Title: "Clear Shot"
Directed by: Stephen Gyllenhaal
Written by: Eric Overmyer
Air Date: April 21, 2017
Previous: Aye Papi
Next: The Sea King
Guest Starring: Paola Turbay, John Ales, Paul Calderón, Arnold Vosloo, John Getz
"Clear Shot" is the 9th episode of the third season of Bosch.
A fully armed SWAT team is deployed to extract Jerry Edgar from his driveway and take him to the hospital. More teams scout the hill across the way and find the spot where the sniper took the shot. A tight-lipped Irving tells Bosch and Billets that Jerry will likely live.
Rudy Tafero has been stewing in the interview room since before Edgar got shot. Robertson, the only detective left in the squad room, says that he's free to go, but they've arrested Jesse because the video shows him entering Gunn's apartment.
Out on his boat, Dobbs curses out loud when he hears the news on the radio about Jerry Edgar getting shot.
At the hospital Irving tells Harry that Edgar's shoulder blade is being reassembled with plates and pins, and that he may regain use of the arm in six months. Back at Hollywood station, Bosch and Robertson show Rudy Tafero the video, complete with the shot of Jesse Tafero's face.
Irving meets with Bradley Walker of the police commission again. He tells Walker that he's changed his mind and will take the chief of police job permanently. Walker is delighted.
Bosch and Robertson, along with assistant DA Benitez, rejoin Rudy Tafero in the interview room. Tafero confesses all to save his brother, describing how he helped Holland dispose of the body of Donatella Speer, and how Holland himself came up with the frame job of Bosch. Holland even drew storyboards describing how he wanted the scene to look—highly incriminating storyboards that Rudy saw fit to steal as insurance in case he got double crossed.
After the meeting, Anita Benitez semi-apologizes and suggests they can still be friends, but Harry blows her off.
Rudy arrives at Holland's house, with the storyboards. He's wearing a wire, and he gets Holland to admit to everything, both the murder of Donatella Spear and the conspiracy to kill Gunn. After he leaves and gives the recording to the cops in the van outside, Bosch, Pierce, and Robertson go back in and arrest Holland for Gunn's murder.
At Hollywood station, Bosch is met by Bennett and Pell, the RHD investigators from the Riverwatch fire. They tell him that the fire started in John Caffrey's room, and that he apparently was the target of an arson attack.
Dobbs and Moreno talk on the phone. Dobbs, who knows from a GPS tracker that Moreno is still in LA, tells Xavi that he'll be going out to the Channel Islands to get Woody's share of the money and that he'll send Xavi's half. As Dobbs is leaving the next day, Xavi shows up on the boat. Xavi hides the knife used to kill Sharkey under a seat cushion. On the way to the island, Dobbs kills Xavi, ties his body to an anchor, and heaves him overboard.
Tropes:
- As Herself: The second brief cameo of real-life LAPD detective Mitzi Roberts as herself.
- Bond One-Liner: Dobbs fakes engine trouble and goes down below. Moreno says "Is everything OK?" Dobbs comes back from below with his gun, says "Yeah," and then shoots Xavi twice through the head. Then he says "A-OK."
- Coincidental Broadcast: Naturally, Dobbs hears the news about Edgar on the radio.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When asking Irving questions about Edgar getting shot, Bradley Walker worries whether this will turn into another Dallas
or Baton Rouge affair, two massacres of police officers that happened earlier that year and were committed in retaliation for a police shooting. - Dramatic Irony: Andrew Holland blathers about how not only will the charges be dropped, the whole thing will be great for his career, while Rudy Tafero is recording his confession on a wire.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Rudy Tafero gives up Holland to save his brother from a lengthy prison sentence.
- Fiery Cover-Up: The person who killed Caffrey staged his death to look like he fell asleep smoking. The discovery of accelerant blows the cover-up wide open.
- The Fixer: Rudy Tafero first came to work for Holland when helping him cover up the Speer murder. Holland used this to blackmail him into further service.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Crate arrives at work wincing from a hangover. It seems that he and Barrel and the Mexican police had quite the party after seizing $2 million from Moreno's yacht.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Just one episode after they said It Has Been an Honor. When Xavi arrives at the boat he and Dobbs are obviously determined to kill each other. Dobbs beats Xavi to the punch.
- Oh, Crap!: A satisfying moment of shock from smarmy prick Andrew Holland as the cops come in to arrest him.
- One Phone Call: Lampshaded by Bosch when he taunts Rudy Tafero with "You want your phone call?"
- Rule of Drama: Discussed Trope. When Bosch asks why they didn't simply strangle Gunn to death, Rudy Tafero says that all the theatrical touches—the owl, the Latin quote, dropping Gunn on his head—were Holland's idea.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The Andrew Holland plot thread ends with the Taferos arrested, and thus sparing Jesse Tafero, who is killed in A Darkness More Than Night.
- Title Drop: Irving notes that the man on the hill had a clear shot to Edgar's driveway.
- Wedding Ring Removal: After nearly doing it in the previous episode, Irvin Irving finally takes off his wedding ring, as he leaves for a date with Jun Park.
