Aquarius Episode 1.02 Never Say to Never Always

It's late at night when Hodiak picks the lock on his former house, where Opal lies sleeping in bed with some guy. Hodiak's not bothered; he's looking for signs of Walt, and indeed, he finds a crumpled bus schedule on the floor. He's just leaving when he hears a pistol cock next to his ear. The guy in bed with Opal is... his former partner Cutler? Still married himself, Cutler apologizes, claiming he's only been seeing Opal for about five months. But Hodiak's only concern is Walt. Opal told Cutler that Walt stayed until she could scrape together some money, and maybe she knows where he went. When Cutler asks if they're good, Hodiak says, "We're good, but we're done," explaining he can't work with liars. It's not a moral thing, it's just safety on the job. He's just leaving when Opal pops in to tell a story about the time a drunken Hodiak clocked her, resulting in four stitches. That's the Hodiak who's too good for Cutler.

Late at night at the Spiral Staircase House, Karn puts his pants back on, saying, "I made a mistake." He only came to collect Emma. Charlie invites him to take her, though he won't tell Emma to leave, and he knows she won't. All he cares about is the money Karn's going to give him to record a demo. Karn runs to his car and tries to take off, but a bunch of girls run into his path, so he starts honking, which brings Emma to the window. She recognizes her father as he pulls away.

In the morning, Tamminy calls Hodiak, having just been fired, likely due to a call from Karn. Hodiak wants Shafe back on Manson's trail, and he wants him to start with Roy Kovic. That's when a call comes in: Art Gladner has been murdered. Shafe wants to go to the crime scene, but Hodiak stops him. He'll make sure Cutler doesn't expose Shafe's cover on the drug case, while Shafe looks for Manson. Since the lock on the diner has a double-cylinder deadbolt, whoever killed Gladner must have had a key. This fact is lost on Cutler, who has decided the perp is Vickery, who was nabbed while running from the scene.

Shafe and Charmain find Roy hanging out with his biker buddies in Venice, upset to hear there's a narc running around with his gang colors. Once he apologizes for busting Roy's knee, which is keeping his sex life to zero, Shafe claims Charmain is still looking for Charlie, so Roy brings them to the Spiral Staircase House. Shafe tells Charmain to leave, but Roy insists she's his baby-doll crutch. As they make their way up the stairs, Emma asks Charlie whether she saw her father last night. Charlie claims Karn asked how much money he wanted for Emma, and he said no one owns her, so she can't be for sale. Charlie eyes Shafe suspiciously, then turns to Charmain, whom he doesn't recognize. Thinking fast, Charmain spins a tale of their first meeting in a canyon when they howled like wolves. She starts howling, breaking the ice, and pretty soon everyone's doing it. Inspired, Charlie offers to hook the girls up with some "candy," but Roy holds onto Charmain. Shafe is desperate to get her out of there, but Charmain sends him off to get some candy, saying, "Charlie goes through Roy, remember?" Later, while everyone's tripping, Shafe goes looking for a phone, which is dead. He looks up to see Charlie watching him. Charlie claims the house belongs to a friend of his, who's into devil worshipping at the moment. When he and the girls drove the bus south from Frisco, they joined the blood-drinkers, but he prefers to be feelin' good, so they'll likely move on. Suddenly all the girls find Charlie, along with Roy and Charmain, who keeps it together until she and Shafe are back in the car. When he tries to apologize for whatever just happened with Roy, she explains that she's as serious about being a great cop as he is.

Cutler and Hodiak reconvene at the morgue over Gladner's corpse to walk through his backstabbing. The killer would have had blood on him and Vickery didn't, and the killer would have had to be taller than Gladner, which Vickery isn't. Nevertheless, Cutler won't hear any of it; Vickery's his man, so Hodiak wrangles permission to find the real killer and let Cutler take the credit. Before he can leave, Opal stops by the station with a note from Walt. She doesn't care what happens as long as her son doesn't return to Vietnam. When Hodiak promises Walt will go to prison because of her, Opal smacks him and leaves. Cutler brings more news: the Army doesn't usually hunt their AWOLs nowadays, so the case will likely just go to file. Walt should be safe.

Emma spends time bonding with Katie and Sadie, who tell her how they met Charlie. Everything was perfect until Cherry came along. Without hearing the implicit threat, Emma happily explains that her life with Manson's family seems so much more real and meaningful than the life she left behind. That's when Charlie rolls up with an announcement: they're going to cut a demo - right now!

After trading notes on the cases with Shafe, Hodiak picks up Grace and heads to the Spiral Staircase House to show Emma's photo around. Roy says that if Hodiak thinks Emma is there, she probably was, but she's not now. In her pearls and perfect coif, Grace couldn't be more out of place, and when she spies Dede, a girl who could be Emma, she bolts for the door. Back at home, she admits she's scared, and now that she's seen how hippies live, she doesn't know anything. It's an intimate moment, and Hodiak tells her about Walt. Grace tries to reassure him, which leads to a hug, which leads to a kiss, which leads to... Meanwhile, Charlie and the girls drive the bus out to a deserted canyon to meet scruffy Rue Fisher, the recording engineer. Charlie is at his most charismatic while performing his song. Back at the house, Roy's waiting to tell Charlie about Hodiak's visit. Emma doesn't understand when Charlie's smile fades and he orders Emma and Sadie to get ready for "a little meander." When she continues to ask questions, Charlie smacks her, then tells her the only way things will work is if they are together as one.

When Hodiak returns to the precinct, Cutler tells him there are some MPs waiting to talk to him about Walt. Cutler warns Hodiak away from retaliating; Opal did whatever she did because she's Walt's mother. Later, Hodiak visits Opal. Per the MPs, she told the Army she was sick to get Walt out of Vietnam. Opal confirms she has diabetes, while sipping her scotch, but insists she has no idea of Walt's whereabouts.

Rue is just sitting down with some headphones when he hears breaking glass. He's not initially pleased to see Charlie standing in his kitchen with Emma and Sadie, two presents. Rue can have them as long as he wants them. Back in Beverly Hills, the phone interrupts another argument over cocktails between Grace and Ken. Charlie's calling to play a recording of the girls singing. Emma sings like an angel's dream of an angel, and Charlie claims he can finally see how to "make the worm turn."