Title: "Heart Attack"
Directed by: Adam Davidson
Written by: Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
Air Date: March 11, 2016
Previous: Gone
Next: Exit Time
Guest Starring: James Ransone, Robbie Jones, Matthew Lillard, John Marshall Jones
"Heart Attack" is the sixth episode of the second season of Bosch.
Harry, Eleanor, and Maddie are having an unplanned family reunion as the latter two lay low at Harry's house, one episode after they were kidnapped by Joey Marks's men. While Maddie hangs out at the station helping Billets' daughter with clerical work, Eleanor goes out for a while and is tracked down by Agent Griffin. Griffin dangles the prospect of removing the "red flag" on Eleanor's government file, but only if she agrees to spy on Harry and report back to the feds on how the Tony Allen investigation is going. When Eleanor tells Harry about this, he tells her to do it.
The reason Agent Griffin is asking about Harry's investigation is because, earlier, Harry and Edgar were told that Rykov wanted to talk. The two detectives come in and are met by Rykov...and Griffin. It turns out that Rykov is an undercover FBI agent and the Bureau is not happy about him being arrested. Griffin accuses Bosch of planting the gun, which Bosch angrily denies, but Bosch and Edgar are now back to square one in the Allen investigation.
Eddie Arceneaux and George Irving leave work, headed for a casino. They stop at their usual convenience store and George enters through the rear as usual to get beer. This time, however, it's a trap. As he's grabbing beers from the freezer, a masked gunman enters the store and shoots George to death, then fatally shoots the cashier. The gunman then steals George's bugged watch and takes some money from the cash register to make it look like a robbery, before fleeing the scene.
Deputy Chief Irving is summoned to the scene and insists on seeing his son's body. After watching the surveillance footage of the murder, he meets with George's Internal Affairs supervisors, who debrief the RHD detectives leading the investigation, Brad Coniff and Julie Espinosa. At this stage, it is unclear to the cops whether this was a robbery or an assassination, but on the assumption that George was burned, they'll be putting surveillance on the two dirty cops who have been identified, Eddie and O'Grady.
Eddie clandestinely meets with Carl Nash at a car wash the next morning. Nash is not happy with Eddie for bringing a snitch into their circle, and tells Eddie to claim emotional distress so he can hold off having to answer any formal inquiries in the investigation. He also warns Eddie to not be so much as tempted to talk, for if he does, the gun used to kill George will turn up with Eddie's prints on it from the drop house robbery, and that will lead the police to believe Eddie set his partner up to be killed.
Bosch and Edgar follow Layla the stripper's trail to an Armenian Catholic church. Father Tabakian says that he knows Lilliat Saroyan but hasn't seen her for two years. After the detectives leave the priest goes to a back room in the church, where Layla/Lilliat is hiding. He tells her that they'll be getting her out of the country as soon as they have her fake passport.
Connie Irving blames her husband for George's death, realizing that he lied to her about George being on desk duty, and that she wanted George safe and off the streets.
Back at the gated community, Nash visits Veronica Allen at her home, supposedly on a routine patrol. It turns out that they're lovers, and they're in cahoots. An impatient Nash asks when they can "get in" to something, and Veronica promises him that it will be soon.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: In Michael Connelly's books, Eleanor Wish is totally guilty of the crimes that got her fired from the FBI (and sent to prison). In this episode we find out that TV Eleanor was only tangentially involved in some sort of fraud, but had to resign from the Bureau under a cloud.
- Breaking Bad News Gently: When George is identified as the victim, Irvin's driver Delmar Washington is sent to bring him to the scene. They don't tell him George is dead, but to simply tell Irvin that George was involved in an officer-involved shooting. Only once Irvin gets to the scene and meets the scene commander does he realize what really happened. After the RHD investigators are debriefed about George's undercover work, the Chief of Detectives encourages Irvin to go home and break the news to Connie so that she won't learn about it through reporters calling the Irving house.
- A Death in the Limelight: George's death is treated this way, with a lengthy amount of the episode focused on his death and the start of the investigation into his murder.
- Continuity Nod: Pierce blames himself for George's death, reminding Bosch about how back in December, when he and George detained Waits, George keyed in an incorrect plate number so they could justify a felony stop and search of Waits's van (which was how they found the dead streetwalker Waits was on his way to dispose of). He thinks George would still be alive and with him on patrol if they had just kept quiet about that.
- Death Glare: Connie gives Irving a look of concentrated rage as she blames him for getting George into the Internal Affairs investigation that got him killed.
- Eye Scream: The assailant's first bullet blows out George's left eye.
- Gangsta Style: The gunman is holding his gun sideways as he's shooting both George and the cashier.
- Handshake Refusal: The RHD detective at the scene of George's murder tells Irving to go home to his wife, then puts out his hand and promises to keep Irving informed. Irving just walks away.
- The Infiltration: It turns out that Luke Rykov is an undercover agent, much to Harry's embarrassment.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Eddie was never told that George was going to be whacked or where it would happen, so that his behavior would look genuine for the investigators.
- Noodle Incident: Eleanor defends herself to Agent Griffin, saying that all she did when she was in the FBI was run up a "poker debt" and that she was not involved in the "fraud" that was somehow related. This is all that the audience ever learns about why Eleanor had to leave the bureau under a cloud.
- Not So Stoic: Irving does his best to hold it together but can't help weeping over his son's body.
- The Reveal: The second episode in a row to have one. After the last episode revealed that Nash is the Big Bad, this one reveals that he and Veronica are both lovers and co-conspirators.
- Rule of Three: Three times in Season 2, George Irving steps into the same convenience store to get snacks for himself and Eddie. The third time, he's shot.
- Silence of Sadness: We only hear somber music as the police dispatcher gives the end of watch broadcast announcing George's death, overlaid by Pierce and his partner listening to it in his patrol car, and Irvin telling Connie the devastating news.
- Slow-Motion Pass-By: One happens as Irvin walks into the convenience store, and passes Arceneaux, who is being escorted out by plainclothes officers.
- Title Drop: When discussing Veronica Allen's possible motives for murder, Bosch and Edgar wonder if she knew that Tony was going to marry his new girlfriend. Edgar says "Marriage is serious?", and Bosch answers "As a heart attack, brother."
- Wham Episode: George is killed for being a snitch, while Nash and Veronica are revealed to be secret lovers.
