[/caption]Penultimate episodes are usually fun and gripping. After these episodes, audiences should be frustrated that they have to wait a week before the resolution the season finale will bring to the various arcs built throughout the season. Terriers' penultimate episode of season one (and possibly the series) is fun, gut-wrenching and packs the familiar punch that's become the Terriers trademark. And it's fantastic.
"Quid Pro Quo" focuses entirely on the Zeitlin case. What exactly does he plan on doing with the various land grabs? Well, Zeitlin wants to pave over Ocean Beach and replace it with an airport. For the majority of the episode, it looks like the good guys will win. Hank and Laura enjoy a tremendous amount of success. Sam Albrect, public defender, joins the duo in hopes of bringing down whatever Zeitlin's planned (of course he eventually gets paid off and forgets whatever he learned about the airport and refuses to return the incriminating evidence). Gretchen's new husband. Jason, is the architect of an exciting development that he learns will fail because of Zeitlin. With this knowledge, Jason helps Hank and Laura identity blueprints for the planned airport. The amount of information that Hank gains throughout the episode puts various characters in jeopardy, including Laura's source and Jason. Meanwhile, Britt cuts a deal with Zeitlin to free himself of possible prison sentence (following the brutal beatdown of Katie's classmate who didn't deserve the beating). Zeitlin assigns Britt to figure out whether or not a co-worker of his is the source leaking info to Laura Ross. Britt continues to keep Hank in the loop throughout so there's no duplicity on the part of Britt. Britt only wants to find out more about the goings-on inside of Zeitlin's offices as well as what his lawyers work on all day. Britt learns that the lawyers work on various real estate deals without knowledge of who's exactly buying and whatnot.
Lives become endangered because the development deal is worth billions. The people involved haven't hesitated in the past to kill and/or threaten anyone with advanced knowledge in the actual plans on the Montague group and the other group whose name I cannot spell from memory alone. Of course, by episode's end, there is a body count. Laura's souce and Jason become victims of Zeitlin.
The death of Jason especially ties into a season-long theme, and something so fundamental to Hank's overall arc: Hank pushes too much and people get hurt or die. Hank had the best intentions throughout the episode. He offered Jason a way out after he explained how Zeitlin murdered Mickey and threatened Laura. Hank even accepted that Jason wasn't the awful man he tried to push into Gretchen's mind a few episodes ago. He tells Laura that Jason's a "straight shooter." Jason wants to remain involved because he and Gretchen envisioned raising their children in Ocean Beach. When Hank discovers the dead body of Jason, Hank's face drops and he repeats "no, no, no" because of his epiphany about his past and his present. Hank wanted happiness for his wife. Hank told Gustafson last week that he needed to make amends for his behavior as partner. Internally, Hank realized he needed to make amends for his marriage with Gretchen, and his behavior in the days before the wedding and his way of making amends was to let the marriage be, to accept it and move on, which he had. And now something awful happened. The scene between he and Gretchen as she cried and he repeated the words "I'm so sorry" was so damn moving.
"Quid Pro Quo" packed everything Terriers does so well in one episode. The episode had good buddy cop humor, hard-boiled noir elements, dark and emotional pain, detective story and underdog story. The show belongs to Hank Dolworth. After 11 episodes in which he never gained persoanl victory, I hope the season finale makes a hero of Hank Dolworth.
Other thoughts:
-The episode contained a ton of set-up. Most of the episode was a super exciting chess game each piece getting to the place it needed to be by the finale. Such an episode is difficult to write much about in an English major kind of way. It doesn't mean the episode was boring because the episode was great from start-to-finish.
-Hank buys a plethora of weapons at the end of the episode, ready and willing to engage in war with Zeitlin because things got personal. Very bad-ass.
-Angela Kang & Leslye Headland wrote the episode. Adam Arkin directed.
-Folks, don't worry about not seeing the entirety of the season. Watch whatever episodes that are ondemand before the finale because Terriers is a show that deserves a second season. The finale's going to be awesome.
-Please read my Happy Thanksgiving Week 12 NFL picks below this very entry.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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