Light Me Up – Episode 5 begins with Del Harris (Jeff Daniels) trying to assure himself as much as his FBI contact, Agent Joe Dordt (Ben Cain) that he’s got the Brotherhood case all but wrapped up. Vic Walker’s (Marc Menchaca) mysterious absence at the poker game does little to quell their fears.

Assistant DA Ramona Paltz (Melissa Rakiro) finds herself completely baffled when she is subsequently fired by Ron Gossage (Mark Junek) right after meeting her.

Lee English (Julia Mayaorga) attempts to discuss the Landwill case with Isaac English (David Alvarez) over breakfast, but it immediately becomes clear that they share vastly different views. Isaac sees it as Rinna Bransford’s (Amelia Workman) responsibility to protect Landwill, even if that means bending the truth. Billy Poe (Alex Neustaedter) brings the dispute to an end when he interrupts to ask for a ride.

Grace Poe (Maura Tierney) confronts Chief Steve Park (Rob Yang) in a crowded diner where he’s attempting to have breakfast with his deputy, Hannah Geddy (Rae Gray). She makes a big show of professing her innocence in the Sue Herlitz (Emily Davis) case and voluntarily handing over her gun for ballistics testing.

Cynthia Frazier (Britian Seibert) meets with Harris and Detective Angela Burgos (Luna Lauren Velez to share her big discovery from the bombing surveillance footage. She also shares her fears about Vic not coming home last night. Once Burgos and Harris are alone, she tells him about witnessing Vic take Cynthia’s phone yesterday. She fears that sending herself Vic’s photo with Ramirez from Cynthia’s phone might have triggered an alert. Harris assures her that he will handle it.

Lee learns that Billy plans on joining the army when she drops him off at the training center. Although she’s completely thrown by the discovery and doesn’t support him at first, she appears to eventually come around.

While Burgos hauls Marta Canter (Kelli Simpkins) down to the station for lying about knowing Liam (Andrew William Smith), Harris breaks into Vic’s apartment. He doesn’t discover anything important and nearly gets caught when Ramon Fisher (Kyle Beltran) shows up. He manages to hide on the balcony just long enough to avoid detection. After leaving the apartment, Harris learns receives several texts from acquaintances about Grace’s earlier confrontation with Park. When he calls her to address the incident, he warns her about Vic’s disappearance.

While spending an extravagant evening in a posh downtown hotel, Russell Wolfe (Christopher Denham) is surprised by Isaac’s knowledge of the gas/oil industry as well as his regard for environmental safety. As their discussion continues Isaac further reveals that he once was pursuing a career in engineering.

Elsewhere, Burgos attempts to comfort Cynthia in Vic’s absence with dinner and trash TV. They appear to be having a good time until the prospect of Burgos creating an online profile leads to her pointing out that they have very different tastes in men. During their conversation, Cynthia also mentions Vic’s trip to Harris’ cabin.

Billy and Lee’s intense evening encounter quickly turns awkward when Billy gets lost in the excitement and requests Lee to choke him. Grace surprises Steve and Maya Park (Sara Lindsey) with an unexpected late-night visit, but it is her who gets a huge shock. After learning that her gun was clean, he shows her his miniature recreation of the West Virginia crime scene. He only continues to surprise her as he provides a reenactment of what he thinks happened. He ends their meeting by offering to leave her out of the equation if she helps him bring in Harris. She only responds by telling him that she now has a lot to think about.

Grace later becomes frustrated with Harris’s flippant reaction to her description of the encounter. When Harris appears more concerned with the Walker case, Grace lays out the offer to deal with Park. Harris tells her that he wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on her. Later that night, it appears that the situation might bother Harris more than he put on, as he has a difficult time sleeping.

Much to Terri (Teri Clark) and Gene Howland’s (Josh Drennen) surprises, they receive a visit from Lee with the missing water test. They are both immensely grateful but just as quick to point out that there is no way they can ever repay her. Lee only wants to know who conducted the test, but they are unable to provide the answer, leaving the initial NG a remaining mystery.

Harris catches a smug look from Detective Fisher as he joins Burgos to question Marta. After learning of the new evidence against her, Marta finds herself with no option but to reveal what she knows. Marta can’t confirm/prove that Nell was the bomber, but she has several texts on her phone that suggest she was.

Grace is in the middle of couch shopping via a catalog when she receives a call from the young Fox Hole Bartender (Jay Jaen) that Vic was flirting with when he was there with Fisher.

With the new evidence and Marta’s cooperation, Harris is but bragging that they have the bomber case locked up when Burgos unloads on him about his weekend with Vic. She can’t believe that Harris would have anything to do with him after learning how he treats Cynthia. Harris begins to explain but is abruptly interrupted by a call from Grace, with the news about Vic leaving her cell number with the bartender.

Isaac doesn’t know how to respond when he shows up at Russell’s hotel with a cake to only discover that he is possibly married. When Harris visits the Fox Hole Bar to learn more about Vic’s time there, Billy returns to the bar where he had his panic attack/PTSD encounter the other night. After a drink, Billy appears to pick a fight with the intention of losing. Outside, Billy, has a strange encounter with the bouncer, Robinson (Dionysius Akeem), who not only happened to work at the prison where he did his time but also used Billy’s phone to call Virgil Poe (Mark Pellegrino).

The episode ends with Harris discovering Vic’s body buried behind the Fox Hole Bar while Fisher listens to the recording from the bugged Zippo lighter.

 

American Rust Review 

Not a horrible episode at all. As far as developing the story and keeping things interesting, it would be hard to ask for more. Although I would probably describe it as a bit bland, I don’t have much to complain about. There were, of course, the unnecessarily dark scenes, and the Isaac/Russell storyline is a bit over the top but besides that, things were surprisingly decent. In fact, I’d give it a 5.8 out of 10.

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