S01.E11: By The Book

[DearEvette]

Quote

When a dancer is found on the New York City subway tracks, Killian and Morales’ investigation into her mysterious death challenges their tried-and-true detective work. Also, the grand opening of Goody’s is put in jeopardy and Quinlan and Bentley’s relationship hits a speedbump.

Airdate: 01/15/2023

[kwnyc]

I'm glad the baseball bat came back...maybe that's why the restaurant it was stolen from never reported it! They knew it was a fake. However, the detective still got off pretty much without a problem after having committed a robbery AND passing off fake memorabilia. His partner was right when she pointed out that HE works 3 jobs, but he doesn't want his girlfriend managing someone else's restaurant. He reminds me of a poor man's Steve Zahn.

Is Westchester Rich Cop ashamed of his projects girlfriend? Signs point to yes.

And they have been borrowing some Blue Bloods plots (I think it's funny that the detective's girlfriend is named Moynahan), and Blue Bloods had an episode where a cop who roughed up a suspect turned out to be a bad actor from another PD. (In which case, since the star of BB is the PC, he went and yelled at the head of the force the bad cop left AND kicked him off the force.)

So what's President Santos, I mean Jimmy Smits' angle? Why is he letting a bad cop go unpunished? Is it because George Santos is his secret son???

Interesting that they have the PBA rep so blatantly trying to trade quid pro quo. (The real head of the PBA in NYC has never met a cop he couldn't defend, and regularly politicizes police issues).

 

 

[LisaM]

Is this the first time that we have seen the Chief at odds with Regina? 

I liked how it was the desk Sergeant's rare book idea which broke the case.

As kwnyc pointed out, the NYC police union head is often in the news. IMO, he was exactly the characterization they were going for here. 

Would have been nice to see how Bentley went from a blatant diss of his girlfriend at his parents' house to kissing in front of brass at the opening. 

[Raja]

12 hours ago, kwnyc said:

Is Westchester Rich Cop ashamed of his projects girlfriend? Signs point to yes.

I'm not sure with her in uniform saying the job sent her he did invite her to stay. To get to know some folks beyond mom who does at least  suspect and I think knows her son is involved. That he didn't immediately say this is my girlfriend in that situation seems normal. Later at the cop bar it being a shared space and comfortable for both they went public.

[shapeshifter]

Would the person who got nabbed for using the dead dancer's credit card to buy shoes (ironic) get off if she returned the shoes like she offered to do since the card was not "stolen property" but rather "abandoned property"?

 

12 hours ago, kwnyc said:

I'm glad the baseball bat came back...maybe that's why the restaurant it was stolen from never reported it! They knew it was a fake. . .

So what's President Santos, I mean Jimmy Smits' angle? Why is he letting a bad cop go unpunished?

Maybe this is the show's "thing"? They resolve one B plot (the baseball bat) and start a new B plot (Jimmy Smits' angle)?
I'm guessing Chief Suarez is going for the bigger fish of the IA dude who is doing "quid pro quo" stuff. Suarez is keeping DA Haywood out of the loop for some need-to-know strategy reason.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Would the person who got nabbed for using the dead dancer's credit card to buy shoes (ironic) get off if she returned the shoes like she offered to do since the card was not "stolen property" but rather "abandoned property"?

No she didn't find cash and spend it, she committed fraud by using the card and stealing an identity. Now would many DA offices just pass the case on for misdemeanor prosecution or some diversion program? Yes.

[Dowel Jones]

18 hours ago, kwnyc said:

So what's President Santos, I mean Jimmy Smits' angle? Why is he letting a bad cop go unpunished? Is it because George Santos is his secret son???

In real life, most public agencies have specific disciplinary procedures that must be followed for everything above a simple verbal caution.  Remember when he said he had the authority to yank the cop off the night watch?  The union rep just informed him that he didn't, and in turn he had to inform Regina of that.  I don't see it as letting the bad cop go unpunished, as they can still gather evidence against him.  Makes for a season long arc, if they want.  Anyway, failure to jump through all the hoops is what gets most disciplinary cases thrown out.  I have read accounts of bad teachers, and I mean bad, in the LA Unified School System that are assigned a desk in a room by themselves because the District does not want them teaching, but it's too expensive to fire them due to lack of concrete evidence.

I hope Goody's doesn't turn into the NYPD version of Molly's, where the bulk of the attendance is off duty cops from the 74 and much of the plotlines are bolstered there.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Dowel Jones

[NJRadioGuy]

I'm curious where they filmed the subway murder scene. It definitely wasn't on MTA property. Fake signage, tracks with no third rail, and there is no middle track at the real Van Siclen station on the J.
Where Quinlan and company arrested the two masked perps was actually shot at the real Hewes St. J-M-Z station, on the Manhattan-bound platform. Not anywhere near East New York.

[kwnyc]

I know that sometimes tv shows and films use the NY Transit Museum for shoots in an indoor station. And yes, that didn't look like a real station where the body was found...I wondered if they used one of the MTA train yards, or if there's a "practice" station for engineers in training.

[transitfan]

8 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

I'm curious where they filmed the subway murder scene. It definitely wasn't on MTA property. Fake signage, tracks with no third rail, and there is no middle track at the real Van Siclen station on the J.
Where Quinlan and company arrested the two masked perps was actually shot at the real Hewes St. J-M-Z station, on the Manhattan-bound platform. Not anywhere near East New York.

It actually looked like 4 tracks (in the subsequent scene when Officer Quinlan was undercover).  Of the 3 Van Siclen Av stations on the system, only the one on Pitkin Av (A and C lines) has 4 tracks, and it is underground.  It looked to me like it may have been an LIRR station.

[NJRadioGuy]

1 hour ago, transitfan said:

It actually looked like 4 tracks (in the subsequent scene when Officer Quinlan was undercover).  Of the 3 Van Siclen Av stations on the system, only the one on Pitkin Av (A and C lines) has 4 tracks, and it is underground.  It looked to me like it may have been an LIRR station.

I rewatched and it looks like they only shot B-roll at Hewes St. The clue is the signal on the middle track: homeball J4-170/X-880, which protects the crossover between Hewes and Marcy. As for the filming location, beats me. Definitely an out-of-service track somewhere without a third rail. You may be right about the LIRR but the canopies definitely had an MTA NYC Subway look to them. The signage was all wrong, though—MTA uses Helvetica and that wasn't Helvetica on any of those fake signs.

1 hour ago, kwnyc said:

I know that sometimes tv shows and films use the NY Transit Museum for shoots in an indoor station. And yes, that didn't look like a real station where the body was found...I wondered if they used one of the MTA train yards, or if there's a "practice" station for engineers in training.

These days it's more likely the abandoned outer platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and the museum leads for tunnel tracks. I was thinking a yard track somewhere, but the thing of it is there is no third rail (power rail) visible on the trackbed. What was weird was that the murder scene and the platform arrest scene were on a station at ground level, but the B-roll at Hewes and a couple of tight shots of Quinlan were on the elevated structure. p.s. no practice stations for train operators. They have an instructor in an out-of-service train for school car classes.

Edited January 17, 2023 by NJRadioGuy

[possibilities]

If they closed down a subway stop for filming, I think the outrage among commuters would be not worth the verite.

[12catcrazy]

It's kind of a weird thing how we now have a story arc about a bad cop (police brutality) and the show pretty much hand-waved away the thing about Killian stealing what was supposed to be a $30K baseball bat from a restaurant.   Since it turned out that the bat was a cheap tourist souvenir thing, it's like it is now okay that he stole it?    No ramifications from it and I guess that it's better for him to commit theft than his girlfriend asking her rich Daddy for the money to buy the bar?  

Speaking of the bad cop - I give kudos to the casting person who found the actor to play the union rep.  That actor has a face and demeanor that should be pictured in the dictionary next to the word "skeevy".  I wonder if Pat Lynch watches this show?  He's probably enough of an ego maniac where he would think the portray flattering. 

[kwnyc]

19 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

I wonder if Pat Lynch watches this show?  He's probably enough of an ego maniac where he would think the portray flattering. 

Yeah, well-spotted.

[OLynn33]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:03 PM, 12catcrazy said:

It's kind of a weird thing how we now have a story arc about a bad cop (police brutality) and the show pretty much hand-waved away the thing about Killian stealing what was supposed to be a $30K baseball bat from a restaurant.

The bat thing never made any sense to me. Still doesn't really. I thought maybe they were setting this character up to be a bad cop as he kind of has that look about him in terms of casting. There was also early on his rough interactions with Haywood. Personally I don't think the writers fully knew where they were going with this subplot.

Agree with the comments regarding the casting of the Union rep. Perfect.

How poignant is this episode now? Bad cops get protected by their union and good cops don't/won't/can't/ speak out against them.

Edited January 28, 2023 by OLynn33

[ratgirlagogo]

Late commenting on this, but the library stuff was RIDICULOUS.  First of all, there are three library systems in NYC.  The New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.  Queens Public Library serves Queens, and Brooklyn Public Library serves Brooklyn.  There is, therefore, no such place as the East New York Branch of the New York Public Library.

Next, if you search the BPL catalogue you will find that there is exactly ONE copy of Edmund Wilson's To the Finland Station in the entire system, and it is, predictably, at the Central Library.  It's a favorite book of mine but as a retired librarian (30 plus years at NYPL) this sadly doesn't surprise me.  Thus it would be ODD for the librarian on the info desk to just bark out to an apparent underling to just go get this very old book  off the shelf without even giving them the Dewey number, plus we've already established it would be odd to find it on the shelf at any library other than the Central Branch.

Most comic of all - there is NO FUCKING WAY that any "early" edition of a book first published in 1940 would have survived in a circulating public library. Even if it wasn't signed by the author!  It would have been worn out decades ago.

Obviously I wish that people who write for TV and the movies would get goddamn library cards before they sat down to type.  But in this case the major boners could have been avoided with a little googling.  I guess CBS isn't the big time network I thought it was.