Southland 2.03 - U-boat
Okay, so, I haven't rewatched so I might miss some details, but dude. DUDE. What an amazing hour of TV.
1. Chickie going to John and bitching about how she's catching the short end of the stick for reporting Dewey, and she's right, and John goes back in to argue on her behalf. Sort of. I just. Okay, first of all, that exchange was awesome on its own, but then he was both an incredible asshole for the rest of the episode as he raked her over the coals for being a bad police officer while simultaneously retraining her. Just. Kind of fantastic.
And, like, how could she have been a good officer alongside Dewey, except that was part of the point, too, right? She should have reported Dewey way earlier for his sake and hers and for general public safety, but she didn't and she got used to doing things the sloppy way, of letting shit slide. Dewey's behavior was horrible and abusive and I'm so sure that a bunch of her adaptations were all about figuring out how to manage a day-to-day life with him at her back. I feel defensive of her, and I also feel like John's got a point. How she became a bad cop isn't so much the issue any more, it's just that no one on the force trusts her to do her job well enough to keep them safe, and so they don't want to work with her. And John's gonna be a dick about it, but he's also gonna help her fix the problem.
2. Ben riding alone for the first time. Oh my god, that bit in the parking lot where John tosses Ben the keys, and Ben's all, 'wait, what?' and John tells him he'll ride alone today, and then gives him the most nervous-dad lecture of all time. It's the training officer equivalent of 'and don't take any drinks from an open container, you're not wearing that out of the house, remember that boys only want one thing, I expect you home by eleven, young lady.' I thought nothing could make this lecture any more amazing than it already was, but then Ben perks right up and gives a side grin and calls him Dad. He's proud! And excited! And scared! And so is Ben. &heart &heart
3. Ben's reaction to that kid in the yard, man. Okay. I just. I have vague, unformed theories about how his dad was more of a dick than he's acknowledged. Like, just the fact that his dad wasn't there during an assault doesn't seem bad enough to hate the man for life, you know? When he first saw the kid wearing ladies undergarments to mow the lawn, Ben seemed so knowing like this scene was familiar to him in a deep, dark, nightmarish way and I kind of wonder if his dad visited that kind of humiliation on him when he was little. /personal canon
4. Detective Lydia Adams! I love her so much. Her interactions with Detective Cordero were phenomenal. I love that she was the one teasing him by pasting faces of famous people on his photos. The unconscious way that she kept offending him by calling Russ her partner, or by accidentally calling Cordero 'Russ.' I love the honest (and accurate) way he suggested that the way she was interacting with Russ might in fact be making things more (not less) stressful for him. I love the way both Cordero and Adams apologize to each other and acknowledge the truth of what the other one had said during their argument. I love how she got even with him for pretending the baby crib was for the two of them. Just, really enjoyed those interactions and, again, I love Regina King's nuanced acting. She's amazing.
5. Oh my god, the way Ben clobbers the chef dude, even after he's handcuffed, when he hears the paramedics say the victim is unresponsive. But more than that, the conversation he has with Cooper out in the parking lot after the shift was intense and amazing. I love that Ben is horrified by his actions, is a little afraid of himself. And I love that Cooper doesn't try to talk him down from that feeling, but rather encourages it in the way of 'now you know what you're capable of, don't abuse your power.' Amazing.
6. Ben called Cooper in the middle of the night, after their shift was over, about a kid's shoes on a wire. There is so much about that that is amazing and fantastic that I don't know what to say. Seriously, that he couldn't stop thinking about that kid and those fucking shoes, that he wanted to help and he couldn't figure out how, and the only person he could think to ask was Cooper. That Cooper didn't hesitate but showed up in the middle of the night, and then sat on the curb and talked to Ben about his own personal nightmares.
7. When the fire truck pulls up, and Ben turns to look at Cooper, and Cooper shrugs and says someone owed him a favor....*hands* Oh my god. Oh my god! Cooper gets this call about some kids sneakers and he *gets it*. He gets that this is important, like stupid shit sometimes is, and he drops whatever he was doing to give Ben a hand and, more to the point, he *calls an ex-boyfriend*(personal canon ahoy!) in the fire department, and they show up with a ladder truck to pull sneakers off a power line. Amazing. All of that was so fucking amazing. I don't even know what to do with myself.
How is this show so fantastic?!