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Thursday 21 June 2012

The Closer 7.2 "Repeat Offender" Review


At the funeral of Delk, who died of an aneurysm, Pope (JK Simmos) reveals to all about his being appointed Interim Chief - emphasis being on Interim.  Meaning Taylor (Robert Gosset) will not be appointed Assistant Chief, but will remain a Commander for the foreseeable future.  Also Taylor stands at Delk's coffin for a long time, ruing his aneurysm no doubt before the final appointments were made.  This leaves Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) shocked along with everyone else.  Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) receives a call about a murder Vic being found in an affluent neighbourhood; that of housesitter, Ashley.

The owners, the Dixons were away on holiday, including their son Jesse (Spence Treat Clark) and what's more there was a suspect right there for them but no one caught on.  In that he could have been connected in some way, I mean, young boy, young DB.  No one cottoned on until they had wrecked the marriage of an innocent man;  professor Alex Banks (James D'Arcy).  Okay I use innocent loosely cos he wasn't guilty of murder but did cheat on his wife.  SO in one universe that'd mean he's paying for it now.

Sanchez (Raymond Cruz) finds there was no forced entry and so the robbery looks staged.  Also only a few items were stolen and most of the valuables remained intact.  Emily Dixon (Mary Page Keller) covered up Ashely's DB as she was dressed in her undies, making it even more viable that she may have been raped and that was the motive behind the killing.  She fell or was thrown from the landing upstairs.  Kendall (Ransford Doherty) says the coroner will have to check for rape and she was lying here like this for 5 days.

Brenda thinks Pope will take care of the audit and make it go away, but of course it's not that easy.  He tells Raydor (Mary McDonnell) to continue since he doesn't want the LAPD subjected to the lawsuit.  Also he had his own agenda he's working to: he wants to keep his job and be made Chief.  He tells Brenda that too.  In that way Major Crimes will continue.  Me thinks it's also cos Brenda was in the running for the Chief's position and the more dirt there is levied against her, the more he'll be in line for the job.  So I agree with Fritz (Jon Tenney) when he tells her Pope is only looking out for himself and doesn't have her back.  He sic-ed Raydor onto Brenda to cover himself and for Brenda to take the fall in the Shootin' Newton murders lawsuit.

So naturally Brenda is shocked for a second time with the audit and Pope wanting Raydor to interview her team.  Thus Brenda sends them on a grid search, with Taylor heading it up to look for the stolen property and to keep them away from Raydor's questioning.  So how long will this continue, she can't keep them away forever.  Provenza (GW Bailey) also suspects there's more going here but Brenda doesn't spill and replies she doesn't know what's going on anymore.

Brenda ad Flynn (Tony Denison) turned up at Banks' wife, Sarah's (Amy Sloan) house who kind of puts him in it when she tells them Alex had an affair with one of his students.  He being a journalism professor, which he later denies to Brenda.  Thus making him look like a suspect since he lied.  She harps on about Alex making her drink extra wine so she'd pass out and he could sleep with Ashley on the night of their anniversary.  Sorry but his wife was such a weak character at one point it looked like she'd killed Ashley.  hey why am I apologizing, she was weak.

Turns out Ashley was their babysitter which is how Alex became a suspect.  When brought in for questioning, Alex admits he drove Ashley home but wasn't having an affair.  Provenza suggests Gabriel searches the dumpsters and replies, "I don't do dumpsters" when Gabriel wants him to help.  He also couldn't bare to listen to Taylor and his moaning any longer.  Provenza decked out in chair, notices a bag similar to the Dixon's luggage.  Inside are items from the robbery, including a laptop, which wasn't reported stolen.  Tao (Michael Paul Chan) works late and finds the laptop was reported stolen from an earlier robbery in the same area.  The owner IDs it as his and his son has just graduated high school, just like Jesse.  See my suspect!

Sarah turns up wanting to speak to Alex and she lands him in it once again, well especially if he had been guilty.  Brenda has Buzz (Phillip P Keene) wire the break room and they watch and listen during their intense conversation, leading to their marriage bust up; he asks Sarah to tell the police he was at home with her since that's what he told them.  He admits he drove around Chloe's house: his former fling.  Don't they know anything said at a police station isn't subject to privilege and they can listen in and use it against them.  Clearly not.  Sarah says they both need a lawyer.

Jesse admits the robberies began as a dare to rob each other's homes but he was no longer a part of this.  He didn't know the others would rob his house otherwise he would have told them of Ashley.  He loved her.  Jesse is a loose end for them and they conclude he'll be their next target.  Gabriel and Brenda convince him to name them.  Come on, did he really think he was doing them a favour by keeping quiet.  Brenda informs him he's a co-conspirator during the commission of the crimes and thus he's also responsible for felony murder.

Pity Brenda didn't get the hint when Raydor told her she'll stay here until she's "ordered" to leave and she didn't want to continue with the audit anyway.  Brenda sends out the team again to arrest the boys and she returns Alex his things.  He remarks on the irony of Ashley being alive if he was having an affair.  Brenda tries to convince him he did the right thing by owning up.  Subtly hinting she's not done the right thing in the Newton case and can't own up.  His marriage is over and he looks at a photo of his family.  Loving James in this.  Initially he plays a cad but can't help but sympathsize with him at the end of the show cos he kept his word to not cheat on his wife.  Oh and he got to keep his Brit accent too, which was written in when wifey said he married her for a Green Card.  James looking like he'd been put through the ringer in this ep.

The team was also seen in their dress Blues and Brenda tells Pope he's fat in his, which is what he wanted to hear.  Yeah he got that way sitting behind that desk of his, ha.

Alex: "...real irony here is if I had actually have been having an affair with Ashley...she might still be alive."
Brenda: "that's the best justification for adultery I've heard in a long time."
Will we get an end to the audit pretty soon and seems Raydor has a soft spot after all, as she's been groomed to take over the spin off  from The Closer, Major Crimes, but I will miss this show.

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