Rosewood - Benzodiazepine & the Benjamins - Review: “Who’s Behind the Mask?”

Rosewood - Benzodiazepine & the Benjamins - Review: “Who’s Behind the Mask?”

2.16 - “Benzodiazepine & the Benjamins”
Directed by Millicent Shelton
Written by Evan Bleiweiss & Jake Zebede
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount

We start out with a thunderstorm, I LOVE thunderstorms and this makes a great visual for what’s sure to be an intense episode of my favorite show, ROSEWOOD!

A man wearing a mask meets another man wearing a mask in a dark alley. One of them has a briefcase, while the other has a gun. Wait! They both have guns. Looks like the “deal” that they worked out has gone terribly wrong.

Meanwhile, Rosie is driving with Pippy through the rain. Pippy is anxious about Rosie being on the kidney donor list. He doesn’t want to talk about it and references some made up “sibling code.” Pippy must be worried sick about her brother!

They arrive at the crime scene a few minutes later, where there are two dead bodies. Did they both shoot each other at the same time? That seems counter-productive! It looks like they might have killed each other, but someone else came and stole the briefcase. There are hair samples from blondes, brunettes, and red heads. Seems like the crime scene was a popular place.

Back at HQ, we find out that the victims, Victor “Vic” Jones and Roy Roman don’t have any priors and the Agent Harrows from the FBI is stepping in to assist with the case. Yikes! She doesn’t seem to be happy to be there.

Over at the lab, Rosie and Mitchie make a discovery! The crime scene was staged! They are looking for a murderer and a thief.

Villa and Hornstock find the van that the killer used to get away. Someone has just doused it in fuel and is about to burn it to the ground. Will Villa and Hornstock make it there in time to stop him? Also, very strange! The man recognizes Villa! Who is he? How does he know her?

Peter, the guy about to burn the van down, claims that he knows Villa from school. He cash and a passport. He says that he has maple syrup in the van… Villa thinks it might be liquid heroin.

Ooh! Villa is with Peter in the interrogation room and he refers to her as the “bitchy prom queen.” OH SNAP! Apparently, Peter was, “the nerdy guy,” who always tried to throw the “big parties” when his parents weren’t home. Apparently, he fell in with the bad crowd after he graduated, specifically Marcellas Vega. Allegedly, Vega paid for Peter’s loft, car, etc. Peter is grateful to Vega for looking out for him. He also claims that he would never kill anyone.

He said all he did was pick up Roy and drop him off at the warehouse. Agent Harrows bursts in to the interrogation room and takes over. Peter is still convinced that Marcellas was buying maple syrup.

UGH! FBI Agent Harrows is terrible! I hate her! She’s giving Villa a bunch of crap. Yuck!

Rosie has found a loose thread from one of the victims. He’ll have it analyzed to see if it provides any clues. Mitchie has found skin cells from another individual with a criminal background.

Villa and Hornstock have him in the interrogation room. He says that his black-market maple syrup retails for “13 times” the price accrued. He says that, “his merchandise doesn’t hurt anyone.”

Villa and Hornstock aren’t buying his act. They found something under the floorboards of his house. It’s a heavy briefcase. What’s in it?

The team heads back to the lab, where Mitchie opens up the briefcase that they found. It has a ton of cash! WOW! But, TMI is on it! Thanks to a friend at the FBI, she quickly proves that the money in the briefcase is stolen.

Agent Harrow, Villa, and Hornstock visit Pete in the slammer. They burn a fake bill in front of him, but he maintains his innocence. UGH! I HATE AGENT HARROW! She is so rude to Villa! Villa isn’t having it! GO, VILLA! GO!

Hornstock has to take Villa out, while Agent Harrow lays out Marcellas’ plan, buy product with fake money, then sell the product for real money. She says that Pete messed up everything for Marcellas and he’s in big trouble!

Hornstock tries to talk to Pete. Pete is super nervous and says that he was, “just the driver!” Agent Harrow is terrible. That is all.

Pippy and TMI have found something! Turns out that hair from over sixteen people was found at the crime scene. What’s strange is that sixteen of the people are currently in prison. The crime scene was “salted” with their hair, which most likely came from the prison barbers from all over the area.

Agent Harrow said that “salting” is Marcellas M.O. She threatens Slade, Villa, and Hornstock. If they don’t figure it out soon, she’ll take it away from them and figure it out herself. Yuck!

Villa and Rosie take Pete to see the victim. There is evidence that the victim was the one producing counterfeit bills. Pete finally spills, in more ways than one. Turns out his parents passed away when he was in high school. Villa had no idea. He said he joined Marcellas because he didn’t want to “be alone” anymore. The victim, Vic, was angry because Marcellas wasn’t splitting the money evenly. That’s way Marcellas killed him. He warns Rosie and Villa to stay away from Marcellas, he’s very dangerous.

Hornstock is chugging what looks like coconut water, but I’m not sure? He says Villa’s mom wants him to drink it to help with his stamina. Villa is super grossed out by this statement, LOL! Oh, Rosie is in the vehicle too. Rosie figures out the special code for the cash drop off with Marcellas and/or his people.

Looks like Marcellas is running his operation from a coffee shop. Nice front! Villa and Rosie head to the back to meet him with the “code,” there’s only one problem. The code word changes every day and they have the word from yesterday… Uh oh!

Villa plays it well. She admits to knowing about the counterfeit money. She demands to meet Marcellas. Rosie is playing along perfectly as well. He is pretending to be a murderer and Marcellas’ man is buying it.

Marcellas’ men put black hoods over Villa and Rosie’s heads and throw them to a van. Marcellas’ man turns out to be Marcellas! He brings them to his house to conduct business. He lives in an impressive mansion. He shows Villa and Rosie his fake money and the plates he uses to make it. Villa sniffs if, but Rosie passes. This pisses Marcellas off, luckily sirens blare in the background and the police show up and arrest Marcellas a few seconds later.

This all seems too easy… What do you think?

Marcellas Vega’s lawyer shows up. He’s a jerk. He wants Marcellas to be released. He threatens to sue everyone and eventually he gets his way.

Agent Harrow is being a jerk, AGAIN! She’s taking it out on Slade. She finally admits that the reason she hates Marcellas because he killed her partner. She said he killed her friend just to watch him die. That’s sad. Harrow is almost emotional when she tells Slade that she can’t believe that she’s responsible for letting him go.

Rosie is shocked when he sees Marcellas and his lawyer leave the police station. Villa comes out behind them. She thinks something is up too. It was waaaay to easy to catch Marcellas. That’s what I thought too!

OMG! Someone shoots “Marcellas” or more likely, the fake Marcellas and his lawyer. The fake Marcellas dies instantly, but his lawyer has survived, as least for the time being.

Agent Harrow comes in and she’s a total brat, again. She asks the lawyer about Marcellas’ decoy. She presses on the lawyer’s gunshot. He admits that he works with the real Marcellas, but they have only talked on the phone. Doubt it… But, who knows!

The lawyer admits that Marcellas only trusts one person, Pete! OH MY GOSH! PETE! How disappointment. He says that Pete is a genius.

Villa has Pete, her high school classmate, back in the interrogation room.

Agent Harrow is on the other side of the mirror with Slade and Rosie. Harrow thinks it’s too late, she thinks Marcellas has already left the country.

They also brought in Alice, the woman working at the coffee shop. Hornstock is leaning on her hard. She admits that she knew something illegal was going on… but she never asked questions.

Rosie sees Alice by the snack machine. He picks up on her medical condition and says that he already knows how Marcellas is, but that they still need her help. Is Pete the real Marcellas or is Alice?

Uh oh, Hornstock is walking Pete to his cell when a scuffle starts, it’s not clear what happens, but when he comes to the interrogation room/office area, where Alice is filling out paperwork, he says, “We have a problem,” followed up by, “He went for my gun.”

I think he’s making this up to get Alice to talk… I’ve made up my mind, I think Alice is Marcellas. What about you?

We cut to Agent Harrow screaming at Hornstock. She’s yelling that he blew the case and that Pete killed himself with Hornstock’s gun. I think Alice is conveniently placed outside the office, where she can hear. They also roll a body bag in front of her. Nice touch.

Rosie walks Alice to a taxi cab. She gets in and immediately makes a phone call telling someone that Pete is dead and that she wants, “everything moved,” as soon as possible. Oooooh! Villa is the cab driver! NICE! She brings Alice a.k.a. Marcellas back to the precinct.

Turns out Marcellas, killed both men in the beginning. She wanted to make sure she had her crew doing exactly what she wanted, when they wanted.

Agent Harrows arrests her and takes Alice a.k.a. Marcellas away. She gives Villa the opportunity to talk to Pete before he’s sent back to his cell. She tells him there’s still hope. He can still change and be a good person. That’s nice.

Aw, Villa stops by Rosie’s house. She admits that she and all of Rosie’s friends got tested to see if they are a match for his transplant. That’s really sweet! Villa admits that she had to fight off two vicious men when she was little, because her father “took them for a ride.” She said she had to fight them until the cops arrived. This deeply impacts Rosie and clearly it took a huge toll on Villa as well.

We cut over to SLADE AND AGENT HARROW IN BED TOGETHER! WHAT THE HECK! How is he going to explain that to the rest of his team? Eek!

Aw, Pippy and TMI are hanging out. They are perfect. I love them.

They hang around while Rosie takes a phone call from his doctor. He has great news! He has a match! Someone is a perfect match for a kidney transplant. The episode ends with him hugging Pippy and TMI, but something isn’t right and it’s written all over Rosie’s face.

My Thoughts:

What an excellent episode! I love that Marcellas was really a woman and played it all off so well!

I am interested in Agent Harrow and her role in the show from this point forward. She seems like a major witch… but Slade clearly sees something in her and then some!

Also, how about the previous for next week!!! WOW! They were intense! SLADE IS THE MATCH! WOW! Rosie doesn’t want Slade to risk his life for him. I think Slade will do it anyways, don’t you?

Let me know what you thought of this episode with a comment below!

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