By Brandon Nolta

When is Sherlock Holmes most interesting? Is it when he’s effortlessly performing dazzling feats of deduction, or is when he’s jonesing for the 7% solution while trying to outthink Professor Moriarty? Is Superman at his most heroic when he’s using his awesome powers or when he’s got a faceful of kryptonite and trying to carry on? While a powerful protagonist is necessary to virtually all good stories, a weakened hero presents interesting dramatic tendencies, and THE CLOSER has gotten around to handing Deputy Chief Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) a hot dose of Achilles’ heel for an episode.
   
It’s WMD training day for Priority Homicide; the bureaucratic legerdemain that Sgt. Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) pulled off to keep the squad safe from budget cuts at season’s open has turned around on them. Since the squad is officially part of the LAPD counterterrorism unit, they now have to complete a day of training in order to keep their federal subsidy. This means everybody on the squad except for Provenza (G.W. Bailey), who’s too old for the duty, gets to dress up in Hazmat suits and drill all day. For Chief Johnson, the timing really blows. Not only is she trying to solve the garroting murder of a fitness trainer in a valet parking lot, she’s sick, running a fever and riding the stress train to boot. Throw in a cranky efficiency expert and a couple of really dumb individuals, and it’s just not Chief Johnson’s day … or week, for that matter.
   
One of the things THE CLOSER does consistently right is leaven the inherently grim material with humor that derives from characters, not forced situations. This episode leans toward the humorous more than usual, taking advantage of Chief Johnson’s weakened status, but while it’s a nice change of pace, it isn’t as successful or as finely balanced as usual. The bulk of the episode focuses on Johnson trying to cope, which works dramatically, but seems a little too broad. Part of the issue is that of the three people the investigation focuses on, two of them are so immensely stupid that it becomes hard to believe they could walk and breathe simultaneously, much less plan and carry out a murder. (The fact that the wrong person was killed is irrelevant.)
   
That’s not to say that there aren’t nice touches to be found. The relationship between Sgt. Gabriel and Chief Johnson, still unthawing, hits a minor (and amusing) snag when Johnson discovers her squad is unavailable because of Gabriel, not Chief Pope (J.K. Simmons) as she thought. Sedgwick finds a few new notes in Johnson’s illness, and even Buzz (Phillip P. Keene) gets a moment to do something more than be the department tech geek. When the credits roll, it’s still a pretty good episode, and pretty good with THE CLOSER is much better than damn good with most anything else. Overall, though, this episode feels a little more slapdash, a little less up to par than viewers have come to expect from TNT’s flagship drama.