Major Crimes - Hindsight Part 1 - Review: "It's been a long wait."

Welcome back! Major Crimes returns for another batch of episodes. And they’re off with a bang. I’ve grown used to this show stepping out of its comfort zone and taking different approaches to the stories it tells. They’re doing it again with the next batch of five episodes. This part of the season will cover a single case over 5 episodes.

A young mother, Tomika, and her 3 year old child are shot and killed as they drive through El Diablo gang territory. The car rolls down hill six blocks until it hits a lamppost in Blood territory. The neighborhood is up in arms because it took 15 minutes for the first patrol car to arrive.

Sykes makes a late night visit to the ballistics lab. The expert she shows the casing to, Francine, recognizes it as being from the gun that was used to kill a cop during a flower shop robbery twelve years ago. She sends Sykes to talk to the disgraced cop, Mark Hickman, who investigated the case originally before her findings become official. The moment that happens, Hickman will be made off limits.

Sykes does as asked and picks up a couple of pieces of information that will no doubt become important before the story is complete. The primary piece of information is that there was a third person involved in the robbery of the flower shop.

A community preacher, Reverend Price, hits the airwaves to plead for peace and justice. Turns out that Price is one of the men who went on trial for the murder of the police officer. Price walked because the weapon wasn’t found and was, in fact, used in a different murder (the DA and their body guard) while Price was in custody and because Hickman perjured himself on the witness stand.

It seems as though Price came away from that experience and changed his life; though none of the police believe it. It seems even less likely when they find that Tomika likely got her drugs from his church. Personally, it seems a little too obvious for Price to be the criminal mastermind in this situation. My guess is that Price’s right hand man will turn to be a bad guy in all of this.

The premiere episode spent most of its time laying out the major puzzle pieces that are at the root of this story. There are some interesting pieces there. How much trouble will Hickman cause as he tries to help solve the last case of his career? Is Taylor finally going to have to face fallout from one of his political decisions? The wife of one of the murder victims has been invited to work with the unit. What kind of twists does she bring with her? What I missed was the character stories pertaining to the members of the major crimes unit. For example, Hickman was Tao’s partner, yet we get no reaction from Tao regarding Hickman’s betrayal.

***

Gary, the boyfriend responsible for Sharon Beck abandoning Rusty, follows Rusty through his school parking lot. He tells Rusty that he and Sharon have been seeing each other since Sharon was released on parole, but he hasn’t heard from her in the last couple of days and he’s worried. He wants to know if Rusty has heard from her.

Rusty’s learned a lot from his new family. Not the least of which is to recognize when something is hinky. He starts his own investigation. Sadly, the one thing he hasn’t learned is where the line is between the people you lie to and use and those you don’t. The guy you’re dating is in the “don’t” column.

Rusty discovers that there is something going on with his mother. She’s scared. It seems clear that her lack of contact with Rusty is an attempt to protect her son. Hmm, it would be nice to see the woman actually behave like a mother for a change.

The writers have done a good job of laying enough story threads to leave me confident that this will be a compelling 5 episode block, but at this point I’m more interested in what has Sharon Beck so frightened. Which is kind of odd for me, because I really want to continue to hate the woman.

What did you guys think? Are you looking forward to these five episodes?

About the Author - Prpleight

Prpleight is a screenwriter and senior software engineer with solid geek cred. When not writing code, screenplays, or watching TV (sometimes she does all three at the same time), she uses her broadsword Bessie to battle evil. She's been a frequent contributor to the SpoilerTV discussion boards for several years now.

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