Diplomatico (Season 4, Episode 1)
Premise: When two mob brothers are shot dead within 36 hours, Bateman and her new partner, Guns and Gangs detective John Darcy, trace the killings to a protected witness.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 1
- Starring
- DS John Darcy (Luke Kirby), DS Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe), Insp. Vivienne Holness (Karen Robinson), DCA Theo Forrester (K.C. Collins), Mark Yohannes (Araya Mengesha), Dr. Lucy Da Silva (Nicola Correia-Damude)
- Director
- David Wellington
- Writers
- Tassie Cameron
Summary
The Case
“Diplomatico” opens with Rocco Cosentino, head of a Calabrian crime family, visiting his older brother, Eddie, two months out of prison after four years. Eddie calls Rocco soft and wants their old territory back. Soon after, a gunman disguised as a construction worker shoots Rocco dead on a College Street patio. A diner at Rocco’s table turns out to be Detective John Darcy of Guns and Gangs, who spent two months there posing as a novelist. He describes a left-handed white man with long hair and suggests checking the alley, where the discarded costume turns up in a dumpster. Bateman has gone through four partners since Graff left, and Darcy, his cover blown, is lent to the unit for the case.
Rocco’s widow, Monica, and his right-hand man, Luca Loretti, offer little, but Rocco’s phone shows a call from “GAM”, his nickname for Eddie, seconds before the shooting. Eddie, behind bulletproof windows, shrugs off the detectives. On the way to Rocco’s visitation, a man in a police uniform stops Eddie’s car and shoots him twice in the chest, sparing the driver, Joe Wells. This shooter was also left-handed, and the autopsy ties both killings to one 9mm gun. Old wiretaps show no sign of a contract killing, and Loretti, leaving for a job in Montreal, recalls why Eddie went to prison: while drunk, he ran over a waitress twice.
The waitress, 19-year-old Holly Winter, died four years ago; a young eyewitness’s testimony got Eddie 12 years, of which he served four. The detectives suspect Rocco was killed to lure Eddie out of his fortified house. Holly’s family shares the witness’s reply to their thank-you note, written with a left-hander’s slant. His witness-protection handler, Ayodele, knows him as “Tom Burney”, a carpenter relocated to Barrie who has gone silent after receiving a letter signed MK. Constable Mike Kavinda, who guarded Tom during the trial, reveals what it said: Tom’s mother, Eleanor Fraser, was beaten with a steel pipe two weeks ago and may not survive.
The Interrogation
At Midtown Memorial, Eleanor is in surgery, and a new long-haired orderly has just left her flowers. Tom ends up holding Bateman at gunpoint, and Darcy, refusing to lower his weapon, talks to him about the life he gave up to testify. Tom cites a verse from the Book of James, admits killing both brothers, and says Eddie’s death has not freed him from his hatred. Darcy promises to take him to his mother if he lets Bateman go, and Tom gives up.
The ending
Spoiler: Tom, in handcuffs, is brought to his mother’s bedside, where he breaks down. The episode closes on a brief exchange about how much Darcy talks. Eleanor’s outcome and any charges are not shown.
Suspect’s fate: Tom Burney, arrested.
Why it stands out
- The season 4 premiere introduces Luke Kirby as Detective Sergeant John Darcy, a Guns and Gangs detective who becomes Bateman’s partner after Henry Graff’s departure.
- Darcy arrives as a temporary secondment for a single case, after Bateman has cycled through four partners since Graff left.