Frequency – Seven Three

By: Cade Taylor

“Frequency” episode Seven Three opens up with Benny Arcaro (Rowland Pidlubny) being murdered in a halfway house, two hours after being released from prison. Arcaro was not a really good person; he dealt drugs and beat his girlfriend to death. The twist: Raimy (Peyton List) remembers this case as her and her father were the ones to put him away. The other twist: she also remembers the original timeline where she and Stan Moreno (Anthony Ruivivar) are the ones to find his dead body. Stan was Raimy’s TO (training officer) for the original timeline where Frank was her TO in the current timeline. In the original timeline, Benny Arcaro is found with two bullets in the back of his head in 2008 after fleeing the scene where he murdered his girlfriend. In the current timeline, her and Frank (Riley Smith) are the ones to take him alive and see him sent off to prison to pay for what he’s done. So, what makes this case so weird? Arcaro is shot in the same place in the current timeline as he was in the original, which means that whoever is behind the shooting was also doing the dirty work eight years ago.

Now, in 2016, Arcaro has been shot in the back of the head twice the same way from when Raimy worked with Moreno. So, Frank and Raimy decide to use this particular case to try and take Moreno down and expose him for the dirty cop that he is. Only, it’s not going to be easy because the part with Stan being shady about his death in the original timeline isn’t known to anyone else except for her and Frank because to everyone else it never happened.

Raimy gazes off while riding with Satch (Mekhi Phifer), flashing back to her first 911 call with her father and her first call with Stan. With Frank, they find Arcaro’s girlfriend, Gina Vitale. Raimy attemps to resuscitate her until her father assures her that she’s passed. With Stan, she tries to get Gina breathing again while Moreno snoops around the house, finding a bag of drugs with a scorpion on it. He quickly stashes it in his pocket to take with them. Back in 2016, Raimy is trying to find any missing information that she can to bust Moreno, also wondering how he only got eight years for murder especially with his record. Satch assures her that he must have had a superb lawyer, but she knows that he only had a public defender.

Meanwhile, Frank is having trouble with Julie (Devin Kelley), noticing that she’s been a little too comfortable with Raimy’s softball coach, Ted. Frank is harmless, but at the same time he’s getting as much information from Raimy as he can – learning that Coach Ted likes to make visits to her house quite a bit. He is, understandably, frustrated at this new information. It’s hard to try to reconnect with your ex if she’s looking at someone else.

Moreno is finding any which way to try and get Raimy off of his case, but she is a hardball and doesn’t stop. Satch explains that they need to speak with Gina’s family about the murder before giving up Moreno and Satch knows that Moreno is a lowlife that doesn’t deserve this sort of attention. This is where Raimy loses her cool and calls him out right in from of Satch. Moreno, of course, denies knowing Gina or Arcaro, but Raimy knows the truth and is determined to get him to crack.

Satch and Raimy finally make their way to the Vitale’s restaurant, having a quick discussion outside about her sudden interest in Moreno. Raimy tries to play it off as just having a hunch, but Satch calls her out on that. He says that that’s one thing that she and Frank apparently share. Satch isn’t making himself look good by defending Moreno so much and Raimy can see that she might be dealing with two dirty cops, rather than just one. Mr. Vitale denies killing Arcaro. He wanted to eight years ago, but Frank was the only thing that stopped him.

Raimy instantly flashes back to that day in 2008 when she and Frank visited the Vitale’s to inform them of their daughter’s death. Frank assures Mr. Vitale, Nicky (Tony Colitti), that Arcaro will get what’s coming to him, fulfilling his promise by having him locked up for eight years. In the original timeline; however, Stan tries to make Raimy sit in the car as he hands the bag of drugs to someone and assures the Vitales that he will do everything in his power to make this right. You’d think that you’d be a little more secretive and learn how to whisper if you were a dirty cop, but Moreno isn’t the brightest.

In 2016, Raimy knows that the Vitales are lying so she convinces Satch to subpoena their phone records. It turns out Mr. Vitale has quite the record himself, everything looking pretty bland until she comes across a conviction in 1994 that was sealed by the court. Frank takes this opportunity in the past to snoop around and find out what the charge was. It turns out that Vitale had a criminal possession charge for narcotics, which means that he should’ve been locked up. But Moreno was the arresting officer. Frank snatches the hard-copy of his file from the precinct, storing it at the very top of the ceiling in the garage where nobody else would find it so Raimy could take a look. The visit quickly turns in the wrong direction as Frank spots the new glove that Raimy needs sitting on the table. It’s one thing to be messing with Julie, but he isn’t going to let anyone come between him and Raimy. Frank storms the kitchen as Ted and Julie are sitting there laughing, starting by yelling at Ted. Julie drops this quick, explaining that she was the one who bought Raimy the glove, not Ted. Julie and Ted are in the same class together, so they were only studying. Frank was dumbfounded.

The next day Julie makes a random visit to Satch’s garage (a.k.a. where Frank lives) to inform him it’s over. She will always love him, but she now sees a darkness in him that scares her and she doesn’t want that around Raimy. Poor Frank, he’s doing every single thing he can to try and catch the guy who’s going to kill her and she’s breaking his heart. Granted, she doesn’t know everything he’s doing, but it tears him apart.

Now that Raimy has what she needs to get Vitale to turn on Stan she uses it to her advantage by informing his wife that he is a drug dealer who ultimately got her daughter killed. That was where Mrs. Vitale drew the line as she immediately gave him away. The murder of Arcaro has now been solved, but Vitale still won’t give Moreno up. He won’t say one word.

Moreno quickly learns what Raimy is up to by constantly going after the Vitales so he corners her in the breakroom. He full on outs himself to her, telling her that the only way she would know any of that information was if she had his file and he wants to know where she got it. Raimy, being the smart woman that she is, plays it off as if she has no idea what he’s talking about, but Moreno isn’t more than done with this little game. We see him make a phone call to someone, informing them, “You need to keep your girl focused on more important things.” And who turns out to be the other man on the end? Satch, of course.

The biggest plot twist so far is Satch being in cahoots with Moreno, but just how far deep is he in? Satch and Frank were best buds so I have a problem with believing that he helped orchestrate his death. Now that Moreno has outed himself to Raimy, how will this change her position on the force and should she now worry for her life?