I realize that Joel just played a small part, but it seems better to kick the post off with a happy thought. And if we learned nothing else from the return of The Closer, we surely know that adorable little Joel traffics in nothing but happy thoughts. That’s a very good thing, because the rest of the fall premiere for the show was heavy. Like, osmium heavy. It actually caught me a bit off guard. I was all set to jump back into another adventure with Brenda and the major crimes unit, but I didn’t expect that.
That’s not to say it was a bad thing. The case itself was actually very good. Just from the first walk through of the crime scene there were so many ways Manuel’s murder could have gone — gang war, internal power struggle, ill-conceived tomfoolery with a handgun. It left no end of suspects. And assured that nobody could predict that it would end up as a justifiable homicide.
That really was the heart of the case, and what made the episode so tough to get through. We’ve seen a lot of terrible things over the past five years with The Closer, but Camilla’s (Stephanie Beatriz) story ranks right up there. Everything about it was horrifying, and I think a big chunk of the credit for that goes to how they presented it. The quick cuts as we saw brief glimpses of her injuries just piled up and made it that much worse. And her line at the end about how it will never be over was just heartbreaking. It made for a very well done, if hard to watch, hour of television.
Fortunately, to break up some of that so-heavy drama, we also met Joel. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you had to know that Brenda was going to turn that corner pretty quickly. I did love the way she initially recoiled from the perfect little guy at first, but it was already clear that she’d cave. I was also left with one very nagging question. What the hell is up with Detective Ranski (Josh Cooke)? Brenda being married doesn’t matter? Ranski is what Cappy from GREEK would call a douchemover. I don’t know if we’ll get to see more on that story or not, but I’m looking forward to Fritz joining the party.
At the end of the day, the fact that I had such a reaction to the story tells me that they must be doing something right. There’s a reason TNT gets to keep making all of those commercials about The Closer being cable’s #1 drama. It’s good to have Brenda and the team back.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 08, 2009 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
This episode was so dark that it made the Joel scenes really stand out. I loved how she referred to him as a her when she had constantly called Kitty a him.
Poor Provenza, while you have to feel for the guy who could not laugh at Flynn’s telling him he had broken the cycle by not actually marrying her before they broke up.
I kept waiting for Brenda to get a call at home telling her that Camilla had been killed. I am glad they did not go that route.
I just watched this episode now, since I was busy catching up on the marathon that aired on Thanksgiving. What struck me while watching the old episodes again was how strong the acting and the writing is on this show. It’s really excellent.
I also liked how in the new episode they subtly carried through on on the old subplot of Gabriel taking the Detective Srgt.’s exam by hearing Brenda use his new title on the phone.
And how tiny is that adorable kitten?!?