One Battle After Another<\/a>. Sugar drops Ji off at a rehab facility he\u2019s brought clients to before, then procures a falsified death certificate from a friend at a local funeral home. \u201cHeart failure due to fentanyl overdose,\u201d the certificate reads. \u201cThe remains shipped back to Korea per the family\u2019s wishes.\u201d Sugar moves along at a brisk pace and never makes any big visual moves, but it does take time to fill its contemporary-L.A. noir world with contemporary versions of detective-story characters. This week, I was rather tickled by the quick interaction with Sugar\u2019s zillennial funeral-home buddy and the hearse she rode in on. \u201cSorry, boss had my car, so I had to take his,\u201d she says upon arrival, delivered with a subtle mix of contemporary-youth anxiety and 1940s paperboy urgency.<\/p>\nSugar goes back to the ranch to retrieve the NARCCAN he used on Ji the night before. He finds himself staring down the bobcat trophy head on the wall, the same way Vega did, standing in the same position in the last episode, making for an intriguing parallel image. Our hero and our villain find themselves up against a more ruthless, powerful force than either of them is prepared for. Sugar puts on a big show, crashing a kid\u2019s birthday party in Vega\u2019s backyard, socking him in the eye for good measure. It seems to be enough to make Vega think Sugar is actually distraught over Ji\u2019s alleged death, but it doesn\u2019t seem to throw Vega\u2019s scent off the general strangeness of this whole affair. Later on, one of his deputies will try to assure Vega that the case is closed and their operation can continue unabated, which allows Tony Dalton to deliver a rebuke with a vintage Lalo-style laid-back menace: \u201cHey, Christopher. I\u2019ll go home when I fucking feel like it. You know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
For Ji and Danny Moon, the case is all zipped up like a tarpaulin body bag. Ji is safe and anonymous in rehab, freeing up Danny to take on the world with a renewed confidence in the armored chip on his shoulder. It\u2019s a little neat for my taste, the way everything turns in Danny\u2019s favor this episode. Even after blowing up his previous lunch meeting with the Vegas promoter, the other boxers who\u2019d cracked wise about his \u201cjunkie brother\u201d show up at Teddy\u2019s gym to offer him a contract. On the other hand, the turning tides provide emphasis to the listless, lonely state Sugar finds himself in after having saved another surrogate lost sibling. Another case solved means immediate loss of purpose, even as he digs deeper into the Fire Sale conspiracy in Downer Town \u2014 the influx of heavily \u201cdiscounted\u201d fentanyl in impoverished communities \u2014 that Ji stumbled into in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cFucking embarrassment,\u201d Flyvbjerg says of Vega\u2019s involvement in the Fire Sale from his perch at a hotel stakeout. Sugar is there to see about witness protection for Ji. \u201cMost sheriffs are cool,\u201d Flyvbjerg adds. It\u2019s just the one group of them that become \u201cbangers with badges.\u201d This show\u2019s greatest sin remains its commitment to suggesting there is such a thing as a Good Cop. Sugar even goes on to elaborate how the whole Fire Sale and others like it start in the jails where officers make their contacts and effectively take over drug-smuggling operations, suggesting a scope of corrupt activity that extends beyond just one bunch of bad apples led by an anomalous \u201cdirty cop.\u201d In any case, the central point here is that fentanyl prices are down 90 percent in Downer Town, which would indicate that Vega is trying to help someone buy out the market. That\u2019d mean a major shake-up in Los Angeles drug territories and a loud threat to the powers that run the drug market in the city at large. Flyvbjerg and Sugar agree that something isn\u2019t adding up here.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond group, third wave, California. John Sugar. I\u2019m still here if anyone else is.\u201d Sugar speaks the words like a mantra, over and over into his alien communication box. Sugar feels alone and without purpose when he isn\u2019t actively bringing a surrogate lost sibling home, even as the trail of his own sister\u2019s disappearance starts to heat up. While investigating Dr. Stanley Ondaatje, Pavich\u2019s professor of applied engineering, Sugar wades deeper into the waters of his more devious human instincts \u2014 breaking into Ondaatje\u2019s house to find an aggressive home collection of succulents, then meeting up with him later on under pretenses to get a better read on the professor\u2019s obsession. Dr. Ondaatje notes that the prickly pear they\u2019re observing is a lot stronger than it looks and exceptional at storing water. Sugar remarks that he admires the plant\u2019s ability to survive on a bare minimum. \u201cBeauty in the face of adversity,\u201d as he puts it.<\/p>\n
But Sugar finds himself slowly growing uglier (or perhaps more carnal) while surviving on a bare minimum of genuine human connection. Back at the hotel, he finds himself craving something besides his usual plate of carrots and noodles, overwhelmed with giddiness at his first-ever bite of a cheeseburger all alone in the hotel restaurant. If these are further hints of the opaque \u201cassimilation\u201d syndrome he alluded to at the top of this season, it\u2019s interesting that these symptoms should begin to manifest not only in the throes of loneliness, but just as Sugar is beginning to unravel the bigger mystery of his sister\u2019s open case. Looks like our alien PI\u2019s purpose on Earth has superseded his purpose in the universe.<\/p>\n
Awash in restlessness, Sugar thinks of Chuy\u2019s mother, Sandra, someone who could identify other players in the Fire Sale operation. But it\u2019s already too late. Sugar finds Sandra\u2019s body in the empty L.A. river that morning. The toxicology report back at the coroner\u2019s lab indicates an overdose. Sandra is adorned with a red tag, which, as the technicians on hand explain, means next of kin are known and yet to be notified. Blue tag is an \u201cunknown,\u201d which, as the more cynical technician explains, means \u201cthey\u2019re dead, and there\u2019s no one to tell.\u201d Back at the hotel, Sugar finally reconnects with Charlotte. She accepts his apology and admits that she came on to him strongly for the same reason that he puts cameras in his room: No matter how much they want to connect with others, their professional lives force them to keep the rest of humanity at arm\u2019s length. The episode ends on the rows of bodies Sugar left behind at the coroner\u2019s, many tagged \u201cunknown\u201d \u2014 an overflowing River Styx beneath the pillars of L.A.\u2019s criminal superstructure. With such a shaky sense of purpose, is John Sugar prepared to wade through to the other side of these rancid waters?<\/p>\n
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