*Spoilers Ahead*
  In the world of Southland, who you ride with is more than just the person you work a case with or walk a beat with–this person can be your lifeline or they can drag you down with them. This week’s episode again focused on the individual partnerships of the series and the push and pull between them. In particular, this episode was about drawing the line between what’s reasonable and what’s just too much for a partner to ask for.
Since his confrontation with his cheating wife Tammy, Sammy Bryant has been living on his partner Nate’s couch and the split  is leaking into the job as well. Throughout the entire episode, Nate’s on his iPhone yelling at Tammy or whisper-yelling at Tammy, testing just how many of those bleeped-out bad words they can get past their shiny new cable censors. The boiling point arrives when a visit to his former residence reveals changed locks and empty bottles of the expensive foreign beer he spoke about in the car.
Sammy also shows no signs of wanting to leave Detective Moretta’s place and it makes sense. After having to be the provider and the responsible one for so long the temptation to coast on the kindness of others is a strong one, and  Nate’s place can’t hold his own family and Sammy for long. Also, I found it interesting that when talking about the man Tammy cheated on him with, Sammy will be the second character of the episode to crack about being arrested for, or committing murder within a personal situation. It’s one thing to crack jokes to lighten the mood doing what they do, but quite another to toss out something as brutal as the taking of a life when it comes to people they know.
The other person who made the comment was Russell who is in the process of one nasty divorce, frozen bank accounts and all. In the midst of his financial problems Russell reaches out to his former partner Lydia for a decent-sized loan. The increased scenes together between Lydia and Russell are bringing up what, for Russell at least, seem to be the possible romantic feelings that have lingered between the two since the start of the show. Lydia’s new partner points out that Russell was and still is Lydia’s “lapdog” while she continues to treat him like a little kid. Lydia and Josie very much do not see things the same way and after Lydia went through so many partners on her own I think she’s finally found her match : someone who doesn’t just do everything she says, and instead questions her choices. This week it was a ‘was it a murder, or wasn’t it?’ situation that tested both character’s trust in the other’s instincts.
But the main story of this episode, is that of Ben Sherman. The young officer in training (and really sometimes it’s easy to forget that his partner Officer Cooper is still his training officer) is dealing with the reemergence of the single most significant person in his life. It’s something that’s been revealed over time in the series that Ben’s mother was sexually assaulted when he was a child and it was that moment that’s influenced so many others. It’s the reason why he became a cop, it’s the reason why at every call where a woman is being victimized Ben tends to lose his calm, and it’s also a lie.
When the man is released from prison and out on parole, Ben abuses the badge and the uniform to stalk him. After a so-called routine traffic stop results in physical harassment and verbal threats, a superior officer steps in to warn Ben not to be ”one of those idiots who lets his feelings screw his career” – his training officer John too warns Ben not to pull this kind of stuff. Earlier in the episode, John also provides an example with a young man at a crack house thawhich ends in tragedy when Ben repeats it later on with a frightened recently-robbed restaurant owner. Regarding the first scene, no one does intimidating tough guy as well on this show as Michael Cudlitz. He was downright terrifying in his description to the young man of what fate awaited him if he kept on his current wayward path. Ultimately though, as Ben learns the hard way, there’s just no way to know for sure when, if ever, an officer should look the other way. Another great scene with John involves his recounting an anecdote to Ben about one of his first solo calls. It serves to show that while Officer Cooper has his own demons in the form of his secret addiction, they’re just not of the same caliber as Ben’s primal need for revenge attached to the memory of the violent act against his mother.
Ben goes about ignoring all advice and orders by sitting outside of where he knows the paroled man is staying when suddenly his mother shows up. Her confession to Ben and his reaction to it were absolutely shattering to watch. Benjamin McKenzie made Ben’s reaction so visceral that I really don’t know how he’s going to be able to pull himself back together knowing now what he knows. How do you reconcile the fact that the very thing that’s driven you for all of your life was a massive misunderstanding? I wonder if we’ll start seeing an Officer Sherman who just stops caring enough to be passionate, or if he’ll be more of the man who beat a suspect to a bloody pulp and lose everything he’s building because of it.