Shades of Blue – Cry Havoc

By starrymag | August 12, 2018

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

 

 

The last time we saw Harlee Santos (Jennifer Lopez) she was tickling Cole (Nick Wechsler) with the business end of a blow torch. This week we picked up exactly where we left off. Cole is still tied up, telling Harlee all the things she needs to do to him in order to sell the story they’ve concocted. With Ramsey (Bruce McGill) parking his car just outside, they’re running out of time to make it believable. Harlee takes one last crack at giving him an injury he could not have inflicted himself, temporarily rendering him unconscious. There’s no time for her to run, so she locks herself in a closet while Bennett (Christopher James Baker) and Ramsey enter the room.

 

Cole tells Ramsey that Wozniak (Ray Liotta) tortured him when he refused to give him useful intel. Ramsey is suspicious, but eventually lets up. Cole says he told Wozniak’s crew only enough to stay alive, but not enough to get them caught. Ramsey accepts Cole’s answer and registers his injuries as proof of his loyalty. It doesn’t take long for Ramsey to point the blame at his suspected rat: Bennett. Ramsey requests one more act of loyalty from Cole – a demonstration of their unity and hands Cole a gun. In the blink of an eye, Bennett is shot dead.

 

Stahl (Warren Kole) continues to spend his nights cyber-stalking Harlee, despite the fact that he has FBI Agent Katie Myers (Afton Williamson) watching him from the hallway in a post-coital glow. He’s managed to expertly convince Katie that he is a victim of Detective Harlee Santos and that his main goal is to “make things right.” His masterful manipulation breaks down her defenses, but she’s still hanging onto the fact that Harlee contradicted the behavioral profile Stahl had created. It soon becomes clear that Katie will eventually be left with the decision to pick between what she wants to believe and what she knows to be the truth about Stahl and Harlee’s relationship.

 

Wozniak, who took quite a nasty fall in his kitchen, is being lectured by his wife while a doctor stitches up the back of his head. Linda (Margaret Colin) is done with Wozniak’s lies and evasiveness, but her husband is nothing if not a creature of habit – which is why she drops the criticisms the moment Harlee calls him. She tells her boss and confidant that she witnessed Bennett’s execution – but she’s not satisfied, even though he thinks she should be. Justice for Nava will not be considered “served” until Ramsey’s entire operation falls to the ground.

 

Internal Affairs have been dispatching officers to follow Wozniak’s crew. Tess (Drea de Matteo) and Tufo (Hampton Fluker) are being tailed on their patrol, while Carlos (Vincent Laresca) suffers an interference to his morning “ritual.” Wozniak makes it a point to warn Harlee, but as usual has got bigger fish to fry. Between keeping her daughter safe, trying to get Stahl locked away for good, secretly meeting with Cole and working to destroy a very powerful unit of the NYPD, Detective Santos has a pretty full plate. Adding another heaping serving of trouble, Intelligence is releasing a known criminal from custody, and Agent Myers is blowing up her phone.

 

Harlee makes her way to the FBI headquarters for a discussion with Agent Myers. The knife found in her car was a direct match to her fingerprints and DNA and should be considered as definitive proof; however, the fact that Harlee turned the knife in is giving Myers some reservations on the detective’s guilt. Myers questions Harlee’s ethics, but not once does she reveal that she knows where Stahl might be. Instead, Myers opens up one of Stahl’s old field reports and action that Stahl demands of her through an earpiece. Stahl feeds Myers questions through this implant, but quickly goes too off script. Agent Myers stops obeying Stahl – a glimmer of suspicion passing through her. Perhaps the man she’s been sharing a bed with isn’t such an innocent victim after all.

 

When Cole arrives at Murph’s bar, he is startled to find that it’s Wozniak who has decided to meet with him in lieu of Harlee. Cole is weary of Wozniak as he feels that he owes Harlee the truth – and the truth is that what she’s planning can’t be done. Ramsey can’t be incriminated for his involvement with the cartel unless Cole is willing to sacrifice himself, something he’s most certainly not willing to do just yet. Cole will supply them with as much information as he can without making himself out to be a snitch. He provides Wozniak with the details of Ramsey’s cartel transport deal, which just so happens to be going down later that day. Unfortunately, Cole can’t tell Wozniak what the location of his final destination.

 

Tess and Tufo enlist Carlos and Loman’s (Dayo Okeniyi) help in relocating a drug dealer’s neighborhood scout. They have to play it by the book, given the Internal Affairs patrol car watching them from just up the block. The IA officers, as it turns out, were dispatched by Verco (Dov Davidoff) to provide security and oversight to Wozniak’s team. The supervision is an unwanted gesture, but Wozniak understands the need to play the game. Wozniak bargains with Verco and tells him to suspend him in order to make Ramsey feel safe, thereby giving the dirty cop just enough rope with which to hang himself. Verco agrees and calls back his dogs – giving the rest of the department the impression that Wozniak is the focus of IA’s investigation.

 

When Wozniak arrives home, he finds his entire crew already sitting at his table. They swiftly make the decision to go all in on bringing Ramsey down together. Enrique, the cartel family’s golden boy, is at the heart of their plan. They must retrieve him and do so without being detected. Harlee volunteers to drive the integral decoy car in order to divert the sanctioned tail car to the police transport van. With the plan finalized, the crew briefly diffuses across the city to ensure their families are safe from the line of inevitable fire. Espada goes to feed his cat and Loman pays a visit to Karen (Shana Solomon) only to find that she’s working as a scout for the neighborhood thugs and Harlee calls Cristina – but gets her voicemail. Nothing ever really comes easy for Wozniak’s crew or those around them.

 

Nevertheless, they must persist. With the decoy van situated, Harlee seats herself behind the wheel when she realizes that the backdoor is open. When she runs around the van to close the door, Stahl approaches her from behind and shoves her into the cargo space. Terrified and incapacitated, Stahl drives Harlee to an undisclosed location, rendering her unable to hit her mark as scheduled. He taunts her, proud of himself for throwing yet another wrench into her plans. She withdraws her gun and shoots at the bulletproof partition, screaming at him while he sneers at her. Stahl promises Harlee that he won’t hurt her or Cristina as he just wants to talk.

 

Across the city, Wozniak grows more and more nervous. The rest of the crew are in position, but Harlee has gone missing. After radio silence, Wozniak decides to call the operation off. It won’t be possible without her in position and there’s no way she’ll be able to escape Stahl’s clutches in time. Stahl is too busy psycho-analyzing Harlee and invalidating the moral progress she’s made. This is his favorite form of psychological warfare. The deranged FBI agent begins recording his conversation with the detective, in hopes of getting something incriminating against her on the record. Harlee snaps and tries to make a run for it by shooting out the back door, but Stahl backs the van up until it collides with a storage container.

 

Harlee liberates herself from the back of the van and shoots as Stahl as he exits the vehicle. None of her bullets stick and he hops back into the van and drives away, leaving Harlee stranded. She stops a civilian and takes his vehicle, cutting through the city in pursuit of Stahl. Meanwhile, Woz decides to resume the mission by intercepting the transport in the Bronx. As she drives, Harlee calls Loman for an update. He tells her that the plan has changed, but it puts a target on Cole’s head. She hesitates but tells Loman to give her the address. They’re all back on track and the stakes are higher than ever.

 

Tess and Tufo orchestrate an accident between their squad car and Enrique’s trail car, leaving the transport van vulnerable. Carlos, Wozniak and Loman surround the van under the guide of cartel employees and grab Enrique. They send the transport van back on its merry way. The cartel son attempts to make a run for it, recognizing his “saviors” as police officers, but they catch him within seconds. Harlee pulls up just as Wozniak and Carlos shove him into the back of their car and spots a young witness crossing the street. Loman and Harlee chase the witness down and Loman threatens to kill the teenager if he tells anyone about what he saw.

 

The battle may be won (for now), but the war is far from over. Harlee calls Cole to warn him about the botched-up operation, but he’s already got Intelligence company. Harlee doesn’t give up, she owes it to Cole to tell him that he’s been burned. Finally, Harlee texts him to get out. The other Intelligence agent gets a call, and Cole convinces him to take it outside. Cole uses this as an opportunity to by himself enough time to escape. Cole jumps from the roof and injures hi leg, but Harlee and Loman throw him into their car before Ramsey and his crew can get to him. They may have saved his life, but Wozniak betrayed his trust.

 

Wozniak makes a call to Ramsey, who is already up to speed on Cole’s betrayal. Wozniak tries to leverage Enrique, but Ramsey is not one to surrender, no matter the cost. Even so, he listens to Wozniak’s terms (absolve his team of guilt, drop the investigations), with no intention of ever conceding. Cole warns the crew that Ramsey already has a counter attack planned, but they’ve been left with little choice. Ramsey pays Wozniak a call and they decide to meet – but Ramsey never shows up. Instead, he receives a call from Verco, who reveals the next phase in Ramsey’s smear-campaign. Wozniak and his crew are now being investigated by Ramsey’s mole as suspects in a terrorist cell.