You tell your kids there's no such thing as the bogeyman.
Tell them not to be scared of the thing under the bed.
Bet you never even bother to check.
You should.
Because there are monsters out there,
red in tooth and claw.
You okay?
Yeah, just... just dozed off.
Sorry.
Here she comes.
Hey, Lara.
This is my friend Rebecca, the one I told you about.
Hey.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
You're gonna be all right. I promise.
How can you say that?
You're setting me up with this, waitress job
because you want them to find me.
And we're gonna be with you the whole time, okay?
As soon as Koslov sends his enforcers after you,
Frank takes them out, then we move on to Koslov.
You don't know Koslov.
What he's capable of.
He's a monster.
Monsters are our specialty.
I took the liberty.
I was expecting somebody smaller.
He's a December baby.
Thanks.
Look around. What do you see?
Cop's greatest enemy's here in this diner.
And we're surrounded.
Heart disease?
Cellphone cameras.
Public catches a snippet of video on the news,
and they're like the kid who stumbles into
his parents' bedroom one night and freaks out,
thinks Daddy's killing Mommy.
'Cause he's got no context for what he's seeing.
And you can try to explain it to him.
"Daddy's not hurting Mommy."
He's just giving Mommy one of those special hugs
"that hold our whole damn marriage together."
The damage is done.
Which is why I always carry this.
My phone just died. That's so weird.
I know. Mine's out.
Disrupter.
We used them to stop the hajis from triggering IEDs.
You're violating federal law.
I know. Bitchin', right?
Why here?
'Cause here, there be monsters, Kyle.
Those two morlocks at your nine o'clock.
Big bastard's Vladimir Zinchenko.
Zinchenko's a former Spetnaz officer
in the employ of Alexi Koslov.
Koslov runs the Russian mob in L.A...
Extortion, dope, murder for hire,
sex trafficking.
Koslov keeps a stable of foreign women below his nightclub,
enslaved with drugs, coercion, violence.
Calls it a youth hostel.
If you already know all this,
why is it that no one's ever made a case against Koslov?
'Cause no one will testify.
Whenever one of Koslov's girls escape, it's Zinchenko's job
to track her down and make an example of her.
Our waitress.
Her name's Lara.
We set her up with a job here where she'd be easy to find.
Then we tipped Zinchenko off.
She's bait?
She's agreed to help us take Koslov down,
and taking Zinchenko out of the equation is the first step.
Don't be an idiot.
Arrest them now, all we have is intent.
Zinchenko takes a plea and spends the next 18 months
blasting his lats up at Folsom,
then he's back out on the street.
Only, now the son of a bitch knows our tactics.
Stand down.
Wait until Zinchenko makes his move before we jam him.
We're gonna end up in a gunfight.
That's the general idea.
That's an execution.
That's why you killed all the cellphones.
We don't execute people.
We engage them during the commission of a violent crime
and just kind of let nature take its course.
With all these people in the crossfire?
Like I said before, don't miss.
You're insane.
I'm not waiting for this thing to turn into a massacre.
LAPD! Drop your weapons!
- Don't! - No, do. Please.
I have permit.
Private security.
And who told you splashing cologne on your junk
counts as a bath?
He doesn't speak English.
I read him loud and clear.
I'm starting to think he might have a nonverbal learning disorder.
You seem to have trouble interpreting people's social cues.
For instance, when one of the other kids at the pool
looks at you like that, it means he wants you
to kick him in his bathing-suit area.
What the hell happened?
Clarence Thomas here just blew mud.
I told you to cut him loose, Frank.
He doesn't belong here.
Let's go.
I'll be out in few hours.
Maybe I come back for some pie.
Is this true? Are they getting out?
You know what, Dudley Do-Right?
I got an idea.
Why don't I just drop your ass off down at DARE Division,
and you can put on that McGruff the Crime Dog costume
and talk to the kids about the dangers of huffing?
I mean, son of a bitch, Kyle.
Exactly what part of "stand down"
did you not understand?
Your plan put Lara, put everyone in that diner
right in the line of fire.
What the hell happened to "serve and protect," Frank?
I'm not the one who put Lara in the line of fire. You did.
'Cause now Koslov knows she's been talking to the cops.
So you're gonna what, Detective Craig?
Ask Lara to testify against the Russian mob?
You might as well just put a bullet in her yourself.
So, are you gonna tell me where we're headed,
or is it another surprise?
RHD requested we respond to a homicide scene.
So do me a favor... Keep your mouth shut,
and try not to step in any blood.
See, there was this running back in Brentwood...
Yeah.
I'm familiar.
Robbery gone wrong...
or right, depending on your point of view.
Victims were all Los Muertos.
Probably a bad joke in there somewhere.
"Los Muertos son muertos"... something like that.
I know these guys.
They make MS-13 look like the Mouseketeers.
Yep.
Whoever did this skipped the dope and took the cash.
"Did the city a favor."
Los Muertos beefing with anybody?
Funny you should ask.
Somebody hit a Southside Trece pad about a week ago,
killed everybody inside,
relieved them of their ill-gotten gains.
So you think that lick was Los Muertos
and this one was payback.
Exactly.
Which means my clearance rate's gonna go through the roof.
Clearance rate?
These guys would step on their mother
to get a murder-suicide.
It's a twofer.
Clear two homicides just for showing up.
Seems pretty precise for gangbangers.
I'm gonna clear those homicides on these bodies,
because there's an extremely high probability
that these guys were actually responsible.
Sounds like you got this one all figured out.
What do you need me for?
Because one of them wasn't a gangbanger.
He was an undercover DEA agent named Refugio Garza.
He's been imbedded with Los Muertos for months.
Brave man.
They tell me he was a hard charger,
well-liked by his peers.
He had a wife and family.
So either wrong place, wrong time,
or their whole op-sec just got blown.
And we need to find out which it is.
Because if it is the latter,
then the DEA needs to pull their people out of the field
before they end up like Garza.
What the hell happened back there?
It's nothing. I'm okay.
Like hell you are.
You don't keep secrets from your partner.
That's a good way to get us both killed.
We're not partners, Frank.
We're mutually assured destruction.
You suck.
Yeah?
How about I put a silver bullet up your ass, homey?
Straight up, dawg.
All you kids, man, get the hell up out of here.
- Here you go. - Pleasure doing business with you.
I never thought I'd say this, Moreno,
but this is beneath even you.
Now, Frank, you're always trying to crush
an entrepreneurial spirit, man?
Keep the young businessman down.
There you go.
You know, there's a word for people like you.
Just learned this yesterday, homeboy.
Yeah. Repugnant, man.
Where... Where's your empathy, brother?
It's because of you that I'm in this
repugnant-ass situation as it is, anyways.
Don't you know I got kids to feed, probably?
I got bills to pay...
Hey, Optimus Dime-Bag,
put a sock in it for a second and listen.
A Los Muertos transport got hit last night.
Yeah? So?
I'm not your Huggy Bear, Frank.
One of the guys killed was an undercover DEA agent.
And the department thinks it was your homeys
in Southside Trece who killed him.
And that's no bueno, Gummy Bear.
Yo, Frank, I swear it wasn't us, man.
Who, then?
It was El Cucuy.
The bogeyman.
Ghost story. Urban legend.
Somebody's shipment gets jacked,
and they all say El Cucuy did it,
like saying, "The dog ate my homework."
Just more of these idiots killing each other.
No, it was him.
He got us last week,
and then they zapped Los Muertos last night.
And you know when we kill somebody,
we put it on the map, homeboy.
You know that, right?
They're making a statement.
El Cucuy... He's like a ninja, Holmes.
Frank!
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
She's gone.
Name's Artemis.
You know if she got a boyfriend?
She's a sicaria... a professional...
and she doesn't come cheap.
Bullets mushroom against a Kevlar vest.
Broadheads go right through, and no ballistics.
Cop killers.
She's after us.
It doesn't make sense, Frank.
Why would Los Muertos want to stop us
from catching whoever murked their homeys?
I think I might know.
I'm taking this toilet baby on a little fact-finding mission.
Better if I handle this one on my own.
What are you gonna do?
You don't want to know.
Hey, you guys lose a dog?
Found this little fella running around the park
- and put a leash on him for you. - _.
He really took to it.
Bet you're a real surgeon with that thing?
Probably thinking you'd take my hand off at the wrist
before I pull this pin.
Really want to chance it, Cobra Kai?
I think you're bluffing, viejo.
You better listen to your homey here.
Don't misunderestimate me, turd blossom.
I'm a problem drinker on the wrong side of 50
with four alimony payments
and prostate's the size of a papaya.
I never left a beer behind,
never passed on a second helping of bacon,
and I haven't put on a condom since 1993.
Guys like me don't die in bed, mijo.
We go out in a blaze of glory.
So if it's Wile E. Coyote time,
hey, I'm ready to rock the Casbah.
How about you?
Calmate.
There's already a long line of people in this town
that want me dead.
You put a green light on me
the day after your shipment got hit.
That's a hell of a coincidence.
Way I figure it, that was you
doing a little light housekeeping last night.
Those gangbangers in that lowrider were skimming,
so you killed your own guys.
Then you found out one of them was an undercover fed,
so now you're covering your tracks,
taking me out before I get to the bottom of it.
That about right?
You gonna come at me like that?
Call me Judas in my own place.
Well, you did just try to kill me.
And don't try shoveling me that El Cucuy crap.
I'm not buying it.
When I was a boy, my mother used to warn us...
"Behave yourselves, or El Cucuy will come and carry you off."
I cursed at my mother once.
Shh.
And that night, El Cucuy reached out from under my bed
and caressed my feet with his claws.
I felt it.
But you and I both know that he is a flesh-and-blood.
Don't we, Frank?
San Pedro, 1996.
Not many of us left who remember, but I do.
The Snakehead running girls out of Macau...
They called him Broken Claw.
Someone killed everyone in that warehouse,
took the money, and freed those girls.
Anyone bad enough to take on Broken Claw...
Well, whoever he was, he had to be a monster.
We started calling him El Cucuy.
That was a long time ago.
I'm not your bogeyman, Baron.
But I'm here to tell you, if you don't call off
that hottie with the crossbow,
I'm gonna be waiting in your closet one night,
and you're gonna make a hell of a ghost story.
Buenos noches.
Army surplus down the street.
Where's Frank?
Whizzing on the Constitution.
What's going on?
What do you think, asshat? Habeas Corpus.
Koslov's attorney just kicked us in the teeth,
and Zinchenko and his buddy Bogdan
are free to be you and me.
D.A. said she had no choice.
They both got concealed-carry permits.
Their story is, they only pulled their weapons
'cause they spotted you acting squirrelly
and thought a robbery was about to go down.
Racist Russian mobsters. Nice.
Lara.
When you disappeared, we feared the worst.
But you're safe now. That's all that matters.
I thank you for your assistance
in finding my darling Lara for me.
She's not going anywhere with you.
Another time.
Anytime.
But not a police station.
No, not a police station.
Can't we put her in witness protection?
Witness protection is for witnesses.
Look at her.
You really think Lara's gonna point out Koslov in a courtroom?
There has to be something we can do for her.
We had our shot, and you screwed it up.
If you'd gone along with the program,
Zinchenko would be out of the picture
and on his way to prison.
Or, better yet, cooling on a slab.
This one's on you, Kyle.
Mahalo.
So... So, what am I supposed to do now?
We'll figure it out. I promise.
Meantime, um...
Meantime, you can stay with me at my place.
This whole city...
Hell, this whole country is dry tinder.
We are one scandal away from a full-scale apocalypse,
and Frank Rourke is still out there
riding around like it's 1987.
More like 1887.
I thought I made myself clear.
I need hard evidence of Frank Rourke's corruption.
Your report is very thin... suspiciously so.
I didn't ask for this assignment.
I was perfectly happy pushing a black-and-white around.
This whole undercover operation was your idea.
And if my report is thin,
it's because Frank is careful in front of me...
Because I'm already burned.
He knew.
This was never an undercover operation at all, was it?
It's a chess game between you and Frank.
Kyle, I'm counting on you to take him down
before he takes the whole department down with him.
Hey.
Did Frank mention anything about your father's homicide?
No, ma'am.
Why?
Well, he may try to use your father's murder
to manipulate you.
I wouldn't put it past him.
But letting Frank Rourke into your head
is like inviting a vampire into your home.
Once he crosses the threshold...
well, then it's too late.
Hey.
How was your meeting with Lockhart?
She brought me in to tell me she was recommending me
for the Medal of Valor for that thing with the baby.
Wow.
Probably be saluting you soon.
I doubt it.
I don't know who the hell you are
or how you wormed your way into this unit,
but if I find out you're Internal Affairs
out to get Frank?
Next time it pops off out there, in all that chaos and confusion,
I'm gonna make a tragic mistake.
Are you actually threatening me?
I'm sorry.
Did I not make myself clear?
What'd you find out?
I don't think anybody got onto Garza.
Just bad luck.
Moreno was right about El Cucuy.
Half right, anyway.
I thought you said El Cucuy was just a ghost story.
I think there is somebody out there
preying on gangbangers.
He's disciplined, professional, and he's smart.
He hits rival gangs
and makes the second hit look like a retaliation.
Detectives clear the homicides from the first hit
on the bodies of the second,
whole department writes it off as gang violence,
and El Cucuy just keeps on killing.
But why did Los Muertos come after you?
That was just a misunderstanding.
We good?
Yeah. We're good.
Seen this?
I took the picture.
What the hell are we gonna do?
What we always do... drive on.
They were gangbangers, Wilcox.
It's not like they're an endangered species.
But lead poisoning is an occupational hazard
in their line of work.
We killed a fed, guys!
Keep your voice down.
All right, deep breaths, everybody.
Look, we're all sorry about Agent Garza.
He was a brave man in a high-risk profession.
God knows this country could use more men like him.
We all agreed we'd only do this if we could remain invisible,
- and as long as our casualties. - We're clear.
Were gangbangers, we were.
Go on. Let's move.
Beautiful. Let's go.
We had a good run.
We're still playing with house money.
We can walk away right now.
What about Margin Call?
You expect us to just walk away
after two years of planning and preparation?
I said we can walk away,
or we can nut up and finish what we started.
We're gonna step up the timetable on Margin Call.
When's kickoff?
Tonight.
Now, I've already made my decision,
but it's got to be unanimous.
I'm sorry, boss.
I just don't have the stomach for this anymore.
Of course. I understand.
But you got to understand I got to do what I have to
to protect my family.
See, we could get arrested anytime,
and I don't want my kids waking up to the sound
of flashbangs in the living room.
And, Stephen, brother,
I'm no longer convinced you can hold your mud.
There.
Now it's unanimous.
Is this all yours?
If you're asking if I live alone,
the answer is yes.
I thought maybe that other police...
the pretty one?
Tommy?
No.
We're partners.
I didn't mean to pry.
It's just, growing up, my whole family...
grandparents, aunts, uncles...
we live in a place half this size.
Well, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like.
Seriously.
Why are you doing this?
Helping me?
Because you need it.
And because a long time ago, somebody helped me.
Thank you.
But it won't matter.
Koslov will find me.
No, he won't.
Koslov's time will come.
Meantime, Frank's got a guy in MacArthur Park.
He'll hook you up with I.D., credit cards.
I've got nowhere else to go.
Lara, this is a really big country,
with a lot of nice people in it.
You can go anywhere.
Koslov's place... all of it... just...
Just put it in your rearview.
Did you?
It's okay. It's okay, honey.
There's still 11 girls in there.
Aneta, the... the girl I room with,
she's only 17.
We'll find a way to get them out.
Ghost story. Urban legend.
Somebody's shipment gets jacked,
and they all say El Cucuy did it,
like saying, "The dog ate my homework."
But why did Los Muertos come after you?
That was just a misunderstanding.
What...
Relax.
I'm not here to kill you.
- You're still under arrest. - Please.
What is this, some kind of fetish thing?
This is professional courtesy.
Turns out we're after the same man.
I don't want to hurt you.
That's so sweet.
Turns out before El Cucuy hit Los Muertos last night,
he hit another crew from Southside Trece.
Yeah. I know.
Both crews were acting as couriers through Alexi Koslov.
So this isn't about Southside Trece or Los Muertos.
It's about the Russians?
But why are you telling me this?
Because my target's El Cucuy, and I want another shot at him.
Looks like Artemis was telling the truth.
Three more places got hit last night...
all legitimate fronts owned by our buddy Koslov.
Made off with at least 400 grand.
Trigger discipline, no civilian casualties.
Preliminary ballistics line up.
It's definitely the same suspects who killed Agent Garza.
They're beating the bushes,
trying to provoke a reaction out of Koslov.
He's got a dozen legitimate fronts in this town...
maybe more.
A couple hundred grand in each spot on any given day.
They can't hit them all.
He doesn't have to... not anymore.
After last night,
he's gonna be moving all his cash... millions...
to one secure location.
One big score.
His nightclub.
Nobody's getting in there.
Apparently, El Cucuy thinks he can.
This is Rourke.
Where?
Dive team just fished a body out of Echo Park Lake.
Hadn't been in there long... a day, maybe less.
Stephen Wilcox.
You think he's connected to our case?
Wilcox installs commercial alarms...
Burglary, fire, motion detectors.
We recovered this from his wallet.
Looks like an alarm system schematic.
That's exactly what I thought.
And look at the address in the corner.
Koslov's nightclub.
What's the other number... 2315?
Alarm code, maybe.
Wilcox was a former private military contractor
for Black Paladin.
I ran into some of those Paladin guys over there.
Pretty high-speed.
Frank.
It was right there in front of me.
The fields of fire, precision and restraint.
Before Garza, they'd never had a civilian casualty
because they had strict rules of engagement.
These guys have been in combat.
2315 is not an alarm code.
It's military time.
11:15 p.m.
And now we know they recon their targets,
and they probably do an after-action report,
see if their tactics can be improved upon.
Which means somebody was at the crime scene yesterday
watching us.
Here are the crime-scene photos of the alley.
Could be anyone.
Bring up the Southside Trece hit from last week.
He's with the media...
or pretends to be.
Nothing suspicious about a reporter at a crime scene.
If he's surveilling us,
he's gonna want pictures, videos.
A photographer.
There.
Why him?
'Cause he's alone and invisible.
Almost.
And because he looks like he could kill somebody
with his bare hands.
Name is Rick Quanstrom.
Press pass is genuine.
He's a freelance crime photographer.
Sells something now and then.
Just enough to maintain his cover.
Quanstrom's another Black Paladin contractor
who took a buyout.
Led a security detail in Afghanistan.
Accused of looting, other human-rights violations.
Quanstrom's whole team returned to the States,
resigned under a cloud.
Right about the time El Cucuy resurfaced.
What do you mean "resurfaced"?
The El Cucuy legend started a long time ago.
Somebody in town was hitting gangbangers like this
way before Quanstrom,
but the original El Cucuy went dormant... years ago.
Quanstrom's nothing if not careful.
He's a planner.
But killing Stephen Wilcox feels spontaneous to me.
They killed Agent Garza.
Maybe Stephen was gonna blow the whistle.
Quanstrom did a lousy job hiding Stephen's body.
He didn't even bother to search it first,
or we would have never found that alarm schematic.
Why was Quanstrom in such a hurry?
'Cause he's out of time.
Whatever he's planning, I think it's going down tonight.
See if Lara can give us the layout of Koslov's club.
When these guys show up to take down the place,
we're already gonna be there.
Lara's not answering.
Lara?
Clear.
She's still alive.
How do you know?
That bastard's gonna want to parade her
in front of the other girls to show
that there's no escaping him... to show them the penalty.
She trusted us, Tommy.
No judge in the city's gonna sign a search warrant
for Koslov's club without probable cause.
They'll say you let a former prostitute
stay at your place out of the goodness of your heart,
then the girl ripped you off and split.
I don't care about a warrant.
I can't let it happen... again.
We can't let them do that to her, Frank.
Don't let them take me back there.
Hey.
We'll get her back.
I promise.
Well, storming the place is out. We'd get torn apart.
Koslov's club is a fortress.
And Koslov's men are not afraid to kill cops.
You got to walk through a metal detector
just to get in the club, so you can't bring any guns in.
We need a battering ram.
We have one.
Quanstrom.
We don't have probable cause to search Koslov's club,
but we have plenty of probable cause to arrest Quanstrom.
Look, I screwed up back at the diner.
I should have waited until Zinchenko made his move.
I won't make the same mistake... Not with Lara's life.
So, instead of taking Quanstrom before he enters the club,
we let him make it inside.
Pursuing Quanstrom into Koslov's club is perfectly legal.
No need for a search warrant.
And once we're inside...
We just let nature take its course.
Fun starts, Rebecca and Tom better get to those girls fast
before Koslov figures out what's going on.
Hold it.
All right, you're okay. Go on in.
That's pretty rad.
I love books.
That's why the pulping of a book is so offensive to me.
You see, when a book is not selling,
the publisher will demand the bookstores destroy
all their books by the end of the fiscal year
for the tax write-off.
The bookstores strip...
the covers from these books
and return them to the publishers
as, evidence of their destruction.
Sad.
But they're not collectors.
They're businessmen.
And so am I.
You have such a beautiful cover, Lara.
It pains me to have to remove it as evidence of your destruction.
Van in the alley.
See how low it's sitting on the shocks?
Must be four, maybe five guys inside.
It's Quanstrom, for sure.
Hey, trainee.
Kyle!
What's with you?
That's the same look you had on your face at the crime scene.
I lied to you... on our first training day.
Well, yeah? No kidding.
Not about Lockhart.
About Theroux.
About why I couldn't shoot him
when I had the chance back at Wikstrom's.
'Cause he was unarmed.
Because I wasn't always so choosy.
Operation Tomahawk.
We hit a Taliban stronghold.
Bravo team, move!
We took fire.
On your right flank!
Unh!
My buddy Sherman went down.
Who's been hit?!
And I lost it.
I chased the guy who shot him into a...
Watch your six!
Structure, a dwelling.
He wasn't the only one in there.
You made a mistake.
I didn't...
I didn't make a mistake.
I have something inside of me.
I'm starting to think that maybe...
my dad had it in him, too.
You're damn right he did.
And I'm here to tell you.
Billy's monster saved my life more than once.
We've all got something in there.
They tell you you got to keep it caged up,
but it's in there for a reason,
and sooner or later, you're gonna need it.
Politeness doesn't get it done out here.
Political correctness doesn't deflect bullets.
That monster you're afraid of, Kyle, sounds to me like
it's the only reason you're still breathing.
Check it out.
Find the girls.
I've got Koslov.
You sure?
You look great, by the way.
This is no police station, boy.
You guys got here fast.
We were in the neighborhood.
Easy. Easy.
Get down! Get down!
Take me back to the vault.
Koslov.
You're gonna die tonight.
If there's a life after this one...
buddy, you better pray there isn't.
You're about to find out all about it!
No, I don't think so.
You guys okay?
So, you gentlemen find yourselves
in a surrendering frame of mind tonight?
Nope.
I was hoping you were gonna say that.
Go!
Rourke!
Shh.
I think I'm starting to like her.
Yeah.
Lara said you set each of the girls up
with the full MacArthur Park.
She also said you gave them enough money
to start over somewhere.
Don't thank me. Thank Koslov.
It's his money.
Minus a processing and handling fee.
That's for the handling fee.
Day before yesterday, she threatened to kill me.
Guess that's progress.
Yeah, she's protective of Frank.
Hell, I've been here three years.
Sometimes I still feel like an outsider, man.
Frank rescued her from a human trafficker.
She was 7.
He used his connections
to hook her up with a good foster family.
She didn't even know her own birthday.
Frank made one up for her.
Never misses it... not once, not in 20 years.
He's the only father she's ever known.
So, what'd you learn, trainee?
You still haven't told me
why Los Muertos sent Artemis after you.
I told you... misunderstanding.
I don't think so.
I think El Cucuy was you.
Way back.
You were the one who preyed on the monsters,
the thing that came for them in the night...
Their bogeymen.
You have to become the thing that scares them, Kyle.
It's okay, honey. I'm gonna get you out of there.
Just hold on.
Yeah.
I'm a monster when I have to be.
I'll tell you what I'm not.
I'm not that guy at the funeral
telling some poor kid's parents we're doing everything we can
and watching their faces fall 'cause they know.
That's one lie I never have to tell.
I'm the guy who gets to tell Garza's widow we got the bastards.
That's who I am.
Think you can live with that?
What if you become something worse?
Your dad was always around to make sure that didn't happen.
And now you got me.
Yeah.
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.
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