Laws Of The Universe – The second episode begins with Officers Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente) and Traci Harmon (Troian Bellsario) being dispatched to a large gathering at an intersection. When they arrive, their cruiser is pelted with bottles and fireworks. When they call for backup, they are ordered to sit back and observe. While doing so, they hear an officer down call come in from Officer Matthew Rolland (Rich Ceraulo Ko), who is just around the corner.

Diaz and Harmon literally walk around the corner to discover a victim on the ground and an officer being assaulted. Diaz immediately tackles the aggressor while Harmon assesses the injured party. The aggressor catches Diaz with a lucky elbow to the eye and manages to get away. When Sergeant Lasman (Eriq La Salle) and backup arrive on the scene, it becomes an immediate argument about everything from the size of the crowd to the proper way to proceed. Dispatch finally settles things by ordering them to set up a two-block perimeter and radioing in every 20 minutes.

The following morning, Harmon jokes with Diaz about his new shiner but Diaz doesn’t think it’s too funny. He’s even less happy that he didn’t get to lock the guy up. In response, Harmon takes him to a memorial for Officer Maria Delgado (Monica Raymund) where she explains how Delgado gave her life for people who didn’t and don’t care. The discussion doesn’t get much further than this due to a call about a nearby homicide in a park coming in.

Upon arriving at the call, Harmon is besieged by Mystery Mary (Callie Schuttera) who briefly tells her about someone leaving a little present in the park. Shortly after this, Diaz and Harmon are looking at what appears to be a severed head wrapped in grey duct tape. Being that the detectives are tied up elsewhere, Harmon tells Diaz to go find Officer Holt (Robert Bailey Jr) and start searching the park.

Officers Holt and Diaz are setting up a perimeter when several homeless people arguing over a bag draw their attention. It isn’t long after this that Harmon joins the dispute and convinces the Homeless Man (David Atkinson) to show her what’s in the bag. After discovering a hand with East Barrio tats, Harmon further convinces the homeless man to hand over the bag. Shortly after this, Lieutenant Bishop (Lori Loughlin) shows up. Harmon brings Bishop up-to-date on the hand but gets a bit too pushy for information about Delgado’s murder. Bishop practically tells her to let the task force with it as she walks away. When a narcotics call for backup on a suspicious vehicle comes in, Harmon takes it.

Another unit beats Harmon and Diaz to the narcotics, which makes them deadweight when they arrive. Despite this, Harmon convinces Sergeant Tyson Koyama (Rich Ring) to let her talk to the detainees about Delgado’s murder. Although Diaz gets one of them to talk, she has nothing valuable to add about the Barrio gang. After the call, Diaz asks Harmon what kind of trainee Delgado was, which leads to her revealing that Delgado wasn’t even supposed to be working the day she was shot. The discussion doesn’t get any further thanks to a shot fired call coming in over the radio.

Diaz and Harmon arrive on the scene to find a young man down on the ground with a gunshot. Officer Rolland tells them that he was shot at a barbecue after a dispute broke out. The young man’s mother, Valeria (Karina Noelle Castillo) also happens to be on-site and gets into an argument with Spyder (Crispin Alapag) about turning young kids into gang members. Once Harmon gets involved, Diaz gets involved and ends up getting embarrassed by Spyder after baiting him into a fight and then backing down.

Later that evening at the station, Harmon commends Diaz on his restraint but at the same time condemns him for baiting Spyder. She also tells him that he can walk the line and still stay true to who he is. Shortly after this, Harmon runs into Bishop, who commends her for identifying the gang tattoo on the hand in the park. As it turns out, it was identified as Juan Cortez. Eddie ‘Maniac’ Watson (Ian Down) is still on the run. Much to Diaz’s surprise, Lasman also commends him on his restraint before bringing up his body camera footage of Harmon threatening a suspect.

The episode ends with Diaz not responding to Lasman’s question.

 

On Call Review

This was probably just as good as an episode as the first, maybe a little better now that more of the story is coming out. I do like that the show tries to focus on real issues and real situations. I am not a cop and certainly do not envy them at all but I can understand Diaz’s struggle with wanting to defend himself every time he is insulted. Unfortunately, peace officers do not have that luxury. The one thing I will have to condemn is the head in the park. That thing looked like the head of a mannequin wrapped in duct tape. Other than that, the episode was decent and I’d have to give it a 5.8 out of 10.

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