There was a marketing campaign for, I think a cable company, that showed viewers in the middle of scenes from their favorite shows. That’s kind of how I felt watching the ‘better question’ sequence. A lot of great questions, but none of them eliminates suspects.
I like Buddha. He’s an intelligent guy who, unlike most of the suspects on this show, is calm and centered through all that’s happening. The cops arresting him, the questioning and even Emile’s death is greeted intellectually. Buddha doesn’t believe the overdose story for a moment. He emphatically states that Emile wouldn’t take drugs. (This is upheld by the information we get during the autopsy.) I find myself wanting to believe him, but then he announces that he’s a devout Christian in a way that I hear lot of people I do NOT trust say it.
I love that “Reverend Cop Killer” has cemented itself with the members of the unit. While they haven’t removed Reverend Cop Killer from their suspect list, Hickman is added to the list. Tao volunteers Sykes to find out where Hickman was when Emile was killed. I’m convinced that Tao definitely suspects more about Sykes and Hickman’s relationship than he’s saying to anyone.
DDA Hobbs stops buy to whine about how terrible this case is from the DA’s perspective. What she’s actually doing is giving us another suspect: Mrs. Hickman. Apparently, DDA Grey had a very active sex life. What struck me as the most humorous about these revelations was watching Raydor deal with the fact that, as an Internal Affairs investigator, pretty much everyone, even the DA’s office, either lied or kept information from her.
Tao knows how to apologize with dignity and sincerity. He has always been one of my favorites on this show. I giggled when Tao graced us with another “Holy Crap” moment. This one was followed by the discovery of the cellphone that called both Tamika and Emile before they died. They did find the phone; in Reverend Cop Killer’s lawyer’s car.
If the lawyer’s arrest wasn’t enough…Hickman lurks in Reverend Cop Killer’s office. His threats do get the Reverend to confess to the death of the cop 12 years ago. However, he doesn’t confess to the other murders. I still don’t think he’s behind the heroin in the church. I’m willing to believe Price is telling the truth about his conversion. However, the fact that he hasn’t turned himself in for the murder he finally confessed to, says to me, the conversion is a little tainted. I’m now officially ready to publicly note that I think Reverend Cop Killer’s little brother is at the root of all of these murders.
In the middle of all of this, Sharon Beck is arrested while driving Gary’s car. Sharon R fills Rusty in on what’s happened and suggests that he go visit her. Rusty, very sweetly, reminds Sharon R that she’s his mother. It was a really lovely moment that was maybe five seconds long but made me smile. For her part, Sharon B showed some real maternal care for her son. She made it okay for Rusty to have chosen Sharon R. Yes, the legalities are a done deal, but it’s evident that Rusty still loves his birth mother so I thought it was nice that she removed any potential for Rusty to feel guilty about his choice. Nice.
The investigative side of this series of episodes feels like the realistic way a difficult murder investigation might work in the real world. Though I believe that in the real world, the unit would likely be handling more than one case, but it’s fun watching the pieces come together in tiny little dribbles. At least that’s how I felt the first time I watched this episode. As I began to wrap my head around the episode, I saw the seismic effect the information we picked up had on the case.
What were you favorite aspects of this episode? Did any of the smaller moments stick out for you? The small moment when Sharon hugged Rusty was one of mine. Has anyone's theory changed since the first part?
