The Closer Creator James Duff: "Strike Three"
Mary McDonnell, The Closer
The inability to change creates huge stumbling blocks in every aspect of our lives and, in "Strike Three," The Closer runs into this particular roadblock at full tilt, resulting in one of the very best episodes in our five year run. Obstacles created by resistance to change not only provide the hateful ideology that binds a vicious criminal gang together, but also the motive for a truly terrible triple murder. And when Major Crimes arrives at the scene to find two officers and a civilian dead on the street, they have only begun to encounter the inflexible barriers erected between them and their dangerous suspects.
Enter Captain Sharon Raydor, played by the always brilliant Mary McDonnell, who performs her role as Brenda's counterpart at the Force Investigation Division (think Internal Affairs) with subtle verve. Their final confrontation, which features Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in uniform, may be one of the best scenes we've ever shot. And the very end, which was the brainchild of guest director Nelson McCormick, gives us a stunning punctuation mark to an episode unlike any we have ever done.
This might be a good time to remind people that, at its heart, our show is not designed to provide a weekly body-in-the-library whodunit with a gasp-inducing dénouement. While I admire Agatha Christie, it is not possible to emulate her. No, The Closer is meant to be a crime story exploring how the justice system operates. Our mysteries usually revolve around an inquiry into how we can find the killer, and then get him or her to confess. This week, we embark on such a journey again but, remarkably, in constructing a story about resistance to change, we've created a fiercely original example of what The Closer can do at its very best. My personal thanks to Mary, Nelson, Steven Kane, Michael Robin, Greer Shephard, Rick Wallace, Andy Sacks, and the entire cast and crew for their extraordinary efforts in elevating "Strike Three" into something of which we can all be very proud.
And one last special word of appreciation to the actor with whom I've been collaborating most personally for the last five years. We have done four seasons eligible for the Emmys. And, for the fourth time in a row, Kyra Sedgwick has been nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. This year's nomination is even more meaningful than usual, as Kyra shares honors on the Television Academy's list with her husband (and sometimes Closer director), the enormously talented Kevin Bacon, singled out for his amazing portrayal of a Lt. Colonel accompanying an Iraqi war casualty to his final resting place in the HBO film Taking Chance. Everyone on our series is extremely proud of both of them.
— James Duff
