Title: Jury's Still Out
Directed by: Alex Zakrzewski
Written by: Benjamin Pitts
Air Date: June 25, 2021
Previous: Triple Play
Next: The Greater Good
Guest Starring: Annie Wersching, Alan Rosenberg, Natalia Castellanos, Adrian Bustamante, Moronai Kanekoa, Bess Armstrong, Reed Diamond, Eric Ladin
"Jury's Still Out" is the fifth episode of the seventh and final season of Bosch.
It's a trip down memory lane when Bosch pays a visit to Dr. William Golliher, the pathologist who way back in season 1 helped identify the bones of Arthur Delacroix. Golliher is boxing up his possessions as he prepares to retire. He asks about Sonia Hernandez and points out that she was close in age to Delacroix. Bosch makes the distinction that Sonia was a child who was happy and well-cared for, unlike Delacroix who was abused. He asks Dr. Golliher if he still believes there is a better place waiting for these victims. Golliher admits that he does not feel so certain anymore, as he's experiencing a "crisis of faith” like a “cancer of the soul”. The doctor turns the tables on Bosch and asks if he still believes justice is possible. Bosch counters that the “jury’s still out” on that.
Bosch and Edgar are ready for Alvarez to spill the name of whoever ordered him and Trejo to commit the arson attack. They need to hear him say Mickey Pena's name. After all, they honored their end of the bargain, and keep away status was granted to Alvarez. The detectives arrive at the jail...only to learn that Alvarez was just transferred to federal custody. A visit to the Department of Justice gets Harry no closer to Alvarez, as the DOJ is not talking. Bosch leans on Irving to try and grease the wheels. They are so close to getting the testimony they need to hold Pena accountable, and just need Alvarez to talk.
Later, Bosch drops Edgar off in Pena’s neighborhood. He pulls up to Pena’s gate as he hangs out with fellow members of Las Palmas, acting as a distraction while Edgar plants a tracker on Pena's car. He tells Mickey that Alvarez named him as the one who ordered the fire. Pena scoffs at the accusation, suggesting that Alvarez would say anything out of fear or to reduce his sentence. Bosch warns him that la Eme cannot touch Alvarez in light of his keep away status being granted. He also claims Trejo will probably talk as well, but Pena says his guys don't make deals, and they will be released soon. When Bosch tells Pena that Alvarez is in federal custody now, Pena dismisses Bosch and tells him to get lost in a way that suggests he already knows that Alvarez was behind a federal firewall.
In City Hall politics, Chief Irving gets a visit from newly appointed Police Commissioner Nestor Delgado. Delgado presses Irving on gang labeling reform. Irving notes that the issues Delgado wants tackled are ones that cannot be fixed overnight, but Delgado suggests that this issue could affect whether the Commission decides to grant Irving a second term or appoint someone else to replace him. Irving views Delgado’s concerns about this issue as insincere, and a tool to undermine Irving's support within the Commission. Later, Irving arrives on the scene of Jen Kowski getting ticketed for using her phone while driving and almost rear-ending another car. He has his driver pull up right next to Jen’s car. As Jen realizes that this traffic stop was staged by Irving to force her to talk to him, he gives her a message to pass on to Lopez: he will continue with the FBI’s investigation of her even though the FBI put it to rest.
At Hollywood Division, it is none other than Harvey Pounds at the station reporting to Captain Cooper on Internal Affairs' findings related to the photoshopped image of Billets that's been circulating. Pounds reports to Billets that they were able to trace the photo back to an anonymous message board, but they have no evidence that Leonard and Norris put the photo into circulation. Billets counters by sharing some documents showing that Leonard and Norris are incels, and that this is actually a department-wide problem, not an isolated one. Before Pounds leaves the station, he comes face to face with Bosch right outside the same window that Bosch threw Pounds into at the end of season 1. Bosch rattles Pounds by stepping in front of him like he is not going to let him through. He laughs it off as Pounds moves past him.
Billets decides to reach out to someone in Pacific Division to get some scoop on Leonard and Norris, as they previously worked here prior to being transferred to Hollywood Division. At Mank's suggestion, she reaches out to Julia Brasher, who was transferred to Pacific at the end of season 1 when Bosch would not corroborate her lies. Billets meets with Brasher for lunch. And sure enough, Brasher admits that she's also had a bad experience with Leonard and Norris. She and her partner were in a dangerous altercation in Oakwood between Black and Hispanic gangs. They called for help, and everyone came to the scene except for Leonard and Norris. Brasher confronted them about their behavior afterwards, and they gave a derogatory excuse. So she reported them, but ultimately they got transferred to Hollywood to avoid a 128 complaint.
To test the waters at Hollywood, Billets walks into the breakroom where Norris and Leonard are ranting about a woman they pulled over recently while making small talk to Rodriguez. Grace brings up the Oakwood incident, claiming that it must have been a harrowing situation. When she asks why they did not go to the scene to help, Leonard gives the excuse that they were dealing with a traffic stop. Billets inquires as to why there's no documentation of the response. Leonard lies and claims they did not call it in because they wanted to keep the frequency open.
The investigation into the shootings of Franzen and Chandler continues, as Bosch and Edgar interview Carl Rogers and learn that his attorney is the infamous J. Reason Fowkkes. Rogers denies any relationship with Franzen. He and Fowkkes suggest that Franzen was grasping at straws, trying to find something to avoid the lengthy prison sentence he was facing. Fowkkes points out that there is nothing else to discuss, because with Franzen dead and Chandler still in a coma, there's no one to corroborate whatever Franzen might've been planning to reveal about Rogers. Edgar fires back that they do have another witness. Fowkkes is surprised to hear that.
Bosch is livid at Edgar, as he's just put Maddie in danger. He may not have named Maddie, but it's only a matter of time before someone figures it out. He immediately calls Maddie and tells her to have Antonio meet her at the house. She should check in with him regularly until he gets home. Maddie is unnerved but follows her father’s instructions.
Maddie waits for Antonio at the house. Before he arrives, she pulls a gun from the record cabinet and puts it in her backpack. They sit down with a couple of Fat Tire beers. She mentions how she went to Du-Par’s earlier that day, watching the parking space where her mom was gunned down in season 4, as Chandler reminds her of Eleanor: someone who's formidable and brave. Antonio listens intently as Maddie begins to cry and bemoans how much she misses her mother.
Harry arrives home and receives a call from Judge Sobel. Sobel is calling to check on him and Maddie. Bosch appreciates her concern. He goes inside, and has Antonio take Coltrane for a walk so he can talk to Maddie in private. Harry explains that Maddie is a potential target like Chandler and Franzen were, so she'll have to testify in front of a grand jury the day after next. After that, she should be in the clear. He's met in the interim with ADA Tegan Boyle, who's informed him of a loophole that might just keep Maddie safe and allow her to give her testimony: if a grand jury witness is killed to keep them from testifying at trial, their grand jury testimony is rendered admissible as evidence. This loophole exists as a deterrent to protect witnesses who might otherwise be killed.
After the altercation with Harry, Edgar meets with Billets to request some time off to get his life in order. He later visits with Mama Roux, and admits to her that he wanted Jacques Avril dead after he had Gary Wise's father killed. Mama Roux wants to help relieve Jerry of the demons that are haunting him. He decides to fix things by staking out the Bosch house, keeping a watchful eye on Maddie from a distance.
While Harry deals with protecting Maddie, the work on tracking down the gunman is left to Pierce, Vega, Robertson and Bennett. Vega is able to identify the strange mask the shooter is wearing as a distortion mask commonly used to deter facial recognition software. The ballistics expert, Lester Poole, eventually identifies the gun type. With an idea as to the hitman's modus operandi, the detectives do a nationwide search for shootings with similar circumstances, and find some organized crime hits in Miami and Las Vegas with similar scenes to theirs. Then upon getting word from Bosch that Fowkkes is Rogers' attorney, Crate and Barrel go through old records on all of Fowkkes' past cases looking for clients with connections to organized crime in those cities, as this might uncover the hitman or someone who's hired him in the past. It doesn't take long for them to find a hit: not too long ago, Fowkkes represented a Vegas mobster named Willy Datz, who was facing jail time for a bust-out scheme only for the case to be dismissed because a key witness disappeared. The special master assigned to the case, Rodney Belk (Harry's attorney during the Flores civil suit in season 1), agrees with the detectives' suspicions that Fowkkes is the kind of person with the connections to hire a hitman.
The police also are able to identify the shooter's car. Through combing the surveillance cameras in Beachwood Canyon near the Franzen crime scene, they're eventually able to get a plate. It's determined that the killer was driving a Nissan Altima that was rented to someone using the name of George McClellan at Long Beach Airport on the morning of the Franzen shooting, then after the shootings, was abandoned in the long-term parking lot at Burbank Airport. It's clear that the gunman is not local, he was flown in from out of state to do the hits and left as soon as his work was done. Meaning that the only way they'll find the shooter is if he strikes again.
As the episode ends, Fowkkes reviews the videotape that the gunman stole from Franzen. As he nears the end of the tape, he hears Chandler call Maddie’s name and sees Maddie lean over in front of the camera. Fowkkes dials someone on the phone and says the gunman needs to come back.
Tropes
- Amoral Attorney: Taken to the extreme, as J. Reason Fowkkes, Carl Rogers's lawyer, is revealed at the end to be involved with the shootings of Franzen, Franzen's mistress, and Honey Chandler.
- And Starring: Annie Wersching gets "Special Appearance By" billing for her one-shot return as Officer Julia Brasher.
- The Bus Came Back: Several characters not seen since the first season make reappearances here, including Julia Brasher (who made a cameo appearance in season 2), Dr. William Golliher (the pathologist who examined Arthur Delacroix's bones), Rodney Belk (Harry's city lawyer in the Season 1 lawsuit, now working as the Special Master for Chandler's files), and Captain Harvey Pounds (last seen when Bosch put him through a plate glass window; now working for IA).
- Call-Back:
- When Golliher and Bosch have their farewell conversation, they talk about how Sonia Hernandez was two years younger than Arthur Delacroix, the long-dead victim who they investigate in Season 1. Then they talk about Golliher's faith in justice in a world beyond and Bosch's here on Earth: it seems both of them are having a crisis of faith.
- Maddie Bosch is shown sticking a gun in her backpack. Some of Madison Lintz's first appearances had Harry taking Maddie to the gun range, where she proved to be an expert shot.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Carl Rogers the hedge fund king, the man that Franzen would have named in the insider trading scheme, has the slicked-back hair of all evil businessmen types.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Detectives Santiago and Bennett get the report from Poole of ballistics about the bullets used in the Chandler and Franzen shootings. After Bennett summarizes their findings—"Gun for hire"—Santiago says "Paladin." They look blankly at him and he says "Have Gun – Will Travel?".Santiago: Am I dating myself?
- Jurisdiction Friction: Harry and the other detectives are enraged when they go to interview Alvarez, and discover that he has been taken into federal custody. They don't even know where he is.
- There Are No Coincidences: Played with. While Bosch said There Are No Coincidences in the previous episode, regarding the Franzen and Chandler shootings being mere hours apart, Santiago puts it differently when talking to Burton Devore from the SEC.Santiago: There is such a thing as coincidence. This ain't it.
