East New York Season 1 Episode 17 Review: Pound of Flesh
Talk about a bombshell revelation!
Regina has long known that something bad went down at the 7-4 when her father was on the job, but she didn't expect him to be indicted for murder.
The final moments of East New York Season 1 Episode 17 left her shocked, numb, and unable to keep her weekend plans with Sean. And that was after working on a heartbreaking case.
The case itself was a masterclass in what happens when you keep secrets. Tyrell Booker was dead because his wife had cheated on him and kept her older son's true parentage a secret.
Mrs. Booker and her other son, Darnell, both believed that Tyrell Jr not being biologically related to Tyrell Sr didn't matter. That was a commendable attitude; loving interactions make a family far more than biology does.
But Mrs. Booker's insistence on keeping this secret forever led directly to her husband's death, only for her sons to find out the truth anyway.
Killing Tyrell Sr. didn't accomplish anything, which made this death and the reason for it much more tragic.
Tyrell used to be afraid of falling. He'd say when you get to be a certain age you have to stay upright because if you fall, you break something and it's all downhill from there. I didn't expect him to ever fall down and die.
Mrs. Booker
Did anyone else find it hard to believe that Mrs. Booker was guilty? She was so distraught at the beginning of the hour that she didn't seem like the same person who shoved her husband down the stairs.
She probably didn't intend to kill him -- she only wanted to stop him from telling Tyrell Jr the truth about his parentage. Still, she knew he was dead when she cried and acted shocked.
The only explanation I can think of is that her grief was real and that she hadn't expected her husband to die when she shoved him in the heat of anger.
Yet something didn't square up with her behavior at the beginning of the episode. She also got righteously angry at the idea that Darnell was being questioned, with no outward signs that she had been responsible for any of this mess.
When Suarez came to Regina's office at the end of the hour, I thought he would push Regina to get Mrs. Booker out of trouble. Of course, it was a little late for that, but he's close to the family, and sending Mrs. Booker to jail might have felt too harsh a punishment to him.
I was not prepared for the news that Regina's father is about to be indicted for murder. I can't wait for the rest of the backstory on this!
Amanda Warren did fantastic work with Regina's shell-shocked reaction to the news.
Regina asked Sean to cancel their weekend trip but didn't offer any explanation; What will that do to their relationship now that they've finally moved forward?
Sean: I am entering a new phase of my life.
Regina: What does that mean?
Sean: I got a transfer. No more undercover work. From now on I'm going to be working at the New York office of the FBI.
Sean's finally finished with undercover work, but is Regina allowed to share any of this with him? If not, it'll seem like she's backing off AGAIN, and SEan may be sick of this dance.
Regina just had the rug pulled out from under her. She and her father seemed to be getting along well for the first time in years, and now he's headed toward jail.
When he asked her what was happening with the indictments, was it because he knew he could be implicated in something serious? If so, Regina will feel he was using her to get info on top of everything else.
Speaking of which, Regina and Suarez's conflict was settled incredibly quickly!
On East New York Season 1 Episode 16, Regina was disappointed that Suarez didn't give her credit for the foot patrol program and told Yenko that it was time to stop being surprised by Suarez's underhanded antics. Yet now, Regina seemed entirely over it.
It felt rushed and anticlimactic as if this problem needed to be gotten out of the way so that Suarez could deliver his big announcement without extra awkwardness.
I expected more of a confrontation between the two, but maybe that's still coming. If Suarez gets taken in for a third time by Allison and her dirty political tricks, Regina may let him have it -- and he'll deserve it.
Finally, how cute was that Italian woman's crush on Yenko? I almost wished he wasn't married so that something could develop between them!
Yenko's attempt to speak Italian won her over, but it was good that he had Brandy to back him up, or the case would have gone nowhere.
Yenko thought he had the language skills to speak with her, but predictably, he got lost the second she started rattling things off in Italian in answer to his opening question. Hopefully, he's learned that a few online lessons and fluency are two separate things!
The woman's case was weird. Stealing random packages and hoping they have something worth re-selling seems like an inefficient way to commit this type of crime.
The perp wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, but still. Those ashes had no resale value, and God only knows how much other non-resellable merchandise he had in that mess of a garage!
Your turn, East New York fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts. The series will not air another new episode until April 16, but in the meantime, you can watch East New York online.
East New York airs on CBS on Sundays at 9 PM EST / PST. The next new episode will air on April 16, 2023.