Criminal Record Season 2 Episode 4 Sends Billy Spiraling, Cosmo Into Conspiracy Chaos, and June & JP Into… Each Other

Critic’s Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

4.2

Cosmo is wreaking absolute havoc, and I’m as antsy as June and JP to be done with this horrible, bigoted, ignorant, evil man.

Criminal Record Season 2 Episode 4 seems like a quieter hour on the surface, but it delivers some momentum, carrying the story forward in ways that leave us bracing ourselves, as we make headway in the case of Rohaan’s murder and finally hone in on the legitimacy of the bombs.

It also gives us some solidarity sex between June and JP, and, frankly, no judgment here.

The Truth is Outdated Currency…

There are so many reasons to be utterly disgusted by Cosmo and his audacity when it comes to peddling his white supremacist, “We will not be replaced” bullshit. Seriously, why does it always sound the same from every corner of the Earth?

Is there a pamphlet or something? At the root of the superiority complex is flat-out inferiority and an inability to grapple with one’s own issues.

Nevertheless, Hegarty came with some hard but brutally honest truths about, well, the truth and what it actually means these days.

Hegarty: Because the truth is old money. It is no currency for them.

And the reality is that the truth is whatever you make it. June is probably like many of us when faced with falsehoods. There’s an innate determination and desire to dispel what’s wrong.

You want to prove that the truth actually means something and that it is indisputable. But the problem is that when you’re dealing with Cosmo’s ilk and the legions of hapless followers who think just like him, you come to realize that the truth doesn’t mean shit.

Apparently, Bigotry is Never Out of Style

Ultimately, it’s like fighting a rabid animal with one hand tied behind your back, while the thought that there are, somehow, rules at play lingers. But there aren’t.

It didn’t matter what Zaynab came out and said or did, whether she wore a hijab or not, and how many baby pictures she shared of Rohaan. Cosmo would always find something to pick at and convince whoever would listen that “nobody died.”

As she said, she could dig her son’s body up with her bare hands and opt to present it to the world, and Cosmo would still plant the idea that the poor teen’s body was some fake and that this entire thing was a ruse.

Because only his truth fits his agenda, and people will believe what they want to believe. It’s sickening, really.

They went through all the trouble of forcing this grieving mother in front of a camera to prove to the country that her son died.

And, as per usual, with these sensitive and, yes, racial matters, they shoved June into the role of “handler” for this, and now Zaynab is dodging accusations that she was wearing an earpiece and that someone was feeding her intel.

All because some annoying earrings were getting caught in her hijab.

There’s just no end to how long someone like Cosmo will stoop, and the worst part about it is how the cops have only contributed to his nonsense with their own mindless errors.

Guess Who’s Right About the Shadow, Light?

“Shadow, light, shadow” was absolutely right.

The photo at the protest was manipulated because compliance prevents the authorities from posing a picture of a child’s face. Because it would’ve been controversial to blur the faces, they opted to replace the father and daughter with a random figure.

Please, someone, tell me how much sense that makes? They really did hand conspiracy theorists something to play with, and that degree of recklessness on the cops’ part is astounding.

Now, Cosmo has a leg to stand on with his sympathizers because he’s not actually wrong about the photo. I don’t know what was more infuriating to accept, that the cops did this in the first place, or that an obnoxious, politically incorrect Kim was right.

Ugh, Hegarty’s lap dog is such a pain in the ass. If JP managed to get a good punch in, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. Also, it would’ve been hot.

It’s this series of follies and missteps that carries through the full hour, and leaves me stressed in more ways than one.

Billy is Spiraling, and Honestly, Same.

There’s a sense of foreboding that comes with Billy freaking out about what happens if Cosmo finds him out, and Hegarty telling him about the three coughs. At this rate, it’s becoming more difficult to trust the unit to handle this case as carefully as it needs to be.

Hegarty is so fixated on the “prevention” part of things when it comes to these bombs that he’s not picking up that Billy is on the edge. Criminal Record is also walking that line, often of making it seem as if Billy could easily tip over the edge and start buying what Cosmo is selling.

Plus, how little he seemed to care about how Rohaan’s case is working out is frustrating. He’s single-minded in his pursuit of what he needs, and June, Rohaan, and not even Billy feel like a priority. That’s worrisome at times.

That said, I understood his point about Rivelli. Once he saw that Rivelli is the bomb maker that Cosmo is using, it made sense why he had to hold off on bringing him in because of the print on the knife that killed Rohaan.

And based on the fact that it took so much to pull that print after a second time around, I fear how much of that would even hold up.

Like June, I just want poor Rohaan to get some justice in the form of his killer going to prison. It certainly would make the xenophobia and Islamophobia easier to digest if we knew one of these jerks was going to prison.

Bomb, Baby! Cosmo Is Obsessed with Billy… For Reasons

But alas, we do have a bigger agenda at work, and Cosmo is planning something big. What remains interesting is how he behaves with Billy.

It’s actually surprising that he’s let Billy into his plans so much, but once he started talking about his friend and childhood neighbor, Len, and mentioned that Len died in a bombing, Cosmo’s treatment of Billy made a little sense.

He says that Billy reminds him of Len. And the way Cosmo was talking about Len, it’s clear that he harbored some deeper feelings for him.

Cosmo is a classic case of a bigoted person, rather than cleaning up all of this nonsense in some twice-desired validation and praise, rather than dealing with his own sexuality.

He and Len were… something. And now he has that same energy with Billy.

We’re still at the point where you can’t always tell if Cosmo is ready to kill Billy or kiss him, and if I can’t handle the stress, then Billy certainly can’t.

But Billy is in the inner circle, and it appears they’re bound for someplace to unload these bombs. Surely, things won’t be that simple, though, right?

Speaking of things that are not “simple,” I suppose we do have to talk a bit about June and the men in her life.

Just Throw The Whole Leo Away

I still can’t find Leo anything other than insufferable. He uses their marriage counseling sessions as a way to cut her down to size, demean her, and humiliate June, and I’m tired of it.

Leo always says the most hurtful, vile, and cruel things he can think of — I mean, it rolls off his tongue effortlessly.

And then he always apologizes later, and I guess he and June (and us) are supposed to move past everything. But Im too much of a grudgeholder for Leo’s empty apologies.

What good are they when he does the same thing by the next day? His apologies don’t have meaning. But, we’re to surmise from all of this that he’s still hurt and angry that June’s son moved out of their house.

And he still blames her for that and everything else wrong in their life. Release June from this hell.

June & JP Allied Themselves Right into Bed

I hate cheating arcs with a passion, but it speaks volumes that June and JP hooked up, and I didn’t even feel bad when she came home to Leo apologizing again and making her dinner.

June and JP have spent most of the investigation so far seemingly feeling like the only people who give a shit about more than just these bombs.

And old guard like Heagarty and Kim, with their microaggressions and shady police work, are exhausting.

I like that JP and June have become allies. You get the sense that they’re already battling a similar feeling of Otherization.

They’ve basically bonded through putting up with all the foolishness in this case, including the bigotry that they’re up to their eyeballs in from the people they’re working alongside and the ones they’re chasing after.

They’re finding solace in one another, which makes sense. It seems totally casual, as it’s not lost that the only times they really had this type of sexual tension were when dealing with Hegarty and Kim.

His actions and lack of care felt too much.

Surviving Hegarty Support Group

JP stroking June’s face in the parking garage was such an unexpectedly impulsive move on his part.

But by the time they were practically pulled to each other like magnets and had to get out of the station to clear their heads and escape Hegarty and the case, the hookup seemed inevitable.

I feel like they got it out of their system, and things won’t lead anywhere else. JP has a fiancée in Iceland, and June’s marriage is a hot mess.

But for now, their dynamic seems to be the only thing keeping either of them sane right now, so we’ll have to see how the rest of it plays out.

We already know June can’t always gel well with Hegarty, but admittedly, this was the first hour where I really got to sympathize with JP.

It’s clear he doesn’t always agree with what Hegarty and Kim do, and he can’t stand Kim and struggles with their way of speaking and carrying on.

It’s classic Old Guard bull crap versus new. It has to be freaking exhausting.

Thoughts from the Vault:

• Kieran, being a teacher, has to be the most terrifying thing ever. Yet, so painfully realistic. The worst people are just blending into society anywhere.
• They sent Billy a drone for a phone, but can they give my guy his meds?
• Billy dreaming of Cerys was interesting. Do you think it was just a result of him not having his meds?
• So now Kieran has recognized June and knows she’s a cop, which could burn Billy. Can I cough three times? Oof!

Over to you, Criminal Record Fanatics! Thoughts on that hookup? How do you feel about the Rohaan murder investigation? Let’s discuss it all below!

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