Beginning the second season with a nerve-wracking scenario of Maddie’s abduction, Bosch: Legacy quickly moved on to new situations involving Harry and Chandler, where their professional lives came into jeopardy. The first four episodes build up the central narrative smoothly, and there are three distinct plotlines to follow that occasionally mingle with each other. One of Chandler’s former clients, David Foster, was framed for the sexual assault and murder of City Hall employee Lexi Parks, and to prove his innocence, the senior lawyer had assigned Harry to the case. After being rescued from the clutches of her captor, serial rapist Kurt Dockweiler, Maddie re-joined the LAPD, and due to her proficiency, she was quickly recruited into the CRU unit. However, her experience as a victim made it hard for her to move on, and she has been plagued by anxiety and fear of similar situations taking place in the near future as well.
On the other hand, the FBI started suspecting Honey Chandler and Harry Bosch’s involvement in the murder of corrupt business tycoon Carl Rogers due to the sordid history they shared with him. Feds used one of Chandler’s law firm associates, Matthew Ramirez, to dig up information to prove her involvement in the murder and received certain evidence of Chandler and Bosch being at the locations where Rogers and his associates were murdered by Bratva. Harry and Chandler learned about Matthew’s involvement but chose to keep him unaware and mislead the feds through him by presenting misleading information. Meanwhile, Jordan Foster’s case took a new turn when the real perps, the rogue cop duo Ellis and Long, found out about Harry and Honey’s involvement with the case and went on their trail. As the season ends, all three plotlines end on a satisfactory note but leave scope for exploration in the upcoming season as well, which we will discuss in a separate article.
Spoilers Ahead
The Murder Of Lexi Parks: Could Bosch And Chandler Prove Foster’s Innocence?
Although viewers knew from the very beginning about the culprits in Lexi Parks’ murder case, it was interesting to see whether Harry’s investigation eventually resulted in clearing the name of David Foster due to the complex nature of the case. There is no substantial evidence to prove David’s innocence, and with most evidence pointing against him, like David’s DNA being found on and inside the brutalized body of Lexi, it was regarded as an open and shut case by the force. Right after being assigned by Chandler to the case, Bosch used his usual extra-judicial ways of sneaking, trespassing, and calling in favors from his former workplace, the LAPD, to learn for a fact that David was framed in an intricate way. His clandestine relationship with the sex worker and drug supplier, James Allen, was his alibi, and he was found murdered soon after Parks’ murder as well, which connected both cases with one common factor.
The series introduced us to the two rogue detectives—the young, depraved Long and the veteran, over-the-edge Ellis—and as a duo, they are prime examples of the absolute depths of corruption the worst kind of people inside the force are capable of. From exploiting a couple of twin prostitutes as honey traps to extorting money from rich clients to stealing, looting unsuspecting citizens, and even murdering anyone with wanton cruelty, there seemed to be no crime too low for them. However, with Chandler and Hardy, they know their usual psychotic approach will result in only them getting nabbed by the force in the end, and therefore they decide to take a more calculative approach. After incriminating Chandler with a false DUI case, the rogue cops learned about whatever she knew about the Foster case and located Harry’s residence as well.
Later, Harry finds out about a possible connection with Parks’ murder with an expensive watch as a clue, and to learn more about it, he goes to the watch shop of the Nguyen brothers, where it was purchased, and soon after he leaves, the shop owners get murdered. It turns out it was taken from a certain Dr. Schubert by Ellis and Long, who extorted him for a long period of time by threatening to destroy his career and marriage with video proof of him being intimate with one of his clients and her roommate (the twin prostitutes). They sold the watch to the Nguyen brothers like they usually did with their loot, and it ended up in the Parks household after Lexi’s husband Derrick purchased it for her as a gift. Lexi eventually learned about this and threatened the Nguyen brothers to reveal the truth, but the rogue cops got a whiff of the situation and viciously ended her life. To distract the authorities in the most convincing way, they used James Allen’s relationship with Foster to get the latter’s DNA sample and put it in Lexi’s corpse, making their crime almost foolproof and untractable. However, fortunately, Harry Bosch is involved in this case, who uses his decades-worth of experience to knock on the exact right doors and use some sneaking skills of his own to get proof of the rogue cop duo’s involvement with the entire shenanigans.
With Harry getting too close to uncovering their crime, Ellis and Long get desperate to remove him from the scene once and for all by shoving the car Mo and Harry were driving down a slope. However, Bosch returns almost unscathed, leaving the duo more frustrated than ever. It should be mentioned that after learning that Maddie is Harry’s daughter, Ellis tried to get information from her regarding Harry’s investigation by recruiting the CRU unit in a sex racket bust operation, and Bosch gets extremely furious after learning this. Finally, as Harry goes to Doctor Schubert to get his testimony against the rogue cops, Ellis and Long launch an all-out attack in sheer desperation, and Harry engages in a gunfight with them, which results in Long getting wounded and Ellis escaping. Later, a reckless Harry tracks Ellis down in Marina Bay and engages in a fight with him, which almost results in him getting shot, but a timely intervention by Maddie lets him live another day. The DA is initially unwilling to accept the evidence as it was illegally acquired by Harry and not admissible to court, but Chandler threatens to leak the information to the media, which forces him to dismiss the case in front of the judge. Thereby, justice gets served to Foster and his family as he walks free. Chandler announces the next step in her career: running for the DA’s office, which will be a significant plot point to explore in the upcoming season. With a posthumous cameo of Lance Reddick, the ex-deputy chief and current councilman of LA, Irvin Irving is shown to be communicated by Chandler – and she asks his support for her political endeavors.
Fed Situation: Did Harry And Chandler Finally Escape From Their Clutches?
It is true that Chandler and Harry knew about the Russian mob Bratva targeting Carl Rogers and his associates for duping their money and resources, but the detective/lawyer duo tried to get him arrested by the feds in an effort to serve true justice, contrary to what the feds are claiming to be feeding the Russians. They were getting their information from Chandler’s associate, Matthew Ramirez, who eventually came clean to Chandler and Harry about the authorities using him to spy on them and confessed his betrayal, which they already had an idea about. Nevertheless, Chandler continues with her ways unperturbed, and soon enough, the feds arrive at her law firm, and at Bosch’s home, with a search warrant and seize all their case files. Previously, Chandler had asked Ramirez to destroy all the evidence regarding the Carl Rogers case, knowing full well that this information would be passed on to the feds, which also became a valid reason for the feds to come up with a search warrant by alleging her destruction of evidence in an ongoing case. They even involved Maddie by interrogating her and trying to dig up information against her father. However, at court, Chandler absolutely humiliates the feds by presenting the Carl Rogers case file, which she kept intact with one of her attorney colleagues, thereby absolutely destroying any legitimacy of a case built on false evidence planted for the feds. The case is dropped, but the feds swear to continue the conflict further.
Unfortunately, Mo Bassi, the genius hacker associate to Harry who helped him and Chandler in all of their most high-profile and even personal cases, gets nabbed by the feds, who used one of their agents, Janice Moreau, to earn his trust and lure him into hacking a pharma company’s database. Feds pressurize Mo to snitch on Harry and Chandler, and although Mo’s loyalty to his friends is unwavering, it remains unclear till the end as to what might happen in the future.
What Did Maddie Learn About Harry At The End?
The Dockweiler abduction case did a number on Maddie’s mental prowess, almost leading her to remain a little over the edge as she found it nearly impossible to move on. This affected her personal life and professional life, and most importantly, she found herself at a ridiculous juncture where, on the one hand, she considered herself lucky compared to Dockweiler’s other victims who were sexually assaulted and were in a constant state of denial. On the other hand, her PTSD hardly let her breathe a sigh of relief. Maddie got some solace after confronting her demons as she poured her heart out in court during Dockweiler’s proceedings, and slowly but surely, things seemed to have taken a turn in the right direction. Being busy in her daily life while handling her own troubles and some of her father’s as well, Maddie’s mind gets away from the sordid experience, but once again she finds herself drawn back to the incident when she learns that Dockweiler was murdered inside the custody.
As the series ends, after Chandler’s double victory over authorities and feds, Harry and Maddie return to their hilltop house, and Harry decides to bring Coltrane out for a walk. It should be mentioned that, previously, thanks to Sam taking Coltrane out for a walk in Harry’s absence, Maddie suspected Harry to be on Ellis’ trail and was able to rescue him—so the best boy has turned out to leave quite an impact on the narrative in a roundabout way. However, coming to the present timeline, in Harry’s absence, Maddie receives a phone call in his cell, which reveals that Harry himself orchestrated Dockweiler’s murder inside the custody. Maddie is shocked out of her wits and visibly aghast, and when she confronts her father about this, his silence proves his involvement as well. This revelation marks the end of the second season, and needless to say, this will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of the series as well. Harry might have bypassed the professional troubles and helped Chandler in that regard as well, but his worst personal problem is just about to surface, which will definitely put his morals and ethics in question as well.
