*Spoiler Alert*
Issues such as race and class difference have always been a catalyst of major crimes on Southland but to see both start to affect the detectives and officers themselves made this episode a real stand-out. When an inter-gang ‘Romeo and Juliet’ love story causes a bloody Quincenera shooting resulting in the death of a child, Detectives Nate Moretta and Sammy Bryant are tasked to work with Detectives Lydia Adams and Josie Ochoa before any more bodies pile up during M.L.K. weekend.
Following Tammy’s announcement to Sammy last episode that she’s pregnant, he’s understandably on edge. It’s the nature of his job in the gangs and narcotics division to see a seemingly never-ending line of young kids and teenagers who barely get to live their life before gang violence snuffs it out. Now that he’s a soon-to-be father himself, Sammy’s getting more affected by the lost youths and apathetic parents he’s surrounded by everyday. We’ve seen glimpses of wayward kids getting under Sammy’s skin before but now that he’ll soon be responsible for raising a child himself, he’s lashing out. The fight between Sammy and Detective Ochoa regarding, as Sammy put it, ‘looking the part and paying the price’ displayed a tension that will likely spring up again this season. Even returning officer Dewey echoed the sentiment and received a punch in the face from Lydia for it at a crime scene, just barely out of the sight of news cameras.

Speaking of Dewey, he’s back into the rotation after a much-needed stint in rehab for alcohol addiction, so who better to put him in a car with for the shift than fellow, albeit secret, addict John Cooper? It was a great idea to force John to spend hour upon hour with an Officer Dewey who downs coffee to replace the booze he used to live off of, in addition to chatting non-stop about the steps and finding God. Seeing what rehab can turn you into is going to make someone like John that much more reluctant to go. He doesn’t find any fault in who he is or how he lives his life – in his eyes he would never put himself in the same category of addict as Dewey was, falling apart on the job, disappearing for periods of time, and driving the patrol car under the influence. It’s ultimately going to take someone like his usual partner Ben to get him to save his own life before his addiction starts to affect the job in more obvious ways.
Ben meanwhile endures finding out that the woman he’s started seeing is a notorious ‘badge bunny’ (someone who makes a habit of sleeping with police officers) and sure enough, quite a few fellow officers have a Sally story to tell. All except John, of course, whose current sexual preference has been more than alluded to in past seasons as being that of the male persuasion. I’m curious as to where this is actually going to go other than making Ben the butt of more than a few jokes with his fellow officers, (in addition to getting to Officer Brown and her obvious crush on Ben that she’s harbored in silence since about season one.) However, this love affair could easily come and go with little more said about it. Something that’s a real strength of Southland is that they usually maintain focus on the crimes and the patrol shifts versus reliance on the character’s personal lives to find plot development, so that when details of their lives are given it’s more enticing than melodramatic.

A few highlights from the episode:

* Officer John Cooper is always good for the unexpected quip. During a call that involved a man with a wife and two, yes two, girlfriends and a bottle of super-glue he just had to call in for a medical response time by saying they had ‘a sticky situation.’

*The ‘Who’s on First?’ riff involved iwith a murder suspect named Nobody. “Nobody shot him”. “Who shot Nobody?”

*The suspect apprehension by Officer Sherman. It never gets old to watch him haul ass and tackle a perp with zero regard for his physical self. At this rate it won’t be long before he winds up popping pain pills like John.

*John ditching Dewey at a convenience store at the first sight of his partner Ben waiting outside of said store. I felt badly for Officer Brown that she was stuck again with the obnoxious partner she’s had for years, but it was funny watching Ben and John’s eagerness to be in the same car again.