Title: "Victim of the Night"
Directed by: Pieter Jan Brugge
Written by: Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
Air Date: March 11, 2016
Previous: The Thing About Secrets
Next: Who's Lucky Now?
Guest Starring: James Ransone, Robbie Jones, Matthew Lillard, Steven Culp, Annie Wersching
"Victim of the Night" is the third episode of the second season of Bosch.
Bosch goes to Vegas to investigate Tony Allen's activities in the days before and the day of his murder. The Mirage casino is not particularly helpful but Harry does find glitter in the shower drain that's similar to what was on Tony Allen's suit. His contact with the Las Vegas PD tells Harry that the strip club where Layla worked is owned by Armenian mobster Joey Marks, and that Marks is affiliated with the Russian mob. Bosch goes to Layla's strip club and has a hostile meeting with strip club manager Luke Rykov (Matthew Lillard) who reveals that he didn't much like Tony Allen and that he recently fired Tony's girlfriend, Layla. After Bosch leaves, Rykov makes a phone call in which he tells someone, in Russian, that a Detective Bosch was asking about Tony Allen.
Bosch takes the opportunity to visit Eleanor and Maddie. It seems that Eleanor and Reggie's marriage has hit a rough patch and Reggie has gone off to Hong Kong. Bosch also finds out that Eleanor knew Tony Allen (she played poker with him), which causes a stressed-out Eleanor to lash out and tell Harry to mind his own business.
Eddie Arceneaux gives George Irving a payoff but gets very tight-lipped when George makes reference to other people in his crew. George then visits his father and tells Irvin that Eddie won't admit to any other gang members and that Eddie may be simply a one-man Corrupt Cop operation. Deputy Chief Irving tells his son that there's surely a larger crew and eventually they will let George in. Later, George has a clandestine meeting with his Interal Affairs contact, who says the same thing.
Lt. Billets visits Pacific division and meets Officer Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching), who is still on the beat and still resentful of how the whole Harry Bosch deal went down. Later, Julia has drinks with her old friends from Hollywood patrol, Edgewood and George Irving—and the woman from the first episode of the season, the one who helped kill Tony Allen, is in the bar watching them.
In the world of LA power politics, Irvin Irving formally endorses Rick O'Shea for mayor. Mayor Ramos, who appealed for Irving's endorsement in the previous episode, isn't happy.
Tropes:
- And Starring: Annie Wersching, who was a regular in Bosch season 1, gets a "Special Appearance By" credit. (To date, this is the last appearance for Officer Brasher.)
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Maddie is being difficult, complaining about STEM camp. It's at least in part because she's upset about Reggie being gone.
- Call-Back: Lt. Billets tires of Julia Brasher's whining and tells her that "In the old days, you'd be long gone." Later, as Grace has lunch with her old friend Captain Macken and shamefacedly admits to her affair with Kiz Rider, Captain Macken smirks and says "In the old days, you'd be long gone."
- Face Framed in Shadow: Some dramatic lighting in the poorly-lit alley where George meets with Lau of Internal Affairs.
- Fanservice Extra: Lots of sexy naked ladies at the strip club.
- Foreshadowing: Iverson tells Bosch that the FBI had an undercover agent in Marks's crew, but that agent disappeared. This will pay off a few episodes later with the reveal of a different undercover agent inside Marks's operation.
- Going by the Matchbook: Although it's something of a red herring. Bosch follows a matchbook found in Allen's room (the maid wasn't very thorough!) to a Mexican restaurant, but they know nothing of Tony Allen.
- Internal Affairs: The unusually sympathetic portrayal of IA continues, as George meets with Lt. Lau of IA who urges him to be patient and not push too hard to find out the rest of Arceneaux's operation.
- Mafiya: Iverson of the Las Vegas PD confirms that Layla's strip club is owned by Tony Marks and is affiliated with the Russian mob.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Bosch says that Tony Allen's stripper girlfriend was named Layla "like the song", and Edgar is clueless. Bosch then clarifies "Derek and the Dominos"?, and it doesn't help.
- Mythology Gag: In the novel Trunk Music, it's Billets that makes the allusion to Eric Clapton and Bosch who has no idea.
- Proscenium Reveal: A dog bursts through a doggie door and starts eating from a bowl. It's then revealed to be a dog food commercial that the guy who directed Victim of the Night back in the day is making.
- Title Drop: Edgar has an interview with the director of Victim of the Night, the R-rated movie that Tony Allen produced and Veronica starred in, back when the both of them were making a brief bid for mainstream success.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: Bosch follows Allen's trail to the Las Vegas strip club where Layla worked.
