Brenda and the crew are back, and they’ve done it to me again. I’ve never been on the same page as the Closer writers when it comes to the ongoing elements of the story. That means I often find myself looking for certain plot points from previous episodes that just sort of disappear into the subtext. As often as it happens, I’ve decided it’s not the dropping of a ball. It’s simply the way things work and we should just get used to it. With that in mind, a couple things caught me off guard in the premiere, but it was still great to see the show return.
First up, you must have noticed the disturbing lack of Detective Daniels. It would appear the decision has been made, and she’s been promoted to another unit. That certainly wasn’t an unexpected outcome, but I thought we would get to see more of how it all played out. Likewise, I once again found myself looking for more of the Brenda/Fritz relationship than was offered up. The first episode back would seem a good time to look at the adjustments that come with married life. Not so much.
I don’t mean that as a negative thing. The strange lack of continuation has become part of the Closer style after four seasons. And what we got instead was still very intriguing. Entering the fifth season is a good time to see things start changing. After the obvious exit of Daniels, the most pronounced was the quiet, calm, and caring Sanchez. It felt so different to what we have seen from him in the past, but at the same time made perfect sense given the path his character has traveled. A less obvious change is afoot for Provenza. They certainly hint at a love gone wrong, but we’re going to have to wait for the details on that one. Either way, he was particularly prickly here, even by Provenza standards.
There wasn’t any overt change for Fritz and Brenda, but I think the trials with the cat point to that which is to come. It’s interesting that she was more broken up about that than the quadruple homicide. It makes sense in that Brenda way. With the homicide, it’s something she can take control of. She has a goal, and a plan, and all the power. With the cat, it’s all out of her hands, and that’s terribly frightening. My guess is that this is all a prelude to revisiting the talk of children from earlier in their engagement.
Getting to the case of the week, it was one of the more grisly scenes the team has had for me, and played out with an interesting twist. I was just ahead of Brenda in figuring out the mistaken address, but still fascinated by the fallout. Departmental intrigue is always interesting, and this time it was made even more so by the presence of Lee Tergesen. I don’t know if there are any plans for his character to be recurring, but I’d be happy to see him go a few more rounds with Brenda. In fact, let’s just go ahead and hand him any screen time that was planned for Ramos.
Ramos really was the only thing I didn’t like about the show. I didn’t like the character last season, and I’m not going to like him this season. Otherwise, “Products Of Discovery” was a good return for the series. I’m looking forward to next week, hoping we get a little more clarification on Daniels, find out just what’s up with Provenza, and spend a little more time with Fritz and Brenda.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Jun 09, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
There is also the question of what was up with Buzz? In past seasons he has always been so mellow but this ep he seemed pretty anxious all the way through and not just as a reaction to the crime scene.
*POST AUTHOR*
Good point, and what’s the deal with all of his equipment malfunctioning? I wouldn’t mind if that was pointing toward moving Buzz to the forefront for a full story this season.
As soon as two individuals noted they went to the wrong address, I knew the killer had as well.