What Really Happened to Nate Moretta of SouthLAnd

Posted in SouthLAnd, Spicy News Reel | 5 comments

Sorry SouthLAnd fans but the events of last night were not a figment of your imagination, our beloved Nate Moretta is no more and according to Kevin Alejandro, it was always meant to be this way.

For those who may have missed episode 3.4 “Code Four”, Nate Moretta was killed (by the same Gangsters who once liked him) over the arrest of one of their members “Spider”. The death was vicious and personal as a gang member took a metal pipe and brained the detective as he was leaving their neighborhood on what seemed like friendly terms. It was sudden, shocking and more devastating a twist than any I’ve witnessed on television.

I cannot be the sole fan of SouthLAnd who felt that a likable character like Nate Moretta deserved more camera time than he received for these 3 seasons. The combination of that and the latest disaster in partner Sammy Bryant’s (Shawn Hatosy) life was diminishing his time with us fans and with that being said, I am not super surprised to see him get killed off. This newest flip rocked us fans in a major way, my girlfriend visibly wept, the blogs are now abuzz with “WTF” from fans and SouthLAnd already feels different without the smiling, charismatic face of the late detective Nate Moretta.

This newest flip rocked us fans in a major way

But fans, do not be mad at Kevin Alejandro, this is not a case like Rene Cordero (Amaury Nolasco) in Season 2 where he leaves due to contractual issues. Kevin has a solid part in HBO’s True Blood series and has known about his character’s ultimate demise for quite some time now. It adds realism to an already real show with the fact that cops face the chance of death every single day that they are out.

It will be quite a task for the writers to keep Sammy relevant and likable without Nate there to babysit him, Nate also had a lovely wife and kids so picking up the pieces will be a task. But based on the type of writing SoutLAnd has delivered up until now, we know that things will continue on smoothly even with the loss of Nate.

Fans of Kevin Alejandro, be sure to tune into HBO’s True Blood to keep the support up for him. He is an awesome character actor and one of our favorite guys here at Spicy Movie Dogs.

Greg Dragon – who has written posts on Spicy Movie Dogs.
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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  • http://twitter.com/TornUpPraise DGA

    I didn’t know he was in True Blood because I don’t watch that show, but I agree that he was a sadly downplayed character. We never got to know much about his back story and will miss him tremendously!

  • J. Brooks

    I remember reading an article before the season started that this season of Southland was going to be dark and get into some difficult issues. I completely did not expect Nate to die in episode 4. It was very real and brought back many emotions of a friend who was killed in the line of duty. I wonder if someone will take Nate’s place of wrangling Sammy or will the writers make Sammy grow up because of the loss of Nate? In an interview that Kevin gave the day after, he said he was the first to go, which means at some point some other characters will be killed as well. It’s tough to see your favorite go out like that.

    Good article, Greg.

  • sean

    wow I love South land especially since I am a police officer and i can relate to this incident since I lost my partner as well however this is a movie not real life and in the real world people from everywhere die anyways you write really well you can get a really good job BTW the way they curse in south land is not allowed for a real police officer to do COURTESY PROFESSIONALISM RESPECT our job is to serve and protect all right take care great article I think Nate Morreta should regain consciousness at his funeral that would be mind griping ” DON’T HATE APPRECIATE

    ALWAYS, SEAN RISE

    • http://www.spicymoviedogs.com Greg Dragon

      Hey Sean thanks for commenting, I think that SouthLAnd does police officers a huge favor in humanizing the badge moreso than many other shows have done in the past. It’s the Law and Order for police officers with it’s excellent writing and realistic characters. The impact of Nate Moretta dying drives home the fact that you guys aren’t robots and have families just like everyone else who feel the hurt and loss when you die. There are many police officers in Florida being shot this last year and I have noticed attitudes changing due to shows like this. I hope you keep reading my articles and I thank you and all the commenters for coming by and lending your opinion.

  • Joe

    One of the things I like most about this show is that it breaks the “rules” of normal TV. A major character is killed off and they managed it without any warning, other than the beginning of the episode when we see Sammy sitting alone and hear that horrible cry from a female voice in the background, the wail of someone who has just been told that a loved one is gone. That was truly chilling. I hope this show has a long run because it is special.