Good to see Chickie Brown (Arija Bareikis) back to her old self in uniform. If you can recall the last episode of SouthLAnd, Chickie and Dewey ran over and killed an old woman during a high-speed chase. The female cop was shaken up into almost quitting and John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) had to talk her into staying the course as an officer. Speaking of John, we finally get to know why the big man is so passionate about police work, an explanation of sorts about his sexual orientation being that in his younger years he had a girlfriend… and why his father is such a piece of sh-t scumbag. It turns out that John’s father was molesting his little sister, AND his 16yr old girlfriend, who he ended up murdering to top it off. I think a past like that could create a monster but instead we get John Cooper, the lovable, pill popping, police kool-aid drinking, master Jedi cop that headlines SouthLAnd.
Although there was the standard bit of crazy in this episode of SouthLAnd, it felt a bit empty compared to the emotional roller coaster that this season has put us fans through. Sammy (Shawn Hatosy), who we believed would go off the deep end this episode, got to the brink of murder but could not take the plunge. He is interviewed by a police psychologist and sneaks a photo of one of the suspects in Nate’s killing when she steps away for a few moments. Using the photo and information, he tracks the man down and finds that he works in a garage. He stalks the man and waits until he is alone (after hours) and cuffs, kidnaps and whisks him away into the desert using a borrowed old van.
When the van comes to a halt many moments later, Sammy uncuffs the man and forces him to dig his own grave while he fights with the demons in his head. When the grave is about 4 feet deep or so the gangster loses patience and starts telling Sammy off, all in the same breath of proclaiming his innocence, his expecting child and the fact that he wasn’t there the night of the killing. Sammy commands him to turn around and it takes everything in him not to shoot the gangster dead in cold blood. Recovering from his brief psychosis, he tells the man that if ever sees him again he will kill him and leaves him deserted out there in the middle of nowhere.
When Sammy returns back to the city he meets up with Nate’s wife who has decided to leave for El Paso with her parents in order to get out of the house, the ghost of Nate and the eventual sex that would happen between she and Sammy Bryant (let’s be 100% honest folks it was coming). Lydia (Regina King) and Josie Ochoa (Jenny Gago) continue to channel Law and Order with the way their dialogue compliments one another in an almost poetic flow of wordplay, snarky remarks and playful quips. Come on I know that I am not the only one who thinks Law and Order when these two are on the scene… there’s definitely some influence going on in the writing of these two. This time they are made to bring in a drunk actress to testify on a murder that occurred in her apartment complex. Nothing eventful outside of the woman lying and Lydia having to cuff her after much drama and theatrics – no pun intended.
The standout portion of this episode for me however dealt with John and Ben, there’s something about little black orphans and John how they always find each other in these eps. This time the boy looks strung out and malnourished with obvious signs of abuse. John Cooper, trying his best to remain painkiller free it irritable and obsessed with finding out who was hurting the boy after delivering him to child services. He and Ben blanket the city in there off hours and it turns out that an old artist who they met at the park searching earlier that day was the culprit in molesting all of the homeless kids. The social worker that John had yelled and screamed at to do her job concerning the kid, calls him in to see that the old pervert had hung himself after calling the police and turning himself in. It was after this moment and Ben’s commitment to stay by his side that he confesses his scarred childhood to his partner of his molesting father.
Not the greatest episode but I am glad to at least have some transparency with John, he was always such a mystery and now he feels human again. There are only 2 more episodes left in this awesome police drama and I cannot wait to see how things wrap up for Sammy Bryant and the Ben / John tension.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
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