This season finale is one of the best episodes for a while and a bit of a change of pace for The Closer. A seemingly mundane drug arrest turns serious when it appears a murder has been committed. Great script and (as usual) excellent acting make this a really good episode. I’m going to be sorry when the show winds up after its 7th season.
Brenda – for almost the first time in memory – gets it wrong about the guilt of a suspect, a drug addict whose pleas for help stir her sympathy. Gabriel and Fritz both help her to see that addicts are not to be trusted, while she finds it hard to see him as a possible killer.
The script and direction is so good in this episode, that we the viewers are also doubtful of his guilt. However, once again Brenda appears to get her man pretty much be lying to him. Are cops allowed to do that? I have no idea.. The issue of Fritz’s alcohol addiction has never really been dealt with in much depth, but the episode ended with him telling her like it was – how he really was a monster as an addict and could easily have committed a horrible crime as the suspect of the week did. It was a rare bit of character development for Fritz after 6 years of chasing down FBI leads for his wife, parent-sitting and minding the cat.
The Closer is a notch above most other police procedurals for me because of a great cast of characters lead by Kyra Sedgewick as Brenda Leigh Johnson. It is always fin to watch Brenda lure her suspects into her trap and get them to confess – I must admit I had no idea why the show was called The Closer for the first year – were they close to something? Ah..Closer as is closing a case! Got it! This year has been solid without having that many stand out episodes. I wasn’t really into the storyline about Brenda going for the Chief of Police job, although I have enjoyed seeing Mary McDonnell antagonise Brenda!