Think of a place where you feel safe, whole. Some day that place will be violated, and when you're lying on your back, bleeding out, you're gonna reflect on why you chose not to get that beer.
Unforgiven
Shades of Blue is back! And so is Ray Liotta on our screens! Which for me is freaking awesome, I was afraid we might get a little bit less screen time, or stories only jail-related, so I'm ecstatic it looks like we'll get to see him just as much as we did last season. Though it does look like things getting back to "normal" with Harlee might be an up hill battle for her, which makes sense but it's not the most enjoyable thing to watch, they're both doing some shady things but apart, and it's always more fun when they do it together.
The episode begins with a parallel of Harlee dealing with the aftermath of killing Miguel and having to deal with the body, and Wozniak being brought in by the feds and questioned by Stalh.
Harlee calls Caddie for help, who brings a chizle and a few beers, she takes out Miguel's teeth to avoid identification and buries him over Saperstein's grave.
Harlee: Sorry, Sap, you're gonna have to cover for me one more time.
Wozniak is acting like a deranged mafia boss, which is scary but also pretty funny since he keeps messing with Stahl, he even mentions the prostitute he calls Harlee, which is apparently the tip she gave him over the phone in last season's finale. This barely throws him but Wozniak still knows they need hi for something, otherwise they would have locked him up already. It turns out they need a dirty cop inside that can connect with people higher up, people protecting the mob.
When he comes back to the precinct he sees Harlee on his desk "That didn't take long". She was there worrying about him, away from the rest of the team, because they were unaware of the situation, but he's clearly gonna be on edge fro a while. He takes her for a ride where she apologizes, since it looked like he had forgiven her when they spoke on the phone, but it looks like Stahl gave him a recording of her wearing a wire and treating him like he was crazy for mistrusting her, which reopened the wounds, nothing like a perfect reminder on tape of what someone said, to make you unforgiving.
Harlee: How did they let you go?
Wozniak: Who said they let me go?
Wozniak takes her along on a mission to frame Michael Bianchi, a high profile mafia figure that pretty much runs Brooklyn. They arrest him on some bogus aggravated assault charge (to some drunk guy Woz punches) and Wozniak takes him on his own car, which makes for some interesting conversation. Bianchi says they should have some beers and forget the whole thing, since the charge will not stick, but apparently the feds are just looking to put the wheels in motion, the same wheels that got him off last time, when he actually had killed someone, but for now Woz seems to be getting himself, and probably the team, in a whole lot of trouble.
Bianchi: Think of a place where you feel safe, whole. Some day that place will be violated, and when you're lying on your back, bleeding out, you're gonna reflect on why you chose not to get that beer.
Wozniak: Whoo... I drink whisky.
This is where Anna Gunn's character, Councilwoman Julia Ayres, comes in, since she is at least a part of said wheels. It looks like she and Woz go way back, as more than just friends. Anna and Ray Liotta have great chemistry, or they're just that good. Their rapport is entertaining as hell to watch, I'm looking forward to see more of that. She asks him to let Bianchi go and Woz realizes she's the feds target, though they don't know it yet, and he's not thrilled about it.
Nava pays the precinct a visit, he doesn't understand what Woz is doing and he urges him to think twice about messing with Bianchi without hard evidence, then he takes some time to let Harlee know he's not willing to make it easy for her to walk away. Stahl, on the other hand, has a "meeting" with Gina, the prostitute he called Harlee to question her about how Wozniak found out and give her money to disappear. That guy is just creepy.
On Cristina's front Harlee manages to sell the story quite well (she's had some training), she tells her the reason why she was so worried when they said goodbye was because she stole money from criminals so she could pay Miguel to go away. Cristina is hurt by her father taking the money and not even saying goodbye but appreciates her mother more for "telling her the truth" and being right about Miguel. Harlee bows to do only the right thing from now on, though that doesn't seem to be a possibility. Specially because she steals the money from Miguel's house to burn it and texts goodbye to Cristina from Miguel's phone (which she took from his dead body), before throwing it in the water by the docks.
Later Woz confronts Harlee about her knowledge of the new deal and says the target is their Julia, which is something I have no idea how it would work, I get how he could say his Julia, since they apparently dated, but how is she their Julia? Anyways, he says he'll never trust Harlee again, he says he'll never do what she did and he won't let Julia go down.
Speaking of Julia, she meets with Bianchi, confirming every suspicion, we learn he pays for her campaign in exchange for protection and she herself is the one that helped last time. But she doesn't throw Woz under the buss, she tells Bianchi Wozniak is not the one they need to worry about, the feds are, so it looks like they're both having each other's backs, though Bianchi looks scary enough to take them both down.
On a different note, Margaret Conlin (Gossip Girl) seemed okay as Linda (Wozniak's wife), replacing Lolita Davidovich, but she was just in one short scene, so the jury is still out on that one, and it's a role that has plenty of potential in my opinion. Speakign of few scenes I missed the rest of the team, they showed up only twice and barely spoke, which is a shame since their dynamic is one of the great things about this show. Though I'm sure they were just trying to focus on the important stuff, plot-wise, and will get ti them soon, I'm especially looking forward to Loman's story after the whole Donnie Pomp thing. I also really miss Sapperstein, I was really bummed when he died, but that is not something we're getting back, sadly.
There is one specific thing about this episode that bothered me, the fact that Harlee told him something over the phone in last season's finale we didn't get to hear, and for that to happen it has to be something important, but the way they solved it looked to me as a bit of a cop out, like they wanted to leave us with some intrigue but they didn't know what that could be, and when they got the second season they just went with the prostitute thing, which is not important enough, not even close. When they spoke over the phone it looked like what Harlee said was a game changer, THE game changer in fact, the one that was going to get Wozniak out, and if that were the case, this premiere would have been a lot better in my opinion. Which doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, just that it didn't blow my mind, and after that finale I think that's what I was expecting, but to be fair, last season didn't become amazing to me until it was halfway through, and it was mind blowing only in the finale, so I think maybe we can give this season a shot to do the same later on.
So, now it's your turn, what did you guys think of this season premiere? What were your expectations and how close was the premiere to that? Did you miss the team? Do you miss Sapperstein? What do you think of Julia? I'd love to read your thoughts.
