear the vault before leaving office, but with the codes gone, he is left in a lurch. This is much more harmful to him because the existence of the vault proves beyond a doubt that he has been indulged in corruption. Moreover, the documents inside it will also prove damaging to him, and he will end up getting a sentence that will ensure that he is never free again.
When Cobby and Rory throw his vault down, the money is all but gone. While it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get it back, the vault has been in view of the whole world, and there is no way Miccelli and his lawyers can work a way around it. In a twist of fate, the hard drives that would have proved most damaging to him are removed from the scene, which gives Miccelli some hope. However, he is still bound to go to prison due to the shady nature of his books. All this, combined, is proof enough of his guilt. In the end, when Miccelli is on his way to Canada, along with Alan, hoping to evade the authorities and prison, he is found by the cops and arrested, proving that the time has come for him to answer for his crimes.
Do Cobby and Dr. Rivera End Up Together?
While they get into all sorts of trouble due to the heist, Cobby retains his sarcasm and sense of humor, which brings much-needed levity to his situation. In between all this, he crosses paths with Rory’s psychiatrist, Dr. Rivera, whom he takes a liking to. In the beginning, he teases her with her usual humor, but slowly, he warms up to her and even asks her if she would like to have coffee with him later. She rebuffs his proposal and doesn’t pay him much attention, at least in the beginning. Slowly, however, she, too, warms up to him and even helps him and Rory evade the authorities when she realizes that they will most likely be killed.
In the end, despite all things going wrong in both heists, Rory and Cobby walk out free and get another chance at life. While Rory leaves to meet his son at his hockey match, Cobby is seen sitting outside Dr. Rivera’s house. Instead of telling him to leave, she sits down next to him and tells him he is loitering. He tells her she can call the cops, but it’s clear that she is not going to do so. Does this mean that she has changed her mind about that coffee date Cobby talked about earlier? It is likely. Despite their circumstances, there was a strange chemistry between her and Cobby right from the start, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they went on a few dates to explore things between them.
Another possibility is that Cobby has sought her out because he wants to have his issues resolved. Earlier in the film, he asked her to figure him out. He was teasing her then, but later, having spent some time in his vicinity, she sees through him and tells him as much. Perhaps this convinces him to see the issues that he has been ignoring for so long, and he finally decides to get much-needed help. So, he shows up at her door, hoping that she will take him on as a client and help him as she helped Rory.
Read More: The Instigators: Is the Apple TV+ Movie Inspired by Real Events?
