‘The Westies’ Episode 5 Release Date and Time
Fans of MGM+’s gritty new gangster saga are circling their calendars again, because ‘The Westies‘ is rolling right along with its weekly rollout. The Irish gang drama set in 1980s Hell’s Kitchen has been building serious momentum, and episode 5 is shaping up to be another tense chapter in Jimmy Roarke’s rise through the criminal underworld.
If you have been keeping up with the show’s twisty mob politics, you already know the stakes keep climbing every Sunday. Here is everything currently known about the next episode, when it lands, and what viewers can expect from the story going forward.
The Westies Episode 5 Release Date
Episode 5, titled ‘A Right Rose Tree,’ is set to premiere on August 2, 2026. That follows the pattern set by episode 2 on July 12, episode 3 on July 19, and episode 4 on July 26. The show has stuck to a strict weekly cadence since its debut, which has made it easy for fans to plan their viewing schedule around it.
The series originally premiered on Sunday, July 12 with a special two episode launch, and new episodes have continued to debut weekly through to the season finale on August 23. That puts episode 5 roughly in the middle of the eight episode season, a point where shows in this genre often start tightening the screws on their central conflicts.
The Westies Season 1 Episode Schedule
The season runs eight episodes total, with each installment clocking in around 45 minutes. After episode 5 on August 2, the show continues with episode 6 on August 9 and episode 7 on August 16, before wrapping up.
Subscribers who watch through MGM+ via DIRECTV can catch each new episode as it premieres, following Jimmy Roarke’s dangerous journey through New York City’s criminal underworld. In the US, the show is available on MGM+ directly as well as through participating providers.
The consistency of the schedule has actually become part of the appeal. New episodes are released on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, though the exact release time may shift depending on region and time zone. For viewers who like their prestige crime dramas doled out one tense hour at a time rather than binged all at once, ‘The Westies’ has delivered exactly that experience.
What Happens In “A Right Rose Tree”
According to the official synopsis, episode 5 finds tensions boiling over on multiple fronts. Sweeney allows Roarke to sell cocaine only if he sources the product himself, a decision that puts him directly in Gotti’s crosshairs since Gotti already suspects the Westies are defying Castellano. That single plot thread alone signals a major escalation in the fragile truce between the Irish gang and the Five Families.
Meanwhile, the show’s subplots keep churning. Bridget helps Cahill secure explosives for their IRA plot, while Polk continues pressuring Keenan to wear a wire for the feds. Given how the season has layered its FBI investigation alongside the gang’s internal power struggles, this episode looks like it could be a turning point for at least one of those storylines.
Fans who have followed the show closely will recognize how these threads connect back to earlier episodes. The season has already tracked a reckless kidnapping that shook the Westies’ deal with the Italians, Flanagan’s release from Bellevue and return to Roarke’s crew, and Bridget’s dangerous IRA assignment. Episode 5 appears ready to pull several of these dangling threads together at once.
The Westies Cast And Creative Team
The series comes from a pedigreed crime drama background. ‘The Westies’ marks the third collaboration between co-creator Chris Brancato and MGM+, following his previous work on ‘The Godfather of Harlem’ and ‘Hotel Cocaine.’ Episode 5 specifically is directed by John Fawcett, with Brancato and Michael Panes serving as both creators and executive producers.
Leading the ensemble is an Oscar winner bringing serious gravitas to the mob drama genre. J.K. Simmons stars as an Irish gang leader, anchoring a story that dramatizes the real life violence and chaos the actual Westies gang was responsible for in Hell’s Kitchen.
The premise itself sets up plenty of room for conflict throughout the season. The Westies gang, despite being outnumbered fifty to one by the Five Families of the Italian Mafia, has relied on legendary brutality and cunning to maintain a fragile détente over the spoils of the neighborhood, but internal conflict between the brash younger generation and the old school leadership threatens to blow the whole thing up, especially as an FBI investigation into the Italian mafia closes in. That central tension, generational friction colliding with law enforcement pressure, has been the engine driving the show since its premiere.
For viewers who enjoy their crime dramas dense with historical texture, ‘The Westies’ has leaned hard into its 1980s Hell’s Kitchen setting. Recent episodes have centered around the gang’s designs on the massive profits surrounding Javits Center construction, a real world detail that grounds the fictionalized gang war in an actual moment of New York City development. That backdrop gives the show a specificity that separates it from more generic mob fare.
With three episodes left after episode 5, including the August 23 finale, the pressure on Roarke and his crew is only going to intensify. Between the mafia standoff, the IRA weapons plot, and Keenan’s FBI entanglement, there is a lot riding on how the middle stretch of this season plays out.
Which storyline in ‘The Westies’ has you the most invested right now, Roarke’s cocaine gamble with Sweeney, Bridget’s IRA assignment, or Keenan’s growing FBI pressure?
