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Thursday 6 September 2012

The Closer 7.13 "Relative Matters" Review

FBI agents surveill Shaw (Jake Busey) who meets a man and promptly beats him up.  One suggests they should save him and calls 911 saying they need his ID.  Brenda's (Kyra Sedgwick) parents arrive for an impromptu visit.  Taylor (Robert Gossett) mentions Agent Morris (DB Sweeney) called it in.   There was a fist fight as Tao (Michael Paul Chan) notices the blood trail and the GSW in his head.  Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) tells of the timeline.  The Vic was Paul Burke and Provenza (GW Bailey) doesn't want to give the FBI his name until they find out the suspect's name in return.  Flynn (Tony Denison) adds they'll never give it to them.

Clay (Barry Corbin) is distraught none of the family can make it for Christmas.  Provenza calls Fritz (Jon Tenney).  She can hear Kendall (Ransford Doherty) on the other end saying they need to move the DB and knows they're at a CS. Brenda tries to call the other team members but they all hang up.  Fritz takes the name of the Vic first and says he'll be in touch.  Clay gets emotional and hugs Fritz, he's proud of him.  Fritz suggests Brenda ask her parents why her mother is so quiet and what their secret is.  He doesn't want to talk about paying for her case but mentions he did pay. Clay tells Brenda he has cancer.

Sanchez (Raymond Cruz) thanks Morris for filming the murder, but it's not on tape.  Fritz informs them Shaw is involved in trafficking of stolen property.  They run a catering company and case the homes in LA.  But another catering company works the homes.  Flynn wants the video of Shaw for the rest of the evening.  Burke wanted a divorce.  Pope (JK Simmons) says the burglaries took place in LA City and as he's the Chief of Police, he sets the priorities. Brenda cries and doesn't want to work right now.

Her parents arrive at the Division and hand out presents to all.  Gabriel gets a snowglobe with a snowman policeman inside and Sanchez gets maracas!. Shaw comes in with the rest of Burke's family, Burke's wife, Laura (Pamela J Gray) is Shaw's sister.  Hey Brenda wearing trousers, she hasn't worn those in a while.  Maybe she decided she wanted to wear the pants in the home and at work, ha.

Brenda says since they lost Shaw last night he could have shot Burke after all.  No, he's too obvious a suspect.  Buzz (Phillip P Keene) places a camera in the Poinsettia and films the questioning.  Laura says she was at home with their son, Ian (Andy Fischer-Price) and Emily (Suzanne Cryer) Shaw's wife was watching TV with him, It's A Wonderful Life, yeah right.  Flynn tells Morris, "tip of following someone, wherever they go, you go."  Shaw says Burke was sleeping with Claudia, his ex and texted him.  Fritz wants Brenda to stop the questioning and repeatedly underlines it in the pad.  Laura doesn't believe he was having an affair.  Fritz: "thank you so much," a little how Brenda says it, but not much.

Brenda asks Morales (Jonathan Del Arco) about thyroid surgery.  He tells her thyroid is Greek for 'shield.' It regulates their emotions and mood swings, which is what Clay will have to look forward to.   It's a process of "regulation of your inner diva."  His emotions will be all over the place.  Burke has a mark on his scalp - a tattoo of the murder weapon, a small 41calibre Derringer.  (Always associated that as a weapon of choice for a woman, thus a clue!)

Claudia (Nicole Lemehin) is bought in with $1.8 million and was on her way to Brazil.  Brenda can't believe Fritz would use Clay's condition as an excuse for her not conducting the interview with Claudia, which she calls, "shameful." Provenza thinks it should have worked.  Claudia denies she was seeing Burke and was on a film set.  He was keeping the money at her apartment and asks if they will search it since she has stolen property there.  Fritz walks in with Morris telling her Brenda's deals usually involve prison and theirs involve witness protection.  Brenda adds she probably would send her to prison, cos her motto; take no prisoners.  Er you know what I mean!  Morris tells Gabriel he doesn't recall saying thank you to them for finding Claudia.

Flynn finds the gun which was stolen from one of the houses.  Fritz can't tell Brenda where Claudia is and Clay loses his temper.  Willie Rae (Francis Sternhagen) has been dealing with him on her own and Brenda offers to come down.  She can visit after the surgery.  Gabriel tells the family about the gun and where it was seen being dumped in a ploy to lure the guilty party there.  That was obvious so why did they have Taylor commenting they've already found the gun!  The suspect was also obvious.  Laura leaves.  Probably to make us believe if it was her then she'd get there already, but it's Emily of course.

She watched Burke getting beaten and then confronted him after.  He was going to take all the money and didn't care about Laura.  She wasn't going to let her family suffer.  She took the gun and kept it cos she liked it, see the weapon of a woman.

Flynn tells Brenda his sister suffered the same and he had to be there to help her.  Clay apologizes and Brenda tells him the rest of the family are coming for Christmas.  He wants them to hit him over the head if he loses it again, which he does and so Fritz hits him over the head with a cushion, like he said.

Don't much like these family orientated episodes I have to say and you could say not much happened here, aside from dropping the bombshell about her father being ill and she may be needed elsewhere.  This involved her family and the case involved another family and thus the title.  Like those little tiffs between Brenda and Fritz which make the show more enjoyable in my opinion, cos usually it's about work and then enters the personal territory, like they're in competition with each other, especially when it comes to the job and solving cases.  But hey isn't Fritz meant to be the FBI liaison anyway or is that forgotten now?  It's also friction from working together too closely.

Brenda's brothers are named, Jimmy who lives in New York and is gay, Bobby and Clay Jr.
Willie Rae: "crime doesn't stop for dinner in this house."
Clay: "...it pays for dinner..."  A Christmas episode where family turns out to be the most important thing, shown by Brenda and Fritz getting behind her parents and by Emily killing Burke to protect hers.

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