"Ruby"
"Run, run,
run."
I doubt I could have gotten out this recap Sunday afternoon, immediately after screening this week's powerful episode of TNT's
The Closer. As I said then, in a
separate blogging, I was
that shell-shocked, that rattled by not just the horrific crimes at the heart of the episode or by the twisted mind-set of our killer, but also by the toll the case took on Gabriel, Brenda and the PHD as a whole.
"
Everyone pretends kids don't want sex. But they do."
With that first thought from Roger's sick mind, it instantly became clear that this episode would be different. That it was not a matter of whodunit but
why - and we were disgusted to hear the answers. There were no false leads or mistaken intent this week. We had our culprit, and it was just a matter of getting his confession.
By any means necessary...?
Lord knows, over the past two seasons we have seen Brenda Leigh pull every trick to coax an "I did it" out of a suspect's mouth. And on rare instances, we have questioned a squad member's tactics. But to see Gabriel pushed to such an extreme - "excessive force" is how Commander Taylor would put it in the final papers - was painful yet compelling.
In weeks prior, Gabriel first teetered close to losing his position on the Priority Homicide Squad, then saw a "hero" within the black community go down in flames (and perhaps when he did not "need" to). He was understandably already on edge. Those foul words from Roger's mouth merely led him to cross a line. And Provenza saw it coming:
"Do not
leave this room."
We read about police brutality in the news. We see it depicted on procedurals. But here, within the
Closer crew we almost consider as family, it was jarring.
Who else felt their heart cave when the dogs in the park began barking?
The scene between Brenda Leigh and Gabriel, immediately after the interrogation-room assault. No jazzy
Closer theme plucking throughout. Just stone-cold silence couching a back-and-forth either of them would have given anything to avoid.
Provenza offering perhaps the extended hour's one bit of levity:
"
A 30-year-old single man living alone, no porn? Now that's
suspicious."
But that was before we realized how dark this episode would grow.
"No, Roger. I do understand. What I'm trying to tell you is I don't care."
The theme for this season
is family, and Gabriel is, we thought, the good guy. The honorable big brother. Now, our family is fractured. A badge has been collected. The sergeant's "I don't know" hanging heavy in the air.
"Don't come back until you do."
My concern: Have we not seen the worst fallout of this case?
I mentioned in Sunday's blog that I saw something in a final scene, but perhaps read too much into it.
Roger, dead. Hanged in his jail cell. A suicide "note" to his mother scrawled inside the palm of his right hand.
But Roger was right-handed. We saw that when he signed the confession.
Color me conspiratorial, but that incongruency appeared to register on Brenda's face as she viewed the penned flesh.
Was someone extremely desperate to keep this case from going to trial? I'm afraid to ask.
Yet I wonder.
UPDATE:
Closer creator James Duff just posted a big ol'
"Thank you" to the fans. Check it out in his
TVGuide.com celebrity blog.
