In Season 1 of Bosch: Legacy, Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz) was buried alive. In season 2, the guy who did it got murked in prison. And here in season 3 of the series, its last, the saga of Kurt Dockweiler (David Denman) just won’t stay buried. Did Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver) have something to do with Dockweiler’s jailhouse murder? Did the former robbery-homicide detective, now a private investigator, conspire with Wasco State Prison inmates Preston Borders (Chris Browning) and Curtis Dignan (Eddie Steeples) to snuff out Dockweiler as a revenge play for what he did to Bosch’s daughter? That’s what a faction of the LAPD brass wants to believe, and they’ve tasked Detective Santiago Robertson (Paul Calderón) with trying to prove it. Damn, they’re bringing “Jimmy” Robertson in on this? His relationship with Bosch goes all the way back to the original Bosch. There is a long list of people Harry Bosch has pissed off. But as the final season of Bosch: Legacy begins, the ones in power don’t see his retirement from the force as a shield.
Bosch heads weren’t happy about Legacy getting the ax. From what has been reported, it sounds like it was a money decision for Prime, not a creative one. But either way it’s a blow, especially because the show was a hit. We’ll keep all this streamer cancel culture drama in mind as Season 3 unfolds, because the series is already teasing the next Bosch Universe spinoff, with Harry encountering Maggie Q as Renée Ballard. But in the meantime, the final installment of Legacy adapts two of author and series executive producer Michael Connelly’s novels, Desert Star and The Black Ice.
As Detective Robertson cranks up his double-secret investigation of his former colleague, Harry Bosch is serving as a security consultant for the district attorney campaign of Honey “Money” Chandler (Mimi Rogers), which is already getting nasty. (Connelly really loves a cheeky rhyme – check Elliott Gould as David “Legal” Siegel in The Lincoln Lawyer, another series based on his books, which can’t crossover to this TV universe. Because even if Bosch and Mickey Haller are written as half-brothers, Netflix and Prime hate each other.) Emmett Archer (JIm Holmes), the current District Attorney for Los Angeles, is running attack ads linking Chandler with her past lawsuits against corrupt city cops. Honey is holding press conferences accusing Archer of abandoning victims of violent crime. And Bosch is caught in the middle, since Archer also stimulated the investigation into Dockweiler’s murder, and with Bosch’s window into the force – including Bosch vet John “Mank” Mankiewicz (Scott Klace), still kicking in the Hollywood Division – he knows the rank-and-file don’t see Chandler as their ally.
Well, parts of the rank and file. Maddie is also a cop, and she has bonded with Honey over their shared history of assault. And while being buried alive in a coffin in the desert would leave a mark on anybody, Maddie is determined to return to the beat. On patrol with her partner, Officer Reyna Vasquez (Denise G. Sanchez), they respond to the scene of a driveway robbery. It seems like it’s part of a trend, “follow-home” attacks that net the gunmen cash, phones, jewelry – whatever they can grab fast and fence faster. That these guys are using a Honda CRV as a getaway vehicle is no help to Bosch and Vasquez. it’s one of the most common – and most stolen – vehicles in the country.
Chandler knows she needs the LAPD’s endorsement if she wants to win the election. But she can’t even get them to consider her request for police presence at a campaign event in East Los Angeles, one that includes the mayor. And that’s problematic, because another face from previous Bosch-ness has resurfaced in Legacy, and he’s disgruntled. Frank Sheehan (Jamie McShane), disgraced former detective and a former partner of Harry’s, appears at Chandler’s campaign headquarters. He blames her for having a role in his dismissal, even though as Bosch later points out, it was Sheehan who dragged his own name and reputation.
Sheehan’s drugstore aviator sunglasses and drab workaday clothing scream Aggrieved Male, and vocalizing vague threats at Chandler – “I’ll be watching” – isn’t helping. And when Bosch and Maurice “Mo” Bassi (Stephen Chang) toss Frank’s apartment, they discover police manuals from his time on the job detailing LAPD response to mass casualty events. “Ex-wife said he got rid of all his personal belongings,” Bosch says. Sheehan could be saying his goodbyes to what he lost in his own life, but planning to hurt Chandler – and the city – in general.
Bosch being not a detective but still close to law and order in the city allows him all kinds of leeway to operate. The in-between places are where he’s always thrived – even when he was in law enforcement. And in retirement, the freedom of movement he embraces also emphasizes exactly what grates on his rivals. That’s the two-way Legacy Bosch is working with. And since police brass are more interested in digging up dirt on him than doing the actual work of protecting people, it’s up to Bosch to recognize it and react when Sheehan puts his aggrieved plan into action.
At the campaign event at Plaza De La Raza, Bosch hustles Chandler to safety as Sheehan creates a distraction with explosive charges. Gun drawn, he tracks the escape route he knew Sheehan would take, through the plaza’s adjoining theater. But when he turns a corner to find his former partner just standing there, Bosch pauses. He doesn’t want to hurt Sheehan, but nor does he want him to hurt anyone else.
“Come on, Frankie. Let’s walk out of here. The two of us.” Titus Welliver is so good at conveying Bosch’s hardwired conviction. In fact, Bosch’s conviction is so hardwired, it’s simultaneously his greatest asset and a liability, because it also drives some to see his motive in Dockweiler’s murder. We really thought it would work on Frank, too, his old colleague and friend. But no. After all his threats toward Chandler and his perception of a raw deal, Sheehan is laying his own burden down. He shoots himself right in front of Harry. In the final season of Bosch: Legacy, violence is already hitting home.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
