Aquarius Episode 1.05 A Whiter Shade of Pale

After viciously beating Manson to a pulp, Hodiak returns home to ice his bloody, bruised knuckles. It's not long before Shafe knocks and the bourbon starts flowing. Shafe is concerned that Hodiak nearly killed Manson - but why? Since Manson thinks Shafe saved his life, a favor is owed, which will not only help Shafe with his drug case, but help him get to Emma - a favor for Hodiak, who's got nothing to say. Meanwhile, Katie and a troop of Manson girls accost a pharmacy delivery truck driver. While Katie keeps the guy distracted, the other girls loot sanitary pads and painkillers to tend to Manson's wounds - but no bandages. In pain and feeling sorry for himself, Manson yells at his girls and falls to reminiscing about his rotten mother.

In Beverly Hills, Grace once again finds Ken sleeping off another boozy night on the couch. With Emma gone again, it's time for Ken to wake up and talk strategy. Claiming Emma's uncontrollable, Ken wants to let her go, but Grace wants to know what hold Manson has over him - this can't all be random! How does a man like Manson afford a lawyer like Ken? Before long the couple is screaming at each other, with Grace threatening to tell her father everything. It's enough to make Ken say, "Manson knows things, about Hal, the RNC, about me." If Manson talks, everything will be lost, and that's all Grace needs to know. Unglued but still put together, Grace proceeds to Hodiak's house, where he too is sleeping off his drunken night. He explains that he went back to Manson's and Emma wasn't there, but he's not giving up. Hodiak puts his head in Grace's lap to reminisce about their own summer of love, when their song was "Time After Time." Grace admits if she could go anywhere, that's where she'd go. And right now, she wants Hodiak to look into Ken's activities. He might have done something with his partner and Manson, something big, and most likely she'll have to leave him. Hodiak confesses that Manson used to be a pimp. When one of his girls disappeared, Ken took on Manson's case and he was never charged. Grace loses it. Why didn't Hodiak tell her before - he lied to her! Full of helpless rage, Hodiak dishes it right back. His son Walt is missing, too! Grace grabs her handbag and heads for the door without a word.

It's supposed to be Shafe's day off, so he sleeps in; but when Kristin hands him a message from Jimmy Butano, he's halfway out the door. Kristin reminds that her mother is spending the day with them, so he agrees to stay for breakfast. Kristin is standing at the sink when a rock crashes through the window sending her to the floor. Shafe hauls ass outside just in time to see a car fishtail around the corner and disappear. The only help landlord Gene will offer is to make repairs and let them out of their lease, should they want to leave the neighborhood.

At the precinct, Cutler immediately knows Hodiak is drinking again, even while he refuses an early morning shot, courtesy of Cutler's flask. Deciding to take Charlene under his wing, Hodiak throws her an intake on USC cheerleader Lori Price, who was beaten and left in an alley off the Sunset Strip. "Why me?" Charmain asks, just as Shafe interrupts to tell Hodiak about the rock through his window - now Kristin wants to move. Since Shafe is late to a meeting with Butano at the spiral staircase house, Hodiak offers to look into the matter of his suspicious neighbor, Howard - with the caveat that Kristin might not be wrong. And as long as they're swapping favors, can Shafe get a message to Walt? While Shafe picks up Butano, Hodiak drives to the Valley to question Howard, carving a giant scratch in his car to get his tongue wagging. Howard explains, "This is exactly what we were worried about. When people like them move in, it only causes problems," claiming that all the houses on the block have dropped in value. But Howard's no racist.

Charmain interviews Lori as she's about to check out of the hospital. Lori claims a stranger assaulted her, and her boyfriend, who just got signed to the Rams, had nothing to do with it. But Charmain's sharp: the bruise marks on Lori's neck look days old. Charmain tells Cutler that Lori's covering for her boyfriend, local football hero Jason Elkins. Cutler tells her to drop it, let the detectives do their job and get back to hers - washing out his coffee cup. But Charmain researches Elkins, who was popped for assault in college - a bar fight. Hodiak tells her that until Lori confesses, they have no case.

Meanwhile, Butano and Shafe find Manson stoned, menacing and surrounded by his women. When Butano asks what Manson could have done to piss off Hodiak so bad, he explains Hodiak was looking for a long-gone tumbleweed, so nothing. Claiming he has a surprise for Manson, Butano pulls out a handgun, earning a tackle from Roy. Manson takes the gun and the tension eases when he gives his girls to Butano by way of a thank you. Still looking to earn Manson's trust, Shafe sets his sights on Dede, the youngest and saddest of the girls, and brings her inside. Dede strips down, going through the motions until Shafe tells her to stop. When she explains she doesn't want to anger Charlie, he promises to cover for her.

After noticing an unusual sight - a couple of African American women pushing strollers in Shafe's neighborhood - Hodiak spies them in a car driven by a guy we'll call Drew, so he follows them. When Drew drops the women in Watts, Hodiak asks, "Gotta minute?" Drew does not have a minute, so he runs away. Hodiak gets out his megaphone and summons Drew back to the cars by reading his driver's license. So why is Drew shuttling women of color to the Valley? And did he throw a rock through Shafe's window? Drew says his cousin promised him a cut if he did... and his cousin is Gene, Shafe's landlord.

Grace invites her mother Vivian over for lunch to discuss the money her parents invested in Ken's law firm. Is there any way to get it back? The mother-daughter tension is thick, and Grace is clearly not willing to be honest, claiming she's nervous having all their assets in one place. Vivian knows her daughter hates her, knows she doesn't love her husband, and no, there's no way to get the money out of the law firm.

Shafe returns home to find Hodiak sitting in his kitchen, having solved the case of the rock through the window: Gene has a scam going. He buys a house in an all-white neighborhood, then rents to a black family to create a wedge. When all the white families head for the hills, Gene buys the houses up cheaply, then sells them back at a huge markup to the only families who will buy - black families. When Gene claims he's just giving racist white people "what they deserve," Hodiak has to hold Shafe back, so Kristin steps in and cracks Gene across the jaw... multiple times. The good news, Hodiak says, is Shafe and Kristin get to stay in the house rent-free, per the "arrangement" he's going to make with Gene.

Late that night, Hodiak is contemplating a glass of bourbon when there's a knock at the door. It's Shafe's old Army buddy with news that Walt disappeared when the MPs came looking for him. All he knows is Walt has a gun and might do something crazy. At loose ends, Hodiak knocks on his ex-wife Opal's door with a peace offering, two bottles of bourbon, and it's not long before the former couple hits the sheets. Afterwards, Hodiak asks Opal why she let him in. "Why'd you come?" she asks, then directs the conversation to the subject of Walt: he needs to be okay, for both their sakes. Hodiak's not so sure.

Back at the precinct, Charmain screws up her courage and places a call to Lori, only to discover that she's in the hospital in a coma, while her boyfriend Jason Elkins signs autographs for a flock of swooning lady fans outside. Later, Hodiak smells a rat when he spies Charmain leaving the station all dolled up. So he follows her to her car and says, "Don't," having figured that she's looking to frame Jason Elkins. Does Charmain want to get herself fired? Or be Elkins' next victim? Chairman admits she's desperate to have her job matter, and then backs down.