At a gas station, Dante is abducted by two sheriff’s deputies…

The levity of the previous episode was designed to ensure the audience took a breath as the show follows up with one of the grimmest episodes to date.

It’s a case of mistaken identity which gets Dante in trouble but that immediately becomes irrelevant and lost to Black lives failing to matter once more as the police deputies involved do not bother to check his identity until after they have already incapacitated and illegally abducted him without answering any of his challenges. It would be easy to miss the other racist aggression occurring in the same scene as the store attendant assumes hostility on the part of his unsurprisingly concerned sons. This barely leaves any time to breathe between activities, and the pace does not relent from there.

The introductory crime could have applied to anyone. That it is Dante on the receiving end does provide existing investment in events, yet the truth is that the writers could have given us a fresh Black male client with the briefest of introductions and it would have still been a compelling tale. However, Dante’s particular presence brings in the ability to create challenging back story through the well-crafted use of ghosts from his past. The cross between flashback and hallucination proves a powerful device for conveying his story, enhancing his positioning as a victim perfectly and theming his struggles in human manifestations. It allows for the sum of a number of parts pieced together over some previous episodes.

An interesting element here is that we see two of the women in Dante’s life who had not appeared previously. The mother of his children, who seemingly remains unnamed, turns up, as might be expected for a missing Dante, and it is quickly established that whilst they are on different paths, they still work well together. This means when she first encounters McCall, there is a justified level of suspicion on her part about this woman she has never heard of before, and who she is to Dante and her sons. It is not too long before McCall earns her trust though, being that she is clearly a helper with no further motivation to be here.

The other is his mother, Carol. Whilst Dante’s father, ‘Big Ben’, has turned up in previous episodes, she has not. As with each of Dante’s manifestations, she has a key purpose to play in his psyche. She represents his voice of reason and compassion; one who shows him a path when it is easy for anger to consume him. As Dante’s moral anchor, she is a counter to his father’s increasingly justifiable polarization with the world. As such, she counsels reason as his way out, having him appeal to the more reluctant Deputy Morales as an earlier resort than violence. Even so, she tells him that he is running away from who he is, highlighting the many conflicts and contradictions he has shouldered as a Black cop. Carol Dante then reminds us of an additional factor: Dante’s role as a father can be utterly consumed by his terror at the thought of crossing the line, just like his own father. Dante’s mother is the voice he all too rarely hears, yet the viewer has heard several times, reminding him that Ben is at his heart a good man.

‘Big Ben’ is in prison, utterly certain he remained on the side of right, even if not in the eyes of the law. As well as being Dante’s own greatest demon, for the viewer, he acts as McCall’s shadow; someone with a similar belief that the law cannot solve everything, and indeed is antagonistic at times to justice.

Ben holds two roles for Dante. On one hand, he represents the path that Dante must not tread, one he constantly fights to avoid. His visits to his father in prison are a frequent reminder of the price for failure to maintain his own conviction; what will happen if he lets matters slip over one bad day in the job. It does not help that this is Dante’s bad day. However, Ben is additionally the very spirit of Black male rage, a fire which burns within Dante that keeps him alive more than once in the episode. Although this conflict makes his interactions with his father constantly antagonistic, this positioning is critical to our understanding of decisions taken in the past, and decisions yet to come. Each time we have seen Ben previously, he has gradually held an increasingly sympathetic point with the viewer. This episode goes back to the very beginning and follows the full cycle of his relationship, as Dante regresses to his childhood and the first time he clashes with his father over how to act. Crucially, there is evidence that Dante is being bullied, and Ben chides him for not fighting back, for not getting back up; and indeed pushes him to do so.

A key cameo appearance in the investigation comes from African-American lawyer Curtis Baker who experienced detention from Deputy Barnes and his senior partner at the time almost three decades previous. Curtis provides vital information to Harry and Melody but his real importance is reinforcement of the fact that class and status of the Black victim is irrelevant to the hate crimes perpetuated by callous cops. Barnes himself was the ‘good’ cop in this situation, yet over time, he has become all he objected to at the time. Additionally, this is everything Dante signed up to change from within. There is nothing left for Dante to fight for in the show other than his life at this stage.

The final hallucination Dante has is key to the show. Previous episodes have seen some hint of love interest, mostly on McCall’s side in truth, which evolved to a mutual respect and solid trust. This however manages a first, almost a foreshadowing from Dante as he and McCall are seen in a directly romantic situation which it is heavily implied comes to him whilst somewhat close to death. It is the first time that there is an acknowledged affection of this kind from his side and a clear turning point as he embarks upon a quest for his own soul. Though in truth, this quest begins from the moment Barnes strikes him at the start of the episode.

There is no B-plot here. Every minute is devoted to the effective descent into hell which Dante experiences and the viewer shares, the pure focus on the struggles Dante personally faces. But these struggles are bigger than Dante. The episode is a timely highlight of the struggle that America faces in fighting for the soul of its future.

Verdict: This is a magnificently crafted episode whose largest criticism, if one could call it that, falls from the fact that the majority of it is so harrowing that it is not something a viewer can rush back to put themselves through again. But appropriately for its presence of ghosts, it is a haunting episode, one which will stay in the mind of the viewer and reminds us that this is a moment in which we know nothing will quite be the same again in the show. Where it goes from here is less clear, much like Dante’s role in the show and when it is that he shall return. But there is no doubt we shall be ready enough for it when it does. 10/10

Russell A Smith