The Closer

For starters, this mid-hiatus special, I thought, surpassed last year's, which had all that CIA nonsense. No, this two-hour block had a great blend of heart and hardness, at times deftly weaving together Brenda's family and work. That scene in the church yard, when Willie Rae took Wesley's hand? Misty eyes over here.

What else was great was how everyone got something to do, with Flynn and Provenza high-tailing it to Atlanta (though perhaps not quite as quickly as they could, free flight vouchers and all). Even Sanchez, who really got the shaft this season (aside from the occasional leer/inapporpiate remark), was handed a meaty scene, when he made clear to Grady just what the stakes were.

But what were the stakes? I was hoping for a bit more illumination into the bandits' history, their motivation, why they were so ruthless. After all, Wes had to think they could have killed his brother, right?

Speaking of the Big Lie, if only Brenda hadn't gone the extra mile to fake the murder scene, she could have gotten away with it. Lots of questionable tactics this episode, but as Daddy Johnson said, his daughter has a tough job.

A few bullets, and then my flight to L.A. takes off:
• French Stewart, most-annoyuing guest star ever?
• "For $20,000 over asking, I'd part with you."
• "I don't even notice my accent." Really?!
• The whole "Freeze... unfreeze" when Pope thought he was speaking to BL's voicemail.
• Borubon and Coke "doesn't seem right."

As I said in this week's TV Guide Talk podcast, I had some concerns when the likes of Larry King and Dominick Dunne were recruited to guest-star as themselves on The Closer in Part 2 of the season finale. But it worked. It really made the court case at hand seem big and made Brenda's world seem that much more real.

Whereas Part 1 was deliberate and took its time setting the table, Part 2 really rock-'n'-rolled, showering us with new informattion, twists and motives. The best I understand it, Schaffer's wife (played by the wonderful Sarah Brown) had filed for divorce only to then learn that A) hubby had a second mystery home, which served as a marijuana farm, and thus B) any potential settlement would be piddly, not lavish as she expected. Hubby then convinced wife to off the attorney she had hired, while he enjoyed an airtight alibi. Did I get that right?

The pot thing — I did not see that coming, even considering Topper's mysterious boating expeditions. Really nice guest-casting all around; the two guys came off as real oily scoundrels, and the aspiring-actress mistress? Poor thing.

Perhaps the best stuff, though, was to be found in Kyra Sedgwick's scenes with Jon Tenney, as Brenda confronted Fritz with his never-mentioned DUIs.

"To throw the word 'if' at me when you're wearing that ring...?!"

Hot damn, emotional stuff. Tenney really brought it. And then the final scene... I know I've been a bit lukewarm about these two this season, but that was scorching, as Fritz offered a sugar-free (yet not) solution to his fiancee's "cravings."

This season's final salvo of bullets:
• "May as well draw a map to your body for the wolves."
• AA-member Fritz: "Do I have to look up the word 'anonymous' in the dictionary for you?!"
• Brenda telling an about-to-take-off Topper, "Or you could sit right back down." And then he dares to mock her accent!
• More Brenda to Topper: "I'm unfamiliar with 'the usual stuff.' Could you describe it?"
• Does a lady cop not put down her large handbag when staking out a place with her gun drawn?
• Brenda blasting Schaffer and Topper's "medicinal marijuana" claim: "Based on the amount, you must be bracing for [a glaucoma] epidemic."
• Brenda to newsroom Barbie: "We all know how horrible scandal is for an aspiring actor's career."
• Recovering alkie Flynn saying, "When I used to drink, I could be a bit of an a--hole." And Provenza muttering, "Imagine that."

What a great, smart and satisfying episode. Hail to the chief, indeed. And hail to this blog's readers, who both appreciate quality television and are so thorough and passionate in discussing it.

I will see you back here whenever that off-season "special" episode airs.

PS: Closer creator James Duff updated his TVGuide.com celeblog today, in honor of the season finale. It's truly must-read stuff.

Argh — I try so hard not to watch the "coming attractions" for next week, but I just tilted my head up from the Blackberry for a second and saw a snippet that indicated a certain direction for Part 2 of this season finale. Bad Matt. OK, moving on....

So, Topper Barnes, he of the "magical and invisible boat," exists? Awfully convenient timing indeed — just as Brenda tricked defense attorney Steven Culp into making the dog-hair evidence admissable.

An interesting case this week in that it's been near impossible for Brenda & Co. to establish that a murder was committed, let alone that Dr. Schafer was connected to it. It was good to see the squad going around in circles, every lead coming up empty. Still, they continued to make Pope the "wrong every-step-of-the-way bureaucrat," which in my opinion (expressed here before) undermines the character. Doesn't he have an ounce of detective's instinct to hold the job he has? And yet he stands there and asks, in all seriousness, if it's possible the victim "just fell." Ugh.

I liked how the episode opened with the handheld videographer's cam, mirroring the season opener. We've come full circle and all that jazz. From the instant we saw the yipping dogs, I knew they would figure into the case somehow. (Don't they always, O.J.?)

We'll see how reliable this Topper Barnes turns out to be. If he's solid, I have an inkling of where this will go, now that I think further about the "preview" snippet mentioned earlier.

I had read in TV Guide's The Closer preview that Brenda would uncover a shocking truth about Fritz. So glad it wasnt a "never-mentioned first wife" or whatnot. Brenda seems rather aghast by the two DUIs. Could this underscore for her the difference between being engaged and getting married?

The bullets:
• "Sgt. Gabriel, PhD"? Since when?
• How funny, Tao pulling a "Horatio Cane" with the flipping of the sunglasses.
• Have we gone a whole season minus Fresh Prince's Uncle Philip? Has James Avery not healed from his real-life surgey yet? The replacement M.E., though a rather capable expert witness, is a bit creepy with his making bedroom eyes at Gabriel and all.
• Brenda searching the house for her Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, only to find Fritz's "No More Sugar!" sign. And her then coveting Provenza's donut.
• Pope on Brenda's knowing how to talk to the press: "No, you don't. You're irritable and you snap at people."
• Brenda mussing her hair and throwing in the occasional giggle as "The Dumb Blonde Closer."
• Provenza not at all subtly making a play for Bambi the receptionist.

Overall, a "slower" episode, as my wife groused, but they were merely setting the table for Part 2. I trust next week's conclusion will pay off.

"To be continued..."

Ooh, this week's episode of The Closer was a good one, if only because it offered an increasingly rare peek into Brenda's past relationship with Pope. It's funny, after all these (three) years it still seems so foreign and uncharted, and every piece to the puzzle seems so exotic.

That was tough for Brenda, hearing Pope recount his affair with the vic. She even points out to him the similarities to how she and he hooked up and she came to L.A. When Pope then describes Maggie to BL, he summed up his former paramour almost to a T.

Pretty good case this week, though the ex-cop's wife was all but outed by Roger Ebert's Law of Economy of Characters. (For any other storytelling purpose, Joe White didn't need a wife, so why give her that odd first scene/reaction?) And the motive was a bit iffy; I always ask myself, "Would that really drive a person to brutal murder?" All over an embezzlement? C'mon.

The eppy also entertained with the FBI guys getting the runaround from the PHD... er, I mean the CTB's Homicide Division. Nice how that season-premiere detail looped back around so perfectly, so many weeks later. These writers know what they are doing. Makes you wish they could farm out their mad planning-ahead skillz to 24.

And... the bullets:

• Look at Kyra rappel down the side of the cliff! You go, girl!
• Brenda to Pope re: his affair: "It all sounds so familiar, and yet I'm surprised." Sniff. Brenda then reacting to Will's apology: "Again? You're really sorry... again." Sigh. She needs a hug.
• "Maybe she saw a tree down there she wanted to hug." Bad, Flynn, bad!
• BL pleading to Fritz: "I can't have chocolate anymore. Do you understand that? Do you?"
• Eyeballing the cartons of accountant files, Provenza grumbling, "Bury the two paragraphs of info you actually want in a pile of bullpuckey."
• Was that General Hospital's "Jake Meyer" as the vic's hubby? Sam Behrens?
• Pope to Gabriel: "Our money problems will go from terminal to merely bad."

But then poor Pope was left alone with his honey's crumpled Prius. I'd like to have seen a bit more reaction from him, but I guess he's a steely guy.

It's OK, I was prepared for it. After so many consecutive weeks of stellar The Closer episodes, a near-perfect season, we got one that had me borderline Zzzzz-ing. There simply weren't enough "a-ha" moments or clever deductions on the part of Brenda & Co. It's like her father was looming the whole episode, simply waiting to play an unwitting role in the investigation. And then we got the "missing 2-incher" discovery... but to what end?

John Wesley Shipp, though, was aces in his guest role as Chris Conroy, the murder victim's "business partner." The way he so smoothly put his spin on their arrangement was good stuff. He has aged into a wily villain type.

The highlight of the episode, fleeting though it was, was seeing Tao lead an interview. I LOL'd when he tossed the flash drive on the table, scoffing, "40-bit encryption? You weren't even trying."

So, just to be clear, the father killed Ping-Meih because she had shamed his son by carying on with her money man? And then the son thought he had flown Pops away to safety... but didn't. Do I have that right, at least?

The bullets:
• Tao telling the crowd to "Calm down and step back!" — in English.
• "Tick-tock goes the clock!"
• Gabriel goading Flynn, who was goading Gabriel: "Anyone feeling irrational?"
• "She has weapons in her trunk, Clay. She parks wherever she wants."
• Fritz as Brenda shuttles off the 'rents to an all-Chinese tour bus: "I thought I knew how little shame you had.... "
• Pope's weekly grievance, always phrased differently: "In some cultures, superiors are shown a modicum of respect.... " And at the end of his tirade: "Please tell me I did not just say all of that in front of your parents."
• Brenda's reaction to the doctor's "no sweets" directive — and her folks' knowing look to each other.

Are we running out of superlatives yet to describe this season of The Closer? As I previewed in my earlier blog entry, this week's episode really wowed me. When Kevin Bacon (the director of the episode) told me that it opened with a shrink session and that Brenda was ordered to sit on the bench, I was a bit skeptical, fearing that it would be a very touchy-feely outing.

I was wrong. (In ways.)

Even though Bacon gave us fair warning, the rifle assault on Gabriel, Brenda and the news team totally caught me off guard. And then the blood... so much blood. Why everyone leaped to think it was a hit on Brenda and not the news weasel didn't make complete sense to me — I pegged him as the target instantly — but Flynn's tally of people who hate BL delivered a chuckle. ("We're gonna need a bigger board.")

As always in a sitch like this, it was most enjoyable watching Brenda bob and weave her way into an investigation she has been cut off from, all culminating in that elevator face-off, the scene I told you screamed Emmy and made my eyes well up (in public, during my commute. Not cool.). Though Brenda was "acting" to suss out a confession, you knew deep down she was unleashing all the anxiety her shrink had picked up on. That line of hers, though we knew it was coming, rang so emotional: "I am alive, but I am not OK."

Did you hear that down in hell, Lucas D. Jones?

Even the stuff at home, which for me has been hit-or-miss this season, was firing on all cylinders. Barry Corbin is a superb match to Frances Sternhagen, and while we're in the family room kicking back with some iced tea and pancakes, let's also give props to the guy playing the put-upon SWAT agent. Dude stole many a scene.

Let's break for some bullets:

• The shrink enumerating all the stresses in "OK" Brenda's life.
• Brenda to Pope: "Are you seriously giving me advice on how to handle an interview?" And Pope then pleading, "Just please don't make the news." Oh well on that one.
• This week, on The Closer! A close-up of Brenda's cell-phone provider! Conspicuous name-brand cookies!
• Brenda to Gabriel: "'Pope'? He's your buddy now?" Someone is jelly bean! (And what a sweet hug later, when she apologized for being mean to him all this season.)
• Tao noting of a victim, "He was only a[n Oscar] nominee. He didn't actually win."
• The news reporter echoing some Closer fans, asking, "What makes a homicide a priority?"
• Brenda's father scoffing at Fritz's cat: "You can talk sense to a dog."
• One week Kyra undressing, this week her showering silhouette? Is it Christmas already?!
• Provenza "playing Brenda," calling on each squad member.
• Provenza coaxing a confession from Gabriel re: his romance with Daniels.
• Pope visibly uncomfortable with the squad seeing his videotaped reaction to Brenda's near-shooting.
• The police-station receptionist asking Pope about Brenda's "voice recognition lab" and "gun residue lasts five days" fibs.

All of which brings us to the episode's coda, Brenda Leigh demanding her purse back from evidence, fishing her engagement ring out and then blurting out the news to her folks. Hugging his future father-in-law, Fritz inisists the house cat is not his, prompting BL's daddy to say, "It is now, son. And you better make it very happy."

Sniffle.

UPDATE: I sought clarification from TNT re: number of episodes left. It's "three episodes left until the finale," meaning four. And that is not including the mid-autumn "special episode" which they are again doing this year.

Just a quick note to remind you, not that you would ever fail, to watch tonight's episode of The Closer (9 pm/ET on TNT). I screened it this morning and it is wonderful, easily one of the best of the season (which is saying a lot). Kyra has a scene toward the end that screams Emmy and, as I write about it here, again has my eyes welled-up.

Overall, the case at hand is a rather nifty one, and the scenes with both of Brenda Leigh's parents are so many flavors of awesome. Frances Sternhagen and Barry Corbin will slay you.

Kyra's main man, Kevin Bacon, directed the episode, and my full Q&A with him can be found in today's Interviews & Features.

See you back here after the show!

That ending blew me away. Even more so for Lucas "Danny" Jones.

As I've been saying in recent weeks, my wife is a new convert to The Closer, and that violent encounter between Brenda and the perp really caught her off guard. "I thought things like that didn't happen to her?!" she said as Brenda got cattle-prodded. "They don't!" I retorted.

Though I wasn't following it quite 100 percent of the time, this episode really drew me in. Serial killer tales/mysteries, on big screen or small, really get my brain churning. This one was pretty tight, save for a somewhat hurried ending and a suprisingly pat epilogue. (Reminded me of a typical James Patterson/"Scores have died, but all is well on the lemonade porch" ending.) But I liked how Fritz calmed BL a bit by showing her the life she saved by putting a lotta lead into that cretin.

Amidst all the suspense, we got the "early onset menopause" diagnosis, which will be forgiven if only because it led to that surprise proposal from Fritz. (I don't watch previews, in case it was spoiled there.) Yeah, my eyes welled up as Fritzy called Brenda "a bit of an old-fashioned girl" and produced the Tiffany box. FBI special agenting pays well!

The few bullets:
• I like how each episode this season seems to open in a unique way, starting with the "on video" style of the premiere and with the quiet slapping waves this week. It was particulary gorgeous on my HD signal.
• Stern Brenda to the DDA: "Do not test me on this, sir."
• Didn't that Jane Doe computer composite kinda look like Britney Spears?
• Confession time: It turns me on how Brenda rattles off the individual PHD squad members' orders so easily and instinctively. Swoon.
• Anyone else suspect the beligerent (and strong, and tan) dock supervisor for a moment? That he set up the boat to frame Reynolds?
• Brenda Leigh to her doc: "I'm about 100 years too young!" Aww.

And my favorite line of the night: "Is it OK if I keep my own name?"

We'd have it no other way.

For more on The Closer, read series creator James Duff's TVGuide.com celebrity blog.

I am coming to you live(ish), from Cape Cod — yes, I am on vacay, so bow down to my absurd work ethic. But I can't let my Closer pals down. (Nor my new band of Damages fans; see you all tomorrow night.) Bonus: This week I got to watch with my wife and her parents. Closer lovers being created to the left and right of me.

First off, Brenda Leigh is going to drive me nuts with this "medical mystery." Interesting that, as many of us theorized here last week, she suspects what the diagnosis is but is loathe to hear it confirmed. Thank the heavens, then, for ol' "SnapDiagnosis.com"! Looks like the bambino in the oven I put out there isn't to be, but hey, I was just spitballing. Didn't want to face the apparent menopause outcome. Mother-in-law here has just all but confirmed it. ("She's got the worst case of menopause I ever saw," she says, laughing. "It's giving a bad name to women!") I just don't find menopause as compelling, storytelling-wise.

It was a nice change to see Sanchez serve as Brenda's right-hand man this week, but save for his final heated face-to-face with Miguel's dad, he was kind of a yawner. I never got a vibe for any real detective chops. I was left wanting for any pithy contributions from Tao and the gang.

Brenda and Fritz just had their scene, and I explained to the in-laws the weekly "a-ha" moment, when Brenda arrives at some epiphany about the crime during an otherwise unrelated moment.

The resolution of this case was a little "eh" for me, if only because I always have in the back of my head Roger Ebert's law of economy of characters. Miguel's dad was just a little too protective from Scene 1... I had to think he had a larger role than we will think.

The bullets:
• Not enough of S. Epatha Merkerson as the OBGYN, but I feel we'll see more of her soon.
• We got not one or two but three distinctive cell phone rings from Brenda, and a closeup of her phone's carrier logo.
• Elsewhere, there was a lingering shot of the stakeout team's cookie choice. My wife, an advertising bigwig, had to question the kid-friendly client's interest in a connection to this sort of show.
• Was that a copy of "Blush" magazine in the doctor's office? As in Just Shoot Me?
• A bit funny seeing Francis Capra, of Veronica Mars and the "09ers" fame, mixed up with "1-5ers."
• Poor Fritz, being tended to with "steaming chicken paste."
• Fritz remarking/scolding, "Brenda Leigh Johnson had no questions?!" for her doctor.
• Brenda responding to the Latino gang boss' taunt: "I'm so sorry, my dance card is full." Then later saying to him, "Makes me wonder — who's the bitch now?"
• Tao building up the nerve to ask Brenda about her health.
• Sanchez telling the dad, "He's not your son anymore." Sad stuff.
• Sanchez, hot off his end-of-show tirade, trying to co-opt Brenda's post-confession zinger: "Who's going to look out for your son now?" Hey, the guy's been watching the show!

All of which led to a great scene between Brenda and Fritz, their best one of the season, I think. "Everything changes when you say it out loud," Brenda whispered, hushing Fritz. Next week, I reckon, the diagnosis will be heard.

Check out Closer clips in our Online Video Guide.

Gee, as I type the blog title up there, I guess they kind of tipped us off to the guilty party, eh?

What a bonus this week: My wife (who typically has no threshold for procedurals/anything remotely "intense") watched with me — and she liked it! It was all I could do to keep from confessing that I thought it was actually an excessively goofy episode, featuring no less than:

• a mysteriously sickly Brenda
• the squad "trapped" in hazmat suits
• a manic valet with OCD
• an adulterous, comically dumb bimbo with improbable cleavage
• and for good measure, a dopey muscleman hit man

Yeah, it was a bit much.

That said, the case wrapped up with a nice twist here and there. I never for once suspected the husband, but hoped that the blonde wouldn't be revealed to be, like, secretly brilliant. That "twist" has been overdone ever since... that certain movie I won't name so as to not spoil anyone.

Some bullets:

• I have this "soft spot" for when TV shows reference dates that coincide with the actual airdate. I think that happened here, yes? Wednesday the 25th?
• Pope after asking to see Brenda: "Let me rephrase that rhetorical question."
• Terrence in the morgue commenting on the dead personal trainer's consumption of carbs
• Gabriel being mistaken for a strip-o-gram
• Did Kyra Sedgwick crack up a bit when Tiffany broke into her crying jag...?
• Is Sanchez a bit dopey this season?
• Flynn hinting that Brenda might want the name of Kenny's OCD meds
• commander Taylor re Kenny's hankering for floss: "Yeah, I'll get right on that."
• Buzz as Tao: "Do I have to overexplain everything?"
• Tiffany ranting about this "tapestry of justice"

Now, about the ending... Are we to infer that Brenda knows/suspects what ails her? Too young, I would say, for the "change of life," so... does she think she may be pregnant? Is it time to go there? Is Kitty no longer her only "baby"?

This was a sweet (as in, "Awww") episode of TNT's The Closer, with the aging police-beat reporter hunting down one last story. It also served as an easy "transition back in" for Gabriel, though I was surprised we weren't privy to a case while he was away. Maybe no sense in punishing the actor for the character's trespasses? Nice moment when Brenda called out for the MIA Gabriel, creating awkward looks amid the PHDers.

It was a decent mystery, too. Surely the casting of Mrs. McCluskey as the head nurse was to make us view her askew. The manager being the culprit, though, seemed a bit expected and his "defense" a tad pat — especially for a mere $2,500 a pop (or "ma," as the case may be).

Was I the only one who at a midpoint, once the home's financials came to light, began to suspect that Gary Who Never Lies (French Stewart, as sinewy as ever) would be dovetailed into this case as some sort of "supplier" of cash-rich retirees? That'd have been a stretch, though, especially so close to the bridezilla/killer plastics guy "coincidence."

Before I fire off some bullets, I have to say, evil nursing homes are on par with Italian mobsters as far as stereotypical depictions on TV. I know there are some real stinkers in the system and neglect/abuse is a problem, but TV really offers a regular, scary view of them. The place that took care of my dad seemed aces.

The bullets:
• OK, Brenda Leigh's very distinctive ring tone is starting to irk me.
• Noticing the better togs on deputy chief Johnson? Slacks (!), stylish argyle tops...
• Brenda to Provenza: "I'm almost afraid to ask you this: Do you remember anything about this old man?" Fair enough.
• Sanchez whispering for a primer on Rumpelstiltskin
• Have we seen this tool of a medical examiner, Morales, before? Yuck.
• Darkly comic, yet comic: Provenza telling Gabriel, "There's no need to beat information out of this old man. He's been confessing all morning."
• I have a low tolerance for "zany" on my Closer , but Brenda's fax confusion — wrong papers sent to wrong numbers — was rather amusing.
• The nursing-home receptionist to Provenza: "You must be here for a tour!" His comeuppance for being darkly comic above.
• I'm getting concerned that Pope is becoming that "wrong every step of the way" bureaucrat we see so often in the movies.
• Provenza offering to board Baxter for the night — awwww!
• I got a bit choked up when Gabriel answered Brenda, "Yes, ma'am. Completely ready."
• Brenda's bit at the end, with Whaley: "All I have to find is one package of Rough on Rats...." Great (phony?) product name!

In fact, my greatest pleasure from The Closer these days is Brenda's weekly post-confession zinger. It leans toward being righteous at times, yeah, but boy, does she put people in their place, adeptly vocalizing what we ourselves are thinking about the guilty scumbag. I want to shout at the perp on my TV, "You've been served."

PS. Sorry about the late posting. Massive technical probs.

"Run, run, run."

I doubt I could have gotten out this recap Sunday afternoon, immediately after screening this week's powerful episode of TNT's The Closer. As I said then, in a separate blogging, I was that shell-shocked, that rattled by not just the horrific crimes at the heart of the episode or by the twisted mind-set of our killer, but also by the toll the case took on Gabriel, Brenda and the PHD as a whole.

"Everyone pretends kids don't want sex. But they do."

With that first thought from Roger's sick mind, it instantly became clear that this episode would be different. That it was not a matter of whodunit but why — and we were disgusted to hear the answers. There were no false leads or mistaken intent this week. We had our culprit, and it was just a matter of getting his confession.

By any means necessary...?

Lord knows, over the past two seasons we have seen Brenda Leigh pull every trick to coax an "I did it" out of a suspect's mouth. And on rare instances, we have questioned a squad member's tactics. But to see Gabriel pushed to such an extreme — "excessive force" is how Commander Taylor would put it in the final papers — was painful yet compelling.

In weeks prior, Gabriel first teetered close to losing his position on the Priority Homicide Squad, then saw a "hero" within the black community go down in flames (and perhaps when he did not "need" to). He was understandably already on edge. Those foul words from Roger's mouth merely led him to cross a line. And Provenza saw it coming:

"Do not leave this room."

We read about police brutality in the news. We see it depicted on procedurals. But here, within the Closer crew we almost consider as family, it was jarring.

Who else felt their heart cave when the dogs in the park began barking?

The scene between Brenda Leigh and Gabriel, immediately after the interrogation-room assault. No jazzy Closer theme plucking throughout. Just stone-cold silence couching a back-and-forth either of them would have given anything to avoid.

Provenza offering perhaps the extended hour's one bit of levity:

"A 30-year-old single man living alone, no porn? Now that's suspicious."

But that was before we realized how dark this episode would grow.

"No, Roger. I do understand. What I'm trying to tell you is I don't care."

The theme for this season is family, and Gabriel is, we thought, the good guy. The honorable big brother. Now, our family is fractured. A badge has been collected. The sergeant's "I don't know" hanging heavy in the air.

"Don't come back until you do."

My concern: Have we not seen the worst fallout of this case?

I mentioned in Sunday's blog that I saw something in a final scene, but perhaps read too much into it.

Roger, dead. Hanged in his jail cell. A suicide "note" to his mother scrawled inside the palm of his right hand.

But Roger was right-handed. We saw that when he signed the confession.

Color me conspiratorial, but that incongruency appeared to register on Brenda's face as she viewed the penned flesh.

Was someone extremely desperate to keep this case from going to trial? I'm afraid to ask.

Yet I wonder.

UPDATE: Closer creator James Duff just posted a big ol' "Thank you" to the fans. Check it out in his TVGuide.com celebrity blog.

I do not know if TNT has been blasting this in the promos or not, but in case they haven't or you missed it, the July 9 episode of The Closer runs until 10:10 pm/ET, which is 10 minutes over. If you can remember to, double-check that DVR/VCR and make sure it knows.

See you back here Monday night!

UPDATE: I just finished screening this week's episode and wow! When TNT floats me a copy in advance, you know it's got something special going for it, and this episode, I feel, is one of the most important ones in a long, long time. I feel almost shell-shocked — on the verge of tears, even — and I shut off the DVD player almost an hour ago. Could I have possibly read too much into one of the final scenes? Or did I see exactly what they wanted us to see? So much to talk about in Monday night's blog.

Perhaps in preparation for/contrast to the next episode, which is a dramatic doozy, TNT's The Closer this week served up one of its "lighter" cases, and an always interesting combo of whodunit and whowasitdunto. Me, I just feel for poor Flynn and Provenza, who once again were cold-cocked by their separate and collective colorful pasts.

Having cued up this episode before reading TVGuide.com's Q&A with G.W. Bailey, I was prepared for some sort of coffin switcheroo but was not expecting the "uninvited guest" to be sharing the space with Flynn's passed-on pal. That twist almost immediately cast a shadow on the funeral home, allowing us to meet that other "closer," thus offering a superb double-take by Brenda and Gabriel. That the actual culprit turned out to be a blackmailed plastic surgeon to the stars as well as the B-story's bridezilla was, in my opinion, a letdown/egregious cheat, ergo making this episode the weakest of the young season to date.

That said, what the hour was really about, for me at least, was the following:

• Said bride-from-hell's attack on poor Brenda: It almost literally pained me to see our stalwart, tough-talking deputy chief cower against the side of the squad car, defenseless not so much as unwilling to defend. Who here would not have liked to see Brenda unleash a solid right hook on that spoiled, nasty, litigious brat?

• The onset of Brenda's not-too-extreme makeover: Hinted at in Season 3 previews, our hero's misinterpreted consult with the plastic surgeon set in motion a slight rethinking of Brenda's look. Gone will be the harsh lips and dowdy duds, though I am sure the show won't swing to the other extreme and bring to our screen a red-carpet-ready Kyra. But those moments of Brenda "hiding" her mouth during the squad briefing, or her asking Daniels for advice, were a treat.

A final note: Is it me, or did this episode appear aired out of order? There was virtually zero pickup of Brenda's agitation of Gabriel, vis-a-vis last week's former gang member done good. (A Monday-evening call to the TNT publicist shoots down my theory, saying the episodes are airing in order.)

Wow, two weeks in a row of "guilty, but man, I kinda feel for 'em" killers. This week's episode of TNT's The Closer particularly tugged at me during that face-off at the doorknob between Brenda and Gabriel. Kenyon Richards was a symbol to Gabriel, an example of someone who did wrong, yes, but went on to do so much right. Is arresting the culprit in a 15-year-old murder worth tearing that all down?

As I type this, that final moment between Brenda and Provenza is playing, and it's a good one. "My card. My case." Would have, could have, should have, right? The cases this season are hitting the squad members in very interesting, resonant ways. (The same holds true for next week's episode, which I have screened and will tease further in a bit.)

Another batch of solid guest-casting, from Father Jack to the Darrell's brother. You kinda had to figure it was all leading to Kenyon, though I also foresaw a twist where the priest purposely "exposed" the crime as payback of a sort.

Other comments on the eppy, and then some Week 3 tease:
• Identical cordless phones payoff! Clever forward-looking writers...
• Provenza to Brenda: "You know what would really help me remember? If you stared at me more."
• Provenza again: "1992, that's like three wives ago."
• Brenda risking the father's wrath: "Be careful what you pray for."
• Treat Williams eerily walking into the bottom right corner of a Closer scene. Argh.
• Wet, naked Fritz; ladies nationwide squeal.
• Tao's geek buddy!
• When did Brenda's cell get the distinctive T-Mobile ring tone?
• Brenda at the end: "We don't live in a world where you get to kill people and then decide how to make up for it."

Alas, again the Brenda-Fritz angst was no fun, but it lightened up at the end, I now see.

Next week's episode is a lot of "fun" (all things being relative in the grisly world of The Closer, of course). Again, Provenza factors into the case in a special way, Flynn even more so. The outing also sets in motion a (much-needed?) "transition/makeover" you probably have read about in Season 3 preview stories. Lastly, it features a rather humorous face-off between "the closer" and — wait for it — "the closer." G.W. Bailey (aka Provenza) talks about it in an Interview & Feature posting next Monday.