The Unusuals – Meet the Squad!

“In Second Squad, nothing is what you think it is.” – Walsh to Shraeger

The little tag-line above, along with Amber Tamblyn and Jeremy Renner, is probably what will keep me coming back to The Unusuals. The “case” this week seemed a little flimsy — major crime family the Boorlands re-emerge and commit crimes to pay for the matriarch’s kidney transplant (message received: we need better health insurance/coverage in this country!). But the main characters continue to draw me in.

Let’s sort it out, and I’ll include the actors’ names, so we can familiarize ourselves with everyone….

Det. Henry Cole (Joshua Close). We know that he was born Navan Granger, has a checkered past that include drugs, alcohol and women, and is a born-again Christian who changed his name to Henry Cole. In this week’s episode, we learn that a former friend of his was somehow involved in the death of Det. Burt Kowalski, former partner of Det. Jason Walsh. Kowalski is suspected of being a dirty cop, but based on this episode, it appears to be a set-up. Cole’s partner is…

Det. Allison Beaumont (Monique Gabriela Curnen). She’s a badass cop who used to be a marine and a prison guard before becoming a detective. We learned this week that she’s having an affair with…

Det. Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner). She showed up in his diner at the end of the episode and they started making out. As for Walsh, he told his new partner, Casey, that he played minor league baseball at 22, threw some games for money, and his girlfriend was killed. His partner is…

Det. Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn). When she told Walsh that she was transferred into Second Squad to snoop around, he tells her, “We’re partners now, and we need to trust each other. Just remember that the next time you talk to Sergeant Brown.” We also know that Shraeger is a rich gal with a trust fund, and when her trust fund manager showed up in this episode to talk business, she said, “People here don’t know I’m rich. If you tell [Walsh] I’m rich, I’ll kill you. I have a gun.” Then she started awkwardly making out with him to convince Walsh that he was her boyfriend.

Det. Eric Delahoy (Adam Goldberg). We know he has a brain tumor, and it’s becoming clear that he’d rather die in the line of duty than face all the hospital crap. In this episode, at the request of his partner, he goes back to the rundown apartment building where he was shot last week and miraculously survived a spray of buckshot that created an image of Jesus on the wall behind him. He did talk about the tumor to his partner…

Det. Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau). But first Delahoy says he has a brain tumor, then he doesn’t, then he does … I think Banks finally realizes his partner DOES have a brain tumor, and this will likely play into his own  fears about dying at 42 (his current age) because every other guy in his family died at 42. For this reason, Banks refuses to take off his bullet-proof vest and is obsessed with germs (not a good thing for a cop). But his relationship with Delahoy continues to grow, and the episode ends with both of them declaring they’d push an old lady off a roof for each other.

Det. Eddie Alvarez (Kai Lennox). He doesn’t have a partner and really, no friends in the precinct, because he’s kind of snooty and self-important. But he’s trying, and even learned a few of his colleague’s names in this episode. He also has a weird porn ‘stache, and his bio on The Unusuals‘ Web site says he has a hot wife.

Sergeant Harvey Brown (Terry Kinney). The jury’s still out on Brown. He believes that Kowalski was a dirty cop, but there’s definitely more to Brown’s story. Perhaps HE has some dirt in his past that he doesn’t want revealed, and brought Casey in to shine the light on everyone else. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.

Next week’s episode involves a “murder store,” where people can buy things to murder people. Hmmm … looks interesting, and I’ll definitely be tuning in. Well, also because I have a crush on Jeremy Renner now, as well as a long-standing girl-crush on Amber Tamblyn. Seeing them on-screen together is making me just a little crazy.

Any thoughts on The Unusuals so far?

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Apr 16, 2009 @ 16:05 EST5EDT