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. Her team are seasoned veterans, some close to retiring like Lt Provenza, others like Sgt Gabriel just a few years into their police careers.
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.
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The chief is faced with another Columbine massacre in LA. They have to tread carefully and quickly in order to diffuse the situation. Things don’t go the chief’s way when the bomb squad is involved. The squad is able to successfully stop the teenage gunmen from going forward with their plan, but one of their own gets caught in the crossfire.
I thought that this was a great episode. It’s a great way to end this part of the fourth season. The season will return in January 2009 with the five remaining episodes. The only question is, will he survive?
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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The chief is at a new murder scene. Buzz is taping for evidence. Tao says that the victim was killed by a shotgun blast by the belly. The chief isn’t happy that they are waiting for the coroner. His name is Darren Melman. He is a contractor. He didn’t have a roommate. Sanchez finds a double E logo taped on the wall. He’s also got a double E tattoo and a notebook filled with double E drawings. They find three kinds of ammo. The coroner’s investigator says that he found shrapnel in the wound. They think that there is a bomb. The chief wants them to get the evidence. Sanchez has to carry the chief out. She doesn’t even have the time to get her purse. Taylor says that they will get access to the scene in 12 hours.
While her squad is absorbed with Babs, the bomb squad robot, the chief goes to get evidence and her purse. She actually finds a bomb. It’s a pipe bomb. For the second time, the chief is carried out of the apartment. The bomb squad blows the bomb on place, because the explosives were unstable. The apartment is blown up. Melman is probably all over the ceiling.
Melman bought stuff that could be assembled into homemade bombs. Gabriel pulled Melman’s juvie record. He broke into his high school and defecated on the principal’s desk. Provenza finds it funny that Melman almost left a pound’s worth of excrement on the principal’s desk. He’s been dropping bombs for a while now.
They have CCTV footage of Melman making his purchases. He brought a friend. They see him talking with two guys working at the school. They question Keith and Frank. They went to the same high school as Darren. The other guy’s name is John. He went to the same school. They tell Pope, who has the school evacuated.
The principal says that John McFadden was OK. John has got the same graphic that Darren had tattooed on his wrist in his locker. John apparently called in sick and went home.
They evacuate the neighbours and go see at his home. They find him. He runs when he hears a siren. He was going for his computer. Gabriel gets him. At the scene, there is an open pillbox. They find pipe bombs, propane tanks and guns. He’s got the same tattoo on his arm.
McFadden says that Melman was supposed to die today anyway. He says that they are running out of time. He just ate some chocolate and is acting strange. He says that he is an agent of extinction, evolution’s end. That’s what his tattoo stands for. Tao notices that McFadden is acting strangely. He wanted to kill the most people ever. The boy is on anti-depressants. He has a seizure and collapses. They have to use a defibrillator. Melman is dead. It turns out that his MAO inhibitor turns lethal when mixed with chocolate.
Fritzi shows up with the chief’s clothes. McFadden mentioned Columbine. Fritzi says that Columbine’s plan didn’t work. The plan was to blow up the school with propane tanks, and to pick off the people with rifles when they ran out.
Pope congratulates them and heads off for a press conference at the school. The chief thinks that it’s too soon. There are a lot more propane tanks that they have receipts for. They go see Keith. As they look at the floorplan of the mall, the chief notices that the tattoos and logos look like the floorplan. The mall was the target. Keith and Frank are involved. It turns out that Keith isn’t involved. Frank is.
Frank is on the roof, looking for the propane tanks. An alarm sounds and Frank starts shooting. He launches pipe bombs from the roof. He’s using them like grenades. Flynn, the chief, Fritzi, Gabriel, Provenza and Sanchez are trying to surround Frank. Sanchez gets shot three times trying to save Provenza. When Frank’s magazine is empty, he retreats to his bag to light some pipe bombs. The chief tells her squad to fire on the bag. Gabriel gets a successful shot and Frank is blown up.
Sanchez is evacuated to a hospital with a helicopter.
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memoirs on a rainy day 
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