Behind the Mask
"Justice comes to us all in the end."
Hey guys, sorry for the delay, again. These past few weeks have been crazy, and this being a double episode didn't help at all, but we got the amazing and thrilling finale this season had been promising, so let's get to it. It's not often that the second season of a show surpasses the first one in such a brilliant way, and I really loved the first one, but it seemed to find its groove only halfway through, while this one, kept the intensity from the first episode and didn't let up until the finale. And, given how this season ended, the next one promises little sleep as well.
We begin the episode with Woz in therapy, with little scenes here and there throughout the episode that make us wonder why he's there. He talks about killing people, though the guy thinks he's talking about the job. The scenes are a bit ominous and confusing, but they still provide some much appreciated Wozniak wisdom, and a little twist at the end that is also related to the therapist being in a wheelchair.
Woz: Justice it comes to us all, in the end, the trick is keeping it contained to the people that deserve it.
Bianci's trial is on, everything seems as dirty as ever when there's a sudden switch of judges, and the new one, Judge Lowry, grants Bianci bail right away. But things are different now that the team has the black box of sins, or they would have been if things had progressed like it seemed they would. But, right after Nava tells Harlee he had to tell his boss about the conflict of interests with the case, making them official, James goes into the courthouse bathroom, where he's cornered by Bianci and things go south.
Bianci taunts Nava calling Harlee names, he tells him he fell for a dirty cop and threatens to give Harlee the same fate as Caroline, so James snaps and pushes Bianci who falls on the bathroom floor and breaks his neck. Harlee, who saw Bianci go in from a far, enters and sees what happened, she sees Bianci's neck is broken and decides to make up a story of self-defense in Nava's socked state. He wants to call the police, but she breaks a mirror, hurts Nava's arm with a piece of it, and puts it in Bianci's hand. Bianci's barely conscious, so she finishes the job by suffocating him under James' disbelieving gaze. I have to say I did not see this coming, after all the fighting it seems a bit of a dumb (but of course surprising) way to end it, and all of this inside the court house.
Harlee: He was dead when he hit the ground.
Nava: That's not true.
Harlee: The truth is in the paperwork.
This callback to the beginning is brilliant. Same as she did in the first scene, when she decided to take Loman under her wing, Harlee turns on a switch and builds her own narrative saying that phrase. The funny thing is, we know this probably comes from Wozniak's teachings, but in reality, he never says it, it's like his teachings are just a shadow looming over them. The first time it's said by Harlee in the Pilot, and the second time it's said by Loman in the season one finale, as if things were coming full circle with that. Harlee has been struggling with the idea of good and evil from the beginning of the show, but in this moments, she seems to fully embrace the dark side. Nava, same as us, is amazed by the calm with which she looks at the scene and creates her narrative, he goes along with Harlee's story though he continues to look stunned by her quiet skill as she acts surprised to find him hurt and calls for security.
Later Nava tells her she became a different person as she was creating her own reality and asks her about the frame job on Bianci, when she can't deny it, he leaves saying he clearly doesn't know who she is. Harlee shares with Woz the guilt she feels for dragging Nava into her dark world and says she almost wishes he breaks and tells the truth, but Woz is not much help since he's just mad he didn't get to kill Bianci himself. A while later, Harlee watches Nava's interview telling the investigators the story she fed him, she's relieved and disappointed at the same time and cries silently, fearing she might have broken him. Verco continues to sniff around, of course, and seems to warn Harlee about some inconsistencies in Nava's story, almost like he wanted to help, weird. I can't seem to figure this guy out.
On a different note, one that will gain relevance later, Tess and Espada find the bodies of two dealers who have deals with Wozniak, in one of them there's a message from Quince, "there's a war coming their way", as if they need another one. The crew wants to take Quince down by taking away his product and they ask for Wallace's help, he says there are three stash houses, so Woz concocts a plan to get him to consolidate so they can strike just the one place. He pays a visit to Quince in jail, tells him they identified two stash houses (duh) and that he better get ready to have no more power because they're about to raid them both, so he moves it all to the "unidentified" one where the crew is waiting.
Cristina scold's Harlee for screwing things up with James already, and tells her to just show him the real her, though we can see in Harlee's mind that "the real her" might just be the biggest problem. So Harlee follows her daughter's advice and tells James the whole truth, even Miguel. This is the last we'll see of Nava this season so I guess this is the relationship cliffhanger (because we all know J-Lo is not leaving the show).
Harlee: You wanted to know who I am. Well, now you see me, all of me.
Nate seems to be doing better, Woz asks for his help cracking something that might have some dirt on everyone. Woz says he's read everything Nate ever wrote and Nate says he understands now that some broken things are good to let the light in dark places. And that's how the path begins for their relationship to start healing (because Woz better not die either), I did forget for a second Nate had almost killed the drug dealer that led to his sister's death, so we're not talking about someone too self-righteous either.
We finally find out who the psychologist is when Woz tells him the night Nate beat him half to death and left him paraplegic, he actually saved his life, because Matt himself was waiting for him in his apartment. Woz says he has decided to let him live because he feels his anger is what connects him to his daughter, but he reminds the guy he should be careful not to point to Nate, ever. I'm not a hundred percent sure what finally prompted this encounter, but it seems to be setting something up for next season.
After a bit of research, Nate finds a recording of Julia talking to Bianci, where it becomes clear, not only that she faked her own assassination attempt, but she sold Woz out saying the FBI had its hooks in him, AND she knew about the shootout beforehand. The worst thing though, is not just the fact that she didn't warn him, but she actually warned Bianci not to miss, because Wozniak's retaliation would be unstoppable. You can see Matt's heart breaking in that very moment, and the crushing disappointment of realizing that, after all his unwavering loyalty, he can't seem to find anyone who would fully reciprocate.
Matt also realizes there's a difference in the betrayals in his life and decides to call Harlee. He tells her about Julia's betrayal and tells her he understands now that everything she did was for Cristina (I hope he also sees the difference in not being okay with his family being gunned down) and he implies that is the only motive he could maybe comprehend. He decides to forgive her, and they both cry in a beautiful- brilliantly acted, scene that couldn't happen fast enough for me. I love these two and I need them back as a team (once again, this better not be closure for a future death).
In that moment they dumbly decide to discuss Miguel's body and we see Stahl listening in, naked(? Can I get a WTF?
Broken Dolls
The last episode begins with Stahl finding Miguel's liquefied body and calling it in anonymously. The news comes to Harlee from Cristina who got the call from the police. To complicate things even more, Stahl leaves Miguel's file on Verco's desk. So Verco Verco sends people to search Woz's house and finds hair belonging to Miguel. After that, he interrogates both Harlee and Woz in opposite rooms and tries to convince Woz Harlee craked to get him to crack but he doesn't bite.
Wozniak: Do yourself a favor, when I crack, run.
After that Harlee and Woz meet up and they confirm their belief that none of them spoke and Verco was just bluffing. But the most convincing part was when Verco talked about something personal to them and this alerts them to Stahl's bug.
There's another very tense scene when, right before the vote count for Mayor, Matt tries to get Julia to come forward to him voluntarily, even though he's recording her for the feds, she doesn't budge, so he shows her the recording and she tries to explain herself, she tells him she had to protect herself because she knew, if it came to a decision between Harlee and her, he would choose Harlee. We also see a nice parallel of Woz being in the same situation Harlee was when Julia tells him he should've gone to her from the beginning, she tries to appease him but he turns on the news and shows her he asked Nate to write a story about her and Bianci.
In total despair, she asks why he didn't just kill her and she grabs a gun from a drawer and points it at her head. He tries to talk her out of it but, to make a deal with the feds, but she begs him not to let her face them and he decides to do her one last kindness, helping her pull the trigger right after it's announced she won the race. I have to say I'm glad Anna Gunn won't be on the show anymore, it was an interesting character but I was never sold on the actress, not even on Breaking Bad.
According to the plan the team has concocted, Harlee invites Stahl over and with little clothes and tries to convince him to frame caddie for Miguel's murder while Espada and Tufo actually frame Stahl. She goes a little too far trying to drug him but he beats her to it. When the team goes looking for her, she's nowhere to be found.
Harlee wakes up in a cabin, tied to a chair and dressed like Stahl's prostitute. He creepily spoon-feeds her, he's so cheerful to have her as a human doll, it's so creepy, and way too far from what would make sense as his breaking point in my opinion. One thing is snapping, and another thing is for a former FBI agent to go full on psycho, playing with her like a human doll and dressing her in sexy underwear while she's unconscious.
There's another amazing and intense scene that fills me with unhealthy excitement. While the crew is trying to find Harlee, and wondering what sick things Stahl might be doing to her, Verco tries to arrest Woz. The team is ready to have a shootout right there and Verco seems scared (rightly so), even Loman has drunk the Koolaid by now. Woz tells Verco Harlee is missing, and that, if he stops them from finding her, IA will finally get to arrest him... for what he'll do to him. Woz tells him to stop getting in their way and to look to the really dangerous guy who has Harlee, Stahl. Verco gives them the benefit of the doubt, since he doesn't have many options, and searches Stahl's place, finding Caddie's boots and tools in his place, so he puts a BOLO out on him, which might just save Harlee's life.
Using the black box for his own advantage, Woz talks to Gail, he says he knows shes been feeding IA information and gets her to give him the address of the place where Stahl used to meet up with his ex-partner's wife. She complies and also tells him he's now free from his obligation to the Bureau, since he did agree to record Julia.
Harlee tries to free herself with a screw from the chair she's tied to, but when she realizes cant do it, she hurts herself knowing he'll save her. He cuts her ties to stop the bleeding and she hits him, after a long struggle she manages to get away but she realizes she's in the middle of nowhere and passes out from blood loss.
Knowing her location the team is about to leave the precinct but Adrian, Karen's kid, walks in and shoots Woz, clearly sent by Quince. That's just so mean, to ñeave Harlee and Woz's life hanging in the balance, I honestly don't think either of them will die, the show would suffer too much and I don't think it would be wise, but thank the TV gods there's another season, even if it's so damn far away!!!
What did you guys think of the finale? Are you as excited for what comes next as I am? Do you think one of them will die? I look forward to reviewing season three and reading your thoughts as well.
