Title: "Blood Under the Bridge"
Directed by: Sarah Pia Anderson
Written by: Jeffrey Alan Fiskin
Air Date: April 21, 2017
Previous: El Compadre
Next: Birdland
Guest Starring: Paola Turbay, Paul Calderón, John Ales, Arnold Vosloo, Matthew Lillard, Steven Culp
"Blood Under the Bridge" is the 5th episode of the third season of Bosch.
Crate and Barrel have the sad duty of informing Mrs. Niese of her son's murder. Later, Bosch, Crate, and Barrel meet with Sharkey's two delinquent buddies. One of them identifies Xavi Moreno as the driver who picked up Sharkey that night.
It's revealed why Capt. Lewis (Brooke Smith) is so antagonistic to Billets, and why she torpedoed Billets' captain interview: she's married to Grace's ex-husband.
Robertson (Paul Calderon) has another tense confrontation with Bosch and Billets about the Gunn case. Harry and Grace share their theory, that Holland's people are orchestrating a frame. Robertson is skeptical but Billets retorts he doesn't have to buy it, he just has to solve the case. Robertson leaves and meets with Scott Anderson from the Los Angeles Times—Robertson was the leak after all—and tells Anderson that there's no story.
Downtown, Coniff and Espinoza give Irving and Mayor Ramos a debriefing on the Koreatown Killer case. There doesn't appear to be any hate crime motive since he's indiscriminate about his victims, with it being more likely he just lives in Koreatown (a later scene shows this to be the case). After the briefing, Ramos and Irving retreat to the inner sanctum of Irving's office to discuss the police commission's efforts to find a new police chief. Bradley Walker really wants to nominate Nestor Delgado, and since Walker heads the commission, the rest of the board are likely going to be swayed to vote his way. This doesn't sit well with Irving, who views Delgado as a career climber who's only gotten as far as he does thanks to his connections. Ramos agrees, making clear that Irving is the only person he'll consider at this point, and leaves Irving to think about it.
Bosch and Edgar meet Xavi and fire questions at him, but Xavi is not intimidated. When Dobbs expresses anxiety, Xavi tells him that if the cops had any evidence they would have come with a warrant. Later, Bosch meets Luke Goshen of the FBI again; Luke tells Harry that Dobbs, Moreno, and Woodrow have made multiple trips to Iraq and Afghanistan as civilians. Meadows went on the first but not the second trip. Goshen also explains to Harry how easy it is to smuggle illicit materials through military channels that aren't subject to Customs inspection.
Robertson takes a fresh look at the Gunn case. He re-visits the bartender, but she does not identify either Bosch or Tafero as the guy who took Gunn out of the bar that night. Robertson's partner Pierce re-prints the Gunn crime scene and finds some prints by the door.
Rudy Tafero tells Holland that Annabelle Crowe has been bought off. They elect to start smearing Bosch anonymously on social media. Scott Anderson is very angry when he sees the story that Robertson had him spike appear on the Internet.
Cornell "Merch" Jackson, the fourth member of Dobbs' crew, unloads a large pallet at the docks, which he transfers to Woody. Said pallet is revealed to contain several cases filled with US dollars. The episode ends with Merch's dead body lying on the beach.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Two women work an organic garden somewhere in Koreatown. The Koreatown Killer parks his bike, walks up behind them slowly and quietly—then greets them cheerfully, hands over some potting soil, and joins them in gardening.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Maddie calls Anita's bracelet "thrift store chic."
- Compensating for Something: Rudy Tafero speculates to Marissa that this is why Andrew Holland is impolite enough to walk around his guests in the nude.
- Double Don't Know: Robertson, who is investigating the Gunn murder, talks to Edgar. He first states that he thinks Bosch is being framed. He next suggests that maybe, to put heat on someone else, Bosch is framing himself. Edgar shuts him down with "Never." Robertson says to him, "You don't know, youngblood, you don't know."
- Downer Beginning: Opens with Crate and Barrel delivering the bad news to Sharkey's mom, while a melancholy Bosch contemplates Sharkey's corpse at the morgue.
- Fanservice: Xavi's very sexy girlfriend greets Edgar and Bosch at the gate, wearing a bikini. The camera follows her bottom as she glides away on a scooter.
- Fan Disservice: Pasty, unattractive Andrew Holland, lounging around his house in front of guests, wearing nothing but a hand towel over his crotch. Then Holland getting up without the towel, mooning the camera with his pasty, unattractive butt.Rudy: [disgusted] Maybe he's overcompensating.
Marissa: [sarcastic] You think? - Innocently Insensitive: Irving's lawyer assures him the divorce process is a lot simpler as there are no children involved. Noticing the pointed look Irving gives her (since he and Connie had a son who was murdered), she clarifies that she's specifically talking about custody agreements for minor children, none of which are present here.
- Libation for the Dead: Sharkey's hoodlum buddies pour out their Coke cans for him.
- Plot Hole: Would an LAPD officer who was married to another LAPD officer's ex-husband really allowed to be part of the first wife's job interview?
- Serial Killer: The KTK has killed three people. His victims seem to follow no pattern other than they all live in Koreatown.
- Silence Is Golden: The first few minutes have no dialogue, but just the piano piece "Going Home" by Charlie Haden & Hank Jones playing as we cut between Crate and Barrel breaking the news of Sharkey's death to his mother, and Bosch looking at the body in the morgue.
- Title Drop: As Robertson and Bosch snarl at each other, Billets says "This is blood under the bridge!", before focusing them both back on the case.
- World's Smallest Violin: Barrel says he'll look over hours of surveillance camera footage looking for evidence that Xavi was with Sharkey because he's "got nothing but time"—he's getting divorced. Crate ribs him by making the "tiny violin" gesture and saying "And a thousand tiny violins begin to play."
