I was all sorts of wrong in my review of The Closer last week: I thought that Chief Pope already had the Chief of Police job, and I thought that Captain Raydor may be up for the job that he vacated. That quickly turned out not to be the case, as it was apparent from the beginning that Raydor’s only involvement in this was to perform a background check. Of course, being Raydor, she couldn’t possibly stop at just a background check, could she?
Before we get into that though, there are some other important things to talk about. Like, how about the fact that the freakin’ Man in Black was there. This is fantastic for so many reasons: one, Titus Welliver is hot. Two, Man in Black! Three, did you not totally expect him to turn into the Smoke Monster when he was yelling at Brenda to get out of his son’s room? Because the idea of the Smoke Monster making adorable guest appearances on shows a la Neil Patrick Harris? Is awesome.
Welliver is excellent at playing the villain, so it’s only natural that he was the prime suspect in the disappearance of his nanny. Sure, the writers were setting him up that way, but the man does not exactly have a very trusting face in general. In the end though, he was innocent, as was the other creepy dad. I’m not sure how I feel about the actual conclusion to this — the INS agent felt a bit out of left field, but damn, that was some ending.
The Closer has definitely veered into dark territory before, but at the end of the day, it’s a relatively pleasant police procedural that always ends with Brenda breaking her suspect in the interrogation room. This episode, however, was quite different. Instead of verbal sparring, we ended in a good ol’ standoff.
I was actually surprised that the standoff didn’t go horribly wrong. There was definitely a minute where I thought Raydor was going to do something stupid and get herself shot, and at one point, I even thought that Fritz may end up at the wrong end of the gun while trying to save Brenda, which would have been awful — but kind of interesting for the show.
Instead, the standoff has a happy ending (for everyone except for the INS guy), and the real twist of the episode actually comes back at the Police Administration Building. I absolutely loved the fact that not only was Raydor doing a background check on Brenda instead of Pope, but she was orchestrating Brenda’s application for the job. Even though they hate each other personally, it’s nice to see Raydor pulling for Brenda on a professional level.
Brenda is, of course, going to apply for the job, because it wouldn’t be good television otherwise. However, I can’t imagine that she’s going to get the position. I may be wrong about this, but isn’t Chief of Police a largely political and administrative position? Brenda doesn’t seem suited for that at all — but I have a sneaking suspicion that Fritz, still rattled from Brenda almost getting herself killed, is going to push her to take the job.
What do you think? Should Brenda Leigh be the new Chief of Police?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Jul 20, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Yea I cant see Brenda being Chief either. She has no patience when it comes to things like press conferences and such. However, its going to be fun watching her and Pope go at it.
Can I just say I am glad we are back to the cases and the job instead of the domestic side on the show? At work is where the show shines.
Urgh Lost flashback… that actor will forever be ruined for me…
*POST AUTHOR*
But the Man in Black was so badass! He made up for the suckfest that is, was, and will always be Jacob. Also, hot. It bears repeating.
Ken Levine today explained how “to boink” was introduced by Cheers.
To celebrate that I’d add that Evangeline Lilly will always be eternally boinkable no matter what she appered on and how weird she comes across in interviews like on the Late Late Show recently. I mean really… just weird that woman.
Oh and yes of course you are right. That’s one hunk of a man. Or as Geoff Peterson would put it: Meeee-ow.
If you’re reading along with the Shield Virgin Diaries, you’d know that this episode stole a S1 storyline (Nanny problems that political influence got police to investigate) and an actress (Catherine Dent).