* SPOILERS AHEAD. SERIOUSLY.*

Near the beginning of the season, those of us who could be called ardent spoiler fiends started to hear there was some massive news about Southland‘s third season. Someone was going to die. No, I don’t mean some random recurring cast member or a guest-star, but a series regular who had been on since the beginning. It’s easy to look back at the first three episodes and everything until the last ten minutes of the fourth to play the ‘Who’s it going to be?’ game using any and all evidence thrown your way. Smart money could have been on John as he’s been injured on the job for a while, or even young Ben making a fatal rookie mistake. Perhaps Dewey would have a spectacular bender to end all benders and wind up flat on a mattress somewhere. But if you look at pure logistics it was very easy to deduce who was going to bite it.

Kevin Alejandro is on Southland. He is also on True Blood which starts to shoot roughly about the time that Southland does so…tonight was Detective Nate Moretta’s last day on duty. But cold open aside, nothing in this episode could have prepared the audience for this unfortunate truth. Sammy’s still bickering with Tammy to the point that when that distinctive iPhone ringtone starts up, it’s a virtual countdown until the first bleeped-out curse word is uttered. Nate and Sammy’s case involves the tragic shooting of an innocent man, likely by some up and coming ‘bangers in the neighborhood. When a reluctant eye-witness turns up, it’s Nate’s ability to put people, especially those who happen to have a similar background as himself, at ease enough to realize what the right thing is was one of his best qualities as a detective. However, what winds up happening to Detective Moretta is something that his ease with those same gang-bangers opened the door for.

On the other end of the shift, Ben and John are out on patrol and one domestic dispute gone awry turns into Training Officer Cooper’s chance to show Ben all the ways that he has so much more to learn. Following the shattering personal events of last week’s episode, Ben has the blinders of his own personal biases on as much as he ever has. John even calls him out on his ‘women in peril shit’, and it’s a good thing that he does because it’s absolutely clouding his judgment. John decides to let Ben ride lead for the rest of the shift, and it’s one mishap after another as Ben is forced to realize that he may be nine months in and believes he has nothing else to learn, but to John that’s when he’s at his most dangerous. This plotline provided the episode with a nice shot of comic relief in addition to  showing layers within Ben and John’s partnership. During a scene when they’re riding together, John brings up what Ben’s private school, sushi-eating upbringing must have been like. Michael Cudlitz gives his line readings and reaction shots the nicest shading of envious resentment. Ben never wanted for anything growing up whereas John had to struggle every day of his life to even end up doing a job that, to him, Ben takes for granted.

Rookies are not the only people who make mistakes. The last scene with Sammy and Nate was of the tensest moments of television not only of the year, or of the season, but in recent memory. The fatal scene occur was a gut-wrenching display of  a situation going from bad to worse to ‘how can this be happening still’!? Now, there’s absolutely no way to be sure that some different action short of Nate not stopping the car and getting out, would have saved his life. Maybe he shouldn’t have turned his back on the mass of ‘bangers gathered out in the street. Perhaps if he hadn’t have signaled the helicopter patrol above them that everything was 10-4 then back-up could have been there and prevented the altercation. But as it stands, the sudden and shocking action that ends Det. Moretta’s life was as awful to watch as it was for Sammy to try and live through. Easily the most horrifying thing about the swarm of aggression that descended down on the outnumbered detectives was the fact that nothing was stopping them. When Nate went down, they were on him and perhaps a fatal blow there actually killed him, (pretty sure though from what I could tell during the hectic scene that it was that first blunt force trauma from what appeared to be either a pipe or a club.) As Sammy struggles to keep the mob at bay and drag his likely already life-less partner back away to the barest hope of safety, Southland transforms from a cop drama to a zombie horror film. It’s really the only way to describe the scenario and that how no matter what Sammy does from just firing off warning shots to straight-up shooting someone–they just keep trying to kill him.

Shawn Hatosy has been a real stand-out this season, and sure enough he delivers when the moment of realization hits for the audience that  in the cold open, Sammy was waiting in the morgue. Special mention definitely goes out to Yara Martinez who plays Nate’s wife, Mariella. When she meets up with Sammy in the morgue and they both collapse emotionally and physically against each other–it’s that kind of moment that feels like it’s improvised movement and dialog. She fully encapsulated the wrenching mix of emotion when a loved one is lost. Kevin Alejandro wasn’t given a flashy sweeps-style storyline leading up his final bow on the show but the way he went out fit the tone of the show perfectly : it was just another day for Detective Moretta, and in this job that means sometimes you don’t get to come home again. Sammy Bryant has lost his partner, his best friend, and his rock during this difficult time in his life. I greatly hope that whomever partners up with him next is prepared to be the same for him, or he’ll continue to spiral down on his own.