Title:"Donkey's Years"
Directed by: Ernest Dickerson
Written by: Jennifer Ames & Steve Turner
Air Date: February 13, 2015
Previous: Mama's Boy
Next: Lost Boys
Guest Starring: Madison Lintz, Steven Culp
"Donkey's Years" is the 6th episode of the first season of Bosch.
Raynard Waits is still roaming around Los Angeles. From the No-Tell Motel, with the dead male hooker still lying on the floor next to him, Waits calls Harry Bosch directly to ask about his "options". Harry, not in the mood to chat, tells Waits that he can get shot by the cops or spend 20 years in a 6x10 cell until he's executed anyway. Later, Waits calmly shoots a Home Depot cashier through the head and then calls Bosch again while he's cleaning out the cash register.
Bosch confronts Sam Delacroix with the implausibilities in his story as well as the stash of pornographic photos of his daughter that they found in his trailer, and says that he knows Sam didn't kill Arthur. In fact it was Sheila who abused Arthur, acting out after her father raped her, and that Sam didn't report Arthur missing because he thought Sheila had killed him. 20 years later Sam is falsely confessing to murder in a half-assed effort to be The Atoner. Sam admits it and they let him go. Bosch and Edgar tell Sheila and urge her to press charges against her father.
It's almost Christmas, and Harry goes to Las Vegas to see his ex-wife Eleanor and their daughter Maddie. Eleanor criticizes Harry for showing up unannounced and then leaving early, but still gives him his Christmas present, a slightly less ancient phone. Eleanor the ex-FBI profiler connects "Raynard Waits" to the legends of Reynard the Fox. In the stories the fox had a castle where he'd wait. That, in addition to the fact that he took a sump pump, a shovel, and mothballs from the Home Depot, leads Eleanor to conclude that he's messing around in a basement or dungeon.
Having dismissed Samuel Delacroix as a suspect in Arthur Delacroix's death, Bosch and Edgar start looking elsewhere. They zero in on a Johnny Stokes, one of the skateboarding kids shown in an old photo of Arthur. They trace him to the car wash where he works, but Stokes runs for it. Julia Brasher draws her gun while arresting Stokes, and the gun discharges, but she is saved by her bulletproof vest.
This episode is the first appearance for Madison Lintz (Maddie) and Sarah Clarke (Eleanor).
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Harry takes Maddie to a gun range. She shoots up a zombie target, and takes it with her as a souvenir; Harry jokes that if the zombies come she can go after them. Madison Lintz previously had starred in The Walking Dead as Sophia Peletier.
- Amicably Divorced: The viewer can see why Eleanor and Harry got divorced, but they are still on good terms and she's perfectly willing for the four of them—Eleanor, Harry, Maddie, and Eleanor's new husband—to go out to lunch together.
- Composite Character: TV Eleanor is a composite of Book Eleanor and another female FBI agent, Rachel Walling. Book Eleanor is Harry's ex-wife and mother of his daughter. Rachel Walling is the profiler who sometimes helps Harry with investigations, like the Raynard Waits case.
- Dies Wide Open: A dramatic shot pans over from the paper cup Waits carelessly drops on the floor to the wide staring eyes of the dead hustler right next to him.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: When the authorities are in the hotel room, the dead hustler is carefully placed so that his privates are not visible.
- Impairment Shot: The camera blurs to show Harry's impairment when Johnny Stokes sprays him in the face with soap.
- Parental Abuse: Played with. It's revealed that it was actually Sheila, the sister, who abused and beat Arthur. She was acting out after being repeatedly raped by her father.
- Parental Incest: Sam Delacroix raped his daughter Sheila regularly.
- Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: Harry takes Maddie to a gun range and teaches her how to shoot. She's good at it.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the novel City of Bones, Julia Brasher is killed when her gun goes off in the parking lot. Here she's saved by her vest.
- Suicide by Cop: Bosch suggests this directly as a way for Waits to end things.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Maddie suggests that she and her father keep touch by Skype. Harry says "What, is that like Hulu?"
- Title Drop: Reggie, who's from Hong Kong and speaks with a refined British accent, says "God, it's been donkey's years" since they've seen Harry.
