Previously on The Bridge: Sonya is getting to know Jack Dobbs very well, Marco is faced with a new issue at work, Eleanor is mixing up things, and two kids are in more danger than they would ever guess could come from helping an odd looking naked lady at a car wash.
The close connection that Sonya and Hank share has been shown time and time again. As such, when Hank learns of Sonya's relationship with Jack Dobbs, Hank retreats to his instinctive protective mindset. Anyone who watches The Bridge, however, also knows that Sonya's confidence can blind her to good advice. There is a certain irony in the fact that Hank's guidance both helps and hinders Sonya's abilities as a detective. He helps Sonya in that he is her mentor, but his overprotective tendencies can sometimes hold her back. Whether Hank's advice or Sonya's confidence turns out to be the winner in this match is yet to be seen.
While Sonya digs deeper in the case against Eleanor, Marco does some police work of his own, an extremely unconventional type of police work that also happens to work as a bit of life insurance. However unconventional, Marco's methods have been proven to be useful on multiple occasions. In the midst of his work, Marco catches the eye of the newly introduced prosecutor, Abelardo Pintado. While I originally saw the prosecutor as a potential problem for Marco, I now believe that Marco could see him as a possible ally. Marco's issue has always been that he is surrounded by corruption (most notably his own Captain) that forces to him to work in a grey area of legality and I see Abelardo Pintado as quite possibly the only true friend that Marco has in his own police department.
Meanwhile in the journalistic side of things, Frye and Adrianna continue their convoluted investigation into Raul Quintana and his relationship with the cartel. While this part of The Bridge was extremely uneventful in the premiere episode, I have to say I quite enjoyed these parts of the show this week. Frye continues to be the source of the majority of the comic relief and he is particularly hilarious in this episode. While I enjoy his laid back attitude to his serious addiction problem, I worry about his longevity on the show as a result. On another note, their investigation is finally starting to yield some interesting results that I can already see converging with other story lines in the next few episodes, probably closer to the end of the season.
In a complete flip from last week's episode, Eleanor's story seemed to take a back seat in writing. Franka Potente does a wonderful job with the character and is delightfully creepy, but unfortunately the pacing of the episode seemed to move so slow, any developments with her character were virtually impossible. It seems to me that if Eleanor had more scenes in this episode, I would have nothing to complain about because her scenes were great. At the same time though, if she had more screen time I would probably be complaining that Marco, Sonya, Frye, or Adrianna didn't get enough screen time. It seems to me that The Bridge's problem this season is going to be balancing enough screen time for the wide array of characters. Also of note, is the fact that this episode does not feature a single scene with Linder or Charlotte. While I think this episode did a decent job of managing 2/3 of the cast, I worry that this show may be a little too crowded in the long run in terms of practicality.
Rating: 8.8/10
Tune in to The Bridge on Wednesdays @ 10/9c on FX. Be sure to come back here to SpoilerTV to let everyone else know what you thought of the episode. Also, if you're a fan of anything The Bridge, keep an eye out for Brandon Rowe & Tonya Papanikolas's set tour and interview posts which should be coming around in the next few weeks.
