SouthLAnd Recap 3x02

Most good cops are passionate cops. Put enough of them together, and occasionally those passions explode.


Lydia shoves Dewey and everyone jumps to pull them apart.  Can't wait to see that again in 13 hours.


This week's program is brought to you by the word Ese. We have three drive-bys this week, but it's still one of the most humorous episodes so far.


Frosty has been shot and Sammy learns from a witness that nobody shot Frosty.  Frustration eats at Sammy and he yells at the witness about having to do 3 or 4 family notifications every week.  Nate pulls Sammy away and notes from the graffiti on a nearby wall that Nobody is actually somebody.

We see Cooper smile as he watches Ben kiss the redhead in the Porsche.  Chickie walks up, sees what Cooper is looking at and rolls her eyes as she walks off.  Cooper is still grinning as he, too, walks away.  Ben gets out of the Porsche and walks into work as he smiles, then purses his lips like, "Hoo boy! What a weekend of hot monkey sex".  In the background we see the redhead purse her lips in the same manner.

Dewey makes a grand entrance to roll call on his first day back to work.  The sergeant shoots him down over being late.  The sergeant pairs Sherman with Chickie and Cooper with Dewey. "Hey, you and me Romeo," Chickie teases.   Cooper checks with the sergeant to see why Dewey is partnered with him.  The sergeant explains that since Dewey has been off for four months they can't put him in a UBoat.  And Cooper is the best for getting Dewey caught up.  Cooper smiles and shakes his head.  Chickie teases Sherman over the redhead and he must not know yet just what the redhead is.

Nate and Sal give Sammy grief over Tammy's pregnancy.  Sammy plays with Sal saying they have nobody for the shooting.

Cooper and Dewey in the patrol car together; this is going to be good.  Dewey has seen the light and he wants everyone else to see it too.  Cooper must be having a relatively pain-free day because he doesn't say a word as Dewey goes on and on about a higher power.  He does throw a couple of LDR (Laser Death Ray) glares to Dewey, but Dewey is oblivious.

They catch up to a van that is weaving and pull it over.  Dewey orders everyone out and out comes eleven mariachi band members.  With their instruments.  And their big sombreros. The driver explains that they usually use 2 vehicles, but one of them broke down.  Dewey's response?  "You know Cielito Lindo?"

Nate and Sammy are talking to a former banger and after a little convincing he tells Sammy and Nate what happened. It seems the drive-by was over a girl.  He invites Nate to a car show coming up this weekend.

 

Now we're back to the mariachi band, Dewey, and Cooper.  Anyone else singing along?  ...Ai Yi Yi-Yi.  I am the Frito Bandito.  No?  Dewey and the driver of the van become best buds when they discover they are both recovering alcoholics.  Cooper has had enough.  He tries to get things moving along by telling the van driver to get another vehicle because they can't legally drive the van with eleven people in it.  Dewey thinks he and Cooper should haul some of them, but Cooper is having none of it - the van driver needs to handle this on his own. Dewey interrupts because the band is playing his favorite part of the song.  Cooper walks off in disgust, saying with a wave of his hand that he's through with this.  Dewey just directs the band as they play.

We now have the first drive-by of the episode.  Nobody has been shot by somebody.  Sammy and Nate investigate the sidewalk scene.

Dewey is still spouting AA doctrine as he and Cooper investigate a complaint at a motel.  When the pass key fails to open the door, Cooper decides to kick the door down.  I don't understand why he did that.  I understand him lifting the car in 2x06.  And I understand why he lifted the injured cop into the car in 3x01.  But there is just no reason he had to kick the door down. The maid's pass key worked - why didn't they use it?  They find a man with his arms and legs tied to the bed.  A sock is stuffed in his mouth, Cheating Bitch is written on his stomach, and the only thing covering him is a small towel over his genitals. The girlfriends and wife have found out about each other and decided to teach him a lesson by gluing some of his private parts together.  This is based on a real incident from 2009 in Wisconsin (you can google "penis glued to stomach", but I would be careful about some of the results).  Dewey puts a protective hand in front of his own genitals as Cooper calls an ambulance for the "sticky situation."

Josie and Lydia discuss their earlier murder-suicide.  The daughter wants to talk to them, but Josie sees no reason for this - the case is solved.  She saves her empathy for the families of the cases that don't get solved.  Does Lydia want to go to a weekend sale at Nordstrom's?  

Chickie razzes Ben about Sally, aka The Den Mother.  She tells him that Sally wanted her to do a threesome once.  Ben looks at her curiously.  Then Chickie asks Ben if Sally still has that autographed poster of Dirty Harry by the front door.  Ben's expression is priceless.

They notice a guy standing on the corner, bleeding from his arm.  The guy says his girlfriend did it, and she's over there in the car.  When they look in the car it turns out his girlfriend is a blow-up doll.  They return to the guy who continues his story that the girlfriend dresses inappropriately and that he has to get in fights to defend her.  Oooookaaaayy. The guy asks Ben, "You ever been in love? Love's a bitch, Ese."  After the guy is patched up, they will be taking him in for a psych eval.

Nate and Sammy talk baby names and Shawn gives his own dad a shout-out when he says they will name it Wayne if it's a boy.  Sammy is concerned about his future kid as he talks about a father being present and good parenting is what so many of these bangers need. It's the same scene over and over.  When they notify the mother it's always, "Why? Why? Why?"

Sammy and Nate look at the scene of the second drive-by. In an echo of the previous scene the mother comes to the scene and cries, "Why? My baby. Why? Why?"

Sal has called Lydia and Josie in to help with the case - third body in 10 hours.  Josie and Sal obviously have some history through Sal's (ex?) wife. Sammy and Josie have some words over the need for Lydia and Josie to help with the case.

Chickie, Ben, Dewey, Cooper, and 3 other officers are having lunch at Grand Central Market.  They are all razzing him about red-headed Sally. Dewey is driving Cooper nuts and Chickie says she dealt with him for five years.  You can't take it for four hours?

A quinceanera is taking place and everyone is having a good time dancing, drinking, etc until a Suburban rolls by spraying bullets.

Lydia and Josie are getting info on the last drive-by from Sammy and Nate. Sammy and Josie argue (again) over whether the victim is a banger or not.   Josie shows a picture of her sons - all with shaved heads, earrings, nice SUV.  They are all successful - one is a captain in Afghanistan, another is a P-2 LAPD officer, and the other is attending Berkley. Sammy and Josie continue to argue until everyone's cell phones start ringing.   

All of the main characters are at the scene of quinceanera drive-by. It's very rare for everyone to be at the same crime scene.  Ben and Cooper are containing the scene as the detectives investigate.  Sal's TV reporter girlfriend has evidently been replaced by Marie Osmond.  She asks Sal questions, but he ignores her.  Dewey, Cooper, and Sherman look for evidence.  Dewey is being his usual obnoxious self, insulting the kid that was killed, the kid's parents, and Lydia.  Uh-oh. He shouldn't have done that.  Lydia objects and Dewey condescendingly tries to calm her down.   Lydia puts her hand on his face and shoves him away.  Dewey starts back toward Lydia, telling her to get back in her tuna boat and calling her a bitch. Everyone else runs to pull them apart.  Dewey better be thankful for the others separating him from Lydia because I think Lydia could totally take him.

Cooper and Dewey are in their patrol car and Dewey is very angry and is spewing all kinds of racist and sexist remarks.  Cooper sits silently and lets Dewey carry on.  They stop to get coffee where Ben and Chickie are already stopped.  Dewey and Cooper get out of the car and Dewey goes in to get coffee.  Cooper comes around to where Ben is leaning against the rear of his and Chickie's car, chewing on a toothpick.  Cooper pauses, lets out a deep sigh, tells Ben, "Let's roll."  As Cooper heads back to the car, Ben stares after him in confusion, "What?"  Cooper yells over his shoulder, "Come on!"  Ben glances over his shoulder at the store before his eyes get big and round.  And eagerly, with no hesitation, he scrambles after Cooper and gets in the car.  You can tell Ben is thinking, "Yay, I'm back with Cooper."  Chickie runs out of the store pissed at what Cooper and Ben have just done.  Maybe she'll keep Ben's duty bag hostage.

Sammy & Nate hand out info on the quinceanera drive-by and Sal gives his "Punching Water" speech.  The objective is to punish evil everywhere by going after the bangers in the neighborhood for the least little infraction.

Next (accompanied by music!) we see Sammy and Nate putting the heat to the bangers in the neighborhood.  One clever banger has arranged chairs next to the fences in his neighborhood so that he can make a fast escape.  Sammy and Nate patiently wait near one of the chairs and give the go-ahead for the other cops to burst into a house.  The banger runs and after hopping a few fences, lands at the feet of Sammy and Nate.  This guy gives up the name of the shooter at the quinceanera.

Cooper and Sherman are back in the patrol car together.  Sherman wonders if Dewey was always this screwed up. Cooper says, "No, he was passionate and focused like you."  (Cooper just gave Sherman a compliment!) "The job doesn't make you something, just brings out who you already are."  Ben can't believe that dead babies don't bother Cooper anymore.  Cooper responds, "You gotta be able to turn off the camera inside your head."  "How do you do that?" Ben asks.  "Well when you learn how to do that; you're ready to be a training officer,"  Cooper responds.  That was a nice little teaching scene between a TO and his boot.

Sherman and Cooper chase a blue Suburban that they suspect was involved in the last drive-by.  The chase reaches a dead end and two guys in the Suburban bail out and run.  Cooper tackles one before he gets too far and Sherman chases down the other guy, who turns out to be G-Ron, the shooter in the drive-by.

Lydia and Josie interview G-Ron, who has no remorse.  In fact, the only thing he would change is next time he would use a Mac-10 to take even more people out. "Fuck 'em all, and anyone who's down with them."

Next we see Nate at the car show the banger invited him to earlier. In a break from the usual, there's some peaceful, lazy-day music accompanying this scene.  The music fits, it's just noticeable because music is rarely used on this show.

Sherman and Cooper are leaving work. Sherman asks Cooper, "You don't have a Sally story?" as he looks back at Cooper with a smirky grin. Cooper acknowledges what Ben is saying with a slight smile before replying, "No."  Ben is being a smart-ass to Cooper! Grasshopper has learned well.  It's too funny that Ben had to ask a gay guy to find the first person that hasn't slept with Red-headed Sally.  Sherman left his car at Sally's and just as he's starting to ask Cooper for a ride to her place, she pulls up. Ben heads for her car as Cooper says, "You have been warned my friend.....You have been warned."  "What can I say?  Love's a bitch, Ese,"  Ben responds.

Sammy pulls up in front of his house, noticing a strange car next to the driveway and a strange man near his front porch. The guy is Tammy's photography instructor, Victor Cifuentes (insert your own LA Law/Jimmy Smits joke here), and he says he's in love with Sammy's wife.  Not only that, he and Sammy should be adult about this and work things out in the best interest of the baby.  Wow.  First the guy says he's in love with Sammy's wife; and before Sammy can finish processing that; he brings up the baby and puts the fact out there that this may not be Sammy's baby.

I have to say, my first thought after that scene was not, poor Sammy, this is awful.  No, it was, two people are in love with Tammy???  But as much as I love Sammy, he never supported her photography as anything other than a little hobby.  He didn't take it seriously.  So I'm not surprised something happened with a guy who understood her love of photography.  However, in no way do I condone what she did.  This is just another example of her immaturity and selfishness.  Shawn is so good in this scene. You can see the devastation on his face.

Chic Daniel, the show's ex-LAPD technical adviser was in two scenes. He asks Nate, "Wouldn't they just toss the gun?" in the Punching Water scene.  He's also the only P-3 in that scene.  And he's the one who yells to Nate that they've recovered the gun.  He is second from the left in the picture below.

All photos courtesy of TNT.