Bosch: Legacy season 2 ending explained: who killed Lexi Parks?

Titus Welliver, Madison Lintz, Deji LaRay and Denise Sanchez in Bosch: Legacy
Titus Welliver, Madison Lintz, Deji LaRay and Denise Sanchez in Bosch: Legacy (Image credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee)

The Bosch: Legacy season 1 finale left fans in shock as Maddie (Madison Lintz) was kidnapped, so what would the Bosch: Legacy season 2 ending do for an encore? 

Amazon Freevee's Bosch: Legacy is a sequel series to the Prime Video original Bosch, which is based on the series of Michael Connelly books about Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch, played by Titus Welliver in the series. Bosch: Legacy has focused on Bosch working as a private investigator, which allows him to use his trademark rule-bending investigation style to catch the bad guys.

In Bosch: Legacy season 2, this style was first put to use to find Maddie after she was kidnapped by Kurt Dockweiler (David Denman). Then he and Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers) once again teamed up to prove that an accused murderer was actually innocent. Also, Bosch and Chandler were themselves a target of an FBI investigation about their involvement in the death of Carl Rogers and the Russian mob. Meanwhile, Maddie attempted to emotionally recover from her kidnapping and Mo (Stephen Chang) got romantically involved.

So how did it all work out for Bosch and company? We break it all down with this Bosch: Legacy season 2 ending explained. (Warning, SPOILERS ahead for Bosch: Legacy season 2 episodes 9 and 10).

Who killed Lexi Parks?

After the murder of Lexi Parks, the police arrested and charged David Foster (Patrick Brennan) for the crime because his DNA was found on the scene. However, he claimed he never knew Lexi Parks and he had an alibi — the night of her death he was with his secret romantic partner, an escort named James Allen. Chandler and Bosch investigate and find out that he indeed is innocent. So who killed Lexi Parks?

It was a pair of dirty cops named Ellis (Max Martini) and Long (Guy Wilson).

Max Martini and Guy Wilson in Bosch: Legacy

Max Martini and Guy Wilson in Bosch: Legacy (Image credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee)

The two of them began tailing Bosch and Chandler early on in the season to keep an eye on what they know and throw up potential roadblocks. But Bosch pieced together that Ellis and Long had established Allen as an informant after he had been arrested years prior for drug dealing, used him to get DNA evidence of Foster and then killed Allen later to cover it up. Why do all this?

Ellis and Long had a side hustle where they used two sex workers to blackmail men cheating on their wives. They often took goods as payments, in one case a fancy watch from a man named Dr. Schubert (Patrick Day). Unfortunately for them, after they pawned the watch with their usual contacts, the Nguyen brothers (Thom Tran & Heng Theng), it was purchased by a sheriff to give to his wife, Lexi Parks, as a gift. However, working as a city employee, she found out that it was stolen (Dr. Schubert classified it as such to hide his dealings from his wife) and threatened to audit the Nguyens, which in turn would threaten Ellis and Long. So they killed her to prevent that.

When Bosch found all this out, he went to Schubert to get him to testify against Ellis and Long, but Ellis and Long also showed up. A shootout ensued, with Bosch shooting Long (but not killing him) and Ellis escaping. Ellis hid out on a boat until he could safely get out of Los Angeles, but Bosch found him (off a tip from Ellis' sex workers). Ellis gained the upper hand and was about to shoot Bosch when Maddie — who was tracking her dad knowing he may go after Ellis alone — shot and killed him.

Even after all this, Chandler still needed a bit more info to get District Attorney Archer (Jim Holmes) to drop the charges against Foster, so Bosch went to see Long in the hospital. With Long not knowing Ellis was dead, Bosch told him he was putting all of the blame on Long, but Long corrected him, saying Ellis was the one who actually killed Lexi Parks. Bosch recorded this, but the DA said it's inadmissible since Bosch didn't get permission to record from Long. That didn't bother Chandler, who said if Archer didn't drop the charges against Foster, she would share the recording with the press and he would have to explain why he was charging a man when he already had a confession from someone else. As a result, the DA dropped the charges.

What happened with the FBI investigation?

Anthony Michael Hall and Mimi Rogers in Bosch: Legacy

Anthony Michael Hall and Mimi Rogers in Bosch: Legacy (Image credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee)

The FBI had been trying to nail Chandler and Bosch all season for their involvement in killing Carl Rogers. However, Chandler laid the perfect trap. After she was arrested, she got a hearing to determine if the case could be dismissed or would move forward. 

The FBI was confident as they had a bag of destroyed files given to them by Chandler's employee Matthew Ramriez (Alex Loynaz), which they used as the basis for their search warrant. But Chandler revealed she actually gave all of her Carl Rogers files to her attorney, who still had them, meaning the destroyed files were little more than scraps of paper. This wrecked the FBI's case, so the judge dismissed it.

However, FBI Agent Baron (Anthony Michael Hall) wasn't done. It was revealed that Jade (Jessica Camacho), whom Mo had been getting close with, was actually an undercover agent. They attempted to use Mo's feelings for Jade to testify against Chandler and Bosch, but Mo figured out who Jade really was. He then eliminated any other leverage that the FBI had on him and showed them (and Jade) the door.

Later, when Chandler announced she was running for District Attorney against Archer, journalist Scott Anderson (Eric Ladin) asked Bosch why the grand jury investigation just went away, presumably confirming that the FBI's case against them was officially closed.

What did Bosch do to Dockwelier?

Madison Lintz and Titus Welliver in Bosch: Legacy

Madison Lintz and Titus Welliver in Bosch: Legacy (Image credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee)

Maddie was able to face Dockweiler at his sentencing earlier in season 2, but she got another shock regarding him when she was told he died in prison from an apparent drug overdose.

However, in the last scene of the season, Bosch went out to walk the dog while Maddie stayed behind at the house. Bosch's phone rang, with Maddie noticing it was from a prison, which she found odd. She picked it up and on the other end was Preston Borders (Chris Browning), a recurring character in the original series. Even though Maddie told him who she was, Borders told her he was the one who killed Dockweiler at Bosch's request.

When Bosch returned, Maddie asked him what he did.

We'll have to wait for Bosch: Legacy season 3 to find out. In the meantime, you can watch all episodes of Bosch: Legacy exclusively on Amazon Freevee

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Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.