The scary gloved person outside Holder's apartment -- where you remember Linden has fled, due to poltergeist activity in her former squat -- is Roberta the Chief of Casino Security. So there's that. Man, those bitches are such bitches at that casino.
Anyway, Linden and Holder share an interest in butterflies, which -- along with a report from HQ about the background noise on Rosie's terrified call to Alexi -- causes Linden somehow to intuit a connection between Michael Ames and the Wapi Rez, so she sends Holder to the Casino, drops Jack off at a brand new homelessness location, and heads to this place where she thinks Rosie maybe filmed butterflies one time for her Video Of One Thousand Things.
Gwen's first big move as Richmond's campaign strategist is to get Stan Larsen onboard, which makes sense, but she does this in a scummy way that dangles futile hopes for a reduced assault charge that will never happened. But if there's one thing we've learned about Stan Larsen over the last season and a half, I suppose, it's that he takes kindly to slights. Anyway, he asks for it in writing and when Gwen refuses, he figures out her game. So Darren goes to see Stan himself, charisma-ing him into joining the campaign in a fairly smart way, and then at the actual press conference Stan kind of makes it all about him and offers a reward for clues, then heads home to throw his sister-in-law Terry out of the house for being a crystal goblet ho.
Speaking of hos, Holder thinks that he can get along with them just because he's trash, but they're not really of much help. In fact, they are the opposite of helpful, sending him on mad goose-chases all over the place looking for hookers and/or construction sites. (You cannot ever trust a hooker at an Indian casino. My grandma taught me that.) He runs into some mysterious maid who gives him a secret message about week's episode, and drops some crazy clues about Rosie's bloodstained backpack, but then before he can process all of this the tribal police arrive and grab him.
If this investigation were a baseball game, okay, or let's say a t-ball game, Linden would be that one ADD kid that's in the outfield looking at flowers or chasing butterflies, that one asshole kid that makes everybody mad and the parents yell and somebody cries. (That's what you call a metaphor. But in this episode, it is literally true.) So she's running around the reservation like those dudes don't have enough problems, and literally tromping into Indian graveyards like some kind of pasty white lunatic, and finally Chief Nicole arrives to chase her stupid ass out of there.
Back home, she gets obsessed with Indian burial sites, so -- given her professional procedures and rigorous research and use of best practices -- probably she watches Poltergeist at this point. (No -- ha! -- she tries to get a warrant to rent Poltergeist, but Lt. Carlson cockblocks her with some cockamamie excuse about her mental state or departmental politics. That's what happens.)
Anyway, the CPS guys show up at motel #2, and she and Jack do a very smart, very cool, very depressing move to evade them. So now she has become homeless three times in one week, if you are counting. I'm saying Sarah Linden has literally gone from having a home to having no home, zero homes, three times in seven days. It's wearing on Jack, I simply can't imagine why.
Honestly, Sarah, who is it you are trying to impress? Nine times out of ten that's the question we should ask ourselves; this time I think it's key.
Linden calls Holder to warn him that the Natives cannot be trusted -- which storyline, and maybe this is because I'm from the Southwest, but really? -- but of course he has already found that out, because while she was chasing butterflies with her thumb up her ass and dodging CPS, he was getting kidnapped and brought to a party in the woods starring Roberta, Chief Nicole, and some heavies. So Nicole calls up Linden on the phone, and makes her listen to them beating the shit out of Holder. They don't do it any kind of special Indian way, though. Just regular style.
Week: Sarah Linden very competently rescues her partner, provides a stable home environment for her child, and gets some much-needed therapy and rest. "Rosie can wait," she says. "That girl is dead and this murder case is very confusing. And besides, I know I tend to get a little compulsive about my job, so I'm trying to watch my stress level. Life's too short, right?" Wee Jamie admits his feelings for Darren, finding them very much requited by the surprisingly flexible City Councilman. Mitch returns from the Cold Cold Sea, having learned to speak in Wracked Tongues, of Mermaid and Leviathan; Stan accidentally kills like three more people, including Terry and Michael Ames. Rosie Larsen shows up and it turns out she was just at Coachella this whole time, but she's like really nonchalant about the lengths everyone's being going to, like, even after they explain what a big deal it is. Teens. Oh, and the sun actually comes out, causing Seattle to burst into 100% flame.