“Terriers” Recap: Episode #5 – “Manifest Destiny”

Hello again! There’s a new episode airing tonight at 10pm on FX, check it out…here’s another recap from a couple weeks back that we’ll call “Manifest Destiny,” (mainly because that’s what the writers would like us to call it)…and if you find yourself confused click here.

We leave our heroes heading down to the police station for questioning about the disappearance of Robert Lindus (which they know nothing about), with Steph hovering over his corpse in Hank’s bathtub. Down at the station, the boys deny all of Mrs. Lindus’ story, including the true part about their abducting Lindus that’s verified by the couple’s two children.

We’re left at a he said/she said impasse. In Gustafson’s office (complete with a nicely framed Thomas Brothers map of OB and Mission Bay that I just noticed), Mark begs Hank to come clean with him regarding the recent goings-on and his being on the verge of losing control of the murder case of any cop’s career.

Hank admits to visiting Lindus in jail, and to being hired to break into his office to steal the $250,000 that was stashed away. Gustafson is crushed to learn he didn’t find the wall safe stashed behind the picture frame where the escape money was. Gustafson wants to arrest Hank on the spot, but he’s reminded “One, you have no evidence, two, I’ve admitted to nothing (under oath), and three, the only person who can attest to the fact something was stolen is Robert Lindus.” After begrudgingly agreeing Hank is worth more to him on the outside researching the case (which Hank makes adamantly clear is more about Mickey than Lindus), Gustafson lets them go. They have 24 hours to help him out, or he’ll be removed from the case and the boys are on their own.

Now our dynamic duo are left with a conundrum: they have to find a way to let Gustafson find Lindus in the next 24 hours, dead of a head injury and not in a fashion that ties the death back to Hank and Britt. The plan: make it look like he got drunk and drove off a cliff, as suggested by Steph in mimicry of an old English teacher she and Hank shared. Keeping with her typical nonchalance, Steph is completely unfazed by the idea her brother needs to dispose of a corpse, other than the fact that Lindus has begun to stink and she’s had to pack him in ice.

Steph retires to the attic with Lindus’ documents, which she reveals to be a soils report, and the boys get to work. First up, procure a car for Lindus to drive off a cliff. They break into his house once Josephine is asleep, then draw in the uniformed police keeping watch over the compound by setting off the alarm. As the cops rush in, Lindus’ Lincoln, piloted by Britt, purrs out.

At the cliff, Hank confesses to Britt he agrees with Maggie that they’re in over their heads on the case. To protect themselves and their families, the boys agree to dump Lindus’ body and then let sleeping dogs lie with respect to the rest of the issues concerning Mickey’s murder, the man in the tan suit, and the Montague development. For some reason, I feel about as compelled to buy into this as an oceanfront investment opportunity in Yuma. Two seconds later, Lindus’ phone rings – a mysterious voice says he “just wants the soil reports back.” Okay, we might be back into the mix.

Cut to the next morning – Hank and Britt catch Josephine dropping the kids off at school and advise her she’s in danger, even with her husband’s disappearance the men after him might now be after her. She’s not worried, as she’s given their names to the man in the tan suit that paid her a visit earlier. It’s now their asses on the line.

After putting Steph and Katie in secure locations (Steph is at Gretchen and Jason’s condo), Britt and Hank book a hotel room in Lindus’ name, our duo stakes out the parking lot. It doesn’t take long for one of those scary black SUVs to show up. Lindus’ body hasn’t been discovered yet, or if it has, the news hasn’t caught wind of it.

Tailing our tan-suited villain, Hank ends up in a swank law office downtown. There, he meets Ben Zeitlin and is formally introduced to one Mr. Burke, another PI in the employ of Zeitlin and the infamous man in the tan suit. They’ve gathered personal information on Hank and Britt as well as their loved ones and evidence related to the burglary of Lindus’ office. Unless Hank can recover the missing soil report, they imply considerable harm could find itself upon all related parties. Hank leaves Burke with a bloodied nose in the elevator on the way out.

Visiting Maggie and her new son, the boys fill her in on the shit they’ve gotten themselves into. Knowing the power of the gentlemen they’ve found themselves in the company of, she advises them to return the report, leave town, and find new lives elsewhere.

Retreating to Gretch and Jason’s house to retrieve Steph, Hank learns that they’ve been reviewing the soil report and have determined it’s so toxic the Montague development “might as well be called Leukemia Springs.” Local aside: I’m now assuming it’s going to be located on that long-vacant lot near the entrance to Fiesta Island. Jason and Gretchen urge Hank to go public with the information, and he’s left at a loss as to how to explain to them he’d be signing their death warrant if he did.

So instead of going public with the documents, Hank decides that Lindus might as well do it – after all., he’s already dead, so what are they going to do to him? No one has found his wrecked car yet, so the twosome head down into the canyon where they dumped the body and plant the papers. Hank then places an anonymous phone call (doing the worst stoner impression I’ve ever had to endure) tipping off the police so that someone finally gets a hold of his body. Gustafson, however, is neither impressed nor fooled.

Hunting the boys down in a bar, Gustafson refuses to believe Hank and Britt aren’t responsible for Lindus’ death (well, technically it was some poor Mexican kid driving an old CRX that really didn’t want his car totaled). And he thinks Hank’s stoner impression sucks, too. But he’s thankful they’ve delivered the body his crew has been looking for.

Jump to a news conference, where Zeitlin pins all blame for the nondisclosure of the toxicity of the Montague site on Lindus. All development stops, pending further investigation.

Picking up Stephanie, Jason thanks Hank for disclosing the report while throwing a backhanded jab through an invite out for drinks. Gretch, however, is impressed with his integrity and tells him as much while Steph delivers one of her typically flippant responses to the invite to hang out again. The actual dialogue flows much better than my horrible prose in attempting to describe it, which was about as awkward as Hank’s parting words of “Gretch – I still love you,” followed by an awkward, yet pained “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that.” At least the back-plot that’s been brewing for weeks is out in the open.

On the road, Steph admits to Hank that Jason is “nice, but not as smart as he thinks he is.” It turns out that our chemistry whiz understands that there’s no way an actual test of ground soil could yield the results of the documents Lindus was in possession of. And so the plot thickens. In other words, “The soil report is bullshit. Someone made the numbers up…there’s no cancer in the ground.”

This evening’s fade-out has Hank surmising that the test is a false positive, though it’s not clear why. As Steph pushes him on the matter, he insists that they’re no longer concerned. This case is closed…pwshaw, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.

Tagged as: Terriers