The Closer is an American police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a Deputy Chief of Police at the LAPD. Sedgwick plays Brenda Leigh Johnson, an ex-CIA interrogator. She is a southern belle and her easy going charm has surprised more than one criminal during an interrogation. She always gets the bad guys. She was put in charge of the Priority Homicide division of the LAPD.
She’s had to deal with conflict from Commander Taylor, chief of detectives, since she was promoted over him from the outside to her current position. This conflict has been resolved in season 4. Commander Taylor is now one of her staunchest allies. Her team are seasoned veterans, some close to retiring like Lt Provenza, others like Sgt Gabriel just a few years into their police careers. Daniels was promoted off the squad and this season, there is a new conflict with Captain Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), who investigates any civilian deaths in officer involved shootings.
Her personal life wasn’t always as stable as it is right now. She’s currently engaged to an FBI Agent named Fritz Howard, who helps her from time to time on some cases. They’ve just sold Brenda’s bungalow and moved into a temporary space as they search for a new house to buy.
Brenda is a severe workaholic, to the sacrifice of her personal relationships. She tends to micro-manage her investigations and take a close look at details. She loves junk food and sweets but is currently trying to lay off them. She usually hides all types of junk food in drawers, purses, and other places. She is also known to be a “bit of a slob”, commenting that she does not often get around to housework every day in one episode, and in another, during a small argument between her and Fritz over where her mail was, Fritz comments that “if she looked at her mail daily instead of once a week, she would know where they keep it”.
The Closer is one of the best police dramas on television right now and is in its fourth season on TNT. Each summer sees 13 episodes. A feature length episode is shown over the holidays. For this season, the episode format has changed. The show has returned for five more episodes in 2009 and season 5 started out a few weeks ago.
I’ve been a bit lax about posting reviews, but rest assured that all Closer episodes were watched and reviewed. They just haven’t been posted. They will find their way onto this site.
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A real estate mogul is kidnapped and the Priority Homicide squad is called in to deal with the situation. The kidnapping has gone wrong and Deputy Chief Johnson has to fight some interference from Chief Pope. He doesn’t want her to investigate the family, but of course she does.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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Pope is showing the Chief some surveillance footage from LAX. It shows a man named Summers, a real estate mogul who’s hit legal problems. He’s been kidnapped. They have been gone for 12 hours. The wife and son went to the bank to retrieve some money for a ransom demand. They couldn’t get any money since his accounts were frozen by the FBI.
Detective Mendoza is there. She put together the footage from LAX. The Chief has brought her cat Kitty. She needs some shots. There is still more footage to see. Summers was met by a chauffeur and drove himself away. Gomez was the driver and is also missing. If this is a kidnapping, Gomez is involved.
Provenza arrives at the station. He knows Mickey Mendoza pretty well. Summers is being investigated for fraud by the FBI. The ransom is a strange number of around 1 million dollars. Provenza volunteers for a grid search of LAX to find the town car. Pope wants the Chief to stay away from the family. Sanchez and Flynn are helping Mendoza. Gabriel is talking with the FBI to figure out the financials.
The Chief interviews Mrs. Ortega, one of Gomez’s regular fares. Her job kept her out most nights. She says that she does data entry for a law firm. Sounds like that she is an escort. She says that Gomez was married. His wife died. He couldn’t keep his job and moved to LA. Ortega says that Gomez was an illegal. He thought that he was being followed by someone. She told him to call the cops, but he didn’t.
They go check out Gomez’s place. Mendoza acts like a tomboy and kicks in the door. Flynn finds a towel with some fresh blood on it. Provenza has found the car. The inside is spattered with blood. They think that a hatchet was used. There are no bodies. There is too much blood for the two guys to still be alive. It has become a murder investigation.
Pope tells the Chief that she cannot investigate the Summers finances. Fritzi offers to help with Brenda’s case, but they decided to keep their professional lives separate. Fritzi wants to help her behind the scenes. If she could get proof of life on Summers, the FBI would unfreeze the money so that the kidnappers could be traced with tracer money. She could still be in control of the case.
Mrs. Summers and her son come to the bank. It’s filled with the Major Case Squad. The Chief is waiting for Mrs. Summers. After asking Mrs. Summers about her husband’s blood type, they learn that Gomez was probably killed during the kidnapping attempt. The Chief says that once they have proof of life, the FBI will unfreeze the money.
The squad listens in to the call and get proof of life. The money is unfrozen. The call is untraceable because it was made using a VOIP service. Once the money was unfrozen, Gabriel notices that the balance of the account has gone down by the amount of the ransom.
Gabriel traced the money. It went to the Cayman Islands. They have a few hours left. Tao figures out what happened to Gomez. The driver’s throat was slashed. Tao says that crime scene was staged. The blood was brought to the car and splashed. It came from a container.
It would have taken weeks of planning. He would have to have known Summers in advance. The Chief goes over the footage. They have evidence that Gomez knew Summers. It’s back to a kidnapping.
Gabriel figures out that the amount of the ransom is the exact amount that the employees of Summers would receive if they won their case against him.
Gomez was actually Vargas, a risk analyst for Summers. It was all staged. Vargas’ wife recently died of cancer. His house was being repossessed. Vargas is heading to Mexico City.
Sanchez finds a number for Vargas. The Chief calls him to set the stage. She distracts him long enough for SIS to stop his car in front of his home. Mendoza is quite impressive. She jumps out of the car and cuffs Vargas. The Chief looks quite cute in her hat. Mendoza looks quite sexy.
Vargas says that his wife killed herself while she still had a chance of recovery to leave some money for him. Vargas says that Summers is in a hell of his own making. They find him in a house and he’s dead.
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memoirs on a rainy day 
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