Bosch season 5 episode 4 review: The undercover mission begins!
The last episode of Bosch was really all about laying out the foundation for the rest of the season. There are a lot of stories in the air right now with the prescription pill drug trade, Maddie and Tom getting closer, Crate and Barrel getting benched and Bosch facing a very real possibility that Preston is going to get out of jail and come straight to his house and murder him. Going into episode 4 we are expecting more of these pieces to fall into place as we get closer to seeing Bosch go undercover and see how gets to that spot in the premiere where he has a gun in his face.
The Omer confession
After going over the death bed confession Omer gave (and his records) Bosch is even more convinced that the confession is bogus since the MO of this guy isn’t murder and was never murder. Omer claimed he climbed over a balcony railing and slipped in through a sliding door which is how he attacked his victims, but Skyler’s railing and balcony was covered in soot and there was no hand prints, no foot prints – nothing. There’s also no mention of the carving knife that was used on Skyler after she was dead. Really, there was nothing in this confession that wasn’t in the papers at the time or came out at the trial, and Bosch is having a hard time finding someone who actually witnessed Omer’s confession. The best he’s found is someone that watched him sign his name to the confession and that Omer’s lawyer read it to him through the glass. What was interesting though is that Omer was so sick that he could barely hold the pen to sign the confession.
There is another problem though and that is an arrest that Preston got a few weeks before he was brought in for the Skyler murder. The notice that went out to all cops at that time was not to arrest Preston because he was already a murder suspect, but there was a cop at that time that didn’t care and did it anyways. When they get Preston to the station they find nothing on him and Irving comes down to the station and cuts Preston loose. Irving was nervous that they were going to lose Preston because of this and made sure the officer didn’t write this up – that’s why he was “detained” and not “arrested”.
We did get an Irving flashback here to the day they busted into Preston’s apartment and it clearly shows Skyler’s pendent on the wall as they are investigating and not being planted, but is it possible that it was planted before Irving got there?
Bosch interviews: If you missed our latest Bosch interviews you can check out our one with Amy Aquino here and our one with Jamie Hector here.
Hector investigates
Hector talks to Rita claiming that he is a friend of Preston’s and he just got out of jail saying Preston told him to look up his wife and that she would hook him up with some cash. Rita at first tries to deny knowing Preston, but by the end of the conversation she reveals that she does know Preston, there is money coming (but it’s not available yet) and to leave her alone or she will tell Preston. Oh, and Rita was the court reporter at Preston’s trial and that’s how they met.
Going undercover!
We saw the beginning of Bosch getting ready to go undercover as a man named Dominic – all ID he needs (social security number, driver’s license etc) to start getting prescriptions was delivered to his desk. Because he’s a veteran that does have an injury, he kicks off the first move in his plan – get an Oxycontin prescription through the VA. Unfortunately it’s proving to be difficult as the VA doctor doesn’t want to give it to him and instead wants to have him go to a support group to help get him off opioids. He decides to go to the meeting in hopes that he could show the doctor that it’s not about addiction it’s about needing the help, but it doesn’t work. What he does see though is a member of the group (Lewis) that could get him in to the Garcia clinic which is right where he wants to be, so when he finds the opportunity to connect with Lewis he snags it creating a quick bond of trust after helping him with a client that was overdosing. Lewis now owes Bosch a favor.
After a coffee and some conversation Bosch calls in that favor saying he wants him to hook him up with the Garcia clinic so he can get some pills and Lewis agrees.
Related: Check out our review of Bosch season 5 episode 5!
CarterMatt Verdict
Ever since we saw those first 20 minutes of the Bosch season 5 premiere of Harry undercover we have been dying for the story to circle back to that and show us how it all came together – this episode really brought those pieces into focus with Bosch connecting with Lewis. We weren’t sure what Bosch going undercover was going to look like, meaning was he still going to sound like a cop or was he really going to sell his story? It was more then believable to Lewis (and to us) and we are excited to see Bosch go further undercover.
What did you think of Bosch season 5 episode 4 and do you buy into Bosch being undercover? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. (Photo: Amazon)
This review was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.