Upamanyu Biswas
The third season of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ has been rife with personal stakes from the beginning, but the action really ramps up near the end as Harry Bosch finally takes the onus on a case that has been troubling him for a while. In the previous episodes, we learned the identity of Robertson’s murderer, highlighting the web of conspiracy that engulfed the LAPD cop. However, with time running out and patience wearing thin, the authorities have a short window of time to make an arrest that can appease the restless police fraternity. In the meantime, Bosch also comes face-to-face with a new figure within the LAPD, one who could become an important source of information and intrigue moving forward. Her inclusion brings up a serial killer cold case from the past that still haunts Bosch to this day. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bosch Legacy Season 3 Episode 10 Recap
The last episode begins with Bosch having a night out with Maddie at Taylor’s Steak House. His daughter is worried about her recent issues with Vasquez, who has been closed off ever since the follow-home robberies and her nephew Albert’s incarceration. After leaving the restaurant, Bosch realizes that he is being tailed by someone. He informs Mo about the tail, who immediately gets down to business photographing the car as Bosch drives by the neighborhood. As he runs the plates for an ID, Bosch drives back to his place, where the tailing car parks. A woman exits the vehicle and heads up to Bosch’s office with her gun held aloft. Bosch comes out of the shadows armed with his gun. The woman identifies herself as Detective Renée Ballard from the RHD. She wants Bosch to hand over some files he stole from her.
Ballard and Bosch sit down to discuss the contents of the missing files – a cold case from the past detailing the murders of three Asian women who Bosch named the Flower Girls. The same person seemingly killed them, but neither Bosch nor Robertson, who was working on the case back in their LAPD Hollywood Divisions days, managed to resolve it. Ballard believes that Bosch took those files from her because he still feels an onus for what happened and that the responsibility of solving the case falls on him. However, the case has recently been assigned to Ballard, which pricks up Bosch’s ear. He is certain that a new murder has taken place in the case, which is why Ballard is so interested in the old files again. The PI reveals that he only copied the files and will share them if Ballard shows him the new ones.
At the LAPD headquarters, Ballard puts in a request with Captain Seals to allow Bosch to have a look at the new case. However, Seals is dead against it because he believes Bosch is a magnet for trouble. He instead issues a search warrant for Bosch’s property which would allow Ballard to get her hands on the case file without his consent. Meanwhile, Bosch is tipped off about this exchange by Honey Chandler, who constantly surveils all LAPD channels for anything Bosch-related. The protagonist uses this to his advantage and sets up a meeting with Ballard at the park, where he tells her that he is one step ahead of her. With no other option, Ballard is compelled to start working with Bosch as she shows up at his Hollywood home with all the new files.
Bosch Legacy Season 3 Ending: How Do Ballard and Bosch Catch the Killer?
Despite sharing the case files, Ballard remains suspicious of Bosch and leaves a tracker on his car. Her hunch proves to be right as Bosch is hell-bent on finding the Flower Girls killer before more bodies show up at the LAPD’s doorstep. He also feels particularly guilty about the case because of his inability to find the right culprit when the case surfaced the first time around. As such, he feels responsible for the death of the latest victim. Ballard follows Bosch to a Filipino sex worker’s house, where the PI plans to use Mo to investigate matters in a less-than-legal manner. Using the tracker’s location, Ballard puts a stop to Bosch’s ploy, telling him to let her handle the case and also focus on a more by-the-books approach. Still, the two detectives know that the sex workers in Filipinotown are the main target of the serial killer.
It is worth noting that Bosch’s mother also used to be a sex worker who was identified as a Jane Doe after she lost her life as a result of a violent crime. So, the Flower Girls case has a variety of personal angles for the protagonist. For the time being, he decides to back off from the case by slowing down his aggressive methods. Instead, he enlists the help of his daughter Maddie to look through the case files with him and find if anything sticks out from what they see. Maddie turns up trumps as she finds an inconsistency in the reports, one involving an LAFD paramedic named Jeremy McKee. The man pronounced the death of the latest victim while also showing up in the reports of a previous murder victim. Bosch asks Mo to look into his record and find out what he has been up to in the last 12 to 13 years.
After digging, Mo and Bosch discover that McKee matches a lot of the serial killer’s movements, making him the most likely suspect in the crime. Bosch informs Ballard about the suspect, telling her that he already has eyes on him. Meanwhile, she reveals that the killer’s DNA was sampled from the latest victim, meaning that if Bosch and Ballard get a DNA sample from McKee, they may have their killer. They tail his red pickup truck to a bar, where Renée disguises herself as a local customer to try and get her hands on his alcohol bottle. Although she is unable to procure it, Bosch asks Maddie and Vasquez to flag down McKee for a speeding ticket. They use a breathalyzer to get his DNA. The following day, Ballard and Bosch relay their information to Honey.
Honey tells Bosch and Ballard that while their efforts are merited, they need to get some hard evidence to pin the blame on McKee. For a second night running, Bosch and Ballard tail the man as he goes out on an excursion in the city. Meanwhile, Mo breaks into his home to find out what he can about his recent movements. He realizes that McKee is out to hunt another girl he met using the dating website. Bosch and Ballard rush to the location, hoping to stop McKee before he kills the girl. They are fortuitously in time to break through the apartment door and corner McKee before he can make his escape. They save the girl, who is traumatized by what might have happened to her. Thankfully, Bosch and Ballard combined efforts at the right time to stop further harm and capture the Flower Girls killer.
What is Next for Ballard and Bosch?
In the Flower Girls case aftermath, Bosch and Ballard sit down with Honey to hash out the details of how they made the arrest. Honey congratulates them both on the collar. Bosch also feels a sense of closure after closing a case that has been haunting him for a long time. The same is true for Ballard, who feels vindicated and relieved that her work with Bosch resulted in a victory, which is easier to justify to Captain Seals. She states that Seals dislikes her and will likely reassign her if she makes another mistake. Bosch tells her not to worry about it too much because she is a good officer. He hopes that they can team up in the future, which is likely a teaser for the ‘Ballard’ spin-off series. We’ve seen what the two detectives are capable of when working together, and that is set to continue with more adventures further down the line.
How is Zorrillo Captured? What Happens to Him?
While the final moments mainly focus on Bosch’s run-in with the Flower Girls case and his meeting with Ballard, the final parts of the third season also resolve Robertson’s murder. In the previous episode, we learned that Humberto Zorrillo, AKA The Pope, was responsible for killing Robertson because the LAPD detective was getting too close to the truth. Bosch finally manages to get his hooks into the killer by turning Sheriff Garrity to the police. As an inside member of Zorrillo’s operation, he has access to all the evidence and details about The Pope, which makes him a valuable asset in the investigation. Additionally, Garrity realizes that his own time might be up because Zorrillo is after him, especially with the long arms of the authorities closing in.
After Garrity turns himself in to the LAPD, Honey asks Detective Willis to handle the case. Eventually, the DEA gets a lead on Zorrillo’s location, owing to a tracker Garrity placed on the man’s car. The DEA organizes a massive raid to catch Zorrillo before he can mount an escape. Hovan informs Bosch about the capture, which pleases the PI to no end. It also means that after a long-winded search for Robertson’s murderer, justice has well and truly been served. It also brings an end to the dangerous drug distribution operation being operated by Zorrillo. All in all, it is a positive result. However, a small hitch surfaces as Chief Hughes gets the FBI involved in the incident, which allows them to take the case from Honey’s hands. Thus, it sparks a new conflict into motion between the DA and the LAPD Chief, a feud that will likely become important moving into the spin-off series.
Where is Finbar McShane? Does Bosch Bring Him Back?
Another significant case that is resolved near the end is the murder of the Gallagher family. Earlier, we learned that the Gallaghers were killed by a business associate named Finbar McShane, who ruthlessly murdered the whole family because he had done some shady deals. Subsequently, once the game was up, he fled in the back of a truck to a distant part of the world. Bosch was frustrated because he was unable to hand any closure to Siobhan Murphy except for the fact that her whole family had been killed in cold blood. Determined to bring the man back somehow, Bosch enlists the help of his former military pal, Ken Gurbizs. The two embark on a vigilante quest to find McShane and bring him to justice one way or another. After some digging, they learn that McShane is hiding in Mexico.
While Bosch, Gurbizs, and Mo are prepared to head for Mexico, Maddie grows alarmed when she sees that her father is fishing out with his old military gear in preparation for an extraction operation. She is especially terrified that he may be on a cold-blooded revenge mission and may kill McShane in the process, which is warranted considering the fact that the man killed a child. However, Bosch promises his daughter that he only plans to bring him back so that he can taste the insides of a prison. Unfortunately, the Mexico mission goes slightly awry when a local inhabitant informs the authorities about someone abducting McShane. With no options remaining, Bosch and Gurbizs take the tied-up McShane to a secluded spot where the man gauds them into killing him. He wants a swift exit because life in prison is too much of a punishment.
Bosch holds himself back from pulling the trigger. However, Gurbizs realizes there is no way out of Mexico for them unless they take care of McShane their own way. When Bosch refuses to do it, Gurbizs pulls the trigger himself and leaves McShane’s body in the dirt. The two then travel back to Mexico, where Bosch finally calls Siobhan and tells her the news about McShane’s death. She is relieved to know that the situation has finally resolved itself and thanks Bosch for his part in the whole thing and the fact that he did not forget. The gruesome murder case is one of the significant cases of season 3 and runs through it from the start. Thus, its ending, albeit somewhat unsatisfactory, brings a bookend to what is one of the more tragic cases Bosch has handled in his career.
What Happens to Patrick Currey?
Although we conclude most of the cases in season 3, Patrick Currey’s storyline remains unresolved by the end. Earlier in the narrative, we learned that the councilman had a habit of drugging his prospective sexual partners before hooking up with them. His perverse habits had led to a couple of deaths, which he had swept under the carpet using his legal team’s help. In the last parts of the season, we see Currey get involved in another incident that a female bystander sees. She calls 911, bringing Vasquez and Maddie to the scene, but Currey is already gone. We later see him meet an unknown man in a secluded part of LA, where he is handed a binder containing Honey’s intimate talks with her therapist. The man tells Currey he could use it in the future. Thus, we might likely see Currey return as a threat to Honey in the spin-off show.
Read More: Bosch Legacy Season 3 Episode 7 and 8 Recap
