Summary
“The Greater Good” is a terrific outing—tense, suspenseful, and even shocking, in a matter-of-fact way that only Bosch can do.
This recap of Amazon original Bosch season 7, episode 6, “The Greater Good,” contains spoilers.
Read the recap of the previous chapter.
Karma is a Bosch
J. Reason Folkes esquire, played for seven seasons by Spencer Garret, is just a sniveling bottom feeder. He has represented numerous scumbags Bosch has put away. Now, at the end of the last episode, he sees our sweet Maddie (Madison Lintz) on the Franzen tape. He grabs his phone and tells someone on the other end to come back. We can only assume that it’s Carl Roger’s favorite hitman. But as we are about to find out, karma is a bitch or a Bosch.
Folkes is having a drink in a swanky L.A. bar. We are to presume he is celebrating another job well done protecting the city’s biggest sociopaths. A man next to him gives an ominous vibe that rivals Phil Spector. Folkes usually sticks up his nose at anyone, but I am sure he feels the same darkness this man is giving off and starts to see dollar signs all around. Sadly, his new BFF leaves without even touching his long-neck beer. Can you really trust anyone who won’t finish their brew? That’s a sin in my family.
It turns out you can’t. Because when Folkes is about to call it a night, he sees that his office door is wide open. He enters, ready to turn off the lights and go to bed in his what can I only assume pajamas that would cost me my paycheck, and hears a voice. He looks by his desk and sees the untrustworthy man sitting in his chair. It’s the hitman he always uses but has never actually seen. They want to tie up loose ends, and the lawyer is one of them. He puts a couple of holes in those silky PJ’s, and if he didn’t make the world a safer place, he certainly made it a more ethical one.
Maddie Must Testify
If you believe in the yin and yang of how one person’s gain tends to create someone else’s loss, you will not like where I am going next. Our Hitman kidnaps Bosch’s current girlfriend, our beloved Judge Sobel (Bess Armstrong). The hitman needs to get into the parking garage with the back entrance to the city building where Maddie will testify. I’ll rip the band-aid off. The hitman shoots Sobel in the head.
We never actually see it, but Bosch (Titus Welliver) spots her car parked in the handicap spot near the door. Our whip-smart Sobel knew this was her only chance to send Harry a signal. The problem was Sobel was dead when he approached the car and saw the bloody driver’s side window. Harry draws his gun, and so does Detective Jimmy Robertson (Clocker’s Paul Calderon). They spot our hitman, dressed like he was in the previous shootings that involved Honey Chandler, sneaking through the parked cars.
Luckily, Bosch’s partner, Jerry Edgar (The Wire’s Jamie Hector), has been trailing them and comes into the garage by foot, putting the shooter in a crossfire. I’m not sure Bosch and Jimmy could have taken him on their own. After several of their bullets miss, and the killer’s shots are remarkably a lot closer, Jerry takes a shot that goes over our hitman’s head. He turns and is about to put a bullet in Bosch’s partner’s head, but this is just enough of a distraction for Bosch to get a shot off. Except it was Jimmy, who was a real quick draw, McGraw. The killer’s clear mask, which is used to block his face from facial recognition software, suddenly is coated with dark, rich blood. He falls to the ground, game over.
Irving and the FBI
It’s time for the subplots in the show. Chief Irving wants to know where the FBI took Alvarez, and he gets his answer. FBI SAC Brenner confirms they have him, but not because he is an informant or can help the Bureau separate investigation. The man who ordered the Molotov cocktail into the apartment building is an informant. That’s right, the head of the Los Palmas 13, Pena, is an FBI mole, and the Feds need him to keep working. Not only that, the FBI will hand over Alvarez when Pena their case goes down, but he will go into witness protection. The Los Angeles Police can’t touch him. Oh, Bosch is not going to like this.
Billets are Backed into a Corner, and Bosch Gets his Man
Meanwhile, Billets has finally lost her cool, in a sense. After lunch with her daughter, Norris and Leonard pull her Billet’s kin over. They charge her with a DUI, without a breathalyzer, after she had one glass of wine. She is furious, but her anger is more tempered than yours or mine. She needs a couple of extra splashes of water on her face. She knows this is an action because they are scared, but will Billets drop her crusade? And at what price?
Finally, Bosch sets two things in motion. The little tamale girl’s father is back in town, and Bosch tells him what happened. Also, Bosch knows there isn’t one judge that won’t sign an arrest warrant for Carl Rogers right now because of the Judge Sobel murder. He arrests Rogers right before he’s about to board his private jet to a destination unknown. Bosch breaks the news to him; his personal attorney, Folkes, is dead. The look on Rogers’s face says it all. He knows he’s next.
Jerry Comes Clean in Bosch season 7, episode 6
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” is what Jerry tells Bosch after his partner asks him if he found justice. This is after Jerry comes clean to Harry that he went to Jacques’ home. Edgar turned a corner here, coming closer to the terms of what he committed and what he may become. Jerry apologizes to his long-time partner and asks if they are square. Bosch may have forgiven Jerry immediately, but he put his daughter in danger in any other situation. He tells him, “We’ll get there.”
What did you think of Bosch season 7, episode 6? Let us know in the comments below!
