The Bridge Episodes 8 Thru 9 Recaps: Real Estate Is Apparently More Dangerous Than Police Work

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This Cowboy Hat Will Protect Me From Any Stray Bullets

"The Bridge" episodes 8 and 9 are entitled "Goliath" and "Rakshasa". As I've said many times before, "The Bridge" is not your typical American TV show. This may be in large part because the original series was a Danish creation. FX adapted it for US audiences by moving the action to the El Paso/Juaraz border, recreating the lead characters, etc.

"The Bridge" focuses much more on character development. If you're looking for rapid fire car chases and shoot em ups, this is not the show for you. Dont get me wrong. There's plenty of violence to go around (and some of it is quite shocking).

The glacial pace of storytelling does frustrate me at times. I have watched "The Bridge" from the beginning and am committed to seeing it through to at least the end of season 2. If it's renewed for a season 3, I'm not sure where else they could go with the main characters (but time will tell). Here's where we are with four episodes left:

Sonya sees a homeless woman and gives her a locket of her sister's hair saying "it's over". She is Sonya's mother. Since mom is passed out from her latest drug hit, Eleanor takes the hair and leaves. Uh oh, it's a bad sign when Eleanor is following you.

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This Is A Very Dangerous Game

Cerisola turns on Fausto. The Marinas raid the warehouse. Fausto escapes through the bathroom to the tunnel system and heads for the mountains. He knows he has been betrayed. Eleanor's father (ie the acorn eater) is now being held by the CIA (I think). The agent gives Cerisola an acorn and says "he bites". That seemed to be the main reason Eleanor did not flip sides previously so now she has to be TeamCerisola.

David Tate is finally dead. That took long enough. Mackenzie tells Sonya that Marco and Fausto grew up together and that Marco can not be trusted. Mackenzie wants just Sonya and Hank involved in the Red Ridge View case (and not Marco). They plan to capture Eleanor and eventually Fausto. Yeah somehow I dont think that's going to be work as planned.

Adriana asks Marco to help get Frye released from prison in Juarez. And it looks like Adriana's girlfriend is going to pull through (after being badly injured by one of Fausto's men). Adriana was asked to leave the hospital though because the family didnt approve of their relationship. How sad.

Eva shows Linder one of her rapists. Im not really into this story line since its too far away from the main action. I wish they would axe it in favor of Eleanor and company.

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The Eleanor & Cesar Book Club

Sitting outside of Sony'a house Cesar and Eleanor discuss the vampire erotica books he's been giving her to read. Too funny. They also discuss children. Eleanor says she had a boy but he was "taken" from her (whatever that means). They see Chopper load Sonya's body into a van. They do nothing to stop it. Eleanor says Chopper is a "demon" and is one of Fausto's men.

Cerisola's drug addicted daughter (Romina) is picked up by the Juarez police. Marco finds her there and tells her father. Cerisola in exchange tells Marco that Chopper has been sent to kill Sonya. Marco takes off immediately looking for her.

Eleanor brings Cesar and Jaime to Red Ridge. Chip is getting ready for an open house. Poor stupid Chip! Charlotte is instructed to meet them there (because she's signing over the paperwork on the house). She knows she's in trouble and excuses herself to go to the bathroom (where she texts the Feds). Meanwhile Cesar and Jamie suffocate Chip because he contacted the police. The scene with a dead Chip with a bag over his head laying in front of all his life size Chip cutouts was an interesting visual.

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Paranoid Much?

Fausto has ordered hits on basically everyone on the show at this point except Marco-- Adrianna, Frye, Sonya, Eleanor and Cerisola. Captain Robles cant be far behind. And he killed two of his bodyguards in the tunnels. He's definitely NOT the kind of person that you want as an enemy.

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I Hate This Stupid Job!

Chopper is busy digging a grave in the desert for Sonya. He tapes her legs together with electrical tape and tells her to make a run for it while he finishing digging. He apparently plans to bury a semi with Sonya cause its a really deep grave. And is it just me or is Chopper too nice to be a serial killer? He's not very menacing. Sonya obviously cant get very far. Marco arrives in the nick of time and kills Chopper. Nothing like digging your own grave. Then Marco finds Sonya in the desert. She is dehydrated but is OK. And luckily that rattlesnake didnt bite her in the face. Later back at Sonya's house, she confronts Marco about which side he is on. She still cant trust him but he did save her life.

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Hey Charlotte, Remember After Your Husband Died You Said You Were Going To Leave Town? Yep, You Really Should Have Done That.

Mackenzie, his partner and Hank show up to capture Eleanor (thanks to Charlotte's text). She sees on the surveillance camera that Fausto's men are right behind them. There's a shootout, the two DEA guys, Fausto's men, Charlotte and the poor notary that went upstairs to use the bathroom are all killed. A badly injured Hank manages to drag himself out of the house. He's still alive thanks to his bulletproof vest but has lost a lot of blood. And does Hank have Eleanor's notebook now? They previously referred to it as "the keys to the kingdom". You'd think Eleanor would keep better taps on that thing.

And can someone please confirm for me that this is the event that occurred right before the season 2 opener where Monte came into the house and stepped in blood? It's been a while but its either that or they kill lots of people in this condo.

On an unrelated note, is there something in Diane Kruger's contract that requires her to be nude at least once per episode? This time she had to pee after being handcuffed. That didnt seem to fit with the rest of the scene at all... not that I'm complaining.

Favorite Quotes:

Cerisola: "With me there is a future, with Galvan there is nothing"- Cerisola trying to get Eleanor to switch sides.
"This is Jaime, he's going to do some cleanup work for me."- Eleanor. Uh you do not want to be involved in that kind of cleanup.
Eleanor: "Do you know how to use a machete?" Cesar: "Why because I'm Mexican?"
When he learns of the happenings at Red Ridge Fausto says "Kill everyone. And that bitch (Eleanor), torture her".

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). Things are starting to pick up as all the main characters are FINALLY in each other's orbit."Rakshasa" was excellent. I just wish all the episodes could be that good. There are four episodes to go till the end of season 2.