photo: tnt
The Winds
Original Air Date: Feb 1, 2011
Farrah Kaye – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com
SouthLAnd blew my mind last week. This is one of the few shows where I stay spoiler-free. So when Nate was killed at the end, I couldn’t stop crying or going WHAT? WHAT! WHAT?! Shawn Hatosy deserves a thousand awards for his performance as Sammy, trying to save his partner.
This week picks up with the aftermath of losing Nate, Josie and Lydia still at one another’s throats, Cooper’s back and the repercussions of Sherman’s actions last week.
Opening Scene: Officer John Cooper driving behind a truck and looks down for a minute. A ladder falls off and he has to swerve to miss it. He gets out of the car, falls to the ground and screams.
Voiceover: SouthLAnd cops know when the Santa Ana winds blow, you learn just how close you are to the edge.
33 Hours Earlier …
Lydia and Josie are nearly blown away by the winds. They comment that three months of the year, the winds are crazy. Cooper is at an acupuncture appointment for his back. He has reached his 12-session insurance-paid limit. The acupuncturist suggests surgery, but Cooper isn’t having it. Lydia and Josie go to the home of an apparent rape. A husband returned home to find his wife roughed up by someone in the middle of the night. She isn’t talking and the husband is blaming himself for being away. There’s been a string of victims and Lydia asks the woman to come forward. She begins to speak but she’s vague. He was wearing a dark janitor-type uniform and had a Mexican accent. Lydia asks about the alarm but she says she turned it off because of the winds. At the morning briefing, the cops are told the winds are kicking up. A brief mention of Nate’s funeral coming up and a nice memorial sign. Cooper says the winds makes people go crazy. At the hospital, the doctor says there are signs of rape but no sperm (Mrs. Wellington showered). She also refuses to testify, which Lydia says is okay (Josie is against it). The detectives on the other rape cases have leads on their guy and it doesn’t seem to match up. They’re going to work together. Cooper and Sherman are stopped by a woman begging for help – her dog is being strangled by her neighbor’s snake. More Santa Ana craziness! Sherman tases the snake and Cooper gets the dog. Seriously.
Cooper can’t stop sneezing (stupid winds!). They find out the dog will be okay. Thank goodness, because that would have been horrible. Josie and Lydia interview all the gardeners in the neighborhood after the other detectives tell her those are the guys that fit their leads. Cooper and Sherman are called to a hanging. Thanks to the winds, the tree he hung – hanged – himself in, breaks and the body falls. Creepy. And how funny is Dewey? Josie and Lydia show some photos to Mrs. Wellington and she identifies someone. Cooper and Sherman are called to a break-in. They find a kid wrecking a house. It winds up he was abandoned by his parents and he was taking his anger out on the house. Lydia is questioning the ID from the victim but Josie says the other detectives have one victim that ID’d the same guy. Cooper bonds with the abandoned kid and we get to see a whole new side of Cooper. Lydia and Josie go to the man’s house to arrest him. His name is Sergio and he swears he didn’t hurt anyone.
Cooper and Sherman pull over a van and arrest the driver for DUI of drugs. There are a bunch of pain pills in the console. Uh oh, do ya see where this is going? No John, don’t do it! Sherman is weary. At the station, the little boy is still waiting to be placed somewhere and Cooper is still keeping an eye on hm. Lydia and Josie find out Sergio was bailed out by one of his employers, claiming he is a good man. Sherman is doing evidence log-in when Cooper tells him to switch with him. Sherman knows what’s gonna happen. Cooper counts the pills meticulously. Lydia and Josie go to tell Mrs. Wellington that Sergio was released and find out he used to work for her. Lydia is questioning the story and questions Sergio as the rapist while Josie believes the “once a criminal always a criminal” philosophy. Sergio didn’t show up for his meeting with his attorney. Uh oh. Cooper and Sherman come to an understanding about the pills. Unspoken of course. Lydia and Josie go to Sergio’s to find out where he is – his wife says he went to the bus stop. Cooper ends his day playing video games with the abandoned kid. When the social worker finally comes for him, Cooper gives him his card and tells him to call if he needs anything. And they hug. Aw, Cooper is such a teddy bear! Lydia and Josie find Sergio at the bus stop. And then he runs. And then he gets hit by a car.
The next morning, Cooper and Sherman are doing a day shift. Cooper has somewhere to be at the end of the day. Sergio is in bad shape. Lydia and Josie are informed another woman was raped and they caught the guy. He admitted to every rape – except Mrs. Wellington’s. Cooper and Sherman are called to a child abuse complaint. A little boy called the police because his mom hit him with a belt for cutting school. Cooper goes off on the little kid for the useless call and getting bad schoolyard advice. Lydia and Josie track down the Wellingtons but they have lawyered up and won’t talk. What’s going on there? The cops are talking about how they were disciplined when Cooper gets a call and flips out. Lydia and Josie track down the Wellington’s housekeeper and ask her for some help. She spills everything! Josie and Lydia argue over the case and what they did. Lydia feels horrible for Josie pushing so hard and Josie doesn’t feel bad at all. But what did they find out?!
Lydia and Josie speak with the Wellingtons. She starts to break under the pressure. She starts changing her story – adding things. So, turns out Mrs. Wellington was cheating on her husband with her tennis instructor, Ken. She got caught because her husband came home early! Lydia arrests Mrs. Wellington for filing a false police report! Cooper gets called to see the abandoned kid at the station. He got in a fight at the home he was put into. The poor little guy asks Cooper to adopt him. He leaves as the kid begs him. At the hospital, Lydia and Josie see one of their usual enemies, but this time they’re on the same side. Sergio is going to sue Mrs. Wellington. Cooper is finally off to his secret meeting. It’s a parole hearing … for his FATHER. He has served 20 years for rape and murder and has seemed to be the model prisoner. WOAH. Cooper isn’t there on his behalf, he’s there to make sure he stays in! Back to our opening scene, Cooper is driving and goes to pop a pill. He looks down to take one and the ladder falls from the truck in front of him. He swerves and winds up in a pile of dirt. He gets up to get out of the car and doesn’t realize the bottle of pills is open and they spill everywhere. He has a complete breakdown, obviously because of more than the pills. Michael Cudlitz is amazing.
Next week, Russel is back? TMZ has photos of something. And I’m hoping Nate’s funeral.
This episode was a letdown, by SouthLAnd standards. There was nearly no mention of Nate, no real story going on and if I have to deal with more of the Lydia/Josie stuff, I may pull my hair out. This is episode 5 of 10, which means we’re halfway through the third – and still possibly final – season. We’re just diving into Cooper’s life, we’ve barely seen Russel, no Sal, Nate’s death was barely a blip? Come on guys, get with it! But that’s just me. What about you? Was I totally off about this episode? Leave your two cents below.
TheTwoCents 
Was this ep maybe aired out of order? I expected there to be more reaction to Nate’s death.
I don’t think so because they mentioned him dying and his funeral was coming up. I think it was meant to be a John-centric episode.
With their time running out, I think they’re trying to wrap up storylines before time runs out and other stories will suffer.
I liked it, but like you was pretty surprised they didn’t deal with the death of Nate as more than just a mention of his funeral. I guess we’ll get it more next week? I have a hard time liking Cooper. He’s just so mean! This week he started to be nice to the little boy but then reverted back. I know his character has a lot of issues, but come on!
I’m really hoping next week we get to see Nate’s funeral. I don’t think we went that far ahead in time this week that it’s that far-fetched.
I think Cooper’s family history we have seen now makes sense with his level of meanness. He’s trying to be the best person and example and take all the bad people off the street.
I was pleased by the change of pace, but I would have liked a little more Sammy.
Cooper is my favourite character though so I was delighted that the episode focussed more on him and the crap he’s going through. I loved that he is soft enough to bond with the kid, but has enough self awareness to realise that he could never look after him the way the kid wanted him to. He was pretty much having the day from hell so it’s no wonder the way he broke down at the end. Have we found out who the girl that his father murdered was yet? Cooper called her ‘Monica’ I think and he also said he was representing the victim. Surely not his sister?
This episode was set the shift after the last episode so it makes sense that there wouldn’t be much on Nate’s death.
As mean as it is to say, killing Nate is the best possible thing they could have done for the character. He went from being a boring non-entity in season 1 to a bit of a dick in season 2 (when his cop buddy was in it) to kind of ‘eh’ in season 3 beyond the episode where he actually died. I didn’t dislike him, but I wont miss him for anything more than his beautiful face and it made for a great episode. I’m looking forward to Shawn Hatosy’s continued awesomeness in the upcoming episodes.
And hopefully Cooper getting the help he needs so he and Sherman can get their friendship/mentorship back on track.
I’m wondering if Cooper wasn’t the cop on duty that was called to his father’s case? Surely that had to have lingering effects on him. On top of that, it seems like his childhood wasn’t great with his mother (remember when he went off on the little kid complaining about being hit with a belt by his mother?). There are so many layers to him!
As far as Nate, I think they tried to have so many stories at once that sometimes some people got lost in the shuffle. Nate was one of those. He had the big story where his sister was his daughter (right? I forget when seasons are a year apart..), then when he gets deep into the gang unit and now this. But it came in spurts.
I can’t wait to see Sammy tackle this.