‘Bosch’: Investigating episode 4.08 ‘Dark Sky’

New developments have the task force shifting focus to one of their own in the episode 8 of Bosch season 4.

Time is running out and the task force cannot legally hold Frankie Sheehan much longer. Mank reminds Harry that he will have to let Frankie go at end of watch if he is not charged. Bosch understands and knows that he needs to talk to Snyder about the missing evidence in Sheehan’s officer involved shooting.

A new suspect

Harry confronts Sgt. Amy Snyder as soon as she arrives to the station on Friday, one week after the murder of Howard Elias. Snyder denies being at the property room and tells Bosch to check the surveillance cameras to see who it really was tampering with evidence.

Harry updates Irving on the missing evidence. Irving comments that he can tell that Harry is not telling him everything he knows and that’s the way Irving wants it. The Chief has a mission of his own. He is about to make some unannounced site visits. Irving is not planning to yield to the efforts of the Mayor and Bradley Walker to make him a scapegoat.

Bosch acquires the footage on a thumb drive and reviews with Lt. Billets. They are disappointed to learn that it was Snyder’s IA partner, Gabriella Lincoln, that signed in as Snyder. Harry shares the news with Robertson, Pierce, and J. Edgar. The team needs to find a way to interrogate her without tipping her off to their findings.

Grace pulls the personnel records for Gabriella but finds no red flags. Meanwhile, Snyder requests an internal investigation on Lincoln. Financial records reveal two large bank deposits whose dates coincide with Elias’ settlement payments.

More soup?

J. Edgar talks with Snyder outside. She is worried that she will not be able to gain the trust of future partners after opening an investigation on her current partner, Lincoln. Jerry points out that it all depends on who the partner is. Jerry also gives her validation that her efforts have made a good impression on Harry, even though Harry is not one to say that himself.

Harry interrupts Jerry and Amy and tells Jerry they need to go back to Golden Soup.

The partners talk to Ting, poker player Ken Lin’s cousin, who works at the restaurant. They ask about the night of the poker game where the Chinese national beat up his cousin. They want a name. Ting says he heard the name Shiwei Chin.

As they probe for a way to reach out to Ting’s cousin, Ken Lin, Ting suggests they are putting his family in danger. This angers Harry as his own family has suffered a tragedy related to the incident. Harry slams Ting into a cart and Jerry reminds Ting that they all have families. Harry gives Ting his card, not expecting to hear from him again.

Harry believes there must be a connection between the Chinese national and the work Eleanor was doing for the FBI. They decide to call Detective Moy of the San Gabriel gang unit to inquire about local muscle that may be working for Chen.

Murse-y me

Pierce volunteers to go look for the first bullet that went through the conductor. And he does it in style, plotting the trajectory and searching the ground with his murse in tow. Pierce’s careful and methodical methods prove fruitful when Pierce finds the slug on the ground.

I love seeing Pierce at work. He does everything one hundred percent! I am particularly fond of an exchange between Pierce and the current conductor at Angels Flight. When Pierce refers to the victim by name, Lanny Johnson, the Angels Flight driver points out how it is interesting how Lanny’s name was not in the news like the high-profile attorney. Pierce says, “everybody matters”. Pierce is an honorable man, but I must think Harry is having a positive influence on him as well.

On the down low

Meanwhile, Harry gives Gabriela a canvassing assignment to get her out of the office. The task force needs to solidify their plan to get Gabi to talk. Harry enlists the help of RHD Detective Rooker, Sheehan’s partner. They cook up a story about Rooker being an accomplice to Sheehan in the Elias murder.

Bosch phones to Gabi to check on her “assignment”. She is on her way home. Bosch asks her to return to the station to interrogate Rooker. She complies and arranges childcare for her daughter with her ex-husband.

Rooker arrives at the station and is surprised at the request for his involvement. Robertson reminds Rooker that Bosch was the one who believed Frankie originally. Rooker agrees to a faux lockup to get Lincoln talking.

Caught in a lie

Lincoln arrives at the station to interrogate Rooker. She puts her weapon in the holding locker and joins Harry and J. Edgar in the interrogation room.

They ask where she was earlier in the week when the evidence in Sheehan’s officer involved shooting went missing. She says she was getting a warrant and dropping off the slug.

Harry suggests there may be video evidence of Black Guardian from another camera not part of the original investigation. Harry speculates that maybe Rooker went with Sheehan to retrieve the tape and things “went sideways”.

Lincoln inquires how Elias would have such video evidence. Bosch suggests one of the other RHD detectives found it. Bosch asks Lincoln about checking the junkyard for cameras as part of her Internal Affairs investigation. Her recollection seems fuzzy.

When Bosch mentions the surveillance camera in the property room, Lincoln tries to cover her tracks but has no good reason to have signed in as Amy Snyder. She is offended when asked about her own alibi for the night of Elias’ murder. She has been caught in a lie and says she has information to share but not without the District Attorney being present.

Maddie makes a trip to the desert

Maddie is on a personal journey. She ducks out of school and heads to Borrego Springs in her aviator sunglasses (looking a lot like her dad, by the way!). She tells Harry she will be out late.

She parks her car and wanders through the area looking for the spot where she was a child in the photo with her mom. She becomes alarmed when she stops for a sandwich and sees her mom’s engagement ring missing from her finger. To her relief, she finds it in the cuff of her sweater.

Maddie makes her way back to the car at night. It is, of course, dark and I wondered if she might see a shooting star like the night Harry spoke of when he was shipping out.

Jun is no dope

Chief Irving’s lovely and intelligent companion, Jun Park, suggests an old boxing technique as a metaphor for combatting the Mayor’s efforts to blame Irving for the city’s unrest. Jun brings up rope-a-dope. Irving takes the idea to heart and decides to use the Mayor and Walker’s own blue ribbon panel as an opportunity to facilitate the change he wants to employ in the department.

The Chief enlists the help of activist Desiree Zealy asking her to join the panel. He explains that her voice could really make a difference in that setting. Zealy agrees, but her protestor friends are not happy with her cooperation with the police department.

The one that got away

Jerry and Harry meet up with Detective Moy in San Gabriel. Moy takes them to some karaoke parties to show the picture of the Chinese national. While Moy asks the guests if they have seen this man, Bosch spots two men enter the building with motorcycle helmets. One of them has long hair like the passenger in the camera footage from Eleanor’s murder.

They spot Harry and begin shooting. Harry fires back. One of the bikers is down. Harry chases the second one on foot, but he gets away.

Also of note:

• Grace gives Harry the acceptance letter Maddie received from Chapman University, the one Maddie put in the trash.
• ICE picks up arson suspect at Alberto Bondigos at Bradley Walker’s construction site before the LAPD arson detectives have a chance to get there. This is after Irving asked for Walker’s cooperation with apprehending Bondigos.
• Walker arrives at the construction site just behind ICE and is talking on the phone about a bridge for a loan. It sounds like his financial backing is not particularly solid.
• Crate and Barrel are tickled pink and call themselves “Zen Masters” when they realize that their hit and run victim was the Koreatown Killer.
• Barrel provides a chuckle when he talks about his uniform pants being destroyed by clothing moths because he has not worn them in so long.
• Jack and Joe Edgar do not understand why their parents need separate houses anymore. Latonya shuts down the subject. Jerry, however, whispers to the boys, “We’ll figure it out.” Jerry and Latonya do not seem to be on the same page about the subject.
• The power of social media comes up again as Pierce and Robertson talk to arson detectives about the firebomb thrown at their car last night. Detective Bennett points out that they might find some talk about the incident on social media.
• We learn that Eleanor left instructions that she be cremated.
• Lt. Billets cautions the officers (now on modified tactical alert) that they should not conduct themselves as though they are “at war with the city”.

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I encourage fans to check out the “Inside the Writers’ Room” segment on X-Ray for this episode and others. There are fascinating insights about the developments in the case and the characters involved.

It feels like the task force is closing in on the truth.  Something certainly seems amiss with Lincoln. What else does she have to say?

Harry is making gains in Eleanor’s case. Maddie is working through her grief. Things are moving forward, but we only have two episodes left to solve the mysteries in Bosch season 4!