By Brandon Nolta
It’s taken a couple of seasons, but the Los Angeles Police Department has finally confirmed what many viewers have suspected all along. To wit, Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is nuts. After the shooting last week of a nutjob, Johnson goes under the scope of the department psychiatrist, who tells Chief Pope (J.K. Simmons) that Johnson is exhausted, disconnected, in denial, and a whole bunch of other terms that add up to being a couple sandwiches short of a picnic. Thus, Pope orders Johnson to take some time off from regular work and squire a reporter around for a puff piece on the overworked men and women of the LAPD.
This seems like it would be a lightweight assignment, right up until a fusillade of rifle fire tears up the car Johnson and Sgt. Gabriel (Corey Reynolds), killing the reporter and wounding his cameraman. As a result, Pope orders Johnson and Gabriel to take some time off, just the very thing Brenda doesn’t want. Oh, and did we mention that Brenda’s long-talked about, slightly feared father (Barry Corbin) is coming into town? Now, Brenda gets to go everywhere with a SWAT detail, and face her worried parents and fiancé at home, her worried co-workers on the job … the whole situation just screams for Dr. Phil. Or a double bourbon, whichever one’s handier.
How Brenda handles it all makes up the meat of the episode, and as expected, it plays as pretty amusing, although there’s a strong undercurrent of franticness that underlines the whole narrative. Until this episode, the theme of vulnerability seemed to be played out, but the climactic events of the episode—particularly an anguished interrogation in an elevator where Johnson is, in many ways, performing live without a net—make it clear that this is the true theme of the season. One wonders what else Brenda is going to get piled on her, and how it will affect the rest of her crew.
On a parallel track, it’s looking like Gabriel is headed for some crisis of his own. There are a few signs here and there, besides the ongoing thaw with his boss; under questioning, Gabriel has to admit to Provenza (G.W. Bailey) that he’s been dating Detective Daniels (Gina Ravera) for a year, which is something of a no-no when you keep it under wraps like they have. While Gabriel has proven his worth over and over again, there’s a sense that he’s finding a path that may not follow the LAPD vision, and if this is the way the writers are going, it’ll be interesting to see where they end up.
In the meantime, this reviewer hopes that there’ll be more room in the future for Brenda’s folks; Corbin and Frances Sternhagen make a colorful couple, and it’s not hard to see where Brenda gets her iron and fragile nature. Plus, although I like Fritz (Jon Tenney), it’s admittedly a hoot to see him go up against Johnson Sr., probably one of the few characters on the show who can make the normally unflappable G-man lose his stride. As usual, THE CLOSER manages to balance hard-nosed police procedural with well-tuned light drama, and it remains one of the top shows available on basic cable. With only three episodes left in the season, what comes next ought to be a doozy.