The Closer Episode Recap: "Elysian Fields"
This week on TNT's The Closer, a new murder revived a decade-old, unsolved case, leading Brenda to get an "assist" from retired detective "Joey O" Olin (guest star Tom Skerritt). All the while, Brenda is haunted by a loose end of her own. Here now the recap!
It's the middle of the night and Brenda fell asleep with the TV on. As she retires to bed – Fritz isn't home – she spies an open bathroom window, then hears something break in the living room. Whipping out her gun and retrieving her cell, she calls the office for back-up: "Send units to my house, now! Stroh, he's here!"
Brenda is awoken from this nightmare by the actual ring of her cell. We see that the file for the unsolved Stroh case is on her nightstand. Says Gabriel on the phone, "Chief, we've got a body."
The victim is Howie Greeson, and he was dragged by an SUV for a while before being shot in the head and left to be discovered in a remote section of a park. Flynn immediately recognizes the name as a suspect in a pair of 1999 killings, from an unsolved case worked by now-retired Det. Joey Olin. Brenda asks Flynn to call "Joey O" for a consult. "This is going to make his day!" effuses Flynn. Indeed.
During a walk-and-talk, we see more of Brenda's fixation on her own unsolved case, as she asks Gabriel to dive back a full five years into the sinister Stroh's case files.
The coroner confirms that Greeson was dragged, but also beaten up beforehand. He suggests running a tox screen to see what painkillers the assailant administered to keep his prey somewhat at bay during the ordeal.
In the murder room, Provenza isn't happy about Joey O's arrival. (Apparently, the "Boy Scout" once had Pro written up for using curse words, "and that is bulls--t." Ha!) Joey O, however, gets a warm welcome from everyone else. Surveying the crime scene pics, Joey notes, "This is one way to administer the death penalty, huh?" Indeed, I say again.
Joey O briefs the MCD on the two girls who disappeared/were presumably killed in '99, and says it was suspected that Greeson buried the bodies in the same park where his own body was found. Cadaver dog sniff out a pair of partially unearthed plastic bags in the field. The thought: Greeson was tortured to divulge the whereabouts of the girls, and then executed once the info was vetted.
"It's not exactly how I figured this case would be closed," says Olin, "but there you go." But with Greeson's killer still a mystery, Brenda mutters, "This case is not closed."
At home, Fritz and Brenda ponder why someone would exact revenge on Greeson now, some 10 years after the fact. Fritz also reminds his wife that her mom has been calling, asking for a good, non-busy time to visit with Brenda's niece. "How am I supposed to know when someone is going to get murdered?" Brenda asks. Fritz cautions Brenda to make time for family, lest every memory in her life be marked off with crime-scene tape.
A call from Provenza interrupts the moment: Joey O went ahead and notified the dead girls' families, even without a positive ID on the remains. "See, this is what happens when I leave the office!" Brenda grumbles to Fritzy.
Gabriel gives Brenda a "who's who" of the next of kin. When Brenda chastises Joey O about making the notifications, he explains, "I've been waiting a long time" to give these people closure. "Maybe you've never had a case like this, that stays with you" — and Brenda flashes on Stroh.
The two families express disgust that Brenda is concerned with finding Greeson's killer. Or as one victim's brother says, "You're wasting time investigating that dirtbag's case?!" That guy, Todd, becomes a suspect when Greeson's girlfriend recognizes him and lunges at him, yelling. With nothing to hold the abused girlfriend on, Flynn provokes her into slapping him and voila – assault on a cop. Still, the outraged father of one girl threatens to hold a press conference condemning the LAPD for viewing them as suspects.
Brenda grills Greeson's girlfriend, suggesting that after being beaten up, she finally gave Greeson what he had coming to him. But the gal says Howie was a decent enough guy until Todd started hounding him. Then he changed.
Times reporter Ricardo Ramos is working this story and got an earful from the victims' families, including solid alibis for everyone... except Todd. Brenda interviews Todd, who says he started taunting Greeson because Joey O wasn't going to be able to harass the suspected killer much longer.
Brenda puts it all together and confronts Olin. The weight loss, the lost prostate, the upset stomach, the access to morphine. "You have cancer," she deduces. Yep, he says, and with just three to six months left to live, he was determined to "close" his big unsolved case. "I didn't want to die knowing I failed those girls," he says. Olin then produces a tape of Greeson's confession, saying, "It ain't for the faint of heart."
In Brenda's office, Flynn argues that what Olin did was just, that Brenda should ask the DA to go easy. "I can't," defers Brenda. "What if he has more scores to settle?"
Speaking of unsettled scores, Brenda opens her drawer to gaze at Stroh's photo. The episode ends with Brenda at home, double-checking the bathroom window latches, while on the phone with Momma.
