Bosch season 4 episode 9 review: Gabriella Lincoln implicates a major player

We are at the second last episode of Bosch season 4 and there are so many balls in the air right now that we have no idea how they are going to land them all with only 2 episodes left. That’s part of the fun with this show! We know that Gabriella Lincoln is some how involved in this whole Elias case, but we have no idea how – all we know is that this looks to be a lot bigger than just her and that alone makes going into episode 9 exciting.

Gabriella’s involvement

She’s made it clear that she’s not taking the fall for Elias’ murder and is willing to talk to make sure she doesn’t. This interrogation starts out by throwing gasoline right into the fire when she says that she gave the Harris torture video to president of the police commission Bradley Walker – the same man that Bosch thinks is tied to his mother’s murder. She had a deal with Walker that she would feed him information, he would then in turn feed it to Elias and Elias would then settle cases so they didn’t get out into the media and sink the police department. Elias would kick back a percentage of the settlement  to walker who would throw some cash her way for helping.

The Harris case was the big cash cow that everyone was waiting on and she planned on walking away from all of this this after that pay out. This time though, Elias thought that the Harris case was way too important to bury and with the tape in his possession from Walker he had everything he needed to expose the police department. Not only that but Elias was going to expose Walker as the source which would ruin him, so Bosch thinks that he had someone kill Elias, but Gabriella is quick to tell him that he’s on the wrong trail with that saying that Walker killed Elias himself. How does she know this? Because he told her that he handled it personally and that if he ever went down for this that he would be bringing her with him. Not wanting to go down for a murder she didn’t commit she admits to switching the bullets to frame Frank, tossing the actual bullet that killed Elias down a gutter.

While her testimony is compelling (she even took and passed a polygraph test to prove it), there’s not enough evidence to go after Walker. We are talking about the president of the police commission here! They need more than testimony to sink a man with this kind of clout and power. They need that video tape or to pin his whereabouts the night Elias was killed – the issue there is that Bosch is Walker’s alibi since he was watching him that night at a fundraiser. Even though Bosch had eyes on Walker the night of the fundraiser, he learns that there are underground tunnels connected through the kitchen of the hotel that lead to where Elias was shot giving Walker enough time to head through the tunnels, murder Elias and return before anyone noticed.

The political games people play

One of the most interesting aspects of this season is the push and pull between the Mayor, Irving and the protesters. We know that some of the protesters have started to act out in a violent way (like throwing a Molotov cocktail at Jimmy’s car) and the only thing seemingly keeping them at bay from a full out riot is the fact that they had Frank in custody. Now that Frank has been cleared of Elias’ murder, the Mayor is left holding the bag and looking like a fool while Irving is scrambling to find out who actually killed Elias before the huge protest. With there being so much heat between the police department and the protesters, the Mayor is concerned about having the police department looking bad, but Irving won’t let his officers get hurt by telling them not to defend themselves. Once the Mayor tells Irving that he’s joining the protesters for the big movement on Sunday lines have been drawn in the sand.

CarterMatt Verdict

Bosch may never be able to connect Walker to the murder of his mother (and even if he can so much time has passed that he may not be able to get justice), but nabbing him on Elias’ murder may be a way to give him some peace. We want to see that for Bosch moving into season 5 and see how that could help him evolve into the next phase of his life. He’s been so focused over the years on catching his mother’s killer that we wonder what happens to him when that is put to rest?

What did you think of the Bosch season 4 episode 9? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts.

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