The Closer To Serve with Love S07E03

The Closer on TNT

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”.

From wiki’s page.

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.

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I just read that this will be the last season of The Closer. The spin-off series adds another 6 episodes to the usual 15 of this year to lead into it. The spin-off will be called Major Crimes and will feature Captain Raydor. The decision to retire The Closer was made by Kyra Sedgwick. It’s too bad. I don’t like Raydor all that much. Still, Major Crimes has already been optioned for 10 episodes next summer. The theme for this season is love and loss.

This was a pretty funny episode, showing the meanderings of Provenza and Flynn trying to make some legal-ish money off the books. It ends up costing them a bit of money.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Provenza wants to rope Flynn in to serve some papers for $2K. They use Buzz to track the perp’s cell phone number. They serve the papers to Stephen Hirshbaum.

While Buzz is in a fuzz about his broken taillight, they hear some shots. Hirshbaum ends up on top of Buzz’s Prius. Provenza doesn’t want the Chief to know. Hirshbaum was shot in the back.

Provenza denies that they know Hirshbaum, but Sanchez finds the photo that they took. Fritzi is here. Hirshbaum was convicted in a massive corporate fraud trial.

The ME tells the Chief that Hirshbaum isn’t Hirshbaum, he’s a petty criminal named Scott Esposito. He was a body double.

They talk with the lawyer who hired Provenza and Flynn. The Chief wants to keep the fact that Esposito died from the public.  Fritzi has trouble agreeing to this, but they are using Taylor as the patsy.

The wife and daughter of Hirshbaum come to see the police. The Chief informs Pope about what has happened. He can live with Taylor lying to the press as well. The wife and daughter are of the same age and went to the same school. Andrea, the daughter, gave Hirshbaum’s number to the lawyer.

The Chief suspends Provenza and Flynn for 3 days in order to find Hirshbaum and serve their papers. She tells them that Buzz is also suspended.

Hirshbaum’s girlfriend said that the kidnappers were “thuggish older men and that one of their grandsons was there videotaping it all, probably to establish proof of life.”

Provenza, Flynn, and Buzz bring Hirshbaum to some motel. They call Sanchez to fax over the subpoena that they forgot to take from evidence. Sanchez say stat the FBI has the subpoena.

The Chief wants to talk with Hirshbaum. He thinks that his wife Shannon is responsible. She was the only one who knew that he was at that hotel. She must have found out about this girlfriend. She asks Buzz to send over the footage of the ‘abduction’.

The wife knows the girlfriend, who’s their personal trainer. The Chief shows the footage to the wife and daughter. She notices that Buzz’s taillight is busted. She asks Provenza about it.

Hirshbaum tries to bribe the Provenza and Flynn with $100K each. It’s because it would let them trace the provenance of the bribe money.

Buzz gives Provenza a lift to the lawyer’s. He wants another copy of the subpoena. Their taillight was broken last night at the lawyer’s. It makes Buzz’s car easier to follow. Buzz finds the remnants of his taillight. Provenza tells the lawyer that Hirshbaum is alive and well. If he gives them new papers, they will serve him. Provenza says that he’s got Hirshbaum stashed away in a fleabag motel.

The lawyer Doyle turns up at the motel with a gun to kill Hirshbaum. He killed Esposito.

They capture Hirshbaum.

The Chief questions Doyle. They have a lot of evidence on him. The lawyer is broke. There is a $10K reward for information leading to Hirshbaum’s capture but neither Provenza or Flynn can collect it because they would have to explain to professional standards on the reason why they were there. However, Buzz is a civilian, so he can collect. He plans on giving them $200, the amount that they promised in from the get go.

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The Closer Executive Order S06E10 (TNT)

Two paramedics come across a hobo on the street. He’s disorientated. He pulls a gun on them. We see shooting. The man gets out. He cleans up the blood. He was faking. He had a van waiting. It was a hit?

The fire department removed the bodies. It’s because, just like the LAPD, they won’t leave their own out in the cold. The bodies quickly arrive at the morgue. The ME knows the woman paramedic. She’s a friend. They get a partial from the glove. The killer is Kevin Mason. He applied to the LAFD four times. The 911 caller could be the murderer. The murderers are connected to a counterterrorism task force and the FBI. The number was flagged because another phone bought at the same time was used at an attempted bombing at the IRS.

Kevin is masquerading as Bob, working at an old folk’s home. He used drugs to mimic the symptoms of an epileptic seizure.

Taylor tells the Chief that Chief Delk might have his own ideas on how to investigate the murders. Tommy Delk is waiting in Pope’s office. Delk is liaising with the feds and hampering the investigation. The Chief has got 3 hours to examine the FBI files and then the FBI takes over the investigation. Brenda doesn’t like Delton, initially. The Chief deduces that the failed bombing was to kill as many firefighters as possible. Delk is smart. He lets the FBI take the files and says that both of their divisions should investigate Brenda’s unproven hypothesis.

The Chiefs interview the therapist who interviewed Kevin Mason. He did his psych eval. Mason has narcissistic personality disorder. He thought that he was rejected because he was white. He says that whatever they are thinking that Mason would do, they should think bigger. BTW, public safety trumps confidentiality.

Mason kills his charge when he gets difficult. He makes some kind of video.

They trace the casings to Mr. Owens. They find him dead. They find the gun and drugs. They are missing oxygen tanks. Mason is missing. He’s got access to a van. The Chief infers that Mason killed the paramedics to bomb the bigger event, a memorial for the firefighters who died years ago.

Mason is using the electric wheelchair from his charge to smuggle in the bomb. The Chief wants to cancel the memorial, but Pope makes the decision to cancel it. Flynn has found the van and a DVD.

Mason is informed that the memorial is cancelled.

Tao discovered that the oxygen tanks are filled with nerve gas. He used the drugs as an antidote to protect himself while he made it. Mason comes up on Gabriel and the Chief. Gabriel tackles him. He’s wearing a bomb and a dead man’s switch. The Chief is playing up to his narcissism. Sanchez runs off to get a better position to shoot the madman. Gabriel tackles him, the Chief has to shoot Mason in the head while Gabriel holds the dead man switch.

Delk is made Chief of Police. It had to do in part with the fact that the Chief shot Mason and is facing an FID investigation. The Chief disposes of Mason’s DVD.