Bosch enlists an old war buddy to bring down Finbar McShane, but Maddie worries her father may cross a dangerous line. Vasquez deals with the emotional fallout of the follow-home cases. Chandler takes charge of a high-stakes case. Bosch clashes with RHD detective Renee Ballard as they attempt to catch the "flower girls" serial killer before another victim is claimed.
Maddie holds Bosch accountable. He has never felt the weight of that kind of promise before. He has always been the one calling the shots. He determined how far he needed to go for justice. Other people offered oversight previously. Bosch didn't take their authority seriously. But now, Maddie is aware of what her father is capable of. She has benefitted from it before. She requires him to be open and honest with her. She knows it would be easy for him to justify killing Finbar. That's the punishment he wants to enact. The deaths of Stephen and his family haunts Bosch. He couldn't save them. He must provide closure for Siobhan. He never stopped looking for Finbar. More cases required his attention. His focus was always on this case. He couldn't leave it in ambiguity. A mission to capture Finbar is more complicated. It's what Maddie asks of Bosch. She doesn't want him to be corrupted even further. She sees the beauty and grace in the work he does. It has had a profound impact on him. It inspired her to join the department. She strives to make a difference every day on the job too. She knows the danger. Bosch wants to do right by his daughter. He doesn't want to let her down again. The outcome is unavoidable. Finbar has to die in order for Bosch to return home. There was no other way to escape. Bosch doesn't pull the trigger. His friend from the army does that. He sought clarity on the purpose of this mission. He needed a directive. Ultimately, a choice had to be made. Bosch couldn't do it. He couldn't return home to Bosch knowing that he betrayed her yet again. He gets the outcome he wants. He still wallows in the darkness.
Similarly, Vasquez knew Albert's arrest would destroy their family. She wants to have a real conversation about the choices she made. Her sister hears her out. She still can't reckon with why Vasquez didn't warn her. She doesn't know how she would have responded. Vasquez couldn't take that risk with her job on the line. So instead, she punishes herself. Again, Maddie is there for her as she navigates this fraught time. It's another situation with no easy solution. Albert can spare his family a lot of pain if he accepts a plea deal. Vasquez wants to keep him safe. He must be held accountable for his actions. He is solely to blame. Yet the family only sees the shame extended to them as well. It's hard to shake off. They can't avoid it. Nothing can fix it either. Closure can't be found here. The police solved their case. A family was destroyed in the process. Even when the police know who committed a crime, they aren't always guaranteed a conviction for it. Zorillo is arrested. Bosch and Chandler know he killed Jimmy. The police chief wants Chandler to seek the death penalty. That's the only way to garner support from the rank-and-file. The decision is taken out of her hands. Instead, the FBI swoops in for their own case against Zorillo. Chandler isn't given the opportunity to convict someone for Jimmy's murder. She knows what happened. She doesn't like it. She is forced to accept it. Uncertainty still lingers. Doubts remain about whether she is committed to the tough decisions she has to make in this job. She hasn't been tested. She found the right man. She doesn't get to punish him for the crimes that occurred within her jurisdiction.
After a decade, Harry Bosch's story comes to an end on Prime Video. In some ways, this final episode resonates with the entire tenure of the character's time onscreen. It also sets up the next stage of the franchise. Maggie Q will headline the upcoming spinoff as Detective Renee Ballard. She appears for the first time here as the latest RHD detective. She fits the mold of reluctantly being paired with Bosch on an important case. She comes to accept his methods while still facing pressure from her boss. Background details are sparse about her. She enters as part of this world. It's not heavily focused on giving her a tragic backstory that will fuel her work moving forward. Instead, she exists as an extension of the case that has haunted Bosch the most. This season already saw him dealing with the emotional ramifications of a case that hit him immensely. Every detective carries the weight of an unsolved case they can't let go. Bosch reflects on the time he introduced Jimmy to the Flower Girls. Bosch didn't even know their names. He refused to forget about them. He had to get justice on their behalf. The case went cold. A decade between killings has to be explained. The killer isn't free to strike again simply because Bosch has retired. Bosch remains just as focused now as ever before. A new murder puts the case back in the spotlight. It takes priority over every other story. That means some plots are completely dropped. Nothing comes from the councilman drugging his sexual partners and obtaining dirt on Chandler. Maddie and Vasquez appear solely to give an assist when Bosch needs to obtain a DNA sample of their prime suspect. Everything is in service to providing resolution to this case that has mattered so much across two shows. Bosch receives that clarity. He doesn't have to reckon with any of the consequences either.
Bosch wants to kill the man responsible for these murders. That's an understandable impulse. Renee gets him to back down. He knows he has to be careful. He operates in the presence of someone actually on the job. He has freedom as a private investigator. He has a duty to his clients. The opinions of his loved ones matter too. However, everyone expects him to get the job done no matter what. He always has. The outcomes may not always be expected. Maddie may always worry about her father. New stories keep coming. It's bittersweet that the show is ending. It still operates with a strong sense of identity. In fact, this season overall was much more specific with its characterizations. It didn't go broad with too few details like the second season suffered from. The narrative went deep with its core characters. It challenged their senses of justice. They had to make devastating choices and live with them. They then asked others to understand and accept that. That has been an arduous prospect. Not everyone has the luxury of the same responses. Some people get it and some don't. That's life in this world. Bosch doesn't have anyone to inform about the break in the Flower Girls case. Instead, it's all within his own personal satisfaction. He appreciates the work Renee offers to provide this closure. Everything is urgent because he can't allow another death to occur. He crosses lines. Renee has to accept that. She sees the results. Chandler accepts the case based on the evidence presented. In fact, Jeremy McKee made it easy given all that he kept at his home. That offers a neat and concise conclusion. It may be a little simplistic. It acknowledges the weight and darkness that defines these characters. They can't let it go. Instead, they have to embrace it and use it as best they can.
