Bosch is making gains on cases past and present.
Bosch season 6 episode 7: ‘Hard Feelings’
Written by: Jeffrey Fiskin
Directed by: Hagar Ben-Asher
Weakness is there if you know where to look. #BoschAmazon pic.twitter.com/rjlFCk9fDW
— Bosch (@BoschAmazon) April 25, 2020
Fellow law enforcement officers gather to bid farewell to Ryan Rodgers in Bosch season 6 episode 7. Rodgers’ daughter, Melissa, also has a mysterious request for Barrel.
Chief Irving gains a high profile endorsement while Maddie says goodbye to her internship. Winston makes a choice between Avril and Hovan. Agent Reece does not have high hopes for her future at the FBI.
Alicia Kent suggests that the recording that implicates her is not legal. Heather Strout is making plans but not for the immediate future.
Read on for my full investigation of the seventh episode of Bosch season 6 ‘Hard Feelings’.
A toast to Ryan Rodgers
It’s a full house at Boardner’s as Ryan Rodgers’ colleagues gather to celebrate and say goodbye to their friend. Mank gives a fitting (and moving) toast to the late detective. Chief Irving and Harry both stop to share their condolences with Ryan’s daughter, Melissa. She is grateful that they came to support her dad, but she blame the chief for the demise of her parents’ marriage. Melissa expresses her belief that Chief Irving “exiled” her father to the Pacific Division and, even worse for her family, assigned him to the “late show” (overnight shift). The chief denies the allegation saying it was Ryan’s decision.
Melissa has a special request for Barrel. She recovered an old cassette tape from her father’s safe deposit box. She is hoping Barrel still has a cassette player and can tell her why her dad was holding on to it. Barrel agrees and notices that the year on the envelope is 1996.
If there's one truth that Bosch knows, it's that the evidence doesn't lie. #BoschAmazon pic.twitter.com/sBtT903OXr
— Bosch (@BoschAmazon) May 4, 2020
Kent case continues
Harry and J. Edgar meet with Chief Irving to discuss the shift in the Kent case based on the audio file in the Chapstick recovered from Maxwell’s home. The chief also asks about the recent video posted by the 308s vilifying the LAPD. Harry says he does not believe they need to worry. Irving reminds them that the Craver murder is still unsolved and J. Edgar agrees they need to consider all possible suspects.
DDA Kennedy, J. Edgar and Bosch meet to look at the new evidence. Harry notes that “conspiracy supersedes consent” in regard to the recording. Honey Chandler arrives all ready to officially announce Alicia’s decision to accept the DA’s plea deal. She is visibly surprised to learn that Kennedy is no longer offering that deal. Harry tells her about the audio of Alicia making plans for her husband’s murder.
Later Alicia meets with Honey about the tape. She suggests that the tape was altered in some way. She also asks about a California law that disallows recordings where all parties have not agreed to be recorded.
Is Charlie good for Craver?
The Craver murder case is still unsolved. Craver was one of the 308s in Strout’s group while concurrently operating as a confidential informant for the FBI. You will recall that Harry and J. Edgar discovered a photo on Maxwell’s burner of him with Craver. The detectives map the locations on the phone to which Maxwell sent the photo. Most locations are associated with Charlie Dax’s usual whereabouts.
Bosch and J. Edgar decide they need to get Charlie’s DNA. Barrel pops up from his cubicle silently suggesting he is up for the job. Harry waits outside while Barrel sits at a table in Casey’s Tavern, a usual hangout spot for Charlie and fellow 308s. Sure enough, Charlie is their warning a friend to step away from some 308s business. Barrel listens nearby. After the two men leave, Barrel scoops up leftover pizza from each plate into evidence bags.
Bosch meets Agent Reece outside Hollywood Division to give her the pizza for testing. He asks how she is doing and she shares that she thinks she will be riding a desk for the FBI from now on. Harry and J. Edgar learn that the bullet that killed Craver had an insecticide on it that is used at Angel City Landscaping where Charlie works.
Solving Craver
The evidence is certainly stacking up against Charlie. Coincidentally (or not), there is a gun missing from Charlie’s personal inventory. The type of gun missing is the same type used in the Craver murder. Harry and Jerry pay a visit to Charlie’s house.
The three men look in the gun safes housed in Charlie’s garage. Yes, the gun is indeed missing. The detectives pull out the photo of Craver with Maxwell. They ask if Charlie received it. He says yes, but he thought it was a joke. Then he saw Maxwell (the agent in the photo) the day he was arrested at the landscaping business.
Charlie shares that Maxwell was the agent supervising the recent gun inventory at Charlie’s house suggesting that Maxwell took the gun to set him up. Harry and Jerry wonder the same thing.
Finally, Harry gets the DNA test results from Craver’s shirt. Lo and behold, it was Travis Strout’s saliva that was identified. The detectives presume that Charlie lied. He probably did show Travis the snitch photo and Travis took matters into his own hands.
A detective like Bosch knows better than to make assumptions. #BoschAmazon pic.twitter.com/rHQ8Rpywsv
— Bosch (@BoschAmazon) April 19, 2020
Contents of the cassette
Barrel pops the cassette from Melissa into his tape player. He hears Ryan Rodgers interviewing a police academy cadet named Justin ‘Beto’ Frank. Frank was found riding in the car with gangsters when they performed a drive-by shooting. The cadet claims they were old friends and he was in the car but had nothing to do with the shooting.
Ryan comes down hard on Beto and refers to him as an ex-cadet on the recording. The voice of Irvin Irving comes on the tape. Rodgers refers to him as “Captain”. Irving tells Rodgers to end the interview. Barrel fast forwards and there is no more audio.
Barrel meets with Beto Frank, now an accomplished officer for 23 years. Beto claims it was a monumental mistake to get in the car with the gangsters. He claims he thought they were going to a party. Officer Frank says that Irving made the judgement call that allowed him to remain at the academy. He says he has tried to honor that decision by being the best cop he can be ever since. Barrel commends him on overseeing a recent gang truce.
Barrel suggests that Beto’s father, Bill Frank (Assistant Chief at that time) interceded on his son’s behalf telling Irving to end the interview and pursue nothing further. You will recall that Bill Frank is the gentleman that spoke to Irv and Jun in their receiving line at the wedding. Irving referred to him as his “rabbi” meaning Bill looked after Irving and his career path.
Getting a second opinion
Barrel talks to Crate about his findings. He does not know what to do. He tells him about how Irving moved forward more quickly in his career than most. Crate believes Irving would have eventually moved up the ladder regardless of any help from Bill Frank. Barrel also notes that Beto Frank has a clean and commendable record as an officer.
Releasing the information could impact Irving’s bid for mayor. Crate points out that there is a known history of “cronyism” in the LAPD. He advises his friend to tell Melissa that the tape was damaged in the player rendering it impossible to listen to. Barrel says he cannot do that. Both detectives agree it is an impossible situation deciding what to do with the information.
Melissa calls to ask about Barrel’s findings. Barrel says it is nothing of importance. She wonders why her dad would keep it. Barrel suggests he believes the tape is nothing they need to keep. Melissa wants it anyway because she can listen to her dad’s voice on it.
Heather planning for the future?
Heather Strout engages in conversation with a fellow “player” on the computer game. They message one another cryptically about an event where Heather will need a quick getaway.
We also see Heather talking to her brother-in-law, Waylon, after his release from prison. Waylon moves the GPS tracker from her car to the truck. He wants to help with whatever she is planning, but she says his involvement would be too obvious. Besides, she is planning to “lay low” and take time to grieve Travis before implementing her plan.
Vega’s concerns
Pierce finally decides to talk to Captain Cooper about the concerns his partner has been sharing with him. He finds Cooper in the break room and tells him that Vega has been feeling some discomfort around Billets. Cooper says it was right for Pierce to come to him.
Cooper calls Vega to his office to discuss her concerns. She claims it is really no big deal and chalks it up mostly to some personal issue she has been experiencing. She is not interested in pursuing it or filing a complaint.
After Vega leaves the captain’s office, Cooper opens the human resources manual to the section on sexual harassment.
photo credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon/Prime Video
A warning to Avril
Jerry meets with Dwight Wise who has become very frustrated with how the attention is now so focused on the murders of Marcos and Arias. Dwight feels like the search for his son Gary’s murderer is getting lost among everything else. Jerry implores him to be patient. The grieving father says he is “done with the waiting game”, which sounds a bit ominous.
Hovan meets with CI Winston and berates him for not making more progress with Avril. Winston calls Avril “sly” and Hovan says that Winston is as well. Winston tries to defend himself and says Hovan needs him. Hovan suggests it is actually the other way around.
Winston decides to go to Avril and out “Felix Mariama” as DEA Agent Charlie Hovan. He presents it as a warning based on information he has (supposedly) just learned. Winston suggests that Avril is heading into a “trap”. Avril remarks that is a trap that Winston “devised”. It sounds like a bit of double speak. Does Avril know more than we realize?
Daisy investigation
Bosch has a few meetings related to the Daisy Clayton murder investigation.
He meets with Elizabeth again and asks if she knew anything about the scam Daisy was running with Alex. Elizabeth says she does not recall Daisy saying anything that would have tipped her off.
Bosch also takes Alex’s old laptop to Detective Klein to search. Klein suggest that it could take months to look for any information on the computer with it being a “cold case”. Harry gets Klein to commit to a quicker timeline when he gives him a bottle of something in a brown bag.
Detective Bosch visits with Detective Brent Charles about his work finding the “Backseat Butcher”. Daisy’s murder was attributed to this killer until it was discovered that he was in the “drunk tank” the night she disappeared. Regardless, there are some similarities in “calling cards” left behind with Daisy. Det. Charles suggests that a “copycat” murdered Daisy. But how would anyone have access to this information at the time? Charles says his task force was fulled vetted and all members passed a polygraph.
photo credit: Saeed Adyani/Amazon/Prime Video
In other news:
- Lt. Billets drops hints to Sgt. Edgewood that she would like him to be her right hand man on the Operation Safe Sidewalks initiative. Edge has the appropriate rank, experience with narcotics and a seasoned history of police work in Hollywood. Edgewood seems interested in the idea. Billets also points out that it could be a career move as well.
- Honey agrees to endorse Chief Irving for mayor. She still does not understand how he thinks he can do more in the position of mayor over chief. She jokes that she may get more “business” for her law practice if someone less accomplished takes over as chief.
- Maddie reveals to Antonio the faux pas from her volunteer work at the District Attorney’s office last year. She talks about copying the letter without permission, the letter that Honey Chandler used to aid her dad’s defense in the Borders petition. Maddie feels awkward interning for Honey now that Honey is on the other side of the court from her dad. She later gives her notice to Chandler who tells her she is welcome to return any time. Antonio is understanding and supportive of Maddie.
- Things become a little tense between Maddie and her dad when she shares her decision to stop interning with Chandler. They continue to have philosophical differences about the legitimacy and propriety of Chandler’s work defending supposed criminals.
Back soon for the investigation of Bosch season 6 episode 8!
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