Everything that went down in season one of Pretty Hard Cases

Published on CBC Comedy.

Pretty Hard Cases‘ first season has come to an end, and with so much action, suspense and romance packed into 10 episodes, we wouldn’t be surprised if you missed a couple things. 

Starring Baroness Von Sketch Show‘s Meredith MacNeill, and Adrienne C. Moore who you may recognize from Orange is The New Black, the two women play Toronto police detectives working together to take down the city’s infamous Stockwood Gang. 

Throughout the season Samantha Wazowski (Meredith MacNeill) and Kelly Duff (Adrienne C. Moore) grow both as detectives and people, and their work relationship blossoms into a supportive and hilarious friendship. 

With each episode we dive deeper into each of the women’s personal lives and watch as they slowly begin to rely on each other for support both on and off the clock.

Sam struggles to parent her rebellious teenage son Elliot (Percy Hynes White) and enter back into the dating pool, while Kelly navigates her situationship with Nathan and is conflicted by a moral dilemma.

The bad guys even have some personal troubles. Tiggy Sullivan (Tara Strong) transitions from working single mother, to fierce gang leader and drug smuggler. All the while, Jackie (Katie Douglas) tries to navigate being the daughter of a criminal and dating a police detective’s son. 

With so much to remember, here’s a quick season recap of everything that went down.

Episode one: Bananas

In the series premiere we’re introduced to Guns and Gangs detective Samantha Wazowski and Drug Squad detective Kelly Duff for the first time. Their first interaction is extremely chaotic when they realize that they’re both after the same suspect and both trying to take down the Stockwood Gang for their prospective departments. The differences in their personalities is something we’re very quickly made aware of. While Kelly is cool and confident, Sam is giving us a little bit of Karen energy. 

Although they seem to have things together in their work lives, both Sam and Kelly’s personal lives are a tad messy. Sam and her son Elliot have a complicated relationship due to his lack of respect authority… ironic I know. And at the end of the episode we meet Kelly’s ex-partner Jeff Keegan (Tony Nappo) who is currently suspended and under investigation for an incident that occurred while the pair were making an arrest.

Episode two: Dealz

After being paired together to take down the Stockwood Gang, Kelly and Sam start investigating a gun-dealing dollar store. Sam goes undercover for the first time after Kelly’s cover is blown and finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun when the gun-dealer starts getting suspicious. Kelly and Naz (Al Mukadam) come just in time to give Sam backup, but by the way she takes down the bad guy it doesn’t really seem like she needs it. After an extremely impressive display of Sam disarming and arresting him, she quickly reverts back to her quirky self, screaming in excitement about how cool she was.

Episode three: Nuts

Oh, to be young and in love… episode three marks the start of Elliot and Jackie’s budding romance, where they solidify their relationship through, well, graffiti art. Although Jackie began talking to Elliot to gain intel for her mother, it’s clear to see that snooping aside, she’s starting to fall for Wazowski’s son. While Jackie is busy falling in love, Tiggy’s sister Layna arrives in the city and the two women decide to take over the Bowen brothers’ drug operation by any means necessary, including assaulting and kidnapping Randy Bowen.

Episode four: Feathers

Kelly goes back undercover as a potential drug buyer from Montreal to gain intel on the Bowen brothers’ operation. She’s kidnapped by Steph Bowen and suspense rises as things get increasingly more dangerous for her. Sam’s detective and motherly instincts kick in and she does everything she can to track down and save her friend. Right in the knick of time Sam swoops in with backup and rescues a weaponless and clearly shaken Kelly from what could have been a very unfortunate situation.

Episode five: Kids

Episode five is absolutely jam-packed drama and kept us on the edge of our seats from start to finish. Jackie admits to Elliot that she is his mother’s confidential informant and it seems that their relationship is over. Tiggy finds out that Layna is hooking up with Randy Bowen and their new relationship is sure to complicate things even further for her. Kelly uses Elliot to help her with a drug bust at his school, and after getting caught at a party is arrested with drugs on him. Sam goes to visit Elliot in holding, only for him to begin confessing all the bad things he’s ever done and Sam is heartbroken when she realizes her son isn’t as innocent as she once thought. Kelly also makes a devastating discovery when she finally gets her hands on the tapes from the incident that got Keegan suspended and finds out he was lying the entire time.

Episode six: Guns

Elliot and Jackie are back together but their happy reunion doesn’t last very long. A naive Elliot gets wrapped up in the Stockwood drug operation and after having moved in with his dad is able to fly under his mother’s radar. Kelly and Sam continue their investigation and find themselves held hostage in a gang member’s home and having to work together to escape. Although the experience is quite traumatic, it brings them closer together and Kelly finally opens up to Sam and actually refers to her as her friend. And in true Sam fashion, she freaks out at the prospect of being friends with Kelly and completely forgets about the fact that she almost died five minutes earlier. 

Episode seven: Ritz

As Kelly and Sam get closer to bringing down the Stockwood Gang, Elliot only gets more deeply involved in the drug operation by agreeing to be a driver. Randy Bowen is killed by Buffalo mafia leader Bill Misiano (Kim Coates) and Tiggy is doing everything in her power to make sure that she’s not next. Sam doesn’t get the job of Detective Sergeant that she’s been gunning for and to both her and Kelly’s surprise the job is given to Nathan. Sam is upset she didn’t get the job and Kelly is hurt that Nathan never told her that he had put in for it or that he has been seeing other people. The two share a heartfelt moment and like any good friend, Kelly consoles a heartbroken Sam with a night of drinking.

Episode eight: Flowers

It seems that Elliot is capable of lying, and not just to his mother. Kelly discovers that he is working for the courier company being used to traffic drugs across the border and Elliot is brought in for questioning. After hours of being grilled by Commander Shanks (Karen Robinson), he doesn’t crack under the pressure and sticks to his story of not knowing about the operation, but Sam’s not buying it. The men in Kelly’s life are also causing her trouble, she grapples with her complicated relationship with Nathan and is being hazed by her squad for telling the truth about Keegan.

Episode nine: Gliders

Episode nine brings us a lot of sister drama. Tiggy is now officially in business with the very dangerous but also very quirky Misiano who we discover is quite fond of wearing knit slippers? But while Tiggy is getting to know her new business partner, her sister Layna is taken into custody and accidentally shares a little too much information. While on the hunt for Tiggy, Sam learns that Kelly has a sister that lives in Buffalo who is also a police officer. Much to Kelly’s annoyance, her sister inserts herself into their case and Sam welcomes her with open arms. After a long chase, Sam and Kelly finally arrest Tiggy who is hiding in the dashboard of a car (yes you read that correctly) trying to sneak across the border back into Canada.

Episode ten: Jellybeans

The season finale brought us drama, suspense, romance, heartbreak, and everything in between. Sam’s ex-husband is Tiggy’s defense attorney and they negotiate a deal for her to help them catch Misiano in exchange for a lesser sentence. Sam and Kelly go undercover together for the first time, pretending to be Misiano’s new drivers and continually mix up their own names. 

Right before they’re able to make the arrest their covers are blown and Misiano tries to escape. Cut to Misiano holding Elliot at gunpoint and then pushing him over the edge of a balcony before making a run for it. Elliot clings to the edge for his life while Sam, Kelly and Naz eventually figure out a way to pull him up. Sam and Elliot fall into each other’s arms as she sobs tears of relief that her son is safe and it seems that the two will finally reconcile. 

The episode ends with the bad guys being arrested and Naz finally asking Sam out on a date. Kelly admits to Nathan that she wants to be with him, only for him to leave for a date with another woman. Although she didn’t get the guy, she did get a new partner and Kelly breaks the news to Sam that she will be transferring over to the Guns and Gangs division. But just when we thought things were finally looking up, we’re left with the cliffhanger of Elliot opening-up a back-pack filled to the brim with MDMA pills. 

Stream season one of Pretty Hard Cases for free on CBC Gem.