The main self-contained storyline this week was excellent, but particularly gruesome. The setup was just existentially horrific. So a woman has been shot dead in traffic, and there's Dutch with his rubber gloves examining the body. He gingerly picks up something to examine it in full view. "Umbilical cord," Claudette explains from out of frame.
So someone has not just murdered this pregnant woman, but ripped the baby out of her. They're of course frantically searching for the missing child. Then they find it dead, beaten and abused. What kind of monster would rip a baby out the womb to take it in an alley and beat it to death?
What makes it so excellent though, is the mitigating explanation. A couple of guys and a girlfriend get cut off in traffic, so the guy just opens up and shoots her. As the girlfriend explains, "She almost killed us, so it was self-defense." It's only as the mortally wounded woman staggered out of her car that they realized she was pregnant. It only went from a run of the mill dumb murder to something truly horrific because the girl was struck with some very damaged idea of conscience to insist on trying to save the baby. Girlfriend's explanation that they were going to give the baby to her cousin who was barren after multiple youthful abortions was an especially effective note of sad pathos.
But obviously these violent fools are not the least bit smart enough to take care of a baby, let alone one just ripped prematurely from the womb. So when the child isn't breathing, they start trying to do "the stuff you see on doctor shows." The child ends up de facto beaten to death by stupid crude attempts at CPR.
The subpar trainee officer Tina in the middle between Julien and deskbound pregnant Danny continues to bear fruit. Julien is quite tough and unforgiving with this person he is trying to train- and with good reason. Tina is dangerously incompetent, rushing into the holding cage still wearing her gun. As Julien chastises her, that's one of the top obvious stupid ways to get yourself or a brother officer killed.
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