This week’s episode of The Bridge is a real game changer. Everything is beginning to fall into place, and suddenly, Marco seems to be right in the thick of it. The episode begins in a flashback to six years prior. Frye is snorting copious amounts of cocaine and motor boating a stripper’s ass. Somehow in the middle of all of this, Frye loses his pants, like you do. A wealthy friend of his, Santi Jr., pays another guy to give Frye his pantalones. Frye and Santi Jr. take off in search of more drugs, but since Frye’s passport is in his misplaced pants, Jr. has to go alone. The camera zeroes in on Frye’s face as his friend peels off, and he looks uneasy. Lt. Wade is questioning Jack Childress, the SOB that shot Sonya in her pretty, tender heart. Childress’s house was armed to the teeth, but when pressed about the dead women, he claims he doesn’t know what the detectives are talking about. When Sonya asks why Childress didn’t kill Marco in the warehouse when he had the chance, he just puts his head down and shuts her out.
Marco goes home in hopes of visiting his kids. Only Gus is there and he is still holding a grudge. He brings up the time that Marco bought him a bike and it got run over in the street. Gus tells his father her left it in the street on purpose all those years ago. He didn’t want a bike, just his father’s attention.
Lt. Wade and the others are convinced they’ve nailed the Bridge Butcher. Sonya, for once acting with her gut, has her doubts. She storms back into the interrogation room, and asks Childress about a comment he made earlier. He said that people were always stealing his things. Who stole your belongings, she asks. He tells her the Feds took some of his important notebooks and never gave them back. At The Love Ranch, Ray’s old pal and current ATF informant, Timmy, shows up in an Ice Cream Truck. This vehicle is not full of delicious chocolate éclairs however, it’s loaded with heavy weapons. Ray wants to get moving, but Tim says he’s only delivering, not hauling.
Sonya starts obsessively pouring over paperwork to find any connections between the cases. She finds a name connected to Childress, Gedman and Meadows. David Tate. She tells Marco that she thinks Childress is being set up for the murders. Marco is familiar with Agent Tate, because they used to be on a task force together. He tells Sonya not to go too far down that rabbit hole however, because Agent Tate is dead as a doornail. Frye is looking better after his seizure and is taking his sobriety seriously this time. He gives Adriana an invitation to go some big, swanky library fundraiser gala. He tells her to go and have fun, and write a puff piece. She warily accepts, and he tells her that he knows the guy, who’s bankrolling the party and there will be too much temptation.
Sonya and Marco head down to Juarez because Sonya’s wants to make sure Tate is good and dead before she lets this go. He apparently committed suicide in Juarez, and Marco tells her that he went to Tate’s funeral. Tate’s wife and young son were killed by a reckless driver a few years back, and he couldn’t shake the grief. Sonya questions if Marco actually saw the body, which he did not. So there is your reasonable doubt.
Charlotte is rather surprised to see an ice cream truck parked in her spacious driveway. She comes across Timmy lounging at the pool. He tells her Ray offered him the pool house. Oh hell to the no. Where’s Ray, she wants to know. Well, Ray is dragging heavy crates of guns through the tunnel, cursing Timmy all the way. At Linder’s apartment, he is wearing a fabulous peach colored cowboy shirt with a horseshoe motif. He hears a noise, and lifts his shoe as an imposing weapon of self-defense. The noise is actually a scantily clad Eva, holding a cold glass of milk. She tells him she is there to pay a debt and begins kissing and mounting him. Her face flashes to Galvan’s however, and Linder wakes from his dream, terrified and probably still horny.
Sonya pays a visit to David Tate’s sister to find out more about the man. She tells Sonya that David had some major life problems. His wife was having an affair with a man in Juarez and she was leaving Tate and taking his son with her. She was killed in Juarez on her way to see the man.
Ray finally arrives at Graciella’s liar, guns and all. She’s eating a big plate of meat and fried something or other. She tosses money at him like a dog. He asks if he needs to “seal the deal” like last time, and she acts like she has no idea what kind of crazy shit he is talking about. Get out, she growls. Lt. Wade and Cooper are gathering evidence at Childress’s when Cooper happens upon a long dead body, buried on the property. The body is ID’d as Kenneth Hastings, another racist militia man and probably Childress’s rival or ex friend. Sonya suggests that Childress is being set up by Tate, but no one believes her. It’s enough to push Cooper over the edge and he calls her the “village idiot savant.” Sonya looks more pained than when she was shot in the chest.
At Adriana’s house, her mother and sister are helping her get ready for the gala. She looks stunning and her mother tells her that every night she prays the Adriana gets a boyfriend. Keep praying, Mom. Her sister oohs and ahs about Santi Jr. Adriana yells after her sister, who is leaving, not to walk home alone. Always vigilant, that Adriana. You will never guess who else is attending the gala. That would be Alma and her new manfriend. They walk in together all the while confessing their deeper feelings for one another.
At the mission, Linder shows up for his shift late as usual. When his co-worker starts ticking off a laundry list of things he needs to do, he tells her he needs time off. She tells him that’s impossible, but he raises his voice and insists. He follows his outburst up but being very polite and bolting out the door. Sonya is breathing heavily and rocking slightly, trying to recover from Cooper’s insult. Gus shows up and asks her about the chocolates he sent her. She doesn’t eat chocolates, so he’s slightly embarrassed but sits with her anyway. Sonya tells Gus that his dad wouldn’t like him sending her gifts, and he tells her it can be a secret. The thing is, she tells him, is that she doesn’t do secrets. She allows herself to be vulnerable and confesses that she isn’t good with people, and she’s not comfortable with closeness. Gus tells her that allowing yourself to be close to someone is hard for everyone, and then he makes her laugh. It’s very sweet, and snaps Sonya out of her funk.
Things are in full swing at the gala, and Adriana is looking resplendent. I’m not the only one who notices either. Santi Jr. does as well. He saunters up and tells her how boring these sorts of events are. He asks how he knows her, and she tells him that she’s a friend of Frye’s. Santi Jr. acts as if he’s never heard of Frye, and frankly, it’s not Frye he’s focused on at the moment. He asks Adriana if she wants to get out of there, and she tells him, no. Nope. Not at all. At the tunnel’s entrance, Charlotte is waiting for Ray to return. He’s filthy and surprised to see her there. She tells him she’s had enough of his stupid schemes, and it’s time to step up and be legit. (Probably foreshadowing because there is likely a sweet baby Ray in the oven) He asks if he’s ever let her down before. She sadly says yes, pretty much always.
Graciella is about to get her groove on in the street, when her henchman runs to find her. He takes her down to where Ray’s shipment of guns is, and shows her all the transmitters that he found hidden in the weapons. Ray, it was nice knowing you.
At the El Paso PD, Sonya is doing some digging into Ken Hastings. She pulls up his driver’s license and the picture is shockingly familiar. It’s Alma’s boyfriend. Marco sees the picture and tells her that that is actually David Tate. Dun dun dun! Alma and David Tate are dancing when she confesses that she is pregnant. He takes it pretty well, and they agree that this is a fine mess they are in. He purrs in her ear that he wants to take her home, and she will let him. They agree to meet outside in five minutes. David makes a pit stop in the loo where he runs into Santi Jr. Tate pulls out a knife and slips Santi Jr.’s throat right in the mirror. Santi Jr. was the driver that caused the accident that killed Tate’s wife and son. Before Tate leaves, he leaves his bloody handprint for the police to find.
Sonya, Marco and Lt. Wade arrive on the scene, and run into Marco’s Chief of Police. The chief insults Lt. Wade under his breath, and Wade catches it. Lt. Wade wants to be in charge of the investigation, but the Chief reassures Wade that he can trust his people. There is a bead on the body, just like at the other crime scenes. Marco recognizes this one though. It was on a necklace that belonged to a woman he was having an affair with.
Marco gets physically sick and vomits all over the scene. Sonya chases after him. In the parking lot, Marco tells Sonya that he knew Jill Tate, biblically. She chastises him for not telling her sooner, but Marco didn’t think it mattered. Apparently, it’s all that matters to David Tate. Tate now has Alma by his side in the car as they drive off into the distance under a canopy of lights.
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Bridge?
