Against the Wall: Lean on Me or Die Recap

Or we could call the 9th Episode of “Against the Wall” (Season 1) “Brody’s Back” — John Brody, that is. Brody (Andrew Walker) and Abby’s brother, Richie (Brandon Quinn), cross paths at a domestic violence call and the drama between them continues. And that’s the first time we remember hearing his first name.

On the Internal Affairs side, Abby (Rachael Carpani) and Lina (Marisa Ramirez) are assigned to find out what is going on with Nikki, the undercover stripper, who was in that other stripper episode where Candy Cane bought it. Is Nikki going over to the “dark side,” and if she is, they need to save her because her whole family died in a fire and that’s why she’s vulnerable. There’s extortion, a crooked judge and lots more.

At the domestic violence call, a pregnant woman runs out of the house with her abusive husband right behind her. They tackle him. Brody gives Richie the collar and stays to comfort the woman until a relative can come over.

Later, Brody goes to visit Abby’s mother Sheila to ask advice on how to get back with her daughter. “Abby is a hopeless romantic,” Sheila confides over cupcakes, and tells him to woo Abby with some Gladys Knight. He shows up at Abby’s with everything you need for a romantic candlelight dinner on the roof and even a dress for Abby to wear so they can dance to “You’re the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me.”

Now here is one thing we keep forgetting to mention. Abby is always singing some golden oldie song in any given episode. In “Lean on Me or Die,” she was singing Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” when Brody showed up. If there was any significance to this title reference being put in right before Brody knocked on the door, it went right over our heads. LOL.

Richie finds out about Brody’s visit to his mom and says Brody will hurt Abby. What does he know? Did Brody knock someone up and leave her flat or something? Even Mrs. Kowalski is hard-pressed to understand why Richie is so anti-Brody and pro-Danny. She tells Richie that Abby is a woman and it’s her decision to make. Later, Brody and Richie lock horns in the locker room, even though Brody declares his love for Abby.

Abby is not ready to call this reunion a relationship but she does establish what she calls “booty call rules.” He can kiss her in public but not in front of her family. (Well, Mom might be cool with it, but at least not in front of Richie, we hope). Brody can’t sleep with anyone else. Neither can she. So long, Dan. Brody insists he can have as many real dates as he wants, but Abby puts a cap on that and they compromise at twice a month.

Against the Wall Episodes on Amazon

As for the Nikki situation, Abby finds out that Nikki is hooked on heroin. She gets Brody to help her get Nikki out of the club and tells Brody how she once had to help a friend in college get in rehab after a 2-day cold turkey watch. “There’s a lot we don’t know about each other,” Brody observes. But Nikki falls back into the clutches of the bad cop behind the whole thing. Abby and Lina to the rescue? Well, almost. Nikki ends up shooting the bad man before he can shoot Abby, then mooches a ride to rehab.

Marsha, the pregnant lady from before, has a baby boy and names him “John Richard Stone” after her two heroes: Officers John Brody and Richard Kowalski.”

“Now, of course, you guys are going to call him by his middle name, right” Richie jokes.