SouthLAnd Recap 3x04

This week we witness the genesis of Cooper's excellent Command Presence, the heartbreak of random violence, and the anguish of being powerless to help.


Most of us go to work every day with a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen.  As Det Bryant will be reminded of today; cops never do.

The initial scene with Sammy is repeated at the end so I'm not going to describe it twice.

Sammy folds the blanket he used on the couch as he slept at Nate’s.  Mariella is again asking Nate when Sammy is going to leave.  Nate’s son Pete brings Sammy a piece of toast and tells him his mother wants to know when he’s moving out.  So glad that bad words were not the last spoken between Mariella and Nate.  They kiss goodbye and Nate ruffles Pete’s hair as he and Sammy leave for work.  Mariella’s last words, “Have a good day boys.”

Lydia is trying to console her mom whose boyfriend has just dumped her (by text).  Lydia’s mom asks Lydia how she goes without.  Now how many of us ever expect to hear those words come out of our mom’s mouth?

In the patrol car, Cooper asks Sherman, “What?”  As in spill it.  Sherman doesn’t understand what Cooper wants to know.  “Did you finally knock up the Den Mother?” Cooper asks. Sherman scoffs at that and Cooper asks, “Seriously.  What’s going on?”  Ben denies that anything is going on, but Cooper isn’t buying it.  He could have left Sherman at home and ridden in a U-Boat by himself today.  So Ben confesses that he had a nightmare about his father. His father was dead and people were expecting him to --- “Punch him?” Cooper interjects --- say something good, but he didn’t have anything to say. Then when he looked into the coffin, it was Ben in the coffin, not his dad.  Cooper wants to know if Ben is unraveling, ‘cause they could swing by BSS.  Ben responds, “See why I don’t tell you shit?”

Sherman and Cooper respond to a family dispute call and find a man and woman fighting.  The woman is throwing anything she can get her hands on at the man.  Ben pins her arms while Cooper tries to contain the man.  Cooper repeatedly asks Ben to turn the stove off, but Ben is more worried about whether the man has hurt the woman.  Ben also doesn’t cuff her to restrain her.  The woman gets away from Ben and throws the pan of hot grease at the man, barely missing Cooper.  So Cooper has to cuff her to keep her from doing any more harm.  He yells at Sherman to call an ambulance.

Lydia is at the scene of a murder. The deputy coroner is with the body, but the two detectives assigned to the case are in one of the bedrooms playing a game on Playstation.  Lydia asks them to stop NOW and come to the living room.  They think the dead guy had a partner called Giz, but they didn’t get a description from anyone.  They admit they only canvassed 7or 8 houses.  The coroner gets a match to the victim’s fingerprint on the portable fingerprint matcher thingie.

Nate and Sammy are at another murder scene.  This one is outside a convenience store.  The victim lies on the ground next to the smashed birthday cake for his son.  Two males in white hoodies robbed and shot him. Sammy walks away from the scene to take a cell call.  No one saw the shooters faces and no one is claiming to have seen anything.  Nate asks the uniform cop to see if there were any security cameras that caught anything.  Sammy screams into the phone because Tammy is threatening to get a restraining order against him.  Nate tries to calm him down, then notices the kids in the truck.  The daughter and the son (whose birthday it is) apparently witnessed the shooting.  The little girls asks Nate if her papi is dead and Nate honestly replies, “Yes, mija, he is. I’m so sorry.  Nate carries both kids away as he asks Sammy to get SID to the crime scene and to cover the body.

Back at the domestic scene, the woman is apologizing over and over to the man she spattered with grease.  Cooper tells Sherman to keep chivalry out of their work – there’s no place for it on the street.  How many assumptions did Sherman make about the scene when they arrived?  Sherman realizes what happened and responds with an, “I know” to Cooper.  Uh-oh.  Wrong thing to say to an already pissed-off Cooper.

“What do you mean, ‘you know’.  You don’t know.  I ask you to control the situation and you fall prey to that women-in-peril shit that you got going in your head. You got to be sure of what you see – really see – or you’re going to get someone killed. You understand?” “I got it,” Ben responds.  Cooper stares at him for a few seconds as though he would really like to say a whole lot more; but instead he turns and hauls the suspect away.

Lydia is sitting in a patrol car talking on the phone with the last cop that arrested the murder victim, Artis Hayes.  The deputy coroner walks up and introduces himself as Chazz, stooping so that he’s at the same level as Lydia. He says he’s worked several scenes with those other detectives and he’s trying to figure out which one of Mutt and Jeff is the bigger idiot.  Lydia says she can’t help him with that.  Chazz says if knew the detective test was so easy to pass, he would have joined the force.  He touches Lydia on the shoulder and says, “We’ll see you.”  He was totally flirting with her and at this point, though we know very little about the guy, I say Lydia should go for it.  Lydia turns and looks down the sidewalk as Mutt and Jeff walk toward her and do one of those celebratory fist bumps.  She just shakes her head.

Nate is watching the murder victim’s kids in a nearby store.  An officer comes into say they found a video of the shooting from a camera across the street.  Nate goes back outside, only to find Sammy on the phone with Tammy again and Sammy hasn’t covered the body or called SID.  He’s upset with Sammy and asks, “Am I working this shit by myself?”  The wife and brother of the victim show up at this point and the brother wants to know why the body isn’t covered up yet.  Nate tells the wife she needs to be strong for the kids. They’re just inside.  Sammy uses his own coat to cover the victim’s head.

Lydia, driving in the car, talks on the phone to Mutt and Jeff, who are sitting at a café having coffee.  She wants to know if they have found out anything about Gizmo, an associate of Artis Hayes.  The other detective says there are several Gizmos in the system and they’re checking them out now (as they sip on their coffee and ogle a woman who walks by). They thank Lydia for going to talk to the wife – it’s probably better if a woman does that.   Side note:  GRRRR.

Lydia talks to the victim’s wife, but finds out the couple has not been together since before Artis went to prison.  They couldn’t afford a divorce.  Artis was proud of his son and helped pay for the private school his son attended.  The wife didn’t know any friends or associates; or anyone named Gizmo.  She didn’t want to know anything about Artis’ life.  The wife asks about Artis’s Golden Gloves necklace.  He always wore it and he promised it to their son.  Lydia tells her she didn’t see it at the scene, but she’ll watch for it.

Cooper and Ben are in the patrol car and Cooper is talking about death notifications, “The news should be given in a slow, controlled manner.  It gives the survivor time to adjust emotionally.” Ben doesn’t seem to be paying much attention.  Cooper asks Ben if he’s boring him.  Ben explains that they spent a lot of time on this subject at the academy. They brought in actors to represent different reactions that survivors might have to a death notification.  Cooper says that must have been very instructive as he gives this evil little grin.  Ben responds that it was a little silly and some of his class wasn’t very good at it.  Cooper says but not you, right?  Ben says he did OK.  The TO thinks now would be a good time for the boot to demonstrate what he’s learned.  Cooper tells Ben that today Ben is in charge and he is only there to ride along and observe.  Who knows, maybe he’ll learn something.  You just know things are not going to go well for Ben.

Lydia does a death notification to the nephew, Brian, and sister of Artis Hayes.  The sister is not surprised by what happened to Artis since he was such a crackhead.  Lydia mentions that the house that Artis was murdered in was listed in Brian's name. The sister thinks that Artis is using Brian's identity.   Brian states that Artis stole his Playstation too.  The mother doesn’t know anything about Artis’ friends or associates.  She says that he’s spent more time locked up in the last ten years than he’s been with his family.  Nobody is going to cry over him and the county can bury him.

Sherman and Cooper go to give a death notification to the mother of a car accident victim.  Sherman scans the mailboxes, finds Williams, and heads up the stairs.  When he knocks on the door the woman refuses to come out.  Ben tells her it’s very important, but she refuses to open the door without a warrant.  She yells at him, tells him to go to hell, no warrant no entry, etc.  She is saying all this as Ben continues to tell her it’s very important that they talk.  He’s frustrated and his voice is getting louder and louder until finally he yells, “MRS WILLIAMS YOUR SON IS DEAD!  [OMG I laughed so hard when he yelled that - so much for the slow, controlled manner Cooper talked about]  Mrs Williams opens her door and Ben says softly, “I’m sorry ma’am, Doug was in a car accident.”  “Doug?” she says, “Who’s Doug?”  Oops. Cooper asks if she doesn’t have a son names Doug.  No, her son’s name is Bobby.  She turns on Ben, “What the hell is wrong with you?”  She shoves Ben as she says, “You scared the hell out of me. Are you a damn moron? What kind of shit-for-brains fuckin’ weasel are you?  You don’t have any training?  Get the hell out of here.”  Ben and Cooper return downstairs and see that there’s another Williams on the first floor.  Cooper gives Ben several examples of how going to the wrong address could have had a much worse outcome.

Sammy, Nate, and Sal watch the security video from the earlier shooting.  They see the shooter with the white hoodie and then notice there’s a witness standing beside her car.  Once they get the info from the plates, they will pay her a visit.

Sherman and Cooper roll up behind a car and Cooper asks if Sherman notices anything about the driver.  Sherman doesn’t see anything so Cooper explains.  The driver isn’t moving except to watch them in his rear-view mirror.  “And his tires look bald,” Cooper says; giving the probable cause for pulling the guy over.  Ben gets the driver out of the car, handcuffs him, stands him against the fence, and says, “Stay here.”  Are you kidding me?  Even I know better than that.  Then Ben turns his back on the guy to help Cooper search the car.  Ben finds a huge bag of marijuana and proudly shows Cooper.  Cooper admires it and then asks, “Where’s the suspect?”  Ben turns to see the suspect running, almost out of sight.  Ben gives chase and Cooper, being thoroughly entertained by this, laughs as he strolls back to the patrol car.

Ben is running full tilt after the suspect as Cooper casually drives by and catches up to the fleeing suspect.  “Hey shithead, yeah, you’ve got my partner’s cuffs.”  Distracted, the suspect falls to the ground.  Ben, breathless, catches up and pulls the suspect up off the ground as Cooper says, “Why run when you can drive?  One more thing they didn’t teach you at the academy,” Cooper says sadly with a grin in his voice.

Cooper and Ben take the driver who tried to escape, Watkins, in for booking.  As Cooper talks odds for a Lakers game, he apparently reads about the missing Golden Gloves necklace.  Which just happens to be hanging around the neck of their suspect.  So now Watkins is also a suspect for the murder of Artis Hayes.

Sammy and Nate go to talk with the witness to the earlier murder.  She’s a young woman and doesn’t want to get involved.  Nate builds some rapport with her, but Sammy gets pissed that she’s not willing to just tell them who the shooter was and then his cell phone goes off.  The witness tells them she has to be some place and leaves.  Nate is upset with Sammy.  He felt that he was getting somewhere with the witness until Sammy “lost his shit.”  Sammy just says that they should do it his way now.  As they drive away, in a very grim fore-shadowing, Nate says, “You know, I’ll be glad when this day is over.”

Cooper and Ben are having lunch with a couple of other uniforms.  This lunch place must have wonderful food.  This is where Lydia and Josie argued over lunch last week. We've also seen Nate and Sammy there in a previous season.  Cooper is telling the other officers about Ben.  “He’s starting to think he knows what he’s doing,” Cooper says, “So I’ve been letting him step on his dick.”  The other officers, along with Coop, razz him over letting his suspect and cuffs get away from him.

In the background you can see two patrol cars pulled into parking spots.  Do LAPD cops park that way all the time?  Because in this part of the country, all the cops back into parking spots.  Anyway.  Cooper has a new name for Ben, “You know, Super Boot, he may lose control of his prisoner, but there’s never a hair out of place.”  Ben is not very amused.

Sammy and Nate spot Spider hanging with his homies and pull over.  Spider runs, and Sammy and Nate give chase.  Sammy catches Spider with no problem and Spider can’t believe the cop is such a fast runner.

Mutt and Jeff are interrogating Watkins when Lydia arrives.  She tells Watkins that his room has been searched and they found a gun with the same caliber that killed Artis Hayes. Ballistics is running tests right now.  Watkins wants to deal and Lydia says it depends on what info he has to give.  He says he can give them the person who paid him to murder Hayes - Gizmo was the one who paid him.  The house where the murder took place was Gizmo's and Gizmo took care of Hayes when Hayes got out of prison.  But Hayes thought Gizmo was a punk and didn't treat him well - even stole Gizmo's playstation.  At that point Lydia realized that Gizmo was Brian, Hayes' nephew, and that Gizmo had Hayes killed over the Playstation.

Sammy interrogates Spider, but Spider asks for a lawyer.  Sammy loses it and shoves Spider up against the wall, yelling at him about murdering the father while his kids were looking on.  Sal and Nate rush in to pull Sammy of the suspect.

Cooper and Sherman arrive on the scene of a guy on PCP in a standoff with the police.  All the guy is wearing is a pair of tighty whiteys, some boots and four or five tazer prongs. He's asking the cops to hit him again with the tasers.  There are 20 or more cops and an RA already on scene; waiting for this guy to calm down.  Ben walks toward the guy saying repeatedly, "boryoku-tekina kodo o hikaeru." Cooper and another cop look on in disbelief.  The guy noticeably calms down and he and Ben bow toward each other.  I swear when Ben raised his leg to step over the taser wire, I thought Ben was going all Sumo on us.  The guy is now calm enough for Ben to cuff him.

Lydia and Mutt & Jeff are trying to figure out a way to verify what Watkins has told them about Gizmo.  Because at this point it's the word of a fourteen year-old vs a crackhead killer.

Nate approaches the young female witness to the earlier murder and gets her to allow him to take her to her boyfriend's. She tells him her mother is too hard on her and Nate tells her about his own daughter that is about the age of the witness.

Sherman and Cooper are following the RA that the PCP guy is in.  Sherman is saying that when he took karate as a kid, the sensei made them repeat "boryoku-tekina kodo o hikaeru" at the end of each class and he doesn't remember the exact translation, but it was something about refraining from violence.  Cooper sarcastically starts razzing Ben about the nice schools Ben went to when he was young, "Oooo, I heard one kid one time threw a notebook at someone."  We actually learn a whole lot more about Cooper's teenage years in this scene. Dorsey, the first high school Cooper mentions is off of Rodeo Rd (not ritzy Rodeo Dr).  Cooper mentioned Rodeo Rd earlier in the episode - that's where the domestic disturbance call was.  So Cooper was familiar with this area.  After his father was sent to prison, "We moved in with my uncle."  I wonder who that inclusive "we" means.  Cooper and his mother?  Cooper, mother, siblings?  Cooper and siblings?  We still don't know anything about his family except that his father went to prison.  So they had to move into a rougher neighborhood when Cooper was a sophomore in high school.  Sherman wants to know how Cooper stayed out of trouble and Cooper responds, "I didn't. Sometimes you just get sick of running."  Ben says that's why he thinks his Dad enrolled him in karate - to toughen him up.  Cooper zings sarcastically, "Well, that worked."  Ben doesn't blink an eye at the insult and says. "Hey. You try breaking a 2x4 with a hammer fist. Not easy."  Cooper razzes Ben again, "I can just picture you in your cute little white robe, your little stance. Let me guess; everybody got a trophy and you all went for sushi afterwards.  Dorsey was a little different.  If they didn't see see in your eye, that you were willing to go all the way....It was kill or be killed.  You might not make it home."  So this is when he started developing his command presence.  Ben is ready to razz back.  "You're not going to start rapping now are you?  'Cause I think Eminem already made that record."  Hee.  Cooper grins.  As Cooper and Sherman pull up to the ambulance stopped at a traffic light, the PCP guy suddenly opens the back doors of the ambulance and takes a big leap onto the hood of Sherman's and Cooper's patrol car.  When the patrol car stops, the PCP guy slides down the hood and onto the pavement.  Didn't Sherman secure the patient to the gurney, Cooper wants to know.  Sherman says the paramedics strapped him in.  "What's Japanese for I screwed up?"  Cooper asks.

Nate and the witness are driving by the murder victim's house.  He's telling the witness about the dead man's family.  About his kids. And the fact that the family was supposed to be celebrating the little boy's fifth birthday, but instead they're having a wake for the father.

Sammy is at the police station on the phone with Tammy and asking to talk to Victor.  Sammy apologizes to Victor and promises it won't happen again.  When Tammy gets back on the phone, Sammy pleads with her to get the DNA test done when she has the amnio done. He hangs up with her when he sees the witness to the murder come in accompanied by her brother, a priest.  The witness obviously identifies the shooter because in the next scene we see Nate and Sammy arresting Spider.

Lydia goes back to the home of Artis' sister and nephew.  She calls Brian, Gizmo, and puts him on notice that even though the police don't have evidence to arrest him right now, they're going to be watching his every move.

Cooper and Ben leave the station after their shift.  Cooper says, "Tough day for Super Boot."  Sherman has had enough, "You know, man.......I get it, all right?  I got some things to learn. But this fraternity hazing shit is getting pretty fucking old."  Cooper responds, "Some things to learn? You're not even close to being out here on your own. You boots are all alike.  Nine months in you start to think you know what you're doing."  Cooper continues, telling Sherman that now, not the beginning, is the most dangerous time for boots to be responsible for getting their TOs or someone else killed.  In ninety days, Sherman will be on his own and he won't have Cooper to back him up. So Sherman better get his shit together. Because, whoever ends up riding with Sherman is counting on him to keep them alive.

Nate and Sammy are driving in their car.  There's no explanation as to what they are doing or why they are driving through this particular neighborhood at this time of the day.  Sammy says that he's moving in with Sal who is renting a house in Van Nuys (since his separation or divorce).  He thinks it's time to get off of Nate's sofa.  As they turn the corner you can see that there are quite a few people standing around on the sidewalks and yards.  Suddenly their windshield is hit by a bottle. Nate starts backing up and Sammy says to just let it go.  But Nate replies, "We can't let it go, man."  And gets out of the car.

Nate recognizes a few of the bangers standing around and calls out to them by name. They say they didn't throw the bottle; it came from the roof.. One of the bangers says, "Hey.  We know you guys, man."  A police helicopter flies overhead, shining its spotlight down on the scene.  Nate raises his hand and gives a Code 4 (no assistance needed) signal to the helicopter. If you look closely, right after that you can see a guy in a white T-shirt with a heavy chain necklace on the far left side of the screen holding the murder weapon.  Nate turns to the bangers and says he has heard that one of them has some new tats and wants to see them. He and Sammy take a quick look and start to leave.  Again you can briefly see the head of the guy with the murder weapon just to Nate's left.  Nate tells the bangers to be good and tells one of them to wipe the lipstick off his face. As Nate and Sammy walk away you see the back of Nate's head explode as he is hit with a sledge hammer or metal pipe. The sound as it hits Nate's head is unforgettable.

Sammy turns around to see what the sound was and is stunned at what he sees. He scrambles to get to Nate even as some of the bangers try to hold him back. Bangers start crowding around trying to kick and hit Nate some more.  Sammy fires into the air and the bangers move back a little.  They ebb and flow after each shot Sammy fires.  One banger tries to take Nate's gun, but Sammy shoots him.  Sammy screams in helplessness and frustration as he tries to protect Nate.  You can see the guy who hit Nate in the mob - his face and T-shirt are covered with Nate's blood.  Sammy manages to drag Nate's body over next to the car, reaches in for the radio, and calls for help just as you hear sirens approaching.  Several police cars race up and the officers try to get the mob under control.  One officer helps Sammy get Nate in one of the police cars and the car takes off for the hospital.  Sammy is holding Nate in his arms and screaming at him to hold on.  Personally, I think the blow killed Nate and at the most he might have lived a few minutes.  If he had survived, he would have probably been brain dead or extremely low functioning - little movement, no speech, no vision, no cognitive function, etc.  I wonder if we will see anything about organ donation next episode.  He would be a good candidate for that.

Sammy is sitting in a chair, head back, eyes closed, looking like he's mumbling a prayer.  The light glares brightly as the window shades move. He hears a woman scream and brings his head forward as he starts to cry.  You can still see Nate's blood on his jacket. He gets up as Mariella walks toward him.  She collapses in his arms as they cry together.