- Title: Battle Creek – Syruptitious
- IMDb: link
The second episode the series continues the uneasy partnership between Detective Russ Andrew (Dean Winters) and FBI Special Agent Milton Chamberlain (Tad Hamilton) investigating a syrup conspiracy that led to murder while introducing an incredibly lazy B-story focused on Fontanelle White’s (Kumar Patel) investigation into a marijuana dispensary which gypped him on some fake drugs. The second is memorable only for the actor’s previous work while the first offers a bizarre twist on a local monopoly more cutthroat than you would expect.
“Syruptitious” is very much a mixed bag offering dead-end plot points (such as a large scale undercover investigation which is almost immediately abandoned) and a subplot that takes advantage of Penn’s most notable role. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some fun to be had, but it’s usually not a good sign when a show takes a step back from its pilot instead of building on and improving its concept. The back-and-forth between odd couple Russ and Milton continues to be a strength of the show, but (other than a few memorable digs the detective gets off about the town’s new arrival) the episode doesn’t add anything new to the dynamic we saw from last week’s episode.