Bosch season 4 episode 4 review: Eleanor Wish shocker leads to Titus Welliver’s Emmy worthy performance

When we last saw Harry Bosch he was talking to one of the cops accused of torturing Michael Harris named Frank Sheehan. He showed up at Bosch’s house late at night, drunk as a skunk and it wasn’t exactly clear what he planned to do. Sheehan was worried that because he didn’t have an alibi for the night Elias was murdered (he was home alone watching TV) that he was going to have this murder pinned on him and he is spiraling. So did he kill Elias?

The confession

Frank is convincing when he says that he didn’t kill Elias and it was made all the more convincing when he admits that everything Harris said was true and that he was part of it. The bag, the pencil, and the tortured confession – they were convinced they had the right guy, but was wrong when the body of that young girl was found and her father was responsible. Frank was convinced that Elias knew the truth and that he was going to blow up his whole life which easily gives Frank a motive to kill him, but for us something doesn’t feel right pegging him as the killer. After a long talk, Bosch convinces him to stay the night and go into the station in the morning to tell his story, but when Bosch wakes up Frank is in the wind. Probably not the smartest move for Frank, but it seems about since over the past few years of his life when he has a choice between right and wrong he always chooses wrong. He’s now become a suspect and they are doing everything they can to locate him especially after seeing Frank’s deposition where he made a threat to Elias in pretty much the exact same manner in which he was killed.

The last day of Eleanor’s life

Reggie is still in China as the government has taken his passport and he was put into detention for two weeks. He feels it’s related to the work that Eleanor was doing with the FBI as she was looking into Reggie’s uncle and his organized crime affiliations. When Eleanor finally hears from Reggie he told her to choose between the FBI and him and she gave him the ultimatum of choosing between his uncle and her and Maddie. Never a good point in your marriage when the ultimatums are flying. Not only did this lead to them deciding to divorce, and after meeting Bosch to filling him in on how messed up things have gotten for her two men on a motorcycle drive up and shoot her dead in a parking lot. This was honestly one of the more shocking, heart-wrenching deaths we’ve seen on television and we’ve been a critic for almost ten years now. Barely anything surprises us these days, but this was something we really didn’t see coming especially with how big of a character Eleanor is and this only being episode 4 (most shows save these big character deaths for a finale).

Related – Check out our review of Bosch episode 5.

CarterMatt Verdict

Eleanor Wish is a character that we have really loved over the seasons and to see her gone in such a shocking way has left us breathless as we imagine many other fans of the show felt after watching this story unravel. We could feel Bosch and Maddie’s pain burrow right through us with the incredible performances from Titus Welliver and Madison Lintz. We have loved Welliver’s portrayal of Bosch throughout this series, but this episode really showed us just what he’s capable of when he gets tough material. Bosch has never been a character to break down, wail and cry his eyes out and that didn’t happen here either, but Welliver still showed us this incredibly broken man through what he wasn’t saying more so than what he was saying. If the Emmy’s weren’t looking at Welliver before, we suspect that they will be now.

What did you think of the Bosch season 4 episode 4 and do you like the set up of the story for this season? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts.

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