IMHO "Southland" (1.7): Season Finale

The season finale of the NBC cop show Southland aired last night, and it was a terrific ending to the season, with a tense shootout and more insight into the gay character of John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz).

And if you missed it, no matter: Watch the episode below and join the debate about John and his "friend".

John and his cop partner Ben (Ben McKenzie) are fielding more "garbage calls", including the inevitable "crazy lady calls 911 because fast-food joint is out of chicken nuggets." The conversation turns to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, and John says he'll be finishing building the wall in his backyard, with help from his friend Caesar. Hmm ...

Meanwhile, my other favorite character, Lydia (Regina King), has offered to babysit the teenage witness to the drug/gang slaying story that started when the series premiered. She'll end up having to single-handedly fight off a home invasion by gang members, in a segment filled with tension and dim lighting.

Even though it's a great segment, there is one part that rings false. When she shoots the guys with her big shotgun, they ... fall down. Excuse me, but I've seen enough Michael Bay films to know that when someone is blown away by a shotgun, they fly backwards through the air in slo-mo and through a plate-glass window (whether or not there was a window there to begin with). So I have to call B.S. on that scene.

Anyway ... there were other great things about this episode: the performance of the fabulous character actress Lupe Ontiveros as the monstrous matriarch of the drug gang; the annoying C. Thomas Howell character finally going off the deep end; guest star Denise Crosby giving her finest TV performance since being killed by an evil talking oil slick on Star Trek: The Next Generation; and the cliffhanger of Tom Everett Scott being gunned down in a doorway as the holiday fireworks explode overhead.

The biggest complaint I've had about this series is the lack of focus. The episodes meander and ramble, and just when you're getting into a scene and the characters, it yanks you away and deposits you somewhere else. With a large cast it's probably unavoidable, but it just seemed unusually abrupt on this show.

Last night, however, all the pieces came together to create a more unified episode, which I think is what the show should strive for when it comes back in the fall.

The final scene between John and Caesar will be much debated, but I think it's pretty clear. The affection they show towards each other is fairly obvious. Decide for yourselves ...

So what did you think about the finale and the season as a whole? Is it just me, or are there times in the episode when Ben gives John strange looks, as if he knows there's something's "different" about his partner?

So, will you be coming back this fall to see more of John? Are you as outraged as I am that Southland will be directly up against Ugly Betty on Friday nights?