John has a moment with a young boy who was causing a disturbance in his abandoned home after his parents packed up and left him behind. The boy is clearly fated to being in and out of foster homes who could care less about his wellbeing just as long as they get their check every month for housing him. Officer Cooper is always such a hard-ass  out on the street and with Ben that when his more sympathetic side is on display, it’s always a little surprising. But it’s never artificial as he connected with a boy who likely will grow up in a fashion similar to John himself, relying on himself to survive. Michael Cudlitz gave a nicely restrained performance as he was forced to let the system have the kid, and when Richard expressed his disillusionment that John wasn’t his hero in blue that could rescue him into a better life just because he legitimately cared.

The end of the episode had John appearing at the parole board hearing for a man who was serving time for rape and murder. It turns out this man was his father and John was there to speak against his being released, ever. The fact that he knew the victim’s name and spoke of her in a familiar way made me wonder if it was just a case of John knowing the back-story of his father’s victim, or if it was something worse such as his victim being related to John. There really was a vague intention behind John doing it–was it either just his duty as a police officer or was it his separate personal disgust toward the acts of the man he came from? On the way back, an accident on the road resulted in John’s pill stash being ruined, and John himself very nearly reaching rock bottom in his addiction as he clawed through the dirt on the side of the road to recover even one pill. There is no way Officer Cooper can go on like this.