What makes "The Bridge" a standout show is that its characters aren't caricatures, when they all easily could be. You have your detectives, serial killer, drug dealers, and reporters that could all be played as extreme one-note characters because of the show's content, but none of them are. They're convincingly real, and no one displays this better than our recently unveiled Beast, David Tate.

In "The Beetle," we found out why Tate began his statement-making border killing spree. When he was a detective, he wanted to investigate the dead girls of Juarez and well, you know how that turns out. His wife and son's tragic car accident is what set off his "beast," and the judge's ideals on Mexican people in the pilot was the perfect opportunity for Tate to begin his work. The fact that Tate's wife was sleeping with Marco and going to leave him was the cherry on top.

Tate's motives are the FBI's willingness to look away from something he was passionate about investigating, and the fact that he lost his son and wife while she was involved with Marco. Tate could easily have been portrayed as the typical normal acting guy who's actually a crazy serial killer, but in reality he's a sane human being who has taken things way too far.

The bulk of this episode dealt with Marco searching for his family, once he realized that Tate works with Alma under the pseudonym of Kenneth Hastings. He found this out through Gus, and it was made clear that he and his son have some communication issues. Tate took Alma and her daughters to an abandoned cabin in the desert, which the girls and Alma were too keen on entering. Seriously? The only part of this episode that threw me off was the fact that Alma showed little concern that her colleague took her to a creepy abandoned cabin for a "surprise." The next thing you know, Tate locked Alma inside with a grenade in her hand. I have to admit that I thought Marco would get to the cabin just in time to see it blow up, but he managed to show up and save his family.

It turns out that this is what Tate wanted (or knew it was going to happen) when he gave the waiter the cabin's GPS coordinates to indirectly tip the police off. The person Tate really wanted was Gus, because Gus is truly Marco's son. Gus was also Marco's son back when he was having the affair with Tate's wife. The flashback at the beginning of the episode showed us how devastated Tate was when he saw his dead son in the car, which made it clear why he only wanted Gus. Tate had been texting Gus under the guise of his high school fling Zena (how that worked is beyond me), and Gus had been giving up all the info on the case, which also explains how Tate knew when and where to kill Gina.

I thought the car crash at the end of the episode was a little too convenient, but that's partly because I'm not a fan of them in dramas. Car crashes are beyond overused as a way to shake things up, and it's just something I've seen too many times before. Also, it seemed as if Tate hit Sonya and Gus out in public. But then again, Tate doesn't seem to care who sees what at this point. With Gus in Tate's hands, it seems that next week will be much like last night's episode but with higher stakes for Marco. Tate isn't going to be as "nice" with Gus as he was with Alma and the girls. 

Stray bullets

- For once, Charlotte actually did something when she killed Graciela with a pitchfork, after she threatened to slice her face and kill Cesar. The questions are, how (if ever) will Charlotte's storyline connect with the main plot, and will she ever pronounce Cesar's name correctly?

- Cesar buried Graciela and her henchman, but I'm just wondering who's going to come after them now, because you just know that entire situation won't go unanswered. 

- Linder apologized to Eva for killing Hector, but it turns out she didn't really care that much. Also, the ranch owner is creepy but in a good way, in that he likes to eat cheeseburgers after killing someone. 

- In other side character news, Frye and Adriana were nowhere to be seen.

- "MILF? I know what that is. I don't have children?" "What's it like to sleep in bed with the same person every night?" Sonya was on fire tonight, even though Marco didn't have time for any of that.

- "Let's discuss this over a ham salad." Ok then. Also, gross.