Law & Order: Los Angeles Episode 1.13 Reseda

It's a slow morning at the bank when a guy in a hoodie, sunglasses and a baseball cap approaches teller Ellen with a gun and has her start loading banded stacks of hundreds into a sack. He's hurrying out when the security guard notices something's wrong and goes for his gun. Ellen scrambles over the counter and throws herself at him, near hysterical. The bank robber has her baby! The delay gives the robber enough time to escape. Later, she explains to TJ and Morales. The robber handed her a photo of her teen son Tony with duct tape over his mouth and threatened to kill him if she tripped the alarm. After a sleepover with his dad, Tony was dropped at the bus stop at Coldwater and Ventura, and he texted his mom from there. He was on his way to lacrosse camp this morning, but never showed.

When TJ realizes the photo of Tony looks like it was printed on copy shop photo paper, the detectives proceed to the copy shop nearest the bus stop to search the computers. Surprise - the bank robber snapped a photo of Tony at the bus stop, then used Photoshop to put duct tape over his mouth. Tony is perfectly fine and spending his Saturday at rock 'n' roll camp - his mom always gets confused. He does remember that a guy wearing a hoodie, sunglasses and a hat riding a red mountain bike snapped his picture at the bus stop, then rode off. Back at RHD, the detectives peruse security camera footage from the bank's parking lot to spy the robber getting hit by a car while escaping on his bike, then hobbling away. Spying a bus at the back of the frame, TJ suggests it may be the getaway vehicle.

A visit to the MTA's lost and found proves fruitful. The wrecked mountain bike yields the fingerprints of Stanley Vaughn, a 40-year-old white man with two priors, one for bank robbery, the second for manslaughter, for which he served only a very short two years. It's not long before the detectives lead a SWAT team to Stanley's last known residence in Reseda. Spying the cops from across the street, Stanley's landlady Cecelia lets them in, rather than have them break down the door. She's amazed that the place has been emptied out. Typically, the place is floor to ceiling junk and smells terrible, due to some concoction Stanley used to cook on the stove. Uniform cops explore the backyard as Morales finds figures written on the wall - it's the London Fix. Stanley was tracking gold prices. Suddenly, there's a huge boom from the backyard...

In the aftermath of the explosion, Officer Dwyer screams, having lost his leg from the knee down. Within minutes, the bomb squad is on the scene, led by Sergeant Fordes. The material used in the backyard was PETN, the explosive of choice for IEDs in Iraq, though there was no constructed device. Stanley probably dumped whatever he was cooking in the kitchen in the backyard, which remained inert until Dwyer kicked it. Stanley could have bought most of the stuff he would need to make the bomb at a hardware store, except for the plasticizer which he would need to make it stable.

TJ and Morales proceed to Petro-Chem Supply, where they learn Stanley bought a small amount of plasticizer. Saying he was a gold collector, Stanley paid in cash and left no address, but he did offer a reference: Manny Roth, proprietor of a jewelry store in the Diamond District. Orthodox Manny isn't eager to talk to the cops, but when pressed, he immediately identifies Stanley, who purchased gold eagle coins last week - on the day of the bank robbery. Of course, Manny has no record of the sale because his database is all contained in his head. Just then, a call comes in for a bank robbery in progress. At the scene, the detectives quickly realize that Stanley has struck again with the same MO, this time getting away with $11,000. Figuring Stanley made a gold buy the last time he had disposable income, TJ and Morales get Rubirosa to help out with a plan.

Manny becomes more cooperative after Rubirosa threatens to prosecute him for tax evasion and allows Morales to masquerade as his meshuga nephew behind the counter of his shop, while TJ watches the proceedings from the back room. When a young woman named Emily enters, saying Stanley sent her to buy gold eagle coins, Morales and TJ close in. Emily tries to make a run for it, but when faced with guns, she drops her backpack filled with over $10,000 in cash and surrenders to handcuffs. Back at RHD, Emily confesses she's only known Stanley for three months, and he told her the cash was money he saved. What she has with Stanley is intense, and he trusts her because she's an honest person.

Rubirosa stops by to inform that like Stanley, Emily has two strikes against her. Rubirosa steps into the interrogation and lays out the hard line of three strikes. If Emily is accomplice to two bank robberies, she's going to jail for the rest of her life without parole. But if she'll agree to help them catch Stanley and testify against him... now Emily has to choose between Stanley and jail. It's not long before SWAT has a search warrant for another address in Reseda. The home is dark and filled with junk, and someone's clearly been cooking something that's not food on the stove. When TJ opens a door and enters a utility room, he hears a click, and a green light starts blinking. Luckily, Sergeant Fordes is right behind him, just as Hoover the bomb-sniffing dog detects explosives. Fordes barks orders, emptying the house, telling everyone to turn off their phones, while TJ must remain perfectly still. Despite the risk, Morales refuses to leave his partner.

As seconds slowly tick by, Morales tells TJ about Stanton, who's moved to DC with her boyfriend. TJ should have made a play for her when he had the chance. Fordes stops in to say there's been a visual on the suspect ten blocks away, and they're about to close in. Morales changes plans, ordering Fordes to let Stanley return to the house. It's not long before Morales has Stanley at gunpoint, calmly instructing him to get TJ out of the house safely or he's dead. Cooperating, Stanley tells TJ to slowly back out of the room, stepping only on decals placed on the floor. Once TJ's out, Morales arrests Stanley, who proves himself to be a bit of an outspoken conspiracy theorist at arraignment court. Stanley pleads not guilty to two counts robbery, one count assault and one count possession of explosives. He was never in that bank!

When Rubirosa explains that Stanley's house is booby trapped with explosives, Stanley's lawyer Josh Limpett denies it. The claim is premature, since cops haven't searched the house. But of course, the cops haven't searched the house because Stanley has denied the presence of explosives, and thus his assistance to disarm them. Nevertheless, the judge sets his bail at $1 million. Afterwards, Rubirosa tells the detectives that the house better be a jackpot of evidence because their case against Stanley is light as a feather. The problem - the bomb squad won't let anyone in the house, and unless the cops find Stanley's plasticizer, they can't match it to the explosion that blew Officer Dwyer's leg off.

Rubirosa hauls Emily and her lawyer Jane Fynley down to the DA's office, but Emily denies knowing anything about bombs in the house. Stanley just told her not to touch anything. Jane explains that Emily isn't the two-time loser everyone thinks she is. The second time she was arrested, she'd just found out her boyfriend was HIV-positive and that she was pregnant. She tried to sell a little weed to earn money for an abortion. Emily figured she made a better choice of man in Stanley, since he was so lucky to get off light on his second strike - two years for manslaughter. He promised he was her lucky star. Oh well. Nevertheless, Emily's been holding down the same job for the last six years, and her parole officer has stated that she's fully rehabilitated.

Later, Rubirosa asks Dekker about Stanley's second strike - why the light sentence? Feeling judged, Dekker explains that because of political pressure against the three strikes law at the time and evidence pointing to the fact that Stanley may have acted reasonably when held up at knifepoint, he declined to prosecute as a second strike. After all, six years ago, people with a second strike were getting life for stealing a slice of pizza. That's when the call comes in. The state has declared Stanley's neighborhood a state of emergency, and the bomb squad is going to immolate his house in a controlled burn right now. And no, the cops won't be allowed in first. There goes the case...

A news reporter approaches DA Hardin on his way into work to ask whether Stanley isn't currently in jail due to the negligence of his office. After all, if Stanley had been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law six years ago... Upstairs in the office, Hardin lays into Dekker, even though he signed off on Stanley's second strike way back when. Furious, Hardin orders Dekker to make one of the charges stick and put Stanley away for good. At the Superior Court Preliminary Hearing, Limpett argues for his client's release, since the cops haven't come up with any evidence besides Stanley's fingerprints on the bicycle. Agreeing on grounds of insufficient evidence, the judge dismisses all but one of the charges for robbery. Even if this count is used as a second strike, Stanley will only get 10 years, which isn't good enough for Hardin.

After testifying about the bike stealing in court, Emily finally realizes Stanley doesn't love her. Rubirosa is just reassuring her when they're met by two San Bernadino police officers, who have a warrant for Emily's arrest - a third strike for her for the stolen bicycle! Dekker speeds north to meet with San Bernadino's smarmy DA, Vincent Exley, who doesn't care that Emily has been granted immunity and is a witness in an ongoing case. Hardin's not the only DA in SoCal who's tough on crime! Back in LA, a devastated Dekker explains Emily's predicament to Hardin - life in prison for a stolen bicycle - but Hardin claims there's nothing they can do. He's not going to withdraw the charge against Stanley for the bike. Sensing Dekker's fury, he reminds him that working to change the system isn't effective when you're working outside it.

Dekker and Rubirosa meet with Emily and her lawyer in the San Bernadino lockup to apologize. Even though they promised not to prosecute her, they can't control San Bernadino's right to do so. Later at the preliminary hearing, Limpett lays into Dekker, claiming the stolen bike charge depends on the credibility of a convicted drug dealer, now in jail on her third strike. The flimsiness of this charge would be laughable if it weren't clear that it's all politics on the part of the DA's office. When the judge asks Dekker to respond, he calls the person who invoked the third strike to the stand - DA Hardin. Shooting eye daggers at Dekker for this unexpected turn of events, Hardin admits that public outcry now indicates he failed the people of Los Angeles six years ago when his office failed to prosecute Stanley to the fullest extent of the law.

Although Hardin doesn't straight up deny political motivation to his actions, he does allow that such "calculation" would be deeply cynical. Hardin's forced to admit his current conduct isn't exactly a good example of justice. After leaving the stand, Hardin hisses into Dekker's ear. "You made your point. Withdraw it." Dekker moves to withdraw the stolen bike charge, and the judge rules they'll proceed to trial without it. Luckily, Rubirosa and Dekker find a loophole which results in Emily's release from jail: since she wasn't a suspect when she told them about the stolen bike, she was never Mirandized - therefore her statement is inadmissible. And as promised, Dekker's able to send Stanley away for 15 years. Hardin claims not to care - in 15 years, Stanley will be someone else's problem... maybe even Dekker's.

After an unsettling argument with Hardin, Dekker visits Officer Dwyer at the hospital. Once he sees what the amputee officer will be dealing with for the rest of his life, he decides to climb on board Hardin's bus, even if a life sentence for Stanley is politically motivated. Meanwhile, Rubirosa and the cops meet with Emily again, hoping for any shred of evidence. Scared, Emily admits Stanley stole the bicycle used in the first robbery on the way back from a San Bernadino shopping trip, and she was involved. Later, Dekker and Hardin watch as Limpett blasts them on TV for using the theft of the bicycle as Stanley's third strike. Dekker doesn't care, as long as his three-strike strategy will put Stanley away forever.