Television Review: "Southland" Season 2, Episode 2: "Butch & Sundance"

Television Review

"Southland" Season 2, Episode 2: "Butch & Sundance"

By our guest blogger, Sanela Djokovic

“Officer John Cooper knows and Ben Sherman will learn that sometimes you see things as a cop nobody should see” is the opening narration of this week’s episode of "Southland."  This season’s newest episode takes Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Sherman (Ben McKenzie) through a brutal day on the job, and a pretty bad one off of it.

The duo’s day begins with something relatively light, although only in comparison to what they have coming--a car chase. The car they are in pursuit of flips over, and though they try to save the man inside, they have no choice but to flee the scene seconds before the car explodes.

From their car chase on the city streets, the two cops are called to a lovely home in an unassuming, upper-middle class neighborhood, where they find a conscious man covered in blood on the front steps, and a triple homicide inside. The man’s wife and daughters are found dead, all in separate rooms.  There is no intruder in sight.

Detectives Adams (Regina King) and Cordero (Amaury Nolasco) investigate the case, but they aren’t getting along any better than the last time we saw them. Not only do they continue to clash on a personal level, but their investigative styles and theories also are a source of fission for them. While Adams strongly believes that the husband and father is responsible for killing his family (and eventually arrests him in his hospital bed), Cordero cannot reconcile with the idea that the man is responsible for the horrendous crime.

Meanwhile, Cooper and Sherman are experiencing some fission of their own. Sherman’s concern over Cooper’s prescription pill habit grows, but Coop insists that pain killers are the only thing helping his back pain and keeping him on the force. But, even Coop’s dealer thinks he’s an addict, and lets him know it during their exchange that evening. Sherman, on the other hand, tries to spend an evening with a friend and her friends, but after the day he’s had, doesn’t feel like answering their many questions about his job and leaves.

Tuesday’s episode also followed Detective Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) and his martial issue, and Detective Moretta’s (Kevin Alejandro) attempt to help a young woman find her mother. But much of the magnetism pulled toward Ben McKenzie’s progression as rookie cop Ben Sherman. Watching Sherman grapple with the realities of his job, and even the complexities of his partnership with Coop, both still so fresh and new for him, is really a great force of intensity on “Southland.” We can see the sheer terror through the control and it will be interesting to see the levels that character development breaks through. I think the action is about to trickle down to all levels.