On the third season premiere of Southland...

- Lydia and her new partner, Detective Josie Ochoa are called to find a woman who has been missing for two days.  She was last seen at her job as a cleaning woman in an office building but she never punched out.  The canine unit tracks her scent and the detectives find her body duct taped and hidden inside the ceiling tiles of the restroom.  She was strangled to death.

- Lydia and Josie suspect a security guard, Juan Pablo Salazar.  He has obvious bruises on his body and the victim put up a fight.  All of the victim’s friends are immigrants and too afraid to talk.  The detectives are waiting on the lab to process the DNA to get their arrest warrant but the suspect and his girlfriend are driving to the airport to flee the country.

- As they push the lab to rush the results while following the suspect’s vehicle, Josie makes a bold move and spins out their car to stop them.  Salazar runs on foot and Lydia catches him just as the lab calls.  The DNA is a match but Lydia is furious at Josie’s tactics and recklessness.

- Sammy and Nate catch a case of two young gang members who were both shot in the back of the head and dumped below a highway.  They quickly find out the two were recently charged with gang rape but they were acquitted because the victim was drunk.  The rape victim was the daughter of Luis Reyes, a known gang shot caller.  The detectives don’t believe the men knew the identity of the rape victim.

- A homeless man identifies an old Monte Carlo as the car that dumped the two bodies under the highway.  Reyes owns a similar vehicle and the detectives get a search warrant and find blood in the trunk.  Reyes is arrested for murder but Nate empathizes with him, thinking about what he might do if something happened to one of his own daughters.

- The uniformed officers, Ben, John, Chickie, and her partner are called to the scene of a bank robbery where an officer has been shot.  Three armed men have Sarge pinned and bleeding in the middle of the street.  The officers respond by taking off their bulletproof vests and hanging them across one side of their vehicle.  They roll the car over to Sarge and pull him in, all while taking fire.  With Sarge safe, Ben pursues one of the gunmen.  The man shoots himself in the head just as Ben catches him.

- John has back pain and is trying to get more medication.  He’s used all of his refills and his other contacts won’t supply him with more pills.  His pain is so bad, Ben has to help him into his car.  Ben pleads with him to get help but John seems determined to handle this himself.