The Good Citizen (Flashpoint)

"The Good Citizen" is the eighth episode in the third season of the Canadian police drama television series Flashpoint. This episode air November 13.

Plot

The episode begins by following Robert Cooper, who is heavily drinking and suffering with the loss of his brother, Jimmy, due to an overdose of drugs. As he flashes back to the memory of his most recent encounters with his brother, two drug dealers enter the bar and begin to vandalize the bar with baseball bats because the bar owner had removed one of their dealers from the property earlier. At one point as the owner begs and pleads with the dealers, Cooper steps in and beats down one of the dealers with his own bat. The second one then draws his handgun in an attempt to scare Cooper. Cooper dares him to shoot him as he beats the second dealer where the gun discharges once and then falls to the ground. The drug dealer then runs out the door to get away, but Cooper picks up the dropped gun after a brief exchange with the owner and leaves in pursuit of the dealers.

The Strategic Response Unit is out on patrol where Wordsworth and Lane make a dinner plan before getting called out to a shots fired where one of the employees of the bar called 9-1-1 about the drug dealers and reported hearing a gunshot. The SRU arrives on the scene where the bar owner tells them about the two drug dealers who came in, but denies knowing anything about the Good Samaritan's identity, claiming everything happened too fast, but admits to the Good Samaritan picking up the gun that was dropped. The SRU then begins sweeping the area for the two drug dealers and the Good Samaritan. As they look around, Wordsworth makes comments on how this neighbourhood he spent his childhood in has deteriorated, and initially becomes defensive of the Good Samaritan for taking initiative for cleaning up the neighbourhood. One of the drug dealers is then located, and after a short foot pursuit is arrested. His name is run through the computer where they receive a hit on his partner's address and go to his house to investigate. Upon arrival, shots ring out and the SRU make contact with the downed drug dealer. The drug dealer, denying his involvement with everything that has happened, gives up the name of Robert Cooper, who is revealed to be a businessman who is also the President of the Neighbourhood Sentinel Association. The SRU determines that Robert will be working his way up to the man who controls the drug dealers, and gains the identity of the middleman. Kerns makes a negative comment on how there is a lot of drug dealers in this particular neighbourhood that would need to be taken out if he were to hunt them all down, and Wordsworth takes the comment very negatively.

When the bar owner is confronted with the mans identity, he admits to knowing who the Good Samaritan was the entire time and did not want him to get into trouble. He provides the name of his wife, Patty, who is then located and brought to the scene and asked a few questions. She informs them of recent events that has been causing Robert to become angry such as the downfall of the neighborhood, the death of his father, and his brother who has slowly become a drug addict due to their father's death. She tells them Robert had not been seen as he left in pursuit of his brother. They then realize that Robert is pursuing the drug dealers for personal reasons. They run his credit cards, finding the location he has been staying recently. Parker has a short personal conversation with Scarlatti at this point about a possible transfer to a federal agency, but backs off on it to continue their job when Scarlatti fails to admit to it. On the way to the location, Kerns talks with Braddock about possibly apologizing to Wordsworth about her comments and Braddock replies with his experiences as the former rookie saying that a comment from past professional background are okay. They then raid a possible location of Cooper, but fail to locate him. As they further discuss why Cooper would be doing this, they are informed by the bar owner that Cooper took down one of the drug dealer's locations due to his actions as Neighbourhood Sentinel. Wordsworth looks through Cooper's stuff, remembering his childhood at Cooper's family store. At this point, they also locate information about his brother. Callaghan also has a personal conversation with Scarlatti stating that Parker doesn't want to see the current SRU team falling apart, but also mentions that Parker is proud of him. They interview the paramedics that responded to the call, and reported that Robert Cooper was at the scene as they attempted to resuscitate his brother, who took it especially hard when the paramedics declared him dead.

The middleman is discovered to be in connection to the Steel brothers, who are under investigation for cocaine trade in the area, but have not had enough evidence to be arrested. They are given the possible location and vehicle that the middleman may be at. As they move in, they discover that he has already been found by Cooper tied up and shot, but still alive. He reveals that he gave up the location of the Steel brothers and tells the SRU the address. Cooper then makes a call to his wife where he tells her that he needed to do something and that he loved her. Cooper then goes into the Steel brothers' residence while they are worrying about the recent activities of the police against their drug dealers. En route to the house, Wordsworth questions why the SRU would be defending drug dealers where they discuss how everyone needs to be saved, not only the drug dealers.

As the SRU arrives, they find Cooper holding up the drug dealers. He orders them to open a bag of cocaine and tells them to prepare it for one of the brothers to use. The police then send in a phone to talk with Cooper, but he fails to answer. The drug dealers then provoke Cooper by telling him it's not their fault about what happened to Jimmy because it was his own choice to use drugs, and it was Cooper's fault he didn't stop his brother. The SRU moves into the building to prevent further escalation of the situation. At this point, Wordsworth makes contact and attempts to make a connection with Cooper about the past and future with the aid of Cooper's wife. Cooper peacefully surrenders to the SRU, and both him and the Steel brothers are arrested. Scarlatti mentions to Parker that he will not be leaving just yet, but Parker states that when he does make his choice on whatever he decides, he will support it. Wordsworth postpones his plans with Lane to make calls, and returns to Cooper's father's store and meets with several other people and begins to clean it up and return it to its original condition.

Notes

• The song that is played at the end of the episode is Defending Our Lives by Jon Heintz.

See also

• List of Flashpoint episodes