The Bridge (US) - Episode 5: "The Beast" Recap

A couple weekends ago, I watched the first three episodes of "The Bridge" in a row.  Since then I've been watching the series as new episodes premiere.  I really like the show and I especially like the work of the male lead, Demian Bichir.  I was not familiar with his work previously, so this is something of a revelation.  I'm going to assume that people who read this entry are watching the series, but because I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the show, I'm going to keep the spoilers below the cut.  If for some reason you haven't watched the series, by all means, get on it.  It's available on demand.

Massive spoilers of Episode 5, "The Beast" ahoy! in 3, 2, 1....

OK.  So that happened.

What?  Oh, not a whole hell of a lot, really.  As opposed to Episode 4, which really banged it out, "The Beast" was a bit less involving, though still plenty tense.

The first major spoiler-y thing I want to throw out there: I don't think Linder is the killer.  Not after seeing this episode.  Why?  Well, he's out there burying Hector (I presume), when he's met by Galvan.  That was a great scene, btw. We know from the first few minutes of the episode what it cost Galvan to get to that point.  The disgust he showed was visceral.

I'm glad the torture was kept to a minimum.  After seeing torture scenes in other shows, I'm really not of a mind to see more of them.  So Galvan gave his "mercy" quickly and it was good.

Anyway, I think "the Beast" is someone other than Linder, and someone who has not been shown on-screen yet.  Either that or there's some time-shifting going on that is far from clearly explained.  But as of right now, my opinion is that Linder is not the killer.  Honestly, that would make the show more interesting, as Linder is taking heat from all sides, and he can't possibly evade the cops, Galvan, and maybe someone else who's coming to avenge Hector at the same time for too much longer.

Marco really screwed things up for himself by sleeping with Charlotte.  But in an interesting twist, it was actually his reluctant partner that gave him up. What I really don't understand is why Marco would then agree to meet with Charlotte later on; sure, he likely knows more about the lady from the salon (not sure about her name, sounded like Graciela) than anyone other than Galvan, but he's taking a risk seeing her again.  Of course, I could also argue that he screwed things up with his wife so badly anyway that she won't take him back no matter what he does.  We shall see, I suppose.

This episode really seemed to hinge on the "shoplifter" that Sonya first notices sitting in the station.  That's all well and good, but her character was never seen before this episode.  Add to that her nonsensical trip down to Juarez and you've got confusion aplenty.  The whole thing seemed unnecessary, though at the end there's at least some attempt to explain it.

We see her take a key from under the mat after her little jaunt down to Juarez.  Why she went there is a complete mystery.  The next time we see the house, Sonya and Marco are going in and find what appears to be the girl's father with his throat cut.  Apparently he was connected to the FBI agent killed in Episode 4.  Sonya and Marco then open the closet door and find her cowering there, saying that she saw "the Beast", a murderer who she heard about from the Mexican girl that spirited her away from a would-be kidnapper.

The main problem that I had with the episode was the juggling between various storylines.  The previous four episodes were guilty of this as well, but for whatever reason they handled it better.  That and the focus on a character who doesn't seem important kinda bugged me.  We'll see what the girl contributes to Episode 6, but for now it just seems a bit pointless and was handled haphazardly.

All in all, a good episode.  Not quite up to the standard of the previous four, though.