What If He Lets Her Go

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“What If He Lets Her Go”
Day Break episode

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Written by	Steven Maeda
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Production no.	103
Original airdate	November 22, 2006
Episode chronology
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"What If They Run"	"What If He Can Change the Day"
List of Day Break episodes

"What If He Lets Her Go" is the third episode of Day Break which aired on November 22, 2006.

[edit] Summary

Hopper learns someone close to him may have been involved in framing him for Garza's murder. Meanwhile, some critical clues are revealed that could assist Hopper in making his nightmarish day finally end.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At 6:18 a.m., Detective Hopper (Taye Diggs) wakes up in Rita's (Moon Bloodgood) bed on the fifth cycle of his rewinding day, bleeding sparsely from his shoulder injury. He patches the wound quickly and dresses before trying to persuade Rita to take the day off and "hang out"; he convinces her when he breaks the bathroom dish, and swears to make it up to her.

They both head to Hopper's apartment to pick up his mail; Rita convinces Hopper to take her to Rosarito Beach in Mexico. On the road, Hopper spots the girl from the coffee shop (Bahar Soomekh) and stops to talk to her under the pretense of collecting witness information for an investigation. While Brett stalls her, Rita receives a phone call from an upset caller whom she instructs not to continue calling. Brett finishes collecting information from the girl — Margo — moments before a bus ploughs through her car.

As Hopper attempts to leave, however, Rita insists on helping the victims of the crash. Hopper leaves her at the scene with instructions not to leave the hospital until he meets her there, and then heads back to his apartment — which Buchalter (Michael McGrady) and Fencik (Joe Nieves) are monitoring — to find a package with no return address. Inside, he finds a minature hourglass before approaching the black Cadillac in a rage; the two shadow agents appear genuinely surprised to have been identified before driving off.

At Westside Hospital, Rita helps treat the crash victims before being approached by her ex-husband, Chad Shelton (Adam Baldwin). The IA detective inquires as to Hopper's whereabouts, informing Rita that Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza was murdered the night before, and Brett is the prime suspect. Chad suggests that Rita talk with the investigating detectives, moments before Hopper surprises them both by pulling a gun on Chad. Brett begs Rita to come with him, but she hesitates, and a nurse calls security; Hopper takes Chad's gun and flees, leaving Rita.

Hopper approaches Detective Andrea Battle (Victoria Pratt) at a bar and reveals that he knows that she has been offered amnesty on her IA investigation in exchange for her cooperation in bringing Hopper in. He shows her the hourglass and plays her the message informing of its arrival on his cellphone as the battery starts to die. Brett asks Andrea to run a trace on his home phone over the previous twelve hours to identify the woman who left the message.

At the precinct, Chad is needled by Detectives Choi (Ian Anthony Dale) and Spivak (Mitch Pileggi) before informing them that Battle can't be flipped on Hopper. On the road, Andrea tells Hopper that the call originated from the blocked number of a law enforcement agent; Battle traced the number to the home of U.S. Attorney Nathan Baxter. Hopper explains that Baxter is building a case against the Latin Disciples, against whom Hopper managed to flip Damien Ortiz, until Ortiz's safehouse was hit.

Hopper and Battle visit Baxter's home, which they find open; they quickly search the house to locate the body of a dead woman (Peyton List) in the backyard pool. Hopper explains that the woman, Ortiz, Baxter and Garza are tied together by a conspiracy that has chosen him as its patsy, but Andrea is skeptical. She offers to give him thirty minutes of lead-time before she calls in the woman's death.

At the hospital, Chad visits Rita to offer her a ride home. They arrive back at Rita's house, and Chad offers to check the residence, but Rita declines; as she heads inside, Chad gets a call from Buchalter, who arranges to meet him at a bar in Los Feliz. In her house, Rita finds Brett's bloody shirt before finding Brett in the bathroom, tending to his shoulder wound. When she demands an explanation, Hopper insists that she won't understand; when he refuses to answer for his actions, Rita tells him to leave.

Outside, Hopper thrashes against a dumpster and trash cans before he is picked up at gunpoint by Damien's bodyguards. Hopper tries to smooth things over, but is taken to a parking structure where he is beaten up until Damien (Ramon Rodriguez) arrives to tell him that Hopper has "no idea how big this is." Hopper hears muffled struggling from the back of Damien's SUV, and finds Baxter bound and gagged; Hopper begs Damien for "a little more time" to figure out who is setting them all up, and Damien obliges by executing Baxter.

At 6:25 a.m., Rita wakes up in her bed in the sixth cycle of the rewinding day, and finds Hopper in the bathroom. Brett knocks over the sink dish, but catches it on the fly, and resolves to tell her that he has a witness who need protecting (being her), but that protecting that witness will make him unable to investigate the case she is part of (being the conspiracy). Rita advises him to work the case, thereby making the witness safe.

Hopper trades out his dying cellphone battery for Rita's, tells her to talk to Chad should the IA detective call, and leaves. On the road, he spots Margo again and tries to find his notes with her cellphone number; instead, he finds the pages blank and realizes that, because the day restarted, he won't have the notes since he hasn't actually written them. He dials her number from memory before she heads into the coffee shop and tells her that her meeting has been pushed up; she get back into her car and leaves.

Brett returns to his apartment and picks up the package, leaving through a back exit to evade Buchalter and Fencik. The two shadow agents discuss "the guy in the tub" and the price of housing before Hopper shocks them by climbing into the backseat of the Cadillac and pulling a gun. Hopper lists off the various people he knows are being monitored, including Rita and Jenn (Meta Golding), and demands to speak to the Shadow Man from the rock quarry.

Buchalter places a call; when it appears to connect, Hopper grabs the phone, but Buchalter lunges for Hopper. They struggle for Hopper's gun, breaking several windows before Fencik speeds off and Hopper dives from the back of the fleeing vehicle. Buchalter tells Fencik not to turn back while he calls in the incident, but realizes that Hopper stole his cellphone; he only seems amused. Hopper runs through the list on the phone, but all of the calls have blocked IDs.

At the hospital, Chad informs Rita of ADA Garza's murder and the warrant for Hopper's arrest; Rita agrees to go to the precinct to talk with Spivak and Choi. Hopper rushes to Baxter's home looking for the dead girl from the pool, who he finds alive in the upstairs bathroom. She admits to leaving the message and package at the behest of ADA Garza, who had told her that Hopper "would understand." Before he can learn more, Buchalter's phone rings; Hopper answers it to hear Baxter (Michael B. Silver), who thinks he has reached Buchalter, revealing his location.

Hopper hurries downstairs with the girl and attacks Baxter, who claims that Buchalter and Fencik are putting pressure on him. Before he can explain, gunshots shatter the glass doors, killing the girl as Damien's bodyguards arrive. At the precinct, Chad hands Rita off to Spivak and Choi, who have just finished interviewing Jenn; Rita tries to get a number for Brett and Jenn's mother, but Jenn warns against calling.

At Baxter's house, the detective and attorney are packed into the trunk of a Cadillac El Dorado. On the road, Hopper gets Baxter to confess to giving up Damien's location to, presumably, Buchalter and Fencik, "a couple days ago" when they put a gun to his head. Baxter posits that the hit was related to the Latin Disciples' move into contract killing because Damien knows names. Baxter claims that Damien got what he deserved, and Hopper warns that Damien is going to kill Baxter.

At the precinct, Rita provides Spivak and Choi with an alibi for Hopper's whereabouts at the time of Garza's murder. The R/H detectives attempt to interview her further concerning a previous "questionable incident," but Chad strongarms them into dropping the subject. In the trunk of the El Dorado, Hopper learns that the dead girl in the pool was named Ava Reese and that she worked for Garza. Moments later, the El Dorado is broadsided by Buchalter and Fencik, who kill Damien's bodyguards and release Baxter before knocking Hopper unconscious.

Later that night, Hopper wakes in the trunk of the El Dorado with a handgun and climbs out to find himself inside the parking structure. He finds Baxter dead behind the wheel of the vehicle, and realizes that he is holding the gun that killed the attorney as police squad cars draw near. Hopper flees the scene and wanders the streets of Los Angeles while Chad drops Rita off back at her house, assuring her that her secret is safe with him.

Chad offers to stay the night, on the couch, in order to keep Rita safe, admitting that he can reschedule his plans to meet a friend at a bar. Rita takes him up on the offer, and gets a call on her cellphone from Hopper who is watching the house from outside. Hopper tells Rita he will see her tomorrow, and watches as Chad steps out onto the bedroom balcony to survey the back of the house.

Moments later, Hopper gets a call from Andrea, who is distressed after having just killed a man.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Hopper's address is 505 Palms Avenue, Apt. 201, Venice, CA 90291. No such street exists in Venice, though a Palms Boulevard is numbered 900 through 1399.