So I'll be honest with y'all, this is going on the fourth time I've seen this episode, and any improvements it might gain this time come solely from the glass of wine sitting right behind my laptop screen. Brenda learns some good lessons this week, about honesty and love and the justice system, but she also learns that the best way to stretch a plot from one to two hours is to find the accomplice and jam as much exposition as is possible into whatever crevice the episode might then contain. And when you've got spots leftover, you hand them to Fritz.
This week features two sets of previouslies, one courtesy of TNT, one courtesy Dominick Dunne, Larry King and a California Congresswoman (for real), and Commander Taylor. Who will only be seen this week in the television seen on your television. Old Dom gives the rundown of the defense's case as Gabriel and Daniels watch together, like the couple they are: Dr. Jonathan Schafer either murdered the divorce attorney, Oliver Henry, representing his wife, or Henry dosed himself with anaesthetic, dragged his own body across a concrete yard, and dumped himself in the pool. At a bar elsewhere, the other PHD couple, Flynn and Provenza, listen as Dominick talks about the black BMW seen outside Henry's home. Larry King picks up here, while Pope watches, and asks Rep. Loretta Sanchez (and her ABSOLUTELY GIANT American flag pin) if the LAPD have put too much emphasis on the car. She says the LAPD gave evidence that now the justice system will decide is either relevant or not. Larry reminds us that Schafer's alibi, the improbably named Topper Barnes, has suddenly appeared from nowhere, also. On another channel that Fritz's watching, Taylor adds that Brenda might not have gotten a confession, but she did her job and arrested the right guy. Hello, Taylor. Good-bye, Taylor. Please, next time take Fritz with you.
Brenda asks Fritz to turn off the TV, running around her room in passive aggressive silence and a really hot slip. Fritz tries to comfort her out of her moodiness, and without meeting his eyes or even looking at him, Brenda tells him she knows about the DUIs he racked up five years ago. She asks if he has a drinking problem; he quietly says he would if he were drinking. He did AA when he first got in trouble, and "the drinking thing" is "no longer an active issue." Brenda's mad that he lied, telling her he's allergic to the stuff. Fritz says that's how he sees it. I can't decide if Fritz is really healthy about this whole thing or in a weird state of denial. Brenda spits that if she's marrying an alcoholic, she has the right to know. Fritz hates the "if." Brenda treats him like one of her interogatees--she wants an explanation.
In Pope's office, Flynn is upset over the alibi reveal, and we can tell because he says "bullshit." Garnett, the DA, says that unless they can prove Toppr Barnes is lying, the case is over. He wants to interview Topper himself, too, since Brenda's only fucked up since she took the case. Pope reminds Garnett that if he interviews the guy, he'll have to put himself on the witness stand and hand over his case to someone else. His solution instead is to have Brenda wear an ear piece so Garnett can feed her questions if he wants to. This will go well.
Flynn and Gabriel walk Brenda to the electronics room, Flynn still pissed because he knows they got the right guy. In Buzz's den, Tao's got Topper's record for Brenda, and Buzz has the ear piece. The boys all hunker down to watch and Brenda enters the interview room, where wait Topper and Gabriel. Topper tries to get out of the interview, saying if he doesn't have to talk now, Brenda can just hear what he has to say on the witness stand. She, however, is a step ahead, and dangles a single outstanding assault charge on Topper's record that she can have reinstated but quick if he decides not to share. Flynn and Tao just love this maneuver. It does what it's supposed to, and Topper sits.
Garnett wants Brenda to ask where he's been, but Brenda first asks if he knows he's been withholding information from a murder trial. He didn't, since he's been in Mexico, where he spends most of his time giving tours on his boat The Sugar Plum (not The Super Plum, as Schafer originally told the PHD). Garnett wants to know why Topper's just shown up, and Brenda takes out her ear piece and continues as she pleases, asking Topper what he does and how he knows Schafer. They were frat brothers together, and when Topper's in town, he and Schafer hang out. When Henry was murdered, the boys were in Ensenada, which Topper just happens to have a video of. Brenda, she is not pleased. She watches it while Garnett plays Doubting Thomas; he may not be convinced she's got the right guy, but Brenda is, and she sends her squad out to help her debunk Topper and his tape. The tape, Brenda realizes, that had to have been recorded by someone other than Topper and Schafer. Topper badly lies it was some guy they hired, and Schafer never offered him as another alibi because they didn't know him, just hired him, and also, made him up.
Brenda gets home, and Fritz is waiting for her. His explanation is short: he did get DUIs, he went to rehab, and he didn't tell Brenda because it's not her problem, just his, and that part of his life is over. He gets angry that she called him a liar, since she prevaricates as often as she breathes, about work, about selling the house, about their relationship. Fritz says he's patient with her flaws because he knows his own and how bad they are (and he's whipped), but it's not fair for her to say "if" when she's wearing his ring and promising to marry him. And while it's well past time for Fritz to blow his top at Brenda, he's missing the point: Brenda saying she'll put the house on the market and the not doing it isn't an issue because it's a lie, it's an issue because it shows Brenda doesn't really want to give up her independence and commit to being married and sharing a life.
Back in the Murder Room, Gabriel, Tao, and Sanchez have found enough information in the video to validate it and prove it substantiates Schafer's alibi. Brenda grits that it's as if Schafer knew he had to get himself an alibi, WHICH IS A CLUE. Daniels has been researching the lien Henry put on Schafer's home, but she can't explain why a lien would be necessary at all. Frustrated, she says she feels she hasn't done her best but doesn't know why, and instead of telling her she's done all she can, Brenda says they've all made mistakes on the case. Brenda asks her to get her hands on the lien, but Daniels has a more expeditious alternative: talking to Henry's widow.
She's still weird, with the over-pronunciation and dog obsession. She explains to Brenda and Daniels that Henry looked into the Schafer finances and discovered that Schafer sunk most of his money into a second home close to his primary residence. Henry put the lien on the second home, and when Schafer found out, he threatened Henry, which the Widow Henry was there to witness. She also knows that Mrs. Schafer asked Henry to take her to the second house, and he did; shortly before he died, she paid him by cashier's check to undo the lien, but Henry died before he could release it. The Widow Henry breaks down that she was so stubborn and wrong not to be with Henry when he died. Brenda, she sees the Widow Henry as though in a mirror, consoling the Widow that after everything, Henry still loved her and wanted to care for her. Widow Henry composes herself enough to tell Daniels and Brenda that the second home is owned by Schafer's business as a second clinic, and she gives them the address.
They arrive, guns drawn Angel-style, and run straight into Flynn. Flynn and Provenza have discovered Schafer's source of income pot. Lots and lots and lots and lots of pot. A veritable forest of pot. Pot to the tune of $12 million. The boys found it courtesy of Topper Barnes, whose name is on all the utility bills. Brenda looks as relieved as if she'd taken a toke from one of those huge plants.
She takes her joy straight to the Schafer house, search warrant in hand, and Sanchez arrests the good doctor right in front of his wife and daughter. Brenda dispatches the happy duo of Flynn and Provenza to arrest Topper as well, and Provenza's so tickled, he whistles. Between that and scarfing product-placed cookies in the next scene, I wonder if Provenza hasn't sampled a little of the doctor's wares...
Steven Culp and his clients, Topper and Schafer, hunker down in one of the interview rooms and do battle with Brenda and Flynn. Topper says medical marijuana is legal in California, but Brenda knows he's got her motive. So does Pope, in the electronics room (where stands the silent Cmmd. Taylor, so at least he gets to hang out eating Sandies with Provenza), who tells Gabriel to go get the DA. Steven Culp and Brenda waste time until Tao and Buzz, still watching the video, see the reflection of the videographer in one of the boat's many mirrored surfaces. Carlos the camera boy is none other than Schafer's ex-girlfriend. When Brenda brings her in, she's still dumber than a box of rocks, but says that Schafer picked her up, handed her the camera, and told her not to say anything; he kept her part in it quiet so as not to damage her "acting career." On hearing that Schafer picked the girl up in his car, Brenda looks like the proverbial cat who's eaten the canary. And its mama and its daddy.
And now is the time in The Closer when we dance. Brenda brings in the last of the featured players, DA Garnett and Mrs. Kristen Schafer. Brenda puts Kristen in Buzz's den and then tells Garnett she's securing him a confession.
In the video room, the director has set Sarah Brown loose doing the two things she does best as a former General Hospital cast member: shout and cry. Mrs. Schafer pleads to go home, since she's left her daughter without a sitter. Brenda says her daughter's actually there, now, answering questions about where her parents were on the day of the murder. "Tell me, do you ever borrow your husband's car?" Brenda asks, aprospo of nothing. She shows Kristen pictures of Schafer driving his wife's car, caught on camera at the marina, and tells her her daughter confirmed Mommy was driving Daddy's car when Henry was murdered. DA Garnett needs to be caught up, so Brenda delivers yet more exposition.
Mrs. Schafer says she didn't know all her money was coming from drug trafficking. Henry, Brenda explains, thought this was a great thing in their favor, since Schafer would be prosecuted and his wife would get everything in the divorce. But because the money coming in was all courtesy of Mary Jane, it turns out if things went to Henry's plan, Mrs. Schafer would end up with a tidy sum of zilch. Gabriel reads Kristen her rights, and she breaks, realizing she'll lose her daughter. She doesn't know if she wants to talk, but Brenda pounces: if Kristen doesn't testify, Schafer will walk, and Kristen will end up on Death Row for the thing he asked her to do. If she helps them now, Kristen will go to jail, but she might be paroled in time to meet her grandkids. Garnett doesn't understand why Kristen would agree to kill her lawyer, and Brenda explains for his dumb ass that Henry, once Kristen released him as her attorney, would have an obligation to tell the police of her husband's criminal activities, and Kristen and her daughter would be left with nothing. Kristen, getting more and more hysterical, says that Brenda can't prove Schafer did anything. Brenda admits as much, but says she can prove Kristen's guilt, and what's more, when she does, she's sure Schafer will testify against her. Kristen sasses that spouses can't testify against each other; Garnett corrects her that they can if there's a conspiracy to commit. She says she'll plead the Fifth if called, and she's sure her husband won't say a word against her.
Brenda's response is to show Kristen the video of Schafer's alibi, complete with the presence of the piece of stuff that originally sent Kristen running to Oliver Henry to settle her divorce. Broken, she asks what they want her to say. "Was killing Mr. Henry your idea, or your husband's?" Brenda demands. Kristen admits it was her husband's. Garnett declares he can get her second degree murder with parole if she'll testify and tell everything in front of a jury. "And for Jonathan, you'll go for the death penalty?" she asks. Garnett says he'll try. A woman scorned, y'all.
On the stand, Kristen explains how Schafer set up his alibi, threatening Henry where others could see, taking his wife's car to cement his alibi, etc. Dominick Dunne is shocked, you guys. Kristen narrates how she went to Henry, hysterical, how she dosed his drink, dropped him, and dragged him to the pool where he drowned. "Why, why, Mrs. Schafer, did you do this terrible thing?" Garnett asks. Because her husband said she had to, she answers, or they would lose everything and go to jail. She just wanted her life back, the life they had before her husband got caught banging his secretary. Her testimony fells even Steven Culp, who needs time to respond, and that is when you know Brenda has finally won her case.
The PHD celebrate their victory at a Mexican restaurant with champagne. Brenda asks why Flynn isn't drinking, and he hands her a pinkie ring he wears as his sobriety reminder: 10 years in AA. He said drinking made him an asshole, not the cuddle love bug he is now. Gabriel pops more champagne. Tao wears not only his sunglasses, but a big blue sombrero, and Sanchez begs off drinking too much, since women take advantage of him when he's tipsy. I so love all these dorks. Gabriel rises to make a toast, and he nicely raises his glass to Brenda keeping the team together over the season, trusting her instincts, and always getting her man. "Hail to the Chief," they toast. Brenda can't get through her "you're like family," so she only "right back at you"s, and they all drink up soe more. Flynn winks at Brenda, and she Considers Her Mistake With Fritz.
He's waiting at home with the flier showing Brenda's put her house up for sale. Brenda stumbles through an explanation of why she didn't do it sooner, which is sort of lame but for her is like self-flagellation. Fritz follows her to the bedroom and apologizes for everything. Brenda does her best to apologize, admitting that she really misses chocolate. She starts to strip, talking about how it's a physical thing.
And since this is how we end the season, with Fritz offering Brenda his "Ho Ho," I'm gonna go refresh my wine glass. So thank you. Thank you so much.
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