S03.E10: Dig Down

[AnimeMania]

(Series Finale)

Bosch clashes with RHD detective Renee Ballard as they attempt to catch the "flower girls" serial killer before another victim is claimed.

Premiere Date: April 17, 2025   Prime Video   

Maggie Q as Renée Ballard

[Raja]

So the penultimate episode clears up the season and we have a backdoor pilot for the series finale.

That was some ridiculous cloak and dagger for a detective to talk to a retired brother about his old case going active. A typical beating Bosch is more important the stopping a serial killer. And you would think by now folks would know that the D.A. uses him as a special investigator.

Besides a tease about her being politic'd out to Valley Homicide like Bosch was to Hollywood Homicide I really didn't see anything distinctive as a reason to watch her show.

[Prevailing Wind]

I did enjoy the "look" Bosch gave Maddy when she said McKee was "Old, 40 or 45."

[Slovenly Muse]

Man, this show my partner and I refer to as "Jazz Cop" has really been letting me down musically this season. Almost no jazz, and they choose Muse as the music to end the series with? I understand we're making a transition here (I assume Maggie Q is getting a spinoff?), but it seems really poor to say the final goodbye with a musical sequence that honours a completely different character and makes Bosch an afterthought on his own show. (Even though, I thought this was theoretically supposed to be MADDIE'S show, with the "Legacy" title and the "Times are Changing" theme song which is a bold choice for a show that's basically the exact same show. But that's another conversation.)

I guess that's Bosch for you. The TV equivalent of grilled cheese. Even when it's bad, it's never really that bad. I was just hoping for more.

[shrewd.buddha]

12 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

I thought this was theoretically supposed to be MADDIE'S show, with the "Legacy" title

We were expecting a "riding off into the sunset" ending - or a "thanks for the memories" gathering of characters - or  at least a shot of Bosch and Maddie together as a closing scene.
  But instead it's a one episode serial killer police procedural with everything falling into place just when the plot needs it:  a break in a decades old cold case, the LAPD needs to involve Bosch, Maddie looks at the case files for a couple of hours and ID's the killer - and we're done(!)

  And what happened to the LA councilman who was drugging and overdosing young black men? It seemed as if they just forgot about that storyline.

Is detective Renee Ballard another character from author of the Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer books? 
.. I just checked: yes, she is.

Edited April 18 by shrewd.buddha
misspelling correction, grammar

[Msample]

The councilman storyline seems as though when originally written, would be a season 4 storyline. But the cancellation of the series was rather sudden IIRC, so they couldn’t back out of what they’d already filmed.

[Raja]

57 minutes ago, Msample said:

The councilman storyline seems as though when originally written, would be a season 4 storyline. But the cancellation of the series was rather sudden IIRC, so they couldn’t back out of what they’d already filmed.

Bosch always gave us active cases with colder cases in the background. Like Crate and Barrel just coming upon a serial killer. Here a quick cleanup of a long background real color plot point.

I got the feeling that since we didn't get any of Detective Ballard's people in the backdoor pilot beyond a Captain due to retire that D.A. Chandler versus the councilman is planned for part of her series introduction. And then since Maddie caught the case as the first responder and a fixer is in play we have the guest appearance to help sell the spin-off.

[leighdear]

I'm disappointed Connelly allowed them to write Renee in as such a raging bitch at the jump.  I was prepared to go with them making her a 45 year-old instead of the early 30's she is when she first starts working with Harry, but the writing made her an entirely different person altogether. 

This episode's sole purpose was to introduce Renee, and I wasn't pleased to "meet" her.  I know a spinoff with her is in the works and Connelly has got a lot of good material for Renee, but she has lots of layers to her and totally a different Detective from Harry.  Her portrayal here was NOT impressive to me.  And yes, I can separate a book persona from a screen persona.  This was tragic. 

It felt like an hour of a totally different show, despite a few characters we know.

And sorry, she does NOT know him well enough to psychoanalyze Harry & his "darkness".  Very poor ending to a sucky episode.  

Harry and Titus deserved better.  

Edited April 18 by leighdear

[Raja]

1 hour ago, leighdear said:

I'm disappointed Connelly allowed them to write Renee in as such a raging bitch at the jump.  I was prepared to go with them making her a 45 year-old instead of the early 30's she is when she first starts working with Harry, but the writing made her an entirely different person altogether. 

This episode's sole purpose was to introduce Renee, and I wasn't pleased to "meet" her.  I know a spinoff with her is in the works and Connelly has got a lot of good material for Renee, but she has lots of layers to her and totally a different Detective from Harry.  Her portrayal here was NOT impressive to me.  And yes, I can separate a book persona from a screen persona.  This was tragic. 

I don't know the books but early 30s in R.H.D. makes her a department star on the rise. But working cold cases due to her long history having her own Crate and Barrels' who we haven't met yet probably works better for a series

[leighdear]

Her story for being in cold cases is very simple and could easily have worked with a 45 year-old.  I've liked Maggie Q in other roles. 

What doesn't work for me is giving Renee a completely different personality.  

[Msample]

Maggie Q is 45 years old, not in her 30s.

[Ottis]

On 4/18/2025 at 1:17 AM, Slovenly Muse said:

but it seems really poor to say the final goodbye with a musical sequence that honours a completely different character and makes Bosch an afterthought on his own show.

 

On 4/18/2025 at 7:19 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

We were expecting a "riding off into the sunset" ending - or a "thanks for the memories" gathering of characters - or  at least a shot of Bosch and Maddie together as a closing scene.

I kind of dug the last shot, of Harry up close in the plaza and then the drone backing up to include the bigger LA behind him and Harry so small compared to it, with "Dig Down" playing. It felt like it was saying Harry continues his crusade to do the right thing in a big city largely indifferent to him - and yet that indifference never stops him.

On 4/18/2025 at 1:07 PM, leighdear said:

It felt like an hour of a totally different show, despite a few characters we know.

I totally felt that. I was shocked when my DVR went to this episode because I thought the one prior was the last show. And then this other detective shows up and all of a sudden we are wrapping up a dormant mystery for a decade ago. Very weird.

[Slovenly Muse]

2 hours ago, Ottis said:

I kind of dug the last shot, of Harry up close in the plaza and then the drone backing up to include the bigger LA behind him and Harry so small compared to it, with "Dig Down" playing. It felt like it was saying Harry continues his crusade to do the right thing in a big city largely indifferent to him - and yet that indifference never stops him.

I hear you. And I didn't have a problem with the visuals... it was just the song choice. Music has always been a huge component of this series; the soundtrack is usually permeated with Bosch's love of jazz. We've had almost no jazz this season, and then the final song, the final musical note to end Bosch's series... is the theme song for Renée Ballard. And it's SUPPOSED to make us realize it's Ballard's song, because it closely follows the conversation about the little shovel she keeps as a reminder to "Dig Down." (Plus the fact that tonally it is VERY unlike Bosch.) I didn't even really mind that it was a backdoor pilot, I just really wanted the show to remember that this was our moment to say goodbye to Bosch before transitioning to the spinoff.

[Irlandesa]

On 4/18/2025 at 12:07 PM, leighdear said:

I'm disappointed Connelly allowed them to write Renee in as such a raging bitch at the jump.

I just watched the episode and I missed where she was a raging bitch.  She was no more protective of her cases than Harry Bosch has been. 

I am going to miss this show.  I thought this was a good season.  I wish they didn't cancel this show on a season whose season finale was basically a backdoor pilot. 

[leighdear]

19 hours ago, Msample said:

Maggie Q is 45 years old, not in her 30s.

That was my point.  Her being 45 instead of younger is fine, and could have been hand-waved away as long as they kept the character of Renee' Ballard at least partially intact.  They didn't do that with what we were given in this episode.  

 

[Calvada]

Maggie Q is not how I envisioned Renee Ballard, since she is not how she is described in the books.  But they changed so much from the books about Harry, his history with Eleanor, about Maddie, about Eleanor's death, about his partnership with J. Edgar, the type of person Irvin Irving was, and lots more, so I can't expect they would not do the same with Renee.  I said some time ago in the Bosch thread that I have to put aside the books and realize this is a TV series that coincidentally has characters with the same name as the book characters. 

I wonder if the Ballard series will keep her in RHD or have her work the night shift.