'SouthLAnd' recap: 'Identity'

SouthLAnd has a wonderful way of making even the most seemingly obscure plotlines fit in an overarching theme seamlessly, and this week is no exception. Each set of partners chose to spend time with subjects that others may have chosen to walk right past; but that's what cops are there for, and at its core, SouthLAnd is a show about cops.

This week's episode, "Identity" picked up right where last week's preview left off; Lydia [Regina King] is pregnant, and people are beginning to notice. Her mother brings it up as they're starting their day, saying she would be there for Lydia no matter her choice. It surprises Lydia that her mother would say that, having been a single mother herself, but while Lydia's maternal clock is ticking, she is a detective, her mother says, and motherhood just doesn't work into a day of shootouts and blood smear patterns. But Lydia doesn't want to talk about it. Instead, she heads to work, where she and Rueben respond to the death of man, Brian who had taken in a homeless woman, Melanie, and her mentally ill daughter, Nicole.

There are lots of things that remain unanswered about Lydia's pregnancy, but the most glaring is if she wants to keep the baby. That question was on her mind the entire episode, and was reflected in her conversation with Melanie, who conceded that having Nicole was the most meaningful moment in her life, in spite of the trouble that came with a mentally ill and now murderous daugher. King played it brilliantly, subtle and reverent, the epitome of a woman faced with potentially the biggest decision of her life.

Meanwhile, Officers John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Jessica Tang (Lucy Liu), my new favorite pairing of the season, come across a homeless man and former Marine in need of a place to sleep. However, his ID was stolen and without it, he will not be allowed in a shelter and is stuck on the street. Tang has a vested interest in the man because, it is revealed, her father was a Marine. So, she takes it upon herself to help him get an ID, a plan that rapidly goes downhill. Tang is glued to her phone for the majority of the episode, trying to sort out how to get identification for a man who has nothing to his name.

In a graphic and morbidly hysterical scene, the pair face-off with county sheriffs that refuse to claim a body that was decimated by a train. Tang is having none of it, though, still on the phone with a Veteran's Affairs employee who the audience can only assume couldn't care less about the homeless man, and she snaps. oblivious to the game of hot potato going on between Cooper and the other law enforcement, she rips her phone buddy a new one and by the time she hangs up, scares the sheriffs thoroughly enough that they volunteer to claim the body. It's these seamless and short scenes that make SouthLAnd unique; there are tons of procedurals on television, but none with the guts to throw such a gruesome backdrop paired with a verbal whipping that probably happens on a daily basis for LAPD.

In the end, Cooper comes through with a bit of shady police work that involves a fake ID ring and a series of memberships to gyms, libraries and other chains in the LA area. Unfortunately, the homeless Marine is in such a drunken (or mental) stupor when the pair come back to give him his ID, he refuses to accept. All Tang and Cooper can do is guide him down the street to another alley way where a store owner will be less likely to complain about his presence.

Separately, Officers Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) and Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) are quickly on their way to owning the titles of biggest screw-ups ever. Ben's ill-fated decision to punch a teenage girl in a time when camera phones are always recording and YouTube is practically the next big brother is still coming back to bite him in the ass. Off duty, he helps a woman who was being mugged and she is grateful, but the minute a cop car pulls up she launches into an anti-cop diatribe and makes sure to mention the "cop who hit the girl who is on YouTube," noting what a jerk he must be. Sammy shoots what he thought was a fleeing suspect but is really a dog. He's still hurting from his divorce from the most annoying woman ever, and gets attached to the mutt and pays for its $1,300 surgery. Alas, the dog is no stray and belongs to a little girl who has a problem with keeping its collar on. He still pays for the surgery (let's be real, he sort of has to) and the pair go on a few other minor runs that have all the workings of a normal day in the life. There was definitely more to Sammy's attachment to the dog than let on, and I have a feeling whatever emotions he's bottling up will come to the surface before the season is through.

Lydia and Rueben's case concludes pretty matter-of-fact. Nicole killed Brian, a man twice her age who undoubtedly was taking advantage of her, for "cheating." She flees, but is caught by the pair after unsuccessfully committing grand theft auto and slamming into a cop car. Charges will be pressed against her, Lydia explains to Melanie, but she'll be fine. But more importantly, it's in this last scene that Lydia finally admits that no, she doesn't have kids, "but [she] will."