This was hands-down the best episode to date of The Bridge‘s second season – and that’s saying a lot, because this season has been pretty damn good for the most part. The show seemed to embrace its destiny as a dark, meditative thriller, having ditched season one’s serial killer construct. Even the episode’s title, “Harvest of Souls,” sounds like a horror movie. And that, I think, is what stood out to me so much in this fantastic episode: its horrific, almost nihilistic nature. This is a world where bad things happen, and the good guys don’t always win.
Director Guy Ferland (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead) is perfectly suited to this material, and imbues “Harvest” with several cool, innovative visual touches. Here’s a garden bordered by barbed wire; here, two journalists wear hoods while hearing the confession of a hitman; and here a detective unceremoniously throws a box containing the ashes of her sister’s killer into a dumpster. And I gotta hand it to The Bridge: Sonya’s jacket, to me, has become as iconic and recognizable as Daryl Dixon’s crossbow or Don Draper’s fedora. Not a lot of actresses could pull of a jacket with leopard print shoulders and a horse on the back, but Diane Kruger pulls it off somehow.
I guess I should talk plot at least a little bit, instead of just gushing about the atmosphere, which was seriously so good, you guys. I mean it.
Poor Abelardo Pintado, you were two good for this world. Literally. I called it a few episodes ago, but it doesn’t mean I wanted to be right. Abelardo, after being sold out by his bodyguard (who’s murdered in front of him), is abducted and killed by Juarez policeman, who tonight were depicted as no less than the kind of monsters that kids check their closets for. Investigating his death, Sonya and Marco go to his hotel room to get a copy of Eva’s affidavit; while there, they get attacked by cops, both of whom Marco ends up killing. It’s tense and more than a little scary, but they escape with the affidavit.
Which they probably won’t even need, as Eva seems to want to take matters into her own hands. She finds the captive cop in the shed at Father Bob’s ranch (another great location in an episode full of them), and is initially pissed at Linder for not telling her. She believes that Abelardo and her statement will save her. “That’s a form of justice,” Linder replies. “Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t.” I’ve had problems with Linder’s character in the past, but this mumbly weirdo is quickly becoming my favorite character on The Bridge.
Eva’s mind gets changed pretty quickly when she learns of Abelardo’s death. She takes an axe to the shack, and we get an impossibly good shot of a beautiful woman in a white dress, holding an axe, walking down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere. It turns out the cop was one of the men who assaulted her, and as she kills him with the axe, Linder looks on. I can’t tell you guys how much I’m loving this subplot.
After Frye’s editor won’t run his and Adriana’s story about the hitman’s confession, Frye blows up on him, calls him a “dickless stooge,” and pours a full urine sample cup on the man’s computer. Matthew Lillard is, of course, fantastic in these scenes, and if it weren’t for Scream, Scooby-Doo, and SLC Punk, Daniel Frye would be his best-known role, and I kinda wish it was, because Lillard is doing career-defining work.
This is the kind of show The Bridge should be. Don’t get me wrong, I liked David Tate as season one’s Big Bad, but going in this new direction is a very smart move by showrunner Elwood Reid. “Harvest of Souls” was one of those episodes that gets you excited about good TV.
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