Summary
Picking up where Bosch’s finale left off, it looks as though our favorite characters aren’t going to enter the new chapter of their lives that is Bosch: Legacy without their fair share of challenges.
This recap of Amazon Prime FreeVee series Bosch: Legacy season 1, episode 1, “The Wrong Side of Goodbye,” contains spoilers.
Bosch: Legacy season 1, episode 1 recap
Picking up not far after where the finale of its predecessor series Bosch left off, Bosch: Legacy episode 1 gets off to a high-octane start. Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz) is a rookie in hot pursuit of a suspect across L.A. The chase starts off in a patrol car, with Maddie on comms whilst her training officer takes the wheel, and ends on foot, with Maddie tackling her suspect to the ground, only to get written up by her partner for breaking rank. Meanwhile, Harry Bosch himself (Titus Welliver) is in the midst of one of his private investigations, entering a property via questionable means in order to retrieve some assets from a domestic residence. Elsewhere, a doctor heading home after his shift is stabbed multiple times on a street corner and left bleeding to death by his assailant.
Once the opening titles have rolled, Bosch: Legacy cuts to Bosch, Maddie and Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers) waiting to enter a courtroom to hear the outcome of the trial following Chandler’s shooting and the attempted hit on Maddie that dominated Bosch’s seventh season. The verdict is a mistrial, and it is later revealed that there will be no retrial for the man who orchestrated the crimes in question.
As Maddie is set to begin phase two of her police training, it becomes apparent that her father’s lack of talent in the diplomacy department may have left her with her cards marked. Her error in judgment when she was chasing down her suspect from the other night is not something that anyone seems willing to let slide, with her newly assigned training officer making it absolutely clear that if she does the same on her watch she will be out.
Back at Chandler’s home office, it looks like she’s dragging her heels when it comes to getting back in the saddle after her shooting. The ordeal is something that has definitely left her shaken — as it would anybody — but in typical Chandler fashion, she isn’t willing to lay down without a fight. It would be my guess that this is something that may be explored in more depth throughout the season, but we shall see. In the meantime, Chandler’s new colleague is fighting to get her back on her feet and being the fierce lioness that she was prior, immediately signing her up to take on the case of the man who apparently confessed to the killing of the doctor we witnessed at the start. As this thread unwinds, it emerges that Chandler’s client is a dissociative schizophrenic whose confession may have been coerced by the officers interrogating him, as opposed to it being a genuine admission of guilt. This leads to Chandler calling on Bosch as a professional witness, and although he is reluctant, the two join forces once again for the greater good.
At the same time, Bosch is also taking on a new private client — a gold-turned-steel-turned-aviation billionaire on the hunt for an heir to his estate. Years ago, he fell in love with a girl his family didn’t approve of, and when she fell pregnant he turned his back, bringing the romance to a close. Now, with no one else to pass his legacy to, and his time on earth drawing to a close, he wants to see if they can be found so that he might be able to make up for the burden he left them with. Of course, with billions of dollars at stake, and the man having more than a whiff of death about him, the vultures close to him are also starting to circle, and so it appears that Bosch may be up against the clock with this case. To add to his struggles, L.A. experiences a small earthquake, which rattles the foundations of Bosch’s famous apartment, and the building is condemned by the local government. On top of this, it turns out that he may have let his earthquake insurance lapse so the swanky pad that his Clint Eastwood movie money bought may sadly be no more.
The ending
As episode 1 nears its end, an evening news bulletin airs and it is confirmed that there will be no retrial for Carl Rogers. Upon hearing this news, Chandler heads straight for Bosch’s place, where he and Maddie have also made the same discovery. Unable to let it slide, Chandler calls on Bosch for his help once again, and it looks like long-time fans of the character are going to get to see him color outside of the lines once more as he vows to go after Rogers outside of the confines of the traditional justice system.
With so much set up in this first episode, it looks like this is set to be a cracking opener to a spin-off that I hope will be just as well-revered as the original show that laid the foundations for it. With the dust far from settled following Bosch’s final season, it seems like we may get to witness how each of our three main characters transition into this next chapter of their lives, experiencing all of the challenges with them as they do.
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