‘Closer’ flips script - instead of ‘whodunit,’ episode focused on ‘howcatchem’

The fall seventh season resume of “The Closer” placed Kyra Sedgwick as Los Angeles Police Department assistant chief Brenda Leigh Johnson starkly in the crosshairs of interloping attorney Peter Goldman, played by Curtis Armstrong.

In preparing his federal case against her – the basis for which seemed to be the somewhat novel argument that Johnson had arrested criminals for breaking the law and then, in the interview process, had been less than perfectly forthcoming with all the information she had – he made use of a purported leak in the Major Crimes Division.

The division’s initial reaction to the leak was that there wasn’t one. However, Goldman consistently had access to information that he should not have and faster than would seem absolutely possible.

Capt. Sharon Raydor of the Force Investigation Division provided a cunning ally in helping to determine the leak by starting a rumor of her retirement -- a rumor heard only by Chief Pope and Cmdr. Taylor.

So when Goldman parrots the false rumor, the assumption is that Taylor is the leak. Det. Provenza even mentions Taylor as a source. But this show is rarely that predictable so I’m looking forward to learning exactly how Goldman is obtaining his information.

Whodunit

This past week’s installment was one I’d been waiting for them to do for awhile, and they chose the perfect possible character to step into the Dr. James Sheppard role, “helping” the police in their investigations – right up until the end.

I’ll explain. In Agatha Christie’s 1926 mystery “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” Christie’s famous detective, Hercule Poirot, is joined by Dr. Sheppard to uncover the mystery at hand when Ackroyd turns up dead on the heels of a scandalous confession. Sheppard in fact provides narration and commentary on the investigation throughout the book until the very end – spoiler alert – when it is revealed that he, Dr. Sheppard, in fact is the one whodunit.

Shift that focus to “The Closer,” where the solution very nearly always relies upon Johnson, inspired to look at some fact or another in the case in a new light, invariably reveals the coverup and solves the mystery.

One could argue that by the 40-minute mark into any such case, a team like the one Johnson has assembled would almost certainly have uncovered all possible clues and been fitting them together in every combination. But this formula does make for a better reveal when it happens.

Tough case

In this week’s episode, the “narrator” we meet is Elizabeth Perkins as Gail Meyers, the police commissioner’s wife and an entitled drunk. She has hit-and-run a motorcyclist, Gracie Gates, and is trying to reconstruct an alibi for her time behind the wheel.

Between Meyers’ friends at the bar and her daughter’s unwillingness to speak up and her V.I.P. husband coming in to throw his weight around, she has a whole army working overtime to shield her from the consequences of her actions.

And in this case, her actions killed Gates – right in front of Lt. Flynn, in fact. Flynn got out of his car and comforted the girl, spoke with her as her life expired in easily one of the most moving sequences of its kind in this show.

Fast forward to Meyers behind the wheel of the murder weapon – Johnson seeks to make the evidence a lock for murder because Meyers has had a previous DUI. Naturally Meyers is telling every fable she can construct in an effort to “help” the police with their inquiries – or more to the point, throw them off her scent.

But this isn’t Major Crimes’ first rodeo. Meyers trips herself up repeatedly in her ever-changing account of the events of the night in question. It becomes much more of a “howcatchem” until, in the end, Johnson gets the confession she needs to close her case. Indeed, Meyers never had a chance. Winter finale

As for Goldman, it looked as though he was getting himself into some hot water in the winter finale next week. It will be nice to see him squirm the way he’s been doing to Johnson – although some of the things she’s been doing to suspected perps in cases she’s not been able to close officially has been obsessive and creepy as well – including sending flowers to a suspected killer signed from his supposed victim each year.

If she would tone it down some, Goldman probably wouldn’t even have a case. But then, if she were to tone it down ...

... she wouldn’t be Brenda Leigh Johnson.

“The Closer” has its winter season finale 9/8c Monday on TNT – although it will be hard to top Fred Willard’s recent flawless and spot-on hilarious portrayal of an inebriated Santa Claus. Then, new episodes are anticipated summer of 2012.