Title: "Raise the Dead"
Directed by: Laura Belsey
Written by: Tom Bernardo
Air Date: April 19, 2019
Previous: The Last Scrip
Next: Tunnel Vision
Guest Starring: Paul Calderón, Juliet Landau, Mimi Rogers, C. Thomas Howell
"Raise the Dead" is the 4th episode of the fifth season of Bosch.
In a flashback, Bosch remembers the Danielle Skyler murder scene. He later explains to Honey Chandler some things that don't match with Lucas Olmer's confession. Olmer claimed to have climbed over the balcony, but there were no footprints. Olmer also failed to mention the carving knife that the killer used to mutilate Skyler post-mortem (a detail omitted from all press releases to weed out false confessions). In fact, there isn't nothing in Olmer's confession that couldn't have been gleaned from the court record. And from what he gleans off the guard who witnessed Olmer signing the confession, Olmer probably had no idea what was on the papers that Cronyn had him sign.
While looking through the files, Bosch finds an arrest report for Preston Borders that isn't in the official murder book. He looks up Anthony Servidone, the now-retired officer who made the arrest, who tells Harry that he detained Borders based on the flyer that had gotten distributed to beat cops. Since the arrest was basically bogus, Irving (just a lieutenant at the time) had Borders released.
Hector Bonner tracks down Preston Borders' wife, Rita Tedesco, and finds out that she's a court stenographer.
Bosch receives a set of fake ID with his pictures and the name "Dominic Reilly". His plan is to pass himself off as an opioid addict and gain access to the pill smugglers that killed Jose Esquivela Sr. He goes to the VA complaining of pain in his knee, and meets one Dr. Hansen. Dr. Hansen refuses to give the oxycontin prescription that "Dominic" is looking for and instead gives him ibuprofen and signs him up with an opioid therapy group.
It isn't a total bust, however. On the way out of the hospital he sees one of the men in the group, a Louis Degner (C. Thomas Howell), selling pills to a woman in the group, Elizabeth Clayton, the woman we saw Harry talking to in the camp at the start of the season. Harry follows Louis to his house and arrives just as Louis is frantically administering narcan to revive an overdosed Elizabeth. Harry helps Louis avoid arrest when Edgar shows up with backup, and so gains his trust. Louis agrees to take Harry to the Garcia Pain Clinic, that being the pill mill that the Esquivelas were dealing with. He also learns that Elizabeth's daughter Daisy was murdered ten years ago at the age of 14, which contributed to her drug addiction.
In Newton, Robertson tracks down Peanut, the parolee who stripped the murder car that the killers hijacked. The thief admits that he saw two scary-looking guys dump the car. Pierce and Vega track down Jose Esquivela Junior's cousin, who says that Jose went to Bakersfield.
Edgar talks with Marcos and Arias, the cops who wanted to talk to Gary Wise; they have no idea what happened to him. Later Edgar meets with Gary's father, who assumes that Gary was seen meeting with the cops and thus was murdered.
Tropes:
- Book Ends: Begins and ends with Harry's flashbacks to the Skylar murder case.
- Creator Cameo: That's Michael Connelly himself, drinking at the bar where Bosch is interviewing Servidone the retired beat cop.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous: A flashback shows Danielle Skylar's nude, mutilated body lying face down on her bed.
- Foreshadowing: Harry sees a tattoo Elizabeth has on her left arm with the name of her late daughter.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: The police never disclosed to the media that Danielle Skylar was mutilated with a carving knife post-mortem, so that false confessions could be weeded out.
- Monochrome Past: There are three flashbacks to the Danielle Skylar case; all are in black and white. The last one is a flashback to Harry breaking the news to the Skylar family, which switches to color and the present day to show Harry outside that same house.
- Monster Fangirl: Bonner drops a fancy psychiatric term for what is basically the Monster Fangirl syndrome, the fetish in which women can only get sexual pleasure from a man who has somehow transgressed, by being a criminal or committing murder or the like. This is their guess about what happened with Rita Tedesco the court stenographer.
- Shout-Out: Barrel's lonely home life is demonstrated by him making a microwave pizza for dinner and sitting down to watch Man Without a Star with Kirk Douglas.
- Splash of Color: While the flashbacks to the Skylar case are in black and white, the blood at the scene is still shown in red, and the crucial seahorse pendant that Bosch found at the Borders apartment is shown in aquamarine blue.
- Too Dumb to Live: Pierce and Vega's reaction when they find that Jose Jr. went to a baseball game with his cousin, who posted about it on Instagram.Vega: God bless social media. You know, I collared this knucklehead once, 'cause he posted selfies while he was burgling the house.Pierce: How many likes did he have?Vega: Went viral. I think he won a Darwin Award.Pierce: I thought you had to die to get a Darwin Award.Vega: Must be dead by now.
- Tropaholics Anonymous: Dr. Hansen, suspicious at Harry's insistence on getting oxy, puts him in an opiate support group.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Since Bosch is undercover, he and Edgar pretend not to know each other when the cops arrive as Bosch helps Louis revive Elizabeth.
