By Anna Belle
The last couple of episodes of “The Closer” have definitely been worth watching and entertaining, but I haven’t been blogging about them.
I apologize for this but I’m sure you’ve been kept abreast of what’s been happening through tnt.tv (you can watch complete episodes at this site).
“Strike Three” starts out with the sound of a helicopter circling over a crime scene, a sound that’s unmistakable if you’ve ever been in a large metropolitan city with helicopter traffic.
The police helicopter first reports on a victim down and upon circling the scene again and in reply to dispatch not being able to reach the squad initially sent to the scene, reports on seeing both police officers down, out of their car, laying in the street.
Brenda and her squad are first on the scene, only to be hampered a short time later by Capt. Raydor and her team making her case for the unarmed victim brutally shot down by police officers.
Brenda theorizes that it’s gang-related based on the shell casings left behind. Capt. Raydor is adamant it’s not gang-related based solely on the absence of tattoos.
Once the victim is identified and Capt. Raydor is “briefed” by Chief Pope, Brenda and her team, with Capt. Raydor trailing behind, heads over to the victim’s house with search warrant in hand.
Brenda likes to keep things on the down low so she’s not there to make a notification. As a matter of fact, the last thing she wants to do is let the “cat out of the bag” so to speak, especially when the mother’s actions are providing Brenda with a lot of clues.
Capt. Raydor on the other hand, can’t keep her mouth shut and within moments of arriving, she informs the mother that her son had been killed by “two LAPD officers.”
Sgt. Gabriel finds a huge Nazi flag on the ceiling of the “innocent victim’s” bedroom and more White Power gang symbols in the closet, along with a business card from a tattoo artist, and some drawings. The tattoo drawing has two lightning bolts in the corner, and Sanchez points out that each lightning bolt signifies the credit of a body.
Brenda orders the tattoo artist brought in for questioning and Capt. Raydor observes from the media room. Of course, like any uncooperative witness, the tattoo artist is vague, unresponsive and diluted with his answers to Brenda’s direct questions. He requires a little nudge in the right direction.
He’s not too sure of names — romper, stomper, something like that — and then states the pages numbers the suspects are on in his book of tattoos.
In the meantime, the public is calling in tips and a piece of broken tail light at the scene has lead to a late model Pontiac. Brenda’s squad (with Capt. Raydor in tow) finds the car but a key strategy keeps them from seizing it.
The strategy works and they find their suspects. When Capt. Raydor insists on questioning one of them first, and he lawyers up, Brenda uses it to her advantage. On the pretense of releasing them due to lack of evidence, she puts them both in the back of a squad car with camera and sound, drives them home with search warrant in hand and begins to search for evidence.
With the suspects pensively watching, the squad plays an obscene game of “hot and cold” to find the evidence to close their case.
The last scene plays out with Brenda and Capt. Raydor in dress blues ready to attend the funerals of the fallen officers. Brenda speaks her piece and Capt. Raydor speaks hers and Brenda recognizes and states “there has to be a better way.”
Even I felt a little more friendly toward Capt. Raydor when this episode ended. Or at least I saw her as a necessary evil.
Photo: Courtesy TNT Network/Credit: Karen Neal
I was not familiar with the flag flying below the American flag at the end of this episode. What does it signify?