Southland Episode 1.03 See the Woman

LAPD patrol officer Ben Sherman has his final session with the department shrink, protocol after fatally shooting a gang banger. Dr. Breslow retired suddenly, so it's Ben's first time with the new therapist -- her second day on the job. Before, she had a private practice. She's surprised when Ben says he went to Harvard Westlake, a swanky private school, for a semester until his dad stopped paying tuition. Ben reluctantly reveals that after his dad, a defense attorney, left them, one of his clients broke in and beat up his mother. Ben, only 10, witnessed the attack. When asked about the shooting, he says he's okay with it.

John Cooper, Ben's training officer, ribs his protégé about being a Beverly Hills rich kid who's used to therapy. John admits going to therapy when his marriage ended. Says it helped. They get called to an NBA player's impossibly lavish mansion on a stolen car call. However, when they arrive, Dante really wants them to find his Great Dane that was in the Bentley when two of his extra-marital flings took off with it. Dante's wife returns from vacation tomorrow and her missing dog will leave him with some explaining to do. When he doesn't want to file a police report, John and Ben leave, saying they aren't private detectives.

Their next call takes them to a possible overdose at a sleek modern sanctuary of a house on exclusive Mulholland Drive. It's much worse at the scene. Barry, a film producer, was partying with a couple of women and says he accidentally killed one of them during a drug binge. She had started to choke and he tried to give her a tracheotomy, but accidentally nicked her carotid artery and she bled to death. They arrest him for murder and take him down to the station, whimpering in his silk robe.

While patrolling, John sees Ben looking at the computer screen and gives him a pop quiz. "I just got shot. Where are we?" When Ben doesn't know, John lectures him, noting the street signs every time he makes a turn. He stresses how important it is to know where they are at all times.

Ben and John provide backup at a movie set where a real call girl holds a very real gun on movie star Timmy Davis. Timmy's check for her services bounced and she wants her money. Dewey and Chickie are already on scene, and they all talk her down and cuff her. Timmy, a boorish cad, doesn't want to go to the station to make a statement. After all, he's filming a movie. Though Dewey wants to cater to the star, John isn't impressed. It's an ADW and he wants Timmy to make a report to the detectives. Dewey concedes, saying he'll take Timmy in.

At the station, Dets. Lydia Adams and Russell Clark endure the protests of Barry's high-powered attorney regarding his arrest. He states that his client was trying to save the woman's life, and then snarkily adds that he should get an award for it, not be charged. Lydia says the coroner will determine that, adding that they give awards for saving lives, not taking them. Russell tells Karen, the victim's sister, the details of her death.

After Ben gets a tongue lashing from the director, his Ferrari-driving friend emerges from his trailer and spots him on set. Turns out he hired Ben's father to defend him on the drug charge. And, that he hooked up Ben's sister Olivia and they're all going out tonight. In fact, he's talking to her on the phone and hands it to Ben, who speaks briefly with his sister. When he asks if Ben wants to join them tonight, he just shakes his head. The friend sarcastically asks John if he wants to search his trailer. In the car, John teases Ben about his "other life" and grills him about his motivation for being a cop.

Dewey, Chickie and Timmy stop for coffee, but in true star antics, Timmy has "forgotten" his wallet. The star-struck Dewey's all too happy to buy, and gives the star a "C-note." As Chickie watches aghast, Timmy unapologetically pockets the change. When Timmy and Dewey want to smoke cigars on the way to the station, Chickie objects. Timmy tries to flirt but his cocky romantic overtures fall flat. Before she gets into the car, she shoots a glare at her misbehaving partner as he joins Timmy in the back of their cruiser-turned-cigar club so Chickie can chauffeur them to the station.

Ben and John get a 2-1-1 in progress call and see the car leaving the scene and clipping another car. They attempt a pull over, but the crooks gun the engine in their Mercedes. After the suspects hit a parked car, they flee on foot. John screeches to a halt, and Ben jumps out and gives chase through the urban obstacle course. John cuts them off in an alley with the car as Ben orders them down on the ground. He calls it in, giving the exact address down to the half, impressing his training officer with his adeptness at following directions.

At a wig shop, John and Ben bring the suspects to a bloodied transgendered woman. She says it wasn't them. However, another transgendered woman saw them beating her. Gentle and accommodating, John retrieves her wig from the chandelier. He says the police can protect her from the constant harassment, but she's not so sure. Dewey arrives, smoking his stogie. John wants him kept out while he talks to the women. Across the street, Ben spots the Bentley with the Great Dane inside. He asks if he should call it in, but John says no. Chickie, who left the car to avoid Timmy's lewd stories of conquest, returns to see Dewey "accidentally" let him escape.

On their way to a domestic call, John warns Ben that they're tricky. When Ben says he's got it, John asks if his dad beat his mom. Ben avoids the topic, but John, unable to accept Ben's Beverly Hills background with his choice to be a cop, pushes further. He asks why he learned to shoot. Ben turns the tables, asking John how he learned. John says his dad taught him between stints in prison. At the domestic, a couple John knows all too well is at each other's throats. Sick of responding to their calls, John issues them an impromptu divorce and kicks the guy out of the house.

Chickie locks up the call girl and yells at Dewey for letting Timmy go. She says she took him back as her partner when no one else would work with him -- only to have him pull this stunt. She gives him an ultimatum: If this is the way he does police work, she wants a new partner. His response, "Are you on the rag?"

Karen tells Russell about her sister and reveals that she herself is a published author. Russell reveals his own writing aspirations and she invites him to take her class. An attraction sparks between them. During lunch, John says he would have handled the domestic differently if the kids had been home. He asks Ben again if his dad hit his mom. Ben tells him to back off the interrogations into his past. At Timmy's house, he and Dewey fire his illegal high-caliber automatic guns at a mountainside in Los Angeles.

John and Ben pull over the Bentley, the Great Dane standing the back. The woman claims to be Dante's really close friend. However, they don't even know the dog's name. Meanwhile, Dewey fails to impress the Hollywood party girls with his sexist jokes. At the station, Karen tells Russell her sister's sad battle with drug addiction and he comforts her when the shock wears off and is replaced by grief. Lydia becomes concerned at seeing her married partner so intimately comforting Karen. When Karen learns Russell is married, she says, "Too bad." It's clear Russell feels the same way.

Chickie is at home with her son when Dewey calls, begging her for her help. He has no idea where he is, just that he's at Timmy's house. She refuses to help her partner, and tells him to call his wife. Dewey becomes desperate, saying he's an alcoholic and needs to make amends, now. Meanwhile, Dante calls, wanting the police to bring him his car, but still won't press charges. So, John lets the women go. He then gets a call from Chickie to help Dewey.

Ben and John navigate through a hip Hollywood party. In the bedroom, they're amused to see Dewey handcuffed to a wall sculpture, sans his regulation uniform pants and underwear. Ben and John laugh as Dewey screams at them to get him out of there. Instead, they take his picture. When Dewey can't tell them where his gun is, they search the party where John and Ben retrieves Dewey's gun from a dancing woman who's wearing his utility belt. They then leave Dewey to fend for himself.

Ben sees John shifting in discomfort and asks about his back. John says it's an old injury and he's tried everything to quell the pain. They respond again to the fighting couple's apartment, where their kids are outside waiting for their aunt. They arrest both of the fighting parents. Later, John asks Ben again if his dad beat his mom. Tired of his questioning, Ben tells him about the drug dealers, adding that they knocked out his teeth when he tried to defend her. He couldn't sleep after the incident, so he learned to shoot. John says his dad, who's in prison, is a bigger asshole than that. "He raped and murdered someone."

Later, John meets his ex-wife who gives him pain pills that she stole from the doctor. Ben takes up his sister on the invitation and goes to Citrus, where he's surprised to see his dad sitting at the table with his actor friend. Ben says nothing. Just leaves.