Title: Part of the Deal
Directed by: Michael Mc Donough
Written by: Tom Bernardo
Air Date: April 17, 2020
Previous: Three Widows
Next: Money, Honey
Guest Starring: Lynn Collins, Julie Ann Emery, MC Gainey
"Part of the Deal" is the 4th episode of the sixth season of Bosch.
Elizabeth Clayton, the opiate addict that Bosch befriended back in Season 5, is sober and working in a thrift store. She spots a man outside that she recognizes, calls Harry Bosch, and tells him about the man, whom she thinks is named "Alex".
Back in the squad room, Pierce tells Bosch that Stanley Kent didn't just hire a PI, he bought a GPS and a spycam hidden in a picture frame, all to keep track of his wife.
Bosch quizzes one of Stanley Kent's colleagues. It seems that the reason why Alicia Kent was a stay-at-home wife is that she was independently wealthy after having patented a new surgical sponge. The colleague confirms that the Kent marriage was in trouble, and he also happens to know that a clause in the Kents' prenuptial agreement had vested and Stanley was now entitled to 50% of his wife's royalties from the sponge.
Bosch leafs through the Kent file again and notices something: in the photo of a Bound and Gagged Alicia that Stanley received, her robe was hanging off a chair. But when Bosch and Edgar found her the next morning, the robe was in her closet. The wheels start turning in Harry's head, and he realizes that Alicia set the whole murder up, that she staged the scene, and that she would have needed help...and her partner was probably an FBI agent who would have known about the sovereigns and been able to cook up the terrorism angle (information she would've known because the FBI regularly made visits to Stanley to brief him on dangerous individuals who might target him for his access to nuclear materials).
But they don't have any proof. Harry goes to Irving, who reluctantly agrees to tap Alicia Kent's phone, and Judge Sobel, who reluctantly grants the wiretap request but tells Harry she's only approving a 72 hour warrant. The wiretap is set up, with Crate and Barrel taking shifts monitoring. Bosch visits Alicia so he can grab the picture frame (on the pretense of collecting a picture of Stanley for the police to display at the press conference) Soon Alicia makes a phone call to SAC Brenner. Bosch also tells Reece, who tells Brenner, who complains to Chief Irving, who supports Bosch.
In the meantime, Bosch's investigation of the Daisy Clayton murder continues. The plate that Elizabeth wrote down is registered to one Alex Sands. Bosch shows Liz the photo and she confirms that Daisy was hanging out with Sands a lot, not long before she was murdered.
Edgar's investigation into Jacques Avril also continues. Winston sets up a meeting between Hovan, undercover as a Dominican drug dealer named "Felix Mariama", and Avril—but Avril's right-hand man Remi Toussaint is the one who shows up. Hovan reassures Edgar that there are always layers of security in an operation like this (so that Avril can verify that he's not an undercover) and that he'll get to see Avril soon enough. Remi for his part tells Avril that Hovan's (bogus) story checks out.
In other plots: Barrel goes out to dinner with retired Detective Ryan Rodgers (MC Gainey), old friend of both Barrel and Bosch. As they're leaving the restaurant, Rodgers has a heart attack. He survives, but Barrel is shaken by the incident. Maddie and her boyfriend Antonio go out for dinner with Harry; Antonio orders Fat Tire beer in order to impress Harry.
Tropes:
- The Bus Came Back: Elizabeth Clayton makes her return. She's off drugs and she has a job, but she's still troubled about her daughter's death.
- Call-Back: Elizabeth Clayton says that she's been dreaming about Daisy for the first time in a while, now that Bosch is actively pursuing a lead. She asks if Harry remembers his dreams. Harry, who in this episode has a very disturbing dream about the death of his daughter, lies and says he doesn't.
- Contrived Coincidence: A lot of people in Los Angeles, but Liz happens to see someone crucial to the case of her daughter's murder, right outside the thrift shop window.
- Dream Sequence: Harry has a disturbing nightmare in which he finds himself in the morgue. He meets Daisy Clayton, who is leafing through her own murder book. She's sitting next to a coroner's table, on which is Maddie's body.
- Hates Small Talk: After calling Frank Morgan "Fred", Antonio sheepishly admits that he studied for the dinner with Harry and he is terrible at small talk. Harry says he wouldn't trust anyone who's good at small talk.
- Institutional Allegiance Concealment: Hovan impersonates a Dominican drug dealer who needs cash laundered, in order to worm his way into Avril's operation. His legal fiction includes him taking credit for at least one unsolved murder, giving him street cred.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It seems Marcos and Arias were murdered with some of the same guns that they themselves stole from LAPD impound and sold. Edgar's judgment is "Reap what you sow."
- Match Cut: There's a cut from Avril's secretary running drug money through a counting machine, to the secretary doing the same in the office of the Haitian relief charity that is a front for Avril's money laundering.
- Mythology Gag: The "Jane Doe" toe tag in Bosch's nightmare fills up with the names of murder victims from Bosch's cases. Some of those names are from Michael Connelly books not adapted for the series, like Rebecca Verloren (The Closers) and Angela Benton (Lost Light).
- Wicked Cultured: Jacques Avril, former death squad leader, current crime lord and money launderer, unwinds by reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (in the original French, of course, since he's from Haiti).
