SOUTHLAND “Fixing a Hole” Season 3 Episode 8 - “Sometimes cops find a case can dig them into a hole. Before sunrise Detective Sammy Bryant will discover how hard it can be to dig yourself out.”
Cooper and Sherman stop to deal with a school bus that has been targeted by gun toting 13-year-olds out to steal field trip money. What they find nearby is a malnourished, possibly confused 9-year-old who claims to have been living in a cave with two other boys. Adamant the kid is telling the truth, John sets out to find the ‘cave’ and inadverantly panics the paedophile who had been holding the kid – and two other boys. The paedophile commits suicide and the children are found.
Lydia and Josie have the unenviable task of escorting Naomi, a drunk former actress, to court where she is to testify against a murder suspect. After a slightly hitch, wherein Naomi runs off to try and find score a drink, they get her into court and she delivers a powerful testimony. It looks like all’s well that ends well – up until Naomi lets slip that she didn’t actually witness the murder, but everyone says the suspect committed it. Lydia reluctantly arrests her and give her a pep talk about not needing alcohol to be a strong person.
This week Sammy learns that Mariella is happier when he’s around. Later he comes to her aid when she has issues with Nate’s death certificate at the bank. Wanting to make things better, Sammy decides to deal with Nate’s supposed murderer himself. He kidnaps the guy but can’t bring himself to go through with the murder, and instead heads for home, sickened. But he arrives to find a ‘For Sale’ sign outside. Mariella’s worried that everything is moving too fast and so she’s going to stay with her parents.
This was probably one of the weaker episodes of season three for me, but not by much. The Naomi storyline was a nice bit of comedic relief in an otherwise dark episode but it didn’t quite mesh together. I was waiting for more on the photograph/Russell reveal from last week, maybe Lydia talking about it with Josie, but the only allusion to the whole affair was Lydia not wanting to take the payment for escorting Naomi in case it was misconstrued.
Oh, Cooper. He ditches his pills and spends the entire episode walking stiffly and trying to hide the pain. It made him walking the streets for an entire night, searching for the two kids, all the more powerful, but where does he go from here? He’s a wreck, everyone can see it, and even Chickie and Dewey are pointing out the similarities to their season 1 situation. Sherman’s sticking by his partner for now, but will it eventually become too much for him to try and ignore? At least he has a potential bright spot in the form of a cute, understanding waitress.
I was worried about Sammy this week. This is Southland, after all, we couldn’t be sure he would survive the episode. Thankfully, he did – but will his actions come back to haunt him? Surely there must be repercussions. Perhaps a more immediate concern is that Sammy is now alone. On the one hand, this may be a good thing as he was clearly becoming too codependent with Mariella. On the other hand, what will he do now? Will he turn to Tammi yet again? We can only hope not!
What did you think of ‘Fixing a Hole’? Let us know in the comments below!
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