photo: tnt
Integrity Check
Original Air Date: Feb 21, 2012
FK – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com
Ever wonder what would happen if you were followed by cameras? Would you change how you acted? Tonight, some of the SouthLAnd cops are faced with that question.
On top of the camera excitement, Lydia must face her pregnancy head on, Ben and Sammy have trust issues, Cooper gets attacked and Dewey is, well, Dewey.
“The average street cop in Los Angeles makes $75k a year. It’s not enough.”
Sammy/Ben: Ben is still being a ladies man, this time having a threesome with a married woman and her friend. Sammy, meanwhile, is going after the guy who killed a witness of his after he saw the witness’ father at court. He picks up the suspect who can go in for six months parole violation. During booking, Sammy brings in a crack pipe he supposedly found in the back seat but the suspect says it isn’t his. During lunch, Ben says he patted the guy down and accuses Sammy of planted it. Ben finds out the previous partners of the car didn’t do a proper pat down/clean up of their car and it belonged to their suspect. So while Ben was right in knowing their guy couldn’t have possibly had the pipe, he was wrong about how it got there. Ben apologizes but Sammy doesn’t accept.
Cooper/Tang: The dynamic duo are followed by a camera crew for a documentary about LA cops 20 years after the riots. Cooper is not excited. They get called to various cases that test their patience and integrity (and meet up with Dewey along the way, which doesn’t help…). Dewey, for some reason, is with them on a few of their cases. The now dynamic trio, get called to a woman in a manic state. Dewey pulls her out of her van without thinking (he is Dewey after all) and she has a knife. Tang tackles her from behind and the woman falls on her knife. Not good. At the end of their shift, they take a call to a fight and somehow Cooper gets attacked from behind and a guy literally bites him like a vampire. He does not look good…all the while the film crew watches on and does nothing. Back up arrives before he is completely killed but it was ugly.
Lydia/no Ruben: Lydia is put on street cop duty since she is cross-trained. This is not going to be good for the little one growing inside her. She’s Sgt. Adams for the moment. During one of her calls, a crazed mother sees her son has been killed and shoves Lydia, who falls to the ground. She grabs her stomach but says she just got the wind knocked out of her. Uh oh. Later on in the day, while chasing a suspect, she gets winded and falls to the ground in pain. Is she finally acknowledging her pregnancy? Is it too late? She finally goes to the hospital, finds out she had a small placenta bleed and is told to take it easy.
Random thoughts:
- Will we ever find out who Lydia’s baby’s daddy is?
- Why do Cooper and Tang keep getting attacked?
- Will Sammy and Ben be able to get passed their trust issue?
- Will Ben stop being a man slut?
- Why is Dewey still a cop?
- I miss Russ.
- And Nate.
I actually miss Russ too. Though I don’t know how much of that is down to Tom Everett Scott’s face? I liked his partnership with Lydia a lot though.
And I miss Nate. Most of all, I miss who Sammy was when he was partnered with Nate. Same goes for Ben. I miss Sherman and Coop.
Still enjoying this season. It’s just a bit jarring in terms of the personnel shake up.
I agree with you 100% that Sammy was different when he was with Nate. I feel like he lost his soul when Nate died and he’s been trying to make the streets safer since by taking down every gang member. It’s not going to happen, ever.
This was, in my opinion, one of the better episodes of the season. It’s almost over and I don’t hear the fans crying out in support like last year.
I miss Russ and Nate too! but most of all I miss Chickie….where the hell did Chickie go!?
She went to a different department after she made a big arrest. Moved on to bigger and better things.
My wife and I were pretty worked up when Cooper got attacked at the end and the filmmakers refused to help out. I was pretty happy when Tang pushed the cameraman, and it looked like the camera dropped.
While I agree it was horrible they refused to help out, it’s realistic of reality TV camera people to stand by and do nothing. It’s called the “fourth wall” and it’s common practice in reality TV for camera people to stand by and do nothing. It’s caused outrage on many a reality show where people get in fights, drive drunk, get attacked by outsiders, etc. So yes, it was hard to watch but I give kudos for the writing team for knowing their information.
I think we’re slowly beginning to see the old Sammy come back (probably wishful thinking on my part). With Nate’s death and his divorce from Psycho-Tammy, his attitude has changed because his life has changed. Hopefully his frat-boy attitude in some scenes are just a phase; and the Sammy we love will be back.
Ben. Is SUCH a man slut. He’s spiraling out of control and I being a horndog is how he handles it.
Regardless of that, SouthLAnd is still one of the best shows on TV.
Great recap!
“Ben. Is SUCH a man slut. He’s spiraling out of control and I being a horndog is how he handles it.”
***Totally forgot to put “guess” in between I and being.
Whoops.
Haha. It was funnier without the “guess” part! Thanks for reading and I agree .. I think Sammy is going through a phase. I hope he remembers he has a baby to worry about, despite crazy Tammi!