The Episode 8 arrest of Robert Olivas and his co-conspirators in the cops–to-cartels corruption ring has put Ballard’s full team back on finding the identity of Sarah Pearlman’s murderer. For as gross as the serial killer’s little altars to his victims are, by design, they’re largely free of identifying details. So it’s a revelation when further DNA analysis of the lipstick tube cataloged with Sarah’s things puts a woman named Naomi Benett on the cold casers’ radar. The lipstick wasn’t Sarah’s, it was Naomi’s, and it was taken as another death’s-door souvenir. But unlike Councilman Pearlman’s sister, unlike all the serial killer’s victims, Naomi was attacked and survived. It’s the kind of big break the team could really use. As they prepare for their drive out to California’s Central Valley, where Naomi now lives, Parker’s feeling positive. “You know everything’s coming up cold case unit.”        

The team has certainly weathered some storms, and Ballard knows it. But career-wise, she also knows she didn’t envision also leading a group of volunteer investigators who operate out of a forgotten pocket of basement real estate. It’s enough of a thought experiment to warrant Ballard supporting it with another Bosch Universe cameo, this time with the return of Jamie Hector as RHD Detective Jerry “J” Edgar. He’s impressed with her string of recent wins. Busting open corruption cases and uncovering unknown serial killers? If Ballard keeps at it, they could outweigh the bullshit and catapult her back to Robbery-Homicide.

Naomi is a reluctant witness. But as played by Michola Briana White, who brings so much grace to her work as Lucille Flenory on BMF, Naomi is also a highlight of Ballard Episode 9. The attack messed her up in a big way. It derailed her professional development, and put her into a personal tailspin of drug use and depression. First interviewed by Ballard and Parker, Naomi eventually agrees to return to LA with the detectives. Maybe something tangible will jog her memory about the attack, down deep past two decades of life, into the emotional repository where she pushed it. With Laffont and Parker, she visits her old apartment, the literal scene of the crime. And here Ballard makes good use of a camera effect, sweeping Naomi’s memories into a kind of imagined reality. She pictures the night it all happened, how everything was, how the killer moved inside her apartment, and how the look in his eyes read as rage.

On any show, but especially a cop show, a character saying “Everything’s coming up _______” usually triggers the opposite. It’s like yes, Olivas was arrested. But Captain Berchem tells Ballard “He was well-liked – keep your head down,” as if it’s still her problem that Olivas, an established piece of shit, happens to be a piece of shit with lots of friends. And during a TV interview with Pearlman she was forced into, a gotcha question reveals rumors that the councilman’s office could be preparing to replace her. Way back in Episode 1 of Ballard, she was railroaded into cold cases after making her voice heard. But now, even with her leadership proven, she’s still on shaky ground. Where could they railroad Renée Ballard next? She’s already working in the basement!

Ballard also gets some bad news on the Lifeguard Guy front. The slight romantic relationship that never really evolved – never really did anything the entire season, honestly – concludes on a note of nothing, with Aaron meeting Renée at home to say he’s out. Her phone call the night she was attacked by Driscoll, having to talk the woman he was seeing through performing a field tracheotomy – Aaron says it made him want more from their connection, which he knows she can’t give. He apologizes, says “I can’t let myself be a casualty here,” and then flees the scene in one of those relationships-on-TV maneuvers where somebody just leaves without another word. Renée might look a little thoughtful after Lifeguard Guy goes. But it’s not like she charges after him. 

“Naomi didn’t recognize her attacker, which means he was on the periphery of her life.” Someone she never noticed, but who noticed her. The visit to her apartment, the area beauty salon where she used to work – Naomi’s details about her old life have given the investigators lots of ancillary information. Like a list of subcontractors who worked on an office being built near where she parked her car. It’s the smallest detail. But it yields the biggest “No fucking way” of the season.

Gary Pearlman (Kevin Dunn), Councilman Jake Pearlman’s retired father, is the serial killer.

Presented with another suspect-photo “six pack,” Naomi confirms it, and the entire team can’t believe it. Gary, the man who had visited cold case HQ with his son – the politician who funded and established the cold case HQ. Gary, who was also the father of Sarah Pearlman, the woman whose death inspired the cold case HQ. That Gary? He’s the killer? 

Before they can figure out why Gary Pearlman murdered his own daughter and at least 13 other women – women who as Parker says “were on top of the world, and he couldn’t have that” – they have to apprehend him. Which brings us back to that disaster of a TV news interview. Converting his season-long friend-of-the-councilman watchdog status into a newly-formed member-of-the-team ambassadorship, Ted Rawls went to the Pearlman family home to lobby for his boss. And he has just finished putting in the good word for Detective Ballard when she calls with the bombshell about Gary.

A living witness. “So,” Gary Pearlman asks Rawls, as we see the serial killer’s eyes turn devious. “What has she told you?” With Ballard still on the phone, Rawls does his best to play it off. That he’s not hearing in his ear that Gary is the killer while he’s staring at the guy who is the killer. But when you’re a guy who is a killer, who’s been hiding in plain sight for three decades, you’re better prepared for these eventualities. While Ballard shouts into the phone – “Rawls!” – Gary Pearlman, the secret serial killer, draws on his son’s best friend and fires.  

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.