Day Break Episode 13 live weblog

For this final episode of Day Break I am going to do a little change of pace and discuss the episode "live" and in progress. Unlike most live blogs, this will advance in time and go downwards: new content will be lower to keep future reads easier. Fortunately, this isn't exactly live, and I can pause to type as much as I like, ensuring that I cover all the bases. I'll handle answered and unanswered questions at the end.

01:10: A scene from the upcoming episode: Spivak and Hopper confrontation!

01:52: "I love you" Rita says. Saving her life yesterday changed her back to the friendly camp!

02:22: We're hearing the Billy story from Rita, and getting a beautiful Moon Bloodgood nipple shot. Damn I wish Windows Media Player could do screencaps!

04:16: Hopper and Chad having coffee, talking about ending this day once and for all. "Are you in?" "I'm listening."

06:55: Well, that went well. Chad freaked when he heard about Garza, pulled a gun on Hopper and fired at him. Hopper, meanwhile, got the bus to stop because the driver was about to have a stroke. When Rita and Chad went to save him, Hopper handcuffs Chad to the sewer grate and tells him to investigate Spivak.

09:46: Hopper just had a meeting with the best ally he could ever have: Nitzburg. Together they have pieced together the facts: Garza sent the packages to Hopper as an insurance policy to prevent his death, which is why Booth & Co. decided to frame him. (Assumably they were concerned he might do so earlier, which is why they wired Brett's apartment. Also, remember Hopper was tied in via his father's case notes, so his bugging may have been related to Jennifer's non-compliance with the briefcase.) The problem is, Garza didn't realize his wife was in on the conspiracy, so when he told her about the packages she told Booth and the day began. Nitzburg and Hopper work out a deal: Brett gets Mrs. Garza to break and testify in place of her husband. Nitzburg does...something.

09:57: Hol-ee shit! Hopper just walked right up to Choi in the police station, held out his hands, and announced "I surrender"!!!!!

11:22: Choi got a call from Nitzburg, and now armed with Jennifer's briefcase, Hopper and Andrea and interrogating Mrs. Garza.

15:30: Hopper finally got Mrs. Garza to spill the beans, but at a price: Spivek entered and watched Choi reviewing the tape of the interrogation. As Mrs. Garza reveals that she was sleeping with Booth, and helped Dominguez because "Alberto was weak", Choi perks up and decides its time to call Booth in to answer a few questions. Spivek stops playing the "you're tainting the witness" game and orders Choi to go "make the call." This can't be good.

16:23: Booth got the call, and is meeting with Cockburn. Cockburn wants Booth to "cooperate, I'll get you out of there in an hour". Cockburn decides to take care of Mrs. Garza, but the problem is, they also know Hopper is a lot more knowledge than they thought he was. "I'll talk to Detweiller." "Talk to everyone: Detweiller, Nick Vuckovich, Torres and all his people." Who's Torres?

16:52: The counter-attack is planned. Hopper is to be killed at all costs. "Tomorrow" is not to be derailed (ha, funny). A "clear message" must be sent about who really runs the City of Los Angeles.

17:36: Booth calls Uncle Nick, and he tells Damion that it was Hopper who gave him up at the safehouse, so now Damion has murder on his mind.

19:35: Lots of advancement. Hopper questions Spivek's loyalties, tells him he knows about the Grand Jury subpoena. Spivek was Nick's old partner, who resents Hopper for "turning him traitor". It's left unclear which side Spivek is on.

20:48: Somebody swiped the ballistics report and left it in a sealed envelope on Rocknowsky's inbox, which is not where it should be. Mrs. Garza has gone home with Cockburn, and Nitzburg calls Hopper to tell him Margo had arranged a meeting for 9am the next morning...he never saw her though, so she again called at the point of a gun. Hopper sees Booth getting into an elevator, and decides to go down a floor...

22:10: Hopper and Booth chat it up in an elevator...after hearing about Isabelle Contreras, Booth tells Hopper he's ending the day with a bullet in his head, and "just like your old man, you'll never see it coming." The Hopper suicide is looking a lot less so.

24:18 Hopper and Jennifer discuss the Hopper suicide, and Jennifer explains Nick was there for all the gory details. Hopper arranges a meeting with Nick, and while waiting Chad calls to tell him that his prints were found on the murder weapon and yet he had still been cleared. Just then, Damion shows up with a thug, and they rip the phone out of Hopper's hand and knock him out cold.

26:06: Is it tomorrow??? Hopper wakes up in the back of his truck, his phone ringing. Rita is worried because he wasn't there when she woke up this morning. It's 7:10am on the next day.

27:33: Yesterday was the setup, today is the payoff. Chad is coming over to see Rita, but first he met with Detweiller at the hotel room (why not Detweiller's house? The hotel room set was available I guess) and Detweiller said it was time to make a decision: kill Hopper or Rita dies.

28:28: All threads come together: the heavy hardware is being used by Fencick, Buckhalter, and the skinheads to take down the meeting of the judges. Hopper is rushing to stop it. Chad is rushing to stop him. Or is he?

29:09: "This is where we make our last stand" says Nitzburg. "Make it ugly" says Fencik. The skinheads charge in...to an empty courtroom.

29:28: GO ANDREA! Andrea and swat move in, Victoria Pratt looking smoking hot in a tight flak vest. On all sides, the skinheads are captured, but at least one minion gets away out of the corner of Andrea's eye.

30:20: Chad shows up at Ritas, tells her that Detweiller made "unreasonable demands", and says they need to get out of town. Hopper shows up, and says he'd love to hear the rest.

32:20: Spivek isn't the mole...Chad is. Hopper confronts him, and its all because of Rita. (Not sure why Chad helped out with saving Hopper's life from the sniper in the lockdown episode thought). They have a serious tussle in Rita's place, and everything she owns gets smashed...except for her little plate he broke in Episodes 1-3. "It's over" Hopper says. Somehow I doubt it.

33:00: 97 arrests, including a very angry looking Tobias Booth. Detweiller sits in a chair, apparently dead. Minions are in jumpsuits, Shelton's in cuffs, and Hopper and Andrea are riding high with honest Choi. This won't last, there's almost 10 minutes left.

33:30: Spivek and Hopper shake hands, Mrs. Garza is laying in a car not unlike Isabelle Contreras once did, and Tobias Booth is met by two large men in his prison cell.

34:02: "The Crying Man", Miguelle Dominguez, is removing his shackles and brandishing a gun. Detweiller sits in his chair prepping a shotgun, and Chad Shelton escapes his police escort. This is so not over.

36:22: Some loose ends left: Hopper meets up with Barry Cockburn. He has no proof, but notes to Cockburn how his name keeps popping up. Cockburn seems only mildly surprised to find how much Hopper got done in a single day. He wants Brett to ask the real question: who killed Hopper Sr.? In his professional opinion? "A partner".

37:49: Damion tells us this is all the "next day", contrary to the day/night/day/night/day/night scene from a few minutes ago. Hopper just finished telling Cockburn it wasn't over, and "today it is". Right now I'm thinking this goes one of two ways: Hopper dies (and saves the passage of time), or he will wind up in another loop at the episode's end.

38:37: Damion apologizes for the "bad intel", and says that he brought a present: look kids, its Uncle Nick!

40:21: Nick tells us Hopper Sr.'s death saved Jennifer, saved Hopper's Mom. Nick says he had no choice as Damion offers Hopper a gun. Hopper disagrees: there's always a choice, and his choice is to walk away whilst Damion executes Nick.

41:00: With less than 2 minutes left, Hopper and Rita are resting in bed. This will not end well.

42:25: Hopper, Rita, and Jennifer are all meeting for breakfast. Hopper wanted to stay at his place: for a change. They happily go about their lives, but they're being watched...

...

...

...

...

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...by a well-dressed man in a goatee who looks vaguely familiar.As the Hoppers enter the cafe, Jarod the well-dressed man smiles warmly.

The End.

Questions to follow.

Answered questions:

1. Nick killed Hopper Sr.
2. The never-ending day is over

Unanswered questions:

1. Did Dominguez/Shelton/Detweiller/Cockburn get away cleanly? Will they come after Brett? Each other?
2. Was Booth getting free or was he getting rubbed out?
3. Was Jarod responsible for the day?
4. Why did the day "end" when it did?

We will never find out why the day happened, and since no further seasons will occur (it was rumoured future seasons would be either 24-inspired "next day comes years later" deals, or that the entire cast would be swiped and the concept began anew), but it seems that Jarod was the key. Others say its because Hopper needed to know about his father, and others still figure he needed to piece together enough to save the meeting.

Regardless, I really enjoyed this series, and it remains a shame they cancelled it. Sometime in the future I hope to do these "mini-reviews" of the episodes I haven't already done (the first 3 or 4), and pretend that I don't know the outcome as they occur. I'm sure somebody also has figured out the mistakes: things they got wrong from day to day, but it seems there are a small number of them.

For now, Hopper is happy and I guess that's how they want us, the dedicated web fans, to remember the show. (One wonders if multiple endings were written/shot).

Update, 3:14pm: TV.com reports that fewer loose ends were left than I thought: one review surmises that the minions were killed by Dominguez, and that Booth was indeed rubbed out. That makes sense, leaving only Detweiller, Shelton, and Cockburn left out in the open.