The Unusual(s) Recap: 42

Welcome back to another week of “The Unusual(s) Recap.” This week’s episode is entitled “42” and when I saw that in my cable guide I immediately knew that this episode would have something major to do with the 42-year old Det. Banks.

As we have learned in the previous episodes, Det. Banks is obsessed with his own mortality and his own belief that he will die at the age of 42. He wears his bullet proof vest everywhere and even has covered his desk in foam padding, just in case. However, the episode started out with another of our favorite detectives taking a bullet…

Det. Cole’s former criminal friend Frank Lutz shows up again to open the show, unfortunately this time he is at Det. Walsh’s diner, eating breakfast. He decides to pull a gun to kill Walsh to cover up his and Det. Cole’s secret. A struggle ensues and shots are fired. Det. Beaumont, who was in Walsh’s bedroom behind the diner, is shot in the stomach.

Lutz gets away and the diner becomes a crime scene. Det. Banks notices that somehow Walsh’s old fashioned cash register reads “$42.42” and thinks it is a sign. Much to their chagrin, Delahoya and Banks are assigned to a bus robbery instead of the shooting. Even worse they have to work under Det. Alvarez.

While interviewing passengers on the bus, Det. Banks interviews a woman who claims to be psychic. She said she knew it would happen and that he would rob another bus at 2pm. She was also ends up on that bus. She claims that it is her fate to die on the bus, because she had seen it, and that she can’t fight it. Banks, who is constantly fighting fate tells her she can stop it. The psychic mentions that the number 42 is important to him and weirds him out.

It happens that the first bus robbery happened at 4th and 2nd, which to Banks read as “42.” Delahoya quickly pointed out that it looked more like “24” than “48.” The bus even had 42 passengers. Once the identify the suspect and check his apartment the find bus routes highlighted all over the city. Banks realizes that the next bus to be hit is route “M 42.” Do we now know why the episode is “42”?

Banks finds the psychic riding the bus. When he finds the robber, who happens to be mentally disturbed, he tries to talk to him when he gets up and holds out a grenade. The robber drops the grenade and banks orders everyone off the bus and dives onto the grenade. I’m not sure why he thought this was a good idea.

Meanwhile, Det. Schraeger is put in charge of the Beaumont shooting case and finds Walsh sitting in his patrol car outside of the hospital, refusing to go inside. He even had the police sketch artist sit in the backseat finishing an EXCELLENT representation of Lutz, Det. Cole sees it and gets big eyed. Walsh notices his reaction and asks the FBI to pull records on Cole’s real past.

Cole decides that he will turn himself and Lutz in to stop the violence. Before he could do so Lutz threatened Cole’s fiance and demands $20k. We see Cole checking $22k out of the evidence room and then heading to meet Lutz with a large bag. Will we really see this “born again” pay the ransom?

By this time Det. Walsh and Det. Schraeger are following Cole and show up at the standoff between Lutz and Cole. Cole throws Lutz an empty bag and pulls out his gun. The other detectives show up and Lutz turns to fire on them so Cole shoots and kills Lutz. Lutz’s final word being a confused “what?”

Det. Walsh pulls Cole to the side and tells him that he knows everything, but that he also knows that he has tried to turn his life around and Det. Beaumont thinks the world of him. Walsh tells him to keep his nose clean and no one else will know. An interesting turn as now we have multiple detectives knowing another detective is a felon and living a second life.

When we get back to the bus we find Det. Banks still laying on the grenade with Det. Delahoya in a bomb suit on the bus. The grenade was a fake and didn’t go off. Banks gets off the bus and proclaims to the psychic that he “just saw fate get it’s ass kicked!”

This appears to be a turning point for Banks as he takes off his bullet proof vest, takes his new woman into the supply closet to kiss her (I assume) and even removes all of the padding from his desk.

Unfortunately Delahoya returns and has bad news for Banks. The psychic was involved in a metro bus accident that evening and died. She was right the whole time and fate won again. The last we see of Banks in the episode is seeing him put his vest back on.

Back at the hospital, Walsh tells Beaumont about his former girlfriend who died in the hospital after a long stay and orders her to get better soon so they can get the heck out of there.

So we are now five episodes into the season and we have seen some definite roller coaster of story lines. We still have Banks who thinks he is going to die and Delahoya scared of dying from his tumor (though that was never once mentioned nor even implied in tonight’s episode). Det. Cole’s past is dead and gone, literally, but I can’t imagine they are done with him. Det. Walsh and Beaumont are having a now not so secret affair all while Det. Schreager is trying prove to her family that being a cop is what she wants to do.

This episode was one that could make you think about life and fate. I personally believe in the Star Trek version of fate, once you know the future it is immediately modified, if only in a small way. But can you believe that something is going to happen so bad that it happens?

If you have missed any episodes, check out “The Unusuals” homepage on ABC.com for FULL episodes. For Twitter fans check out @TheUnusualsNYC (http://twitter.com/TheUnusualsNYC). Right now on their Twitter is some very interesting Q & A from fans about the show.