‘Bosch: Legacy’ Author & EP Michael Connelly Unpacks Season 2, Talks ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Crossover

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Bosch: Legacy Season 2.]

It was an emotional rollercoaster throughout season 2 of Bosch: Legacy. Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) started on a hunt to find his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz), who was taken from her home by rapist Kurt Dockweiler (David Denman). Between the abduction and being buried alive, Maddie is forever changed by the ordeal personally and professionally as a young cop in Los Angeles.

After Bosch and Honey “Money” Chandler (Mimi Rogers) find Maddie safe, they’ve got to deal with their own issues. These include having the FBI led by Agent William Baron (Anthony Michael Hall) on their tail, stemming from the Carl Rogers murder in the first season. Making matters worse are crooked detectives Don Ellis (Max Martini) and Kevin Long (Guy Wilson), who are out to pin a murder on Chandler’s innocent client David Foster (Patrick Brennan), and take Bosch and Chandler down in the process. There’s also drama for Bosch’s go-to hacker Maurice “Mo” Bassi (Stephen A. Chang) who gets embroiled in the investigations and falls for Jade Quinn (Jessica Camacho), who he finds out was an undercover federal agent.

Who better to help us digest all these developments than Michael Connelly, the father of the Bosch universe himself. He also addresses the likelihood of a crossover with The Lincoln Lawyer, and pays tribute to Lance Reddick.

This was an incredible season with Maddie at the center. Given all she endured with Dockweiler, what are your thoughts on how her character arc played out? 

Michael Connelly: She moves to the center of the show because of the very acute and emotional things that happen to her. The first two episodes really delved into what happens with the rescue. It’s like a movie playing out. It’s a highly riveting two episodes. That platform set for the rest of the season where we explored Maddie’s emotional trauma. That gave us a lot to work with in the writing room. We love that character. We love the actress. She is all in with whatever we want to do. When you have someone who is that much of a team player and that much talent, you’re going to use it. She is really a throughline. It goes from those first two sequences and helping save herself to her saving her father’s life essentially in the end.

Maddie was front and center when we were writing this show. It’s Bosch’s legacy. He has been the center of the wheel, but this season I think Maddie is the emotional throughline. She is the one people are riding with. We couldn’t have been happier with what we got from her and what came from the writer’s room. We’re in territory not in the books. On one level that’s really cool for me. A lot of stuff that is going on in the books I actually take from the show. The show is a little bit ahead with characters like Maddie than I have in the books. That has been a fun offshoot of this, which was surprising.

Bosch: Legacy (Credit: Tyler Golden/Freevee)

Maddie is sort of questioning her career choice after witnessing everything that went on with Harry. There is this one scene revisited where she looks at her mom’s FBI in memoriam and accomplishments in the building lobby. Do you feel that reaffirmed her purpose? 

Yes. That scene was in an earlier season. I’ve always thought that was the most emotional moment we had from the original show. So bringing it back as a reminder was very important. It does seem like this is Maddie’s show at the moment. I don’t know if it will always be that way, but we got so lucky with Madison. When we cast her almost 10 years ago. She was 14. She had one episode of The Walking Dead. That was her resume. She has matured as an actress as she has gotten older. When you have someone who is all in and can do it, you have to keep going to that well. I assume that is what we will be doing in the future. She is a young person. She is experiencing things new on the show and in her own life. It’s great to see. You’re right about that. Water seeks its own level. When you’re in the writing room, these writers are sitting around and thinking a lot about Maddie because her experiences and what we can do with her are all fresh and new.

How do you feel the show’s dynamic will change now with Honey announcing her intention to run for district attorney? 

Writers know the most important thing is to pivot. We want to take characters in new directions. That’s the key to sustaining a show and an audience. So here’s this attorney who is a constant antagonist to the seats of power. Now she wants to be in the seat of power. I think that’s a pretty cool storyline. We’re just hashing it out now. Because of the strike, we’ve lost about five months. So, it’s early on with what’s going to happen. I can tell you right now we don’t know if she wins or loses, but we’re delving into the politics now of “Money” Chandler. Again, it’s fresh and interesting.

Greg Gayne

We see Honey meet Irvin Irving to secure his endorsement. This would be the last scene for Lance Reddick, who passed away unexpectedly in March. How do you remember him? 

It was a punch to the gut with what happened to him. He was a member of our family. When you spend so much time with people on a TV show with 12-hour days, waiting for a shot to be set up. There is a lot of sitting around in folding chairs and talking about life and so forth. Well beyond the show, Lance was a friend to me. He was a friend to everyone. He was such a consummate actor and friend. A really good man. Before we lost him, we were so happy we got him back into the show for that final episode. We had plans to continue with him, and of course, those were lost when we lost him. The greater loss is him as a person, but we are glad for the time we had him. We were very glad we had him in this latest season.

Season 2 brings another cliffhanger. This time we see the return of Cliffhanger Preston Borders. Maddie picks up Harry’s phone while he is walking Coltrane. She puts two and two together after finding out earlier that Dockweiler was killed in prison. How would you say this changes Harry and Maddie’s relationship? 

First I think, “You poor girl. What you’ve been through. Now can you even trust your father?” That’s what we went out with. We went out with an action cliffhanger in the first season, and this is more of an emotional one. For nine seasons they had a pretty straight father-daughter relationship, emotional at times, but mostly a mentorship. Again, we always have to pivot. We wanted to start the third season with their trust issues and see their relationship in a different light. A fractured light.

Material for this season was pulled from your book The Crossing. Only here instead of Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller, Chandler is working with Harry. What are your thoughts on the adaptation? 

It seemed to go pretty seamlessly. In the book world, Lincoln Lawyer and Bosch can cross paths. I have a book out where they work together. That would never happen on TV, I think. Who knows? Some day maybe Netflix and Amazon will shake hands and have a crossover, but I think that is highly doubtful. So, we have to accept it and do what we can. We have this marvelous character that doesn’t exist in the books past a book I wrote, I guess almost 25 years ago. The “Money” Chandler on the TV show is really a creation from the writer’s room. It’s a great character. To take her from being an antagonist to the power structure of the community to want to be part of that power structure is a pretty interesting pivot. That’s what we are exploring now. I can’t tell you how that’s going to go just yet because we’re just getting started.

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It’s fun to see familiar faces come and go from the Bosch universe. Though at the end of the day, it’s about Harry, Maddie, and Honey. What was your big takeaway from Season 2? 

You kind of hit on it. I’m proud of the throughline of the show this season. The emotions that the characters face. Maddie has been through a trauma. I think with what happens with Harry and Titus, who plays him. His performance this season to me went up several notches. I’m really proud of that. It’s a difficult task to go from a show that is basically a POV or with a single lead of Harry Bosch and make it a three-hander. I think we did that so well. Where we wound these three storylines around each other, across each other, and it’s all interconnected. That’s very difficult work in the writing room to pull that off, and I really think we did.