It was an interesting week down at the Major Crimes Division. This episode actually featured my favorite aspect of The Closer, as well as my one big gripe with the show. On the plus side, Brenda has a new, and I’m assuming, recurring nemesis. It’s a path that has paid dividends before, as we saw in the season four opener with the return of Bill Croelick (Jason O’Mara). As creepy as Bill is, Philip Stroh (Billy Burke) might even be worse. He’s certainly under Brenda’s skin every bit as much as Bill. And I can’t believe we’ve seen the last of him. On the negative side, what wedding?
Ok, to Mr. Stroh first. Procedural police shows, like The Closer, often run the risk of becoming too predictable. There have certainly been episodes in the past where it all became clear a little sooner than I would have liked. I’d be surprised to hear that anyone was ahead of the game on this one. When Dunlap (James Jordan) turned and started accusing Stroh, I was on the same page as Brenda and the rest of the team. Clearly it had to be some sort of stunt.
As it became clear that Stroh was, in fact, the unnamed partner, the whole thing just went off the rails. And that’s off the rails in a good way. The fact that Brenda almost always closes her cases is one of the attractions, but we need the occasional story like this. It serves to put all the future cases just that little bit more in question. And it was the launching pad for what was a fascinating reaction from everyone as it all fell apart.
For his part, Billy Burke was fantastic as Stroh. He was believable as the lawyer, even when he was giving Brenda and Gabriel the line about defending suspected child molesters giving his life meaning. And as the tale slowly turned, you could see it in him. One of my favorite villains of the series. He just has to come back.
As for the wedding, or lack thereof, it’s long been my one big complaint about the show. It’s a tricky business balancing the ongoing story with the week to week cases. On occasion though, The Closer really drops the ball. We just found out last week that the wedding is in three weeks. Yet here we are, even with Brenda and Fritz having a conversation, and it’s not even mentioned. Perhaps it is just a matter of keeping the episodes as stand alone as possible, for the future that is a syndicated run. But it does seem to penalize the ardent viewer. Is it just me? Or do you find that to be all manner of frustrating?
It is an easy gaffe to forgive this week, because the case of the week was exceptionally good, but it remains the one thing that I would really like to see improved upon with the show.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 10, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Amazing episode
It was a great twist, and I’m surprised that after how many thousands of episodes of police dramas we’ve had on television and the big screen, that this hasn’t been used before. I’ve always attributed my watching of The Closer to the characters, but episodes like this will keep me watching for a long time
As for the wedding, the episode took place in only a little over 24+ hour window. It’s not surprising that nothing much was mentioned about it, especially with what we know of Brenda’s ability to forget about everything except the case she is working
Kevin
Not to brag, but after the lineup, when Stroh looked at the witness and said “I’m 6’2″ – was he about my height” or whatever the phrase was, I looked at my wife and said “he’s the partner.” I don’t normally catch the clues that quickly, but it just jumped out at me, especially knowing that the episode was titled “Power of Attorney.”
He is a really good, sharp character. I hope they use him in several episodes too.