Title: "The Space Between the Stars"
Directed by: Neema Barnette
Written by: Shaz Bennett
Air Date: April 19, 2019
Previous: Tunnel Vision
Next: The Wisdom of the Desert
Guest Starring: Paul Calderón, Juliet Landau, Mimi Rogers
"The Space Between the Stars" is the 6th episode of the fifth season of Bosch.
Rita Tedesco shows up for her prison visit with Preston Borders fully prepared to have sex right there in the visitors room. Preston however is not in the mood; he is stressing out over Harry Bosch's visit and specifically worried about Harry's comment that they have Rita on tape. She assures him that they don't (they don't), but Borders isn't mollified.
Hector Bonner tracks Terry Spencer, the civilian from the LAPD evidence room, to a meeting with Kathy Zelden—wife of Lance Cronyn, who is Preston Borders' attorney. He also reports that Spencer is way over his head with a shady home mortgage. The nature of the fraud becomes clear: Spencer plants the DNA evidence in the box, Borders is freed from prison, Borders sues the city and gets a huge settlement, everyone cashes in.
Christina Henry of the Conviction Integrity Unit is clearly after Bosch, working the theory that Bosch planted the seahorse pendant in Borders' apartment. When a cop gently reminds her that lots of LAPD personnel went into that apartment and any of them could have planted the seahorse, she ignores him.
Crate and Barrel's reassignment to the CAPs squad pays unsuspected dividends. It seems that someone has been falsifying data, reporting violent crimes as non-violent ones to make the stats look better.
Robertson's search team returns to the warehouse where the Sentra was dumped. The search gets disrupted, though, when one of his detectives opens a box containing fentanyl residue and almost passes out.
Bosch goes through the Borders evidence box and makes a disturbing discovery. The "After" Polaroid from the Borders search shows the seahorse pendant. But the "Before" picture, which should have shown that spot before the cops searched, is missing. Without saying it directly Bosch suggests that Irving planted the pendant, which might have been found when the beat cop on the street made an illegal search of Borders' backpack. (The audience knows that Irving personally destroyed the incriminating photo in the previous episode.)
Edgar is still investigating the murder of his suspect, Gary Wise. He finds out something disturbing: the gun found in Wise's apartment had once been seized by the LAPD and should still be impounded.
Bosch assumes his "Dominic Reilly" persona again, and goes to the Garcia Pain Clinic for a pill run. Unfortunately the van driver (also one of the shooters who murdered Esquivela) spots the police tail. The whole group, including Harry, is taken out to the airport and put on a plane before Edgar can get there and catch them.
Tropes:
- Impairment Shot: One of Robertson's cops, searching the warehouse where the car was dumped, opens a box. She's overcome by what turns out to be fentanyl fumes. This is represented by her vision going fuzzy before she collapses.
- Just Friends: Lt. Torres asks Christina out on a date. She shoots him down with "Love you like a brother, Bob."
- Monochrome Past: Just like the other flashbacks to the Skyler investigation this season, this episode, and Irving's flashback of leading the search of Borders' apartment, is in black and white.
- Noodle Incident: Only vague details about why Christina Henry broke up with Bosch and why she hates him so much. This episode fills in that there was a noodle incident of some sort, that Bosch didn't back her, and it harmed her career (and presumably is why she's no longer with the LAPD).
- A later episode clarifies further: after they broke up, Henry - being considered for promotion - asked Bosch to put in a good word for her. He didn't (on the grounds their past relationship made him a biased source), Henry failed to get the promotion, and blamed Bosch.
- Reluctant Retiree: Barrel plainly hates having to do it, but he tells Crate that he's going to retire.
- Splash of Color: The Monochrome Past flashback shows the crucial seahorse pendant in color.
- Theory Tunnelvision: Christina Henry refuses to even consider that any other LAPD cop could have planted that pendant.
- World of No Grandparents: The untimely death of Harry's mother is a running theme throughout the series, and Harry's father is never identified, presumably one of his mother's clients. But this episode specifies that Eleanor Wish's parents are apparently dead as well, when Maddie says to Harry, "You're all I have left."
