SkimIt
Well, things are just about wrapping up on The Closer, which has just one final episode left next week before its Kyra Sedgwick-less spinoff, Major Crimes, commences. To find out what happened in the penultimate episode -- and learn who the unit's mole is -- read on.
Teenagers Didn't Use To Be This Dangerous
The episode begins with the discovery that a security guard, a decorated Army veteran, has been murdered on the street in a suburban area. Lieutenant Provenza (G.W. Bailey) and some of the other officers learn that there had been a call to the guard about a nearby break-in earlier, and in the house that was broken into, they find a sleeping bag, an iPod, a bra and some condoms. Brenda (Sedgwick) and her team track down the iPod's owner, a young man named Luke Bauer. Bauer tells Brenda that he was hanging out at the house with his girlfriend last night, but when the security guard entered the house, he ran off.
The Mole Is Revealed
Captain Raydor (Mary McDonnell) takes Sergeant Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) into a meeting with Chief Pope (J.K. Simmons), other officers, and Ann (Shanti Lowry). Raydor reveals that Ann has been the department's mole all along -- in fact, Goldman (Curtis Armstrong) paid Ann to get close to Gabriel, so she could feed Goldman sensitive information regarding the department. Gabriel is sickened by this. Meanwhile, Brenda interrogates Luke's girlfriend, Jenna, whose statement indicates her father may have been involved in the murder.
It Takes Two
Gabriel apologizes to all of his colleagues, though most of them are understanding regarding the information he told Ann -- after all, they reason, everyone tells their significant others classified information at one point or another. Brenda interrogates Jenna's father, who admits that he did shoot the security guard, because Jenna told him that the guard tried to rape her. Brenda, realizing that Jenna lied to protect her boyfriend from her father, gets Jenna to admit that she told her father where the guard was after she saw her father get his shotgun -- which makes her an accomplice. Gabriel offers his resignation to Brenda, but Brenda refuses it and tells Gabriel he has to stay on.
What A Setup!
What a setup for the series finale this episode proved to be! The twist that it was not a member of the unit, but one of the unit's significant others who was the mole, was a particularly fresh and clever one. But can Gabriel really continue to work in this unit when everyone knows about his misgivings with the department -- that he was unhappy with how they handled the Turrell Baylor situation? The emotions are also running high in Brenda's personal life, with her mother recently passed, and that storyline was handled with care and sensitivity. In this episode Sedgwick, balancing Brenda's hunger for justice with her own saddened state, turned in one of her best performances yet.
So the stage is set for the show's series finale next week. What do you think will happen? What will become of Gabriel? What sort of a note do you think Brenda will go out on?
Best Lines
"A pink bra and a 12 pack of condoms. Now that's what I call optimism."
-- Provenza, at the crime scene
"Cannabis, candles and condoms -- sounds like young romance."
-- Provenza, reviewing the crime scene contents
"Get out of my house, get out of my church, get out of my life!"
-- Gabriel to Ann, after finding out she's the mole
"I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now."
-- Provenza, on the possibility Gabriel is the mole
"You shared an awful lot of misgivings with your girlfriend, David."
-- Brenda, on Gabriel's openness with Ann
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