‘Tommy’ Episode 9 Preview: LAPD chief Abigail Thomas finds herself torn between humanity and politics

The upcoming episode will see Thomas fight for a young girl seeking asylum, while she also deals with political challenges
Edie Falco in 'Tommy' (IMDb)
Edie Falco in 'Tommy' (IMDb)

As is the nature of Chief Abigail Thomas (Edie Falco), she stands for justice, no matter what the cost. When she joined the LAPD as the chief, she brought many “firsts” with her. She has managed to overhaul the way the department functions, although to a small extent. Most interestingly, we have seen Tommy addressing pressing social and political issues that our society today is grappling with.

From immigration issues to sexism, nepotism, social discrimination, gender inequality, and racism, Tommy faces such challenges every day.

In the upcoming episode ‘Free To Go’, we will see Chief Thomas fighting for the social and political safety of a young woman. The preview clip of Episode 9 shows Tommy being approached by a mother of a young girl who is arrested for theft of a precious piece of jewelry. Although we have no background on the accused or the incident, it is clear that both the mother and the daughter are from decent social backgrounds. Hence, when the daughter is arrested, it comes as a surprise.

And then, we learn that the girl is not at all interested in getting released from police custody. Instead, she requests Tommy to let her stay locked up. But why?



 

The official synopsis for Episode 9 reads, “Tommy tries to help a young woman who intentionally gets arrested to buy time for her political asylum request to be approved; a reporter friend of Blake asks her about the prison murder of Mayor Gray's former campaign donor.”

Going by the gist of the upcoming episode, it is clear that there is a political issue at play here. It could be an international relation at stake or a country with high socio-political disturbances, making the young girl (or perhaps many more like her) seek asylum in the United States.

However, that’s not all that ‘Free to Go’ will be all about. As the synopsis says, Blake (Adelaide Clemens) is questioned by a reporter about the mysterious death of Mayor Buddy Gray’s (Thomas Sadoski) friend and campaign donor Arturo Lopez (Arturo Del Puerto). We know that Buddy’s chief of staff got Arturo killed in prison so that he couldn’t leak compromising information on Buddy. And now, since Blake is in love with Buddy and the two are having an affair, it might get difficult for her to seek the truth.

‘Tommy’ Episode 9 will air on Thursday, April 16, 10 pm/9c, only on ABC.

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