Title:"The Magic Castle"
Directed by: Alex Zakrzewski
Written by: Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider
Air Date: February 13, 2015
Previous: High Low
Next: Us and Them
Guest Starring: Adam O Byrne, Madison Lintz
"The Magic Castle" is the 9th episode of the first season of Bosch.
Jerry Edgar tells people to be on the lookout for Johnny Stokes, the prime suspect in the Delacroix murder. He's met by a hostile reception from the uniforms, who resent Harry Bosch for letting Stokes go and not backing up Julia Brasher. Captain Pounds, who seems to have little to his existence other than making life hell for Harry Bosch, assigns Officer Brasher to light duty in Hollywood Station HQ, just to make life more unpleasant for Harry. After work Bosch meets Lt. Billets at a bar. Grace sips on her drink and sheepishly admits to Harry that she can't get too mad at him because she too is in a relationship with a coworker.
It's New Years' Eve. Both the detectives and the uniforms are having separate New Years' parties. At the detectives' party we learn that Lt. Grace Billets is a lesbian and the office lover that she mentions is Detective Kizmin Rider. Both parties are interrupted by a news bulletin. Raynard Waits, still at large and roaming the streets of Los Angeles, kidnapped a young mother outside of Echo Park, leaving her baby in its stroller with a "Happy New Year, Raynard Waits" note. He then takes the mother, still alive, to the lair that he has dug out under the Saxon house.
Waits, when calling reporter Nate Tyler, makes reference to the famous "Lady in the Lake" statue in Echo Park. Bosch realizes that his lair must be near there. He looks among the possible files from McLaren and finds one David Harris, who was taken in by Irene Saxon, who lives near Echo Park. And she used to be a French teacher, which explains the connection to the Reynard the Fox legend.
Bosch and Edgar follow the lead to the Saxon house, where they find Irene Saxon dead and decaying on her bed (she's been there a week). While Jerry goes out to call for backup, Bosch enters the lair that Waits has dug out of the hillside under his foster mother's house. There he finds Waits holding the mother by gunpoint. After a short talk about how "they made me", Waits flings the woman aside and Bosch shoots and kills him. Outside of the house, after all the authorities have arrived, Irvin Irving tells Bosch that Waits's gun had no bullets left.
Tropes:
- Alone with the Psycho: Technically he isn't alone with the psycho as the psycho's sobbing victim is also there but the dynamic is the same as Bosch has his final showdown with Waits.
- Chiaroscuro: Some spooky lighting as Edgar and Bosch explore the garage using nothing but flashlights.
- Da Chief: Captain Pounds the Flat Character puts Brasher in Hollywood Station to antagonize Bosch, mocks Bosch over his connection to Waits, and after the underground shootout, promises that Bosch isn't out of trouble, hero or no.
- Exploring the Evil Lair: Bosch has to explore the evil lair, because he knows a woman is in there and she may be alive. So he goes through the doorway and finds a tunnel to a dug-out room, which Waits has decorated with the skulls and bones of his victims, in imitation of the Paris catacombs.
- Gorn: There's the rotting corpse of Irene Saxon upstairs, there's all the bones and skulls piled up in Waits's lair, and there's what appears to be a newer skeleton on a table, recently de-fleshed.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Bosch says "I could use a drink" at the bar after a tough day of having to deal with Pounds.
- New Year Has Come: All the New Years' parties are ruined by the breaking news report that Raynard Waits has kidnapped a woman.
- Noodle Incident: Billets asks why Pounds has such a hatred for Bosch and Bosch doesn't really answer, only stating vaguely that something happened a while back when Pounds was Bosch's lieutenant.
- The Profiler: Bosch makes use of Eleanor's profiling skills again. Eleanor predicts that Waits won't let himself be taken alive.
- Suicide by Cop: Bosch uses this exact phrase after Irving reveals that Waits's gun was out of bullets.
- Title Drop: Waits calls Bosch on the phone to say that he, Waits, has to "go away." Bosch says "Go away? You mean, to your magic castle?"
