The Closer: Dumb Luck

So... what's wrong with Brenda? She's getting fevers, she's highly emotional and weepy, and she feels like she has a cold. It seemed like the writers were hinting that she's pregnant because of her weepiness, irritability and her apparent craving for mashed potatoes. But, what about the fevers?

Brenda's mysterious health problems seemed like they were the point of this episode, and not the crime she was solving. Heck, I solved the crime before she did. When the big, dumb personal trainer kept insisting that Wednesday was the 25th, I knew he got his dates and his murder victims mixed up. And I knew right away that the dumb blonde was the one who hired him to kill her husband, not her boyfriend.

I enjoyed the two dumb characters: the killer and the wife, but I did not enjoy the obsessive-compulsive valet. Like a handful of other guest actors, he took his character a little over the top. He was waaaay to nervous and trembling and seemed a little like Rainman and less like someone who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. He needed his floss like Dustin Hoffman needed his Wapner. Except Dustin Hoffman did it much better. I was annoyed by him the same way I was annoyed by the killer in the season premiere, who slobbered and snotted all over himself in the interview room. Talk about trying to steal a scene!

But, like I said, the crime really wasn't what was important in this episode. The point of this one was to advance the budget cuts plot by requiring the priority homicide team to train for terrorist attacks so they could get funding from the federal government, and to open up a new storyline about Brenda's mysterious health issue. Brenda met with a doctor at the end of the episode, so maybe next episode I'll learn her diagnosis. Brenda seemed like she already knew it was something serious and so she was avoiding being told about it. That's kind-of why I don't think it's pregnancy. Good Lord-- could you imagine Dep. Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson with a baby? She can barely keep herself together. Plus, I'm not so sure I'd welcome such a dramatic change in character. Fritz definitely has to be the stay-at-home dad in that situation.

A couple of great one-liners from the dumb blonde wife:

"The last time I valeted my car the attendant guy stole my pot so I don't valet my car anymore."

"This is a tapestry of justice. That's what it is. A complete tapestry!"