'The Closer': Holidays in hell

Family holidays are stressful. Family holidays involving an escaped armed robber, a cross-country RV trip, several grumpy police officers, some soul-killing deceptions and a few highly dubious decisions make it one of the most hellishly uncomfortable holidays on record. Ho ho ho. 

Where's my Perry Como Christmas Spoiler?

Folks, this was brutal. We're talking Greek tragedy brutal -- I was half expecting someone to put their eyes out by the end. It was incredibly well acted, brilliantly written and effectively done all around, but good lord, people -- you're killing me!

A short synopsis: Brenda is put on an armed-robbery-turned-murder case, much to the dismay of Taylor and his crew -- they'd been working the case for 11 months, and suddenly she took over? Wade, the surviving guard in the robbery snuck away from the hospital, which makes Brenda think he was involved. When she stakes out his apartment, she catches Grady, a sweet-faced, 15-year-old kid from Georgia, and Wade's brother. After some accent slinging, Brenda tricks Grady into revealing where Wade went -- back home to Atlanta.

Soul-crushing decision number one: Brenda decides to multi-task. She figures hey, why don't Fritz and I go see my folks while I look for this escaped suspect! Now, I can almost see how she would think that was a good idea -- assuming she wasn't thinking at all, which often happens with Brenda, alas. I love the woman, but she's not the best at interpersonal relationships. She finds Wade and brings him back home to Willie Rae and Clay's place, and is surprised when they're devastated to realize that Brenda wasn't there to see them at all -- she was just doing her job. Oof.

Brenda decides to fix things by forcing Flynn and Provenza to fly out to Atlanta and take Wade back to L.A. -- therefore, she can try to convince her parents (and herself) that she really, really meant to spend the time with her folks. Alas, Wade doesn't make things easy for our detective duo -- he ensures that no airline will take them by spouting a bomb threat at the gate, and the guys find out there's not a car or van for rent in the entire Atlanta area. I find that difficult to believe (it's not like they got stuck because of weather, which often does lead to rental cars being snapped up), but I'll go with it, because it leads to the next horrific development: Willie Rae and Clay have a massive RV, they've always wanted to see the country, and hey, wouldn't this be a great way to do it? Cut to Mama, Daddy, Brenda, Fritz, Provenza, Flynn and Wade in a festively decorated monster RV, and there's no way this ends well.

Wade is obstreperous, unmanageable, impossible -- he refuses to tell Brenda anything until he talks to his brother, and Brenda won't let him talk to Grady until he tells her what she needs to know. I get why she didn't want Wade and Grady to talk before she'd gotten to Wade, but afterward? I'm not sure I see the point. Was she afraid neither boy would talk to her if they talked to each other? It almost seemed like sheer stubbornness on Brenda's part -- she was pissed at all the havoc Wade had wreaked, so she'd be damned if she gave him anything he wanted.

This leads to soul-crushing decision number two: Brenda tells Wade that Grady is dead, killed by his partners when they came looking for Wade. Wade is devastated, and Willie Rae and Clay are too -- how could they not be, seeing another person suffering so much grief and guilt? Flynn, Provenza and Fritz hate Brenda's decision, but they accept it and keep their mouths shut.

When they finally get back to LA, Brenda decides to keep up the ruse that Grady is dead, even going so far to show Wade a fake crime scene video. Wade agrees to do whatever they want to help -- but Brenda screwed up. The video implied that Wade's partners were searching for the money, and he knew that they knew where he kept it. That means Grady is alive, and if his partners get wind that someone's talking, they'll assume it was Grady and come after him for real. Wade won't let Grady die for real this time, so he ditches the wire Taylor's team put on him and goes after his partners himself. He gives Brenda and the team enough clues to figure out which bank is going to be hit, then lies in wait for is partners. When they arrive to rob the armored car, Brenda and her team are waiting, but Wade gets to them first. He kills them, and the armored car driver, who doesn't know what's going on, kills Wade. Oof.

But that's not even the brutal part. The worst part, the part that made me weep, was that they continue to lie to Grady. Yep, it's soul-crushing decision number 3! It's Christmas day, and they don't want the kid to know his only family is dead. They tell him he's doing secret police work. Clay tells Brenda that she's got to keep up that ruse for as long as she can -- they'll take the boy back to Georgia with them, and they'll try to give him some sort of life. It won't make up for what he's lost, but it's a start.

Heart-crushing moments: 

• What did you think of Brenda's decision to lie to Wade -- and keep lying, even when they got back to LA? Too cruel, or what she had to do to solve the case? I thought it was brutal, almost falling under cruel and unusual punishment. And surely that would count as coercion, or even psychological torture, making the confession one given under duress. Or am I betraying my bleeding-heart liberal roots here?
• And giving an alcoholic booze to make him talk -- that's just not right. Again, I understand why they did it -- especially Willie Rae and Clay, who thought they were helping a grieving man -- but I also get why Fritz had to leave the room while Brenda was getting her confession.
• Also brutal: The look on Clay's face when he figures out just what Brenda was doing in Georgia. They gave up their vacation with the rest of the family to see her, and she was just planning on lying to them, then leaving, the whole time. A part of me thinks it would have been much, much kinder for her to not tell her parents she was coming to town -- sure, she runs the risk of running into them, but at least she wouldn't be crushing their hopes like she did. What do you think she should have done?
• Oh, the scene where Willie Rae confronted Brenda about Grady being alive, and Wade being put in pain. What else could Brenda do to explain but show her mom what Wade had been a part of? Still, throwing crime-scene photos in her face seemed unnecessarily mean.
• Are they making the right decision to hide Wade's death form Grady? Sure, he gets one decent Christmas day, but he's not an idiot -- he's going to realize that something's wrong. And then, for the rest of his life, he'll know he was lied to, that his brother was dead while he was out having a good time. That's the sort of guilt that can cripple a person.
• Finally, what did you think of the final scene, when Clay tells Brenda that she's got a job making tough decisions, and he trusts her to do that well? After everything that had happened, that vote of confidence just broke me. I'll admit it -- there was sniffling Chez Jersild.

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends

• On to more pleasant things. Chief Pope chock-full of wonderful putdowns this week, and I kind of loved him for it. To Taylor's minion when he protests about Pop giving the case to Brenda -- they've been working on this for 11  months! "Are you suggesting that 11 months of failure is an argument for your remaining on the case?"
• I loved watching Provenza greet Willie Rae when they first showed up at the house -- he was just so genuinely glad to see her, and Willie Rae is such a consummate hostess. Granted, her implacable cheeriness got a bit much in the RV, but what can you do.
• The scene where Brenda tried to sweet-talk her way into seeing Wade at the county jail just made me laugh. The sweet, innocent Southern Belle thing probably doesn't play as well in the land of Scarlett O'Hara. These men know when they're being manipulated. So I was glad to see Fritz step in and get some respect.
• I can't believe Brenda and Fritz finally sold the house! French Stewart was his usual superlative self as the smarmy Gary (he never lies!), not realizing that his presence just made everything worse for Brenda.
• Thank god Brenda finally, finally realized how lucky she was to have her parents. No, her life wasn't perfect, and she's got a whole lot of issues to work through, but Clay and Willie Rae genuinely love her, and are decent, caring people. You could do a whole lot worse.

What did you think? What were your favorite parts? What worked and what didn't? Does this two-hour episode make you salivate for new episodes, or are you going to need a while to recover?

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