The Closer: The Sacrificial Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is all business in this week’s episode, “Tijuana Brass,” which opens with the disturbing sight of two dead Mexican men laid out on the back of a blue pickup truck.  A man standing nearby dons a priest’s collar and proceeds to give the bodies their last rites.  Leaving behind olive oil anointed on the victims’ foreheads, the man calls the police, then flees the scene.

Johnson and her team arrive to discover the bodies, along with the wallets and passports of two Tijuana police officers spread out on the front seat.  They remove bracelets from the victims’ mouths, suggesting the crime may be cartel-related and that they likely have the bodies of two “dirty cops.”  After tracing the call to a Father Chris Donahue and noticing the olive oil anointed on the men’s foreheads, the detectives realize the crime may be related to the Catholic Church as well.

Back at the office, Johnson is eager to question Father Donahue, but is urged by Assistant Police Chief Pope (J.K. Simmons) to go through the proper protocols with the Catholic Church and to go through a Deputy Chief.  When Johnson quips back that she is a Deputy Chief, Pope barks that she should go through a real, grown-up Deputy Chief.  Pope and Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett) are on edge after the publication of the first part of Ricardo Ramos’ (Stephen Martines) two-part article on the L.A.P.D.’s Priority Homicide Division.  In the article, Johnson is quoted to have criticized the L.A.P.D. and the Priority Homicide Division, a criticism that she continues to back up by remarking that the L.A.P.D. does typically prioritize high profile, white murders.  Pope and Taylor, dismayed by her comments, decide to shut down the division immediately, reconfigure all divisions, and dismantle her team in the process.

Johnson, shaken by the thought of losing her best detectives, comes out of Pope’s office pale and distracted.  They discover that Father Donahue’s church, Our Lady of the Saints, is a small church located in the poor side of town and that Donahue is known for helping illegals.  There was an Unresolved Shots Fired report around 3am on the night of the murders.  Everyone near the area had heard the shots, except for missing employee Mateo Hernandez, whose social security number was only two months old and who left his car at work, not having returned since.  Johnson, on the verge of tears, compliments her team for their excellent work. 

Agent Howard comes in to let Johnson know that there is an FBI want on Mateo, who had aided a previous FBI investigation on drug trafficking.  Johnson and her team dig around Hernandez’s workplace to find a bucket with blood, a bullet casing, and a flier from Our Lady of the Saints.  They also learn that the lock on the door was pulled apart from the inside.  Further investigation leads them to discover that Mateo’s nephew had been brutally murdered after his recent visit.  Determined to speak with Father Donahue, Johnson again tries to pay him a visit, only to be persuaded to stop by her detectives, who confess they know about the article and the threat Pope has made on their division.  They convince her that going without the permission of the Catholic Church will only make matters worse.

Tijuana police Commandante Martin Vasquez arrives to aid in the investigation.  He says he knew Hernandez as Tijuana police officer Manuel Riviera.  He also admits to Johnson that he had spent many a night hiding from drug cartels in churches, which spurs Johnson to finally speak with Father Donahue.  She shows up while the Father is eating dinner, telling him a little white lie that she had received permission from the Archdiocese.  He lets her in and they proceed to have a verbal showdown on whether or not Hernandez should risk his life to come out of hiding in order to talk about the murder.  She leaves the apartment, but manages to swipe a dinner fork from the coffee table first.

After her return, Johnson is pulled into Pope’s office for an impromptu meeting with Ramos and Taylor in an attempt to smooth the L.A.P.D.’s reputation over with the media.  Pope promises Ramos that the L.A.P.D. will no longer have a Priority Homicide Division, but that there will now be a Major Crimes Division.  Johnson backs up Pope, stressing that the new Major Crimes Division will not only focus on homicides, but also other priority crimes, such as fraud and rape.   In a political coup, she throws in the demand that her team will need to stay intact for the Major Crimes Division.  Pope begrudgingly agrees.

The prints on the fork belong to Hernandez and confirm that Father Donahue is hiding him.  The discovery of dried blood found in the truck matching Hernandez’s murdered nephew lead to a murderer even Johnson may not have suspected.  In a battle between good and evil, Johnson and her team dish out vigilante-style punishment so shocking that I had to stare at my TV set for a couple of minutes with my mouth half-open.

That seems to be an ongoing trend with this show.  Just when I think I know the candy-popping, crime-sniffing, human lie detector who would probably throw Agent Fritz under a bus to catch a suspect, Johnson turns around and does something I would never expect.  She usually manages to get away with it, too, always with the support of her loyal detectives.  And why wouldn’t they be loyal, when she goes to such extremes as continually overriding authority in order to keep them together?  While “Tijuana Brass” was an elaborate episode about drug cartels, cops gone bad, and people such as Father Donahue, who are willing to break the law in order to do the right thing, there were so many different names and pieces of evidence flying around, I was just plain confused half the time.

Even more confused were my feelings about Johnson’s ultimate decision about crime and punishment in this episode, begging yet again my question – would her tactics have flown in real life?  Perhaps these are the kinds of grey areas real cops face every day and, after you’ve seen one guy too many get sacrificed trying to help bring down gangs and drug cartels, it becomes okay to sacrifice a bad guy or two.

Mondays at 9/8c, TNT

Photographs courtesy of IMDbPro