So the call from the last episode that Lydia (Regina King) made to the mystery man has come with some repercussions apparently. Lydia is throwing up in the morning, she has no appetite and as you would have it, is pregnant.
This entire episode seemed like an ode to single motherhood as Ruben Robinson (Dorian Missick) and Lydia investigate the fatal stabbing of a man who got killed within his own store. Turns out that this man had extended a helpful hand to a mother, her daughter and another homeless girl who stayed with him. As with any favor there is normally a fee and this man took it upon himself to sleep with both young girls and one decided to stab him up for cheating on her with the other. The mother of this girl turns herself in as the murderer but by the end of the episode Lydia was chasing down the girl who really killed him and it ends with Ruben putting a bullet in her shoulder.
The whole aspect of this case gave Lydia a lot of face time with the mother who expressed her love for her troubled daughter and tried her best to take her place in prison. Lydia, who was somewhat considering an abortion thinks deeply with every situation on her pregnancy and by the end (after telling the daughter how much her mother loves her), she decides that she is going to keep the child. I am not too sure as to what this new pregnancy thing will do for the Lydia angle of SouthLAnd but it was very unexpected.
Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) is still going through his struggles with unappreciative citizens around town and finally decides to move next to Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) where most of the cops lived in LA. Speaking of Sammy, our favorite goofball - after chasing a purse snatcher and running by a trash can that was making noise, he accidentally shoots it and ends up hitting a dog and nearly killing it. Calling in some favors and agreeing to pay $1300 for the surgery needed to heal the dog, Sammy becomes the butt of the jokes for Dewey and Ben as they cannot believe that he spent that much money to save a dog. The punchline in the end was that he tried taking the dog home (he thought it was a stray) but the owners show up – a little girl and her dad and he was still made to pay for the surgery.
Finally the duo of Jessica Tang (Lucy Liu) and John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) are called out to remove a homeless man from private property. When they questioned the man who suffered from dementia, they found out from his tattoo that he was an ex-marine. The episode tackled the very real issue of forgotten veterans as we see Tang go into overdrive trying to get the man an ID to have him sent to a shelter. Turns out that Jessica is a military baby whose dad was a hardcore marine… this is our bonus clue into the mysterious Tang for the episode. So for those of you keeping score at home, let’s see what we have on Tang…
- She once fought a brute at a routine traffic stop who beat her within an inch of her life and it’s on YouTUBE.
- She has dated a few Jewish men and had a lot of sex with them.
- Her father was a Marine, taught her “Semper Fi” and “no man left behind”, which she takes seriously.
I wonder what the big bad secret will be about Jessica? I just wonder this because normally the slow roll on a character’s background is normally a setup for something crazy… this is just my skepticism but we shall see.
The father of Lydia’s baby is a mystery and I am thinking that it’s Sal from seasons 1- 3… okay, okay I kid, I kid… but I know it’s going to end up being someone random like Ben… Plus Sal has been missing in action since season 3. Who do you readers think it is? Is Russell back and tapping that? Or maybe Lydia’s still sleeping with Josie’s son.
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.
