Detective Rick Viggiano dies first, and the war is on.

As Nemesis Episode 6 (“The Die is Cast”) places you inside the chaotic violence of a pitched battle in downtown LA traffic, remember that Coltrane Wilder said he was done with heisting. Sure, the crew’s van is packed with cash. But those millions are just their parting gift after targeting Andrei Malakian for assassination. Where the crew is now, as they fan out to cover their escape, callously killing cops and anyone else caught in the withering crossfire, is just deadly improvisational brio. This is their life during wartime, and both Stro and Choi become casualties.

Pinned down by overwhelming firepower, Stiles and Cerullo can only watch as Jamel Brinkley is seriously wounded. Trane tries to reach Stro, but he is also boxed in. And as smoke grenades deploy and bullets continue to fly – seriously, this riveting opening sequence seems to last for 20 minutes – Stiles finally reaches a clear firing position, only to realize he’s drawn a bead on his own father. Amos, Nightmare, the Crip OG, the Coltrane crew’s new wheelman who they just framed for Andrei’s murder, is out front the van with his Galil on full-auto. “Thank my uppity son for me being back in the game,” Amos said in the last episode, and here, Isaiah hesitates. He can’t take the shot, and can’t stop any of the thieves still standing, because the explosive Trane tossed in their van blows it to kingdom come. Diversionary tactics always. Separately, Coltrane and Amos are now in the wind.

Stro and Choi survived the firefight, and are both in custody as they receive medical treatment. Brinkley survived, too, though he is gravely injured. And reaching the crew’s predetermined rendezvous in a nearby parking structure, while performing a quick change into UCLA gear, Coltrane thinks he’s caught too when he feels a gun against his neck. But nah. It’s only Detective Nicolette Harper, Viggiano’s partner, and she is dirty. Harper has been Charlie’s plant inside the department the whole time, and she helps Trane escape the emergency cordon coming down on Century City. 

Captain Seales is irate. “I’m sick of this shit, Isaiah! Who gave you the tip? Answers, or give me your gun and badge.” The arrest attempt turning deadly is terrible, but it also places an awkward spotlight on how Stiles even knew where to go. And since he can’t reveal cartel boss Miguel Álvarez as the source of his tip, he stays silent. Detective Stiles is suspended from duty.

He’s been on that obsession-fueled improvisation shit since Nemesis began. But now Stiles is operating without police sanction, the same way Trane is making it up as he goes along. And their movements are a match, because they’re both looking for Nightmare. Stiles to take his father in, and Coltrane to silence him. Everyone else is looking, too. Seales and Cruz, unaware Harper is dirty even as she feeds Charlie intel from inside the captain’s personal vehicle. Candace, who agrees to alert Cruz if Isaiah returns home. And Ebony, who is left alone at her OB/GYN appointment after  Coltrane departs the planned alibi to search for loose ends.

The first convergence of all this searching is at a strip club, operated by an old Nightmare contact, with Latto and BunnaB on the soundtrack. Stiles is in there, pleading with Amos to turn himself in for the good of their family. Trane is in there gunning for Stiles and/or his father. And when the cops show up, Seales and Cruz still don’t notice Harper signaling Trane.  

The second convergence is at the Stiles house, and now Prince is on the soundtrack, spare and funky, with “The Truth.” (“What if half the things ever said turned out to be a lie?”) Amos had his out all arranged. A trip south to Guadalajara, new ID, plenty of cash from the Andrei hit, and no extradition. But he simply had to stop at the house. Couldn’t depart forever without getting the last word on his son’s support. Amos leaves a bag of cash for Isaiah – “I don’t owe you shit now” – but is startled when Noah appears. By this point, the cops are on their way to Baldwin Hills, too, alerted by Candace of Stiles’ impending arrival. But so is Coltrane, and he arrives first. Amos doesn’t know that yet – he thinks the approaching footsteps are Isaiah’s. But as he stuffs Noah in the closet with the cash, Nightmare seems to understand his time is running out. The street fight continues.

Cops & Robbers for Episode 6 of Nemesis (“The Die is Cast”):

• Ebony was joyous as her ultrasound revealed a healthy baby. She was less joyous about what else the appointment revealed. Because her first pregnancy did not result in a miscarriage, as she has always believed. While she was unconscious due to complications, it was her sister Charlie who authorized the termination. 

• “It’s time he learned the truth about Amos.” With the shooting all over local news, Candace’s parents sit Noah down. They explain Nightmare’s link to generational violence, how Amos went to prison for the robbery that killed Josiah Stiles. But they stress one thing to Noah. “You get to decide what kind of man you’re going to be.”  

• “You’ve done so much bad shit, you probably think it’s too late to change, but it’s not!” Noah took his grandparents’ words to heart, but all he ever wanted was a relationship with his grandpa Stiles, and peace among his family. Caught in crisis, as he is cornered at Isaiah’s, Amos himself takes the time to encourage his grandson. “I can see what kind of man you’re gonna be.” 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.