The Closer: Next of Kin (Episode 315/16)

Johnson Family Christmas Vacation: Watch Your Language

It’s Christmas in LA, though you wouldn’t know from the puss on Brenda Leigh Johnson’s face. Fritz is trimming the tree with absolutely no help from his betrothed. She thinks decorating the house to give it a homey, holiday vibe to entice buyers is ridiculous, despite the advice of their realtor Gary Doesn’t Lie. She snits that he hasn’t brought them a buyer in three months and he’s about to traipse another absolute lock through their house. I wonder if she’s still off sugar for the whole menopause thing, because now would be a good moment for a cookie. Plus, it makes people buy your house! Fritz says that if Brenda doesn’t want to show the house, they don’t have to show the house. And if it weren’t Fritz and Brenda we were talking about, I’d say I can’t believe they’re still having this argument, but we are, so, you know. Knock me over with a feather and all.

Brenda thinks it’s ridiculous to decorate the house for the one couple coming to look. Fritz tells her it might be nice if the house were festive. Imperiously, Brenda declares that she does not like it when she is ordered to be festive. Or to do anything else. With that, Fritz jams the angel on top of the tree. And, apparently, decorates the entire tree, since when the doorbell rings, the halls are bedecked and shiny. Brenda greets the gay couple and their baby with a grim "merry Christmas." When Brenda seems tetchy about having people in the house—and touching Fritz’s baseball pyramid—Gary Doesn’t Lie sends her and Fritz on a walk. The couple look around and eye Brenda’s chandelier with some distaste. Gary Doesn’t Lie tells them it’s charming; he does not tell them that Brenda bought the house after a call girl was murdered there, which really should be the clincher. Brenda busts back in, talking on her cell, and announces that there’s been a robbery and two homicides. Fritz hastens to add that they happened far, far away. Brenda, loading her gun, says it’s not too far. "Thank y’all, nice meetin’ ya!"

Crime scene! I don’t know what it says about me that, when seeing the sheet-covered and bloody body on first viewing, I thought, "Man, the set designers on this show kick ass." Commander Taylor and Robbery Homicide are on hand when Brenda and her boys arrive. The Pope’s there to meet her and kick Cmdr. Taylor in the nuts. Metaphorically. Taylor gives the rundown on the case, which RH has been working for almost a year: three dudes in ski masks walk up to armored bank cars, rob them, and drive away. With the guns involved this time, things have escalated. Pope says Priority Homicide is taking lead. One of Taylor’s lackeys, Det. Ross, complains a lot and makes himself a nuisance; Taylor does his best to complain a lot while still staying professional. When Pope says it’s Brenda’s game, Taylor gives in. Ross, however, doesn’t think it’s settled. Brenda, waving her guys in, tells him, "I’m afraid it is."

So we’ve got an armored car, open and burgled, and two guards down. Provenza’s already talked to the bank manager, who says that the loot is close to $150 grand, which they can’t trace. Brenda looks at the bodies and starts giving assignments, seeming quite peeved. Tao guesses the robbers were using semi-automatics that are "Uzi-esque." Brenda gives out assignments, as she does. Gabriel unloads the exposition he got from Taylor’s men—all the witnesses, including the one injured guard, saw two men, not three, in jeans, boots, hoodies, and ski masks. The ambulance with the injured guard starts to take off, but Brenda runs after, hollering. Once inside, she questions him; he says he dove under the truck and then saw his killed co-worker. He’s quite emotional.

In the Murder Room, Tao announces that the truck had made its stop early. Tao’s still working on finding the getaway van. Brenda wants to check all phones in the history of phones. Flynn says that the guards seem like good guys; one of them wanted to be a "real cop." The driver, who Brenda questioned, has no record, either. Provenza says that the company requires all employees have a clean history and pass a polygraph. Gabriel adds that the string of hits hasn’t been limited to one security company, either. Brenda reads through some of the RH reports and sees that the take is getting higher for each job, which means that the information the robbers are getting is better. She calls this a pattern. She decides she wants to check with the driver, Wesley Reed, again, but Gabriel tells her he’s sort of disappeared from the hospital.

Which brings us to a stake out, during which Brenda bitches to Gabriel about Taylor not posting someone at the hospital. She sees a light go on in Wesley’s apartment, and then we get a raid. Dude, a crime scene, stake out, a raid, followed closely by an on-foot chase scene? Awesome. Wesley jumps out the window of his apartment when PHD busts in, guns blazing, and easily slips past Flynn (and injures him) in the alley behind the building. Sanchez and Gabriel pin him in from the other end and catch him as he tries to scale a fence. When they get Wesley to his feet, however, it’s not Wesley.

Murder Room. They don’t know who the kid is, and he’s not talking, but every cop in LA is looking for Wesley Reed. Brenda wants the investigation to stay media silent across the board. Tao tells her that pinging Wesley’s cell isn’t getting responses, and there’s no credit card activity. Provenza points to the white board and explains that Wesley does have a police record, which the security firm (Task) either missed or overlooked; he was busted for possession and a drunken disorderly. The guys have nothing else to go on. I wonder where Daniels is? Sanchez scoots to start working bus and train terminals, and Brenda dispatches everyone else with various jobs.

Buzz, Taylor, Gabriel, and Pope are in the video room watching "Opie," as Pope calls the kid Brenda caught at Wesley’s apartment. He can’t believe she wasted a full SIS op on this kid, but she’s hoping he can at least lead them to Wesley. She thinks he’s involved because he ran from them. She leaves the video room only to run into Fritz and Gary Doesn’t Lie in the hall. GDL’s gay couple has made an offer on the house, $20,000 above asking price with a short escrow, but Brenda has to be willing to throw in the baseball pyramid. She says she can’t ask Fritz to part with that, but he says that for the offer they’re getting, he’ll throw her into the deal, too. She ducks them, despite GDL’s begging, and sends them to her office.

Brenda does what she does, now, with Opie. She ducks into the interview room as though passing by, cranking up the accent to ten as she asks if he needs anything. When he answers, she pauses, then smiles hugely as she pins him as a fellow Georgian. She introduces herself and asks Opie to say something Southern about kudzu or a peach tree. He offers, "When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville." Brenda doesn’t know that one, so Opie tells her it’s Flannery O’Connor. She then, through some innocent-yet-pointed questions, gets Opie’s real name—Grady—the location of his high school, and his age. Pope orders Buzz to look it all up. Brenda observes that Wesley’s accent is as strong as Grady’s; he tells a story about Wesley coming out to LA to act after their mother died, while Grady stayed back home with their grandmother. Brenda says that people in LA hear her accent and think she’s a hick, right up until she pulls out her badge. Which she does for Grady’s benefit, telling him she has some questions. She shows him a photo of over $8,000 found in Wesley’s apartment. Grady stutters that it’s probably the money Wes is saving to send Grady to college. (In case you missed it, this is when Grady went from merely sad to Movie of the Week sad.) Brenda asks if he knows about the shooting. Grady immediately says Wesley didn’t kill anyone, but he doesn’t know where his brother went. He was scared, so he called Grady and said he had to go away until things calmed down. Brenda asks about Wesley’s friends, but Grady says he’s not supposed to talk about them because they’re dangerous. Brenda lays some guilt on Grady about the murders, appeals to his fraternal bond with Wesley, who might also be in danger, and Grady breaks. Wes’s friends are Thumps and RJ, and he may have seen them. Wesley apparently took RJ’s job, and RJ was pissed. Brenda asks why Wesley would have left Grady alone in the apartment, and Grady says he wanted to go back, too, but he couldn’t afford the ticket. Back where, Brenda asks, Atlanta? Grady starts to cry, and she tells him it’s okay; he didn’t tell her, she guessed.

Fritz and GDL are waiting in her office. GDL is like a rabbit on fire. Brenda asks if Fritz isn’t worried about selling the house before they have another, but Fritz reminds her they can’t afford to buy until they sell. She says she’ll sign the offer if he’ll promise to go with her to Atlanta. Tonight.

We follow the happy couple to, of course, Willie Ray and Clay’s house, which is kitted out for Christmas like the local mall. White fake tree, Christmas village, real tree with presents, lights and nutcrackers and garland everywhere. Clay’s dog attacks Fritz’s balls the second he walks in the door. Fritz compliments the house, and Clay makes a dig about Brenda not visiting. Fritz crowns himself King of Understatement when he says it can be hard for Brenda to pull herself away from work. Cue Brenda stumbling inside, cell pressed to her ear, trying to convince someone on the other end not to release Grady to Child Protective Services or he’ll let Wesley know they’re looking for him. Clay grumbles that he hopes he and the wife didn’t cancel a trip to Florida just to listen to Brenda work through the holiday; Willie Ray says she’s just happy to have them there. Brenda starts digging in a candy dish and dispatches Fritz to put away the bags. In the Murder Room, Gabriel tells Brenda people are wondering who’s boss while she’s away. Willie Ray sticks out her hand for the purloined candy (answers that question), and Brenda tells Gabriel, who’s flanked by Taylor and Ross, that as long as she’s got a cell, she’s in charge. Taylor offers to keep Grady busy with mug shots, which will let them stall long enough to come up with a better idea to stall. Brenda, rifling now through the presents under the tree, asks for Wes and Grady’s grandmother’s address. Gabriel says that sweet Granny called the police on Wesley, who had an outstanding bench warrant for a failure to appear, and he’s in jail now.

Fritz looks around the Santa’s village of the Johnson homes, saying it’s quite… festive. Willie Ray likes to do something extra for the holidays, is all. Brenda hurries in to drag Fritz out on the excuse of shopping, and Clay blusters for another half hour about Brenda wasting her time shopping and not being with her family. Brenda gets Fritz to heel like a dog. He really is more pet than fiancé. Brenda, working the last nerve, asks for Clay’s car.

Brenda and Fritz arrive at the local police establishment, though Fritz reminds Brenda she doesn’t have a warrant. She says that Tao’s working on it, and while he’s doing that, she’s sure she can sweet-talk the locals into letting her talk to Wesley. She tells Fritz not to speak, with his Yankee accent and all. She introduces herself to the Sheriff as Deputy Chief of the LAPD, which impresses him not a whit and makes him rather disinclined to help her at all, despite her attempt to bribe him with her mother’s homemade peanut brittle and the sweetest tone she can muster. Sheriff Local takes umbrage with being treated like an idiot hick before he’s even treated like a local, but Brenda’s transparent as wet toilet paper. Fritz steps in, flashing the FBI badge, and Sheriff Local grants him an interview with Wesley, smiling to beat the band. Ha, ha?

In Wesley’s cell, Fritz informs Wes that he is responsible for ruining Fritz’s holiday, and because of his idiocy, Fritz is not on his couch. That devastating show of self-involvement is proof that Fritz has been with Brenda far too long. When Wes asks who Fritz is, Fritz does the FBI thing again and tells him that bank robbery is a federal crime. He asks about Wes’s involvement in the robbery, but Wes denies any. He’s just home to spend Christmas with his grandma. He says he walked out of the hospital because he was freaked out over being shot at and just wanted to get out of LA. He took a flight from Vegas; Fritz says it sounds like Wes is running away. A local deputy comes to release Wes on bail, and Fritz makes a "no, she couldn’t—she totally did" face.

Outside, Brenda greets Wes with one part, "Hi, remember me? I just bailed you out!" and two parts handcuffs/arrest.

Fritz drives Brenda and Wes in Clay’s car. Wes says he doesn’t have to talk to Brenda, since he didn’t do anything, and all this is bullshit. Brenda tells him to watch his language; this is basic cable, after all. She asks why he ran across the country if he’s so innocent. He says he already told "your FBI boy" he didn’t do anything, and he wants to call his brother. Fritz looks back, all "who you calling boy, boy?" Brenda won’t give him a call to Grady until he talks to her, and he spends a great deal of time describing all the ways he won’t talk to her, so Brenda tells him to shut up. He tells her to work at Hooters. Clearly he hasn’t seen her without her jacket, because that’s not a viable career opportunity for Brenda. When Fritz starts to throw back some attitude, Wesley kicks out the back passenger window and tries to wriggle out. They pull over, and Brenda binds Wes’s legs with a belt, hissing that he just wrecked her daddy’s car. He calls her a bitch, so she digs her gun out from the depths of that giant purse of hers, warning him that if he irritates her again, she’ll shoot him.

Back at the homestead, Brenda’s spinning tall tales for her parents, who don’t believe word one. Fritz says that he’ll make sure Brenda has Wes out of the house by the morning; she adds that she’ll pay for the window. She apologizes, but Clay tells her to shove it, since she doesn’t mean it. He says Brenda and Fritz are to sit up and watch Wes. "Young man," he says, "try not to murder me in my sleep." Brenda follows her dad through the house, saying she had no choice. Before she can dig herself any deeper, he tells her not to make things worse with the stories. He pulls out some old fashioned Johnson guilt, saying that he and Willie Ray cancelled plans with her brothers and their families in Florida when Brenda called, and he knows she’s here on pretense and not even staying. Brenda looks away, and Clay rubs it in good and proper. Willie Ray tells her they’re not mad, just disappointed. Which, for me, was always worse than mad. Willie Ray says they just miss her. Brenda tries not to cry, but she totally deserved all that.

And, to assuage her guilt, Brenda raids the pantry and calls Flynn and his broken wrist. She wants him and Provenza on a plane to Atlanta ASAP to transport a witness back to LA so she can stay with her family. She tells him shortly it has to be the two of them, since Tao and Gabriel (and presumably Sanchez) are busy and Daniels has fallen off the planet. She finds herself a tin of something, hangs up, and enjoys an orgasmic moment of feeding her emotional distress.

In the family room, Wes is handcuffed to a chair and Fritz is pissed that Brenda paid for expensive tickets. He asks her to stop spending their house-sale money before they even have it and to call off Flynn and Provenza. He tells her they’ll bring Wes back in the morning themselves. Brenda whisper-yells that she can’t leave with her parents thinking she’s only there for work; they are going to stay and it’s going to be nice, dammit. Wes opens his eyes and tells them to shut up. He asks why Fritz is marrying this woman—must be the money, with this nice house. Brenda gets in his face about answering questions, which he won’t do until he speaks to Grady, which she won’t allow until he talks. Round and round the mulberry bush…

In the morning, Clay arrives to find everyone sleeping and Wes in his chair. The doorbell rings, and Willie Ray lets Flynn and Provenza in with kisses and smiles. Brenda harasses them about being late; they apparently delayed for a later flight in exchange for free tickets at a later date. Four for the price of two, Fritz. Brenda hands off Wes to them and fairly pushes them out the door. At the airport, Wes starts to freak about flying back. Flynn and Provenza are blasé about it until Wes yells that he has a bomb.

Back at the Murder Room in LA, Sanchez is at work on his computer while Gabriel goes over mug shots with Grady in Brenda’s office. The woman from Children’s Services arrives for Grady; Gabriel asks for the address, saying he’ll drop Grady off when they’re done. She’s about to inform him that it doesn’t work like that when Sanchez intervenes to ask if the foster home for Grady is well-protected with semi-automatics and people who know how to use them, since Grady’s in some danger. Gabriel adds that the guys are "bad news," with the Uzis and all. Sanchez is way better at this; he tells the woman that the foster parents should keep their weapons away from Grady, since he’s a bit of a livewire himself, having broken one of their lieutenant’s arms. "So, I mean, do you have a family that can handle all that without any liability issues? Because we could just hold him in protective custody until you do," Gabriel says. She gapes at them. Nice work, gentlemen.

Johnson Home. The doorbell rings, and Willie Ray gets very excited at the prospect of carolers. Provenza, Flynn, and Wes are on the doorstep, less singing than pissed as hell. They can’t get out of Atlanta for love or money, basically. Clay is not pleased. Cut to Provenza and Wes enjoying a snack, thanks to Willie Ray. Brenda apologizes to her dad that it wasn’t supposed to happen. Clay says it doesn’t matter, the point now is to get Wes out of the house and out of Atlanta. Not the reason he and Willie Ray have an RV, but it’ll do. Willie Ray’s decorated it all for Christmas; she says it’s always been their dream to drive it cross-country, and while transporting a criminal wasn’t quite what they had in mind, now they can do it. Besides, it’s comfortable. Brenda looks around, discomfited, saying she doesn’t think she can drive it. When Fritz volunteers, Clay says that the only person who drives his RV is Willie Ray. Heh.

As Fritz loads up the cargo hold, Brenda bugs Tao’s voice mail about her paper work. Provenza and Flynn board right behind Wes and the others, handing the receipts for their traveling gear to Brenda. Flynn tells Wes that he’s not going to handcuff him, since they’re going to be moving at fast speeds and if he jumps out the window, so much the better for everyone. Clay runs through his traveling checklist with Willie Ray, which includes Perry Como Christmas CDs, CDs that Brenda surreptitiously sneaks into her purse. Clay announces that his schedule has them back in LA in four days. Later, he goes looking for his Perry Como—the only thing that gets him in the holiday spirit—and, when he can’t find it, Willie Ray starts singing a cappella for everyone. Brenda takes refuge in the back with Wes and Provenza. She starts talking about one of the guards killed in the robbery, all casual like, but Wes won’t bite. He asks again to speak to Grady; Brenda doesn’t budge. He asks for bathroom privileges instead. Provenza stands outside the door, and it’s obvious what’s going to happen next.

Brenda gets a call from Tao, who does not yet have Brenda’s warrant, despite other good things he’s found out. (There’s a Daniels-esque figure lurking in the background, but I will not be fooled by this diversionary tactic.) Brenda tells him to keep working on it and keep her telephonically away from Pope. They pass the phone around a bit to say that, basically, they have nothing new, and Grady doesn’t have anything else to add. She asks them to put Grady at her house and try to get him to talk; Flynn tells her to have Sanchez talk to her, which she passes on. Provenza notices the floor of the RV flooding, followed shortly by sounds of glass breaking. Willie Ray starts to pull over. Clay goes for the key, but not before shouting through the door that if Wes hurts the RV, he’ll kill him. Provenza warns Brenda that Wes is trying to climb out the window, which is true and looks totally stupid from the outside. Fritz chases him down and pins him before he can get two feet. Good for something besides being Brenda’s bitch, I guess.

Outside a church, Clay and Fritz tape up the broken window. Clay rails about the damage—which includes needing to have the dump valve snaked, heh—that Wes has inflicted. Brenda apologizes and offers to pay for all repairs. Provenza’s about to whine over not having a toilet, but Willie Ray reminds him the pioneers peed in mason jars and liked it. Or something. Flynn starts to herd Wes back on the RV, but Wes climbs under a picnic table in such a way that no one can get to him. Fritz lifts the table, and Wes starts hollering about being kidnapped to the churchgoers filing out the front doors of the building. Brenda has lost her patience and snaps for him to shut up and get in the RV. He refuses unless he can talk to his brother. And Brenda lowballs like she never has. She tells Wes that the day he left LA, Grady was shot and killed in Wes’s apartment. Wes asks where Grady is now. Brenda hesitates, but says that Grady is in the morgue "pending notification of next of kin." Wesley loses it at this, yelling that he’s next of kin. Brenda apologizes to him. Wesley proceeds to freak out under the table until Willie Ray gently asks for his hand. He takes it, and she, of all the assembled crew, helps him out and up to the RV. Provenza tells Brenda this might not be the best idea; she says that if it gets Wes to talk, it’s a fine one. She asks him to call Tao and have him fake Grady’s crime scene.

Tao has the Johnson caravan’s route tracked on a map, and he’s making adjustments when Pope arrives in the Murder Room for his once-an-episode "what the hell is going on" moment. Tao says he’s faxed Brenda a waiver that will, if Wesley signs it, allow her to transport him over state lines. Taylor’s there also, not really believing Wes is going to remand himself to police custody while he’s the suspect in a felony murder. Pope asks why Flynn and Provenza were needed for that particular task, anyway. Tao really needs to take lessons from Sanchez, because he can’t even get half of a half-truth out before Pope sees the map and goes ballistic about his deputy and her crew driving from Atlanta. Tao stutters that they are making excellent time, though. Pope wants Brenda on the phone.

Willie Ray tries to get Wesley to eat while Fritz and Clay mill about the RV interior. Brenda returns, having put Provenza and Flynn to bed, and her phone rings. Tao covers nicely this time, telling Pope that he got Brenda’s voicemail, but doing it so Brenda can hear. Pope takes the phone, and Brenda tells her whole family to freeze. And unbelievably, they do. Pope rails at Brenda for not doing what she was supposed to, which was find the gang robbing armored cars and keep them from killing more people in LA. When he hangs up, Brenda and Co. unfreeze, and Brenda tells her dad she has to be in LA by the next afternoon. He says he thinks he has a way to get Wes talking and eating, and reaches into a cupboard for a bottle of faux Jim Beam. He waves it at Wes, like, "whee!" Willie Ray is totally on board with this scheme. Clay’s horrified that Wes wants to drink it with soda, but gives in when Brenda tells him to hurry up. Fritz doesn’t think it’s a great idea to give booze to a kid with drug problems, but Brenda has to expedite the whole confession process or risk more bodies back in LA. And, Clay adds, he’s going into "lifetime rehab" anyway, if he is guilty of felony murder. They past he drink to Wes, who drinks it in one gulp. He hands the empty glass back, but Willie Ray tells him he’ll get another when he eats.

At Brenda’s, Gabriel and Sanchez are sharing some ‘za with Grady and trying to get more information. They’ve figured out who RJ is, they think, and know how he got the car. They give him some mug shots, and when Grady hesitates, Sanchez gets seriously scary yelling in his face about how dead he and Wes are going to end up if Grady doesn’t identify someone soon, what with the people who want to kill them both and how Grady will only be protected by the LAPD if he knows something. Grady points out the right photo after getting Gabriel’s word that it’ll help Wes. Sanchez leaves to go find RJ.

Wes is looking for more booze from Brenda when she gets the photo on her cell from Sanchez. She says he can have it, on one condition. Fritz takes his leave for some fresh air—either because of the bourbon or the illegality of what Brenda’s doing, I don’t know. The first time I watched this episode, I spent 90% of it agog at how completely illegal all this has to be, but it’s much easier to stomach the second time. And, in the Johnson tradition, a huge glass of red wine. Brenda shows Wes the photo, saying a witness ID’d RJ as one of Grady’s attackers. Wes takes the phone and stares at it while Brenda wheedles some more. Wes says that no one was supposed to get hurt. When the others started shooting and his friend got hit, Wes got out of the car and yelled for them to stop. They started shooting at him, too. He begins to cry that he didn’t know what to do, and he was too scared to go home for Grady, so he left his brother behind. He sobs, and Brenda offers him some tissues, still working at him for confirmation of RJ and Thumps’ real name. He complies, saying the two are meth heads; he quit when Grady came to live with him. He tells Brenda she’s lucky to have a family that can take care of her; he and Grady were abandoned by their father, their mother was an addict, and their grandmother couldn’t look after Grady. He asks plaintively why they had to hurt his brother. Brenda, sugar-voiced, says they might have been mad at him for running, since they were partners and he helped them pull in the big money. "Isn’t that right?"

Wes is a talky, tangenty drunk, and he starts talking about how much he liked working for Task. His co-workers were kind to him and Grady. Brenda asks where RJ and Thumps are; Wes doesn’t know, since he only communicated with them through disposable phones once he started helping with the robberies. He gave them the drop information then threw out the phone after the job. The next meet is for Christmas Eve, and Wes says he can find out where it’ll be. Brenda says they can get him a deal with the DA if he signs the extradition waiver and helps them nab RJ and Thumps. And then, she says, maybe something good will come of all this. "Yeah, like maybe they’ll get their heads blown off," he says. She tries to tell him about "when this is all over," but he dismissively says it’s already over and has been since he found out about Grady’s "death." She hands him the Faux Beam, but he says it’s not helping anymore. And with that, he lays down to sleep.

Christmas in the Murder Room! Brenda arrives with Wesley in tow, and he studies the pictures of him and his brother on the white board as Tao catches Brenda up. They’ve got Robbery Homicide staking out possible sites for the next robbery, based on Wesley’s scheduled routes. And, Sanchez adds, they have the crime scene footage she asked for. This is definitely the lowest she’s gone, here. Flynn escorts Wesley to watch the tape. Brenda asks about a DA and public defender for Wesley’s deal; Tao says they’re waiting in an interview room, and Pope is also waiting in his office for Brenda. Provenza tries to appeal to her one more time to tell Wesley the truth, but now’s not the time.

Brenda joins Wesley in the video room. The video that Tao, Sanchez, and Buzz have set up is quite elaborate: the room is trashed, bloodied, and there’s a hole in the floor where the money was supposedly found. Sanchez points out where Grady was taped to a chair and tortured, then shot. The chair is just drenched with fake blood. And in a real crime scene video, the body would still be there, but what the guys have faked is enough to make Brenda look at least a little squeamish. Or maybe that’s jet lag. When the video finishes, Wes asks what they want him to do.

Brenda provides all her documentation to Pope and Taylor. She adds that Wes has agreed to turn state’s evidence against the shooters; Provenza, from the corner, pipes up that Wes is also going to wear a wire and camera while he tries to find Thumps and RJ before the next robbery. Taylor adds that Robbery Homicide and SIS are on surveillance, and, basically, that the case is his again. Brenda says that, since she lied to Wesley about Grady’s death, she feels responsible for what happens next. But Wesley’s potential welfare is in the hands of RH and SIS, since emerging from hiding to find Thumps and RJ is part of his deal, so once he’s wired, Brenda can wash her hands of Wes. She asks if afterwards, Wes and Grady can meet. Pope says that if not for the deal Brenda brokered, Wes would be facing the death penalty, so… no. Taylor sides with Brenda, so Pope throws her a whatever. Provenza starts to say that, after spending so much time with Wesley, they have a relationship with him and shouldn’t have to hand him over to RH. Brenda far too readily concedes to Pope’s authority, telling her Lieutenant that the tactical operation is now in the hands of SIS and RH. Pope and Taylor are rightly suspicious.

Buzz and Detective Ross wire Wes, who strikes a Jesus pose for good effect. Brenda watches from the video room. Flynn advises Wes that he doesn’t have a homing device on him, so he should stay in touch. Buzz tells him that the video attached to his shirt isn’t live, but recorded, so he REALLY needs to stay in touch. Wes asks for Brenda, but Flynn tells him he can see her tomorrow after he turns himself in. Tellingly, Wes passes a "so long" message to Brenda through Flynn. Ross steps into the video room for a briefcase of some sort, and Brenda asks him to see that Wesley doesn’t get hurt. Wes offers a hand and merry Christmas to Flynn, but with the hurt wrist, they have to shake on the wrong side. Flynn pulls Wes in to warn him not to run off or the whole thing goes sour. When the interview room is empty, Brenda asks if they have the transmitters in his shoes. Tao says they do, but they’re only good for a hundred yard radius. She sighs that it’s up to Taylor now, but if he messes up, they have back up.

Brenda arrives home to find Grady sleeping on the couch and Gabriel having coffee with Willie Ray. Fritz and Clay are asleep. Willie Ray stayed up to keep Gabriel company in watching Grady, who, she says, she and Clay were surprised to meet. Gabriel politely steps out. Brenda takes his seat and tells her mother she had to lie to get Wesley’s confession, which is her job. Willie Ray asks if she had to lie to her parents, too; they felt horrible about Grady’s "death" the whole trip. She retreats to the kitchen, where Brenda follows her. She says that if she told the truth to her parents, they would have behaved differently to Wesley, and he would have seen through the lie. She’s sorry if her mother’s feelings got hurt. (I’m sorry your feelings got hurt is such a bad apology. It’s like, I’m sorry your face got punched by my fist.) The lie she told will help get two murderers off the streets, which Brenda thinks has to be worth something. Willie Ray wonders if it’s worth four days of hell for Wesley. Brenda shows her photos of the two men that died as part of Wesley’s robbery scam and asks if the families of these men would feel as bad about what she did to Wesley as Willie Ray does right now. Gabriel clears his throat, stepping in to tell Brenda that Wes dumped his wire and Ross has lost him. Brenda asks for two squad cars and someone from SIS to stay at the house. She sends Gabriel to the Murder Room. Before she leaves, she tells her mother she feels bad for what she’s done, but she’d do it all again. Willie Ray looks at the photos and cries.

In the video room, Brenda, Pope, Tao, Buzz, and Taylor watch the footage from Wesley’s wire. Wes tells Brenda that her crime scene video was mistaken—Thumps and RJ wouldn’t have had to kill Grady to find out where Wesley was keeping his money, because they already knew. He figures that Grady isn’t dead, but that he did tell Brenda who Thumps and RJ are. Thumps and RJ are going to figure that out, too, and that’s no good for Wes or Grady. If things don’t go well for Wes, he asks that Brenda look out for Grady and thank her parents for him. Taylor asks how they found the wire; Tao says Wesley called it in himself and Sanchez went to the location he gave. Which was right outside a bank on Wes’s partner’s route, but not one SIS and RH are watching. Pope can’t believe that they have so many people out and none of them are in the right place. Brenda tells him about the transmitters in Wesley’s shoes, which show that he went to some apartments, maybe to pick up a gun or confront RJ and Thumps, and then returned to the bank, where he dropped the wire. Brenda says she has undercover officers there, but they don’t have his exact location. Pope asks if she expected something like this, what with the transmitters she didn’t tell Ross about. Brenda says she was covering her bases. Taylor basically says Brenda knows Wesley’s going after RJ and Thumps himself, which she denies.

Pope tells Brenda to get men at the bank with her best shooter on the roof. They cut to Sanchez, kitted out as a maintenance man, when he says this. After this episode, unsurprising he’s their sharpshooter guy. Tao and Buzz are watching from a van across the street; Gabriel and Provenza are strolling around undercover. Well, Gabriel is dressed like a normal person, and Provenza looks like an escaped lunatic fly-fisherman, with his dirty, flat straw hat and camo vest and the requisite homeless person shopping cart. Tao radios that he sees the van RJ and Thumps have probably been using. In voice over, Pope warns Brenda to make sure her guys are inconspicuous and to warn the bank to let no one in or out when the truck is scheduled to be there. They should protect anyone who seems vulnerable, he adds; we see they’ve rigged one of the ATMs with an "out of order" sign, and Gabriel’s pacing behind a woman at the other, as though waiting for her to finish. On the roof, Sanchez signals he’s in place. We see Wesley, hiding under a car with a gun to his chest.

The armored truck arrives; Flynn alerts everyone via their comms. Brenda tells them to avoid gunfire if possible. "Let’s take ‘em down with as little mess as possible." Sanchez readies his rifle and scope. Brenda positions herself by the bank door. Flynn steps out of his car. Brenda slowly tells everyone to wait just as the truck opens its back doors. And from a car nearby, two masked men step into the daylight, guns drawn. Wes rolls from beneath the car as though he’s part of the operation, Brenda and Flynn and Provenza bearing their weapons not a second behind him. The driver of the armored truck swings to the pavement. Wes steps up behind his old cohorts, gun raised. Just before he shoots, Brenda shouts Wesley’s name. Two shots each, Thumps and RJ go down. Brenda shouts for Wesley to drop his gun. He turns towards Brenda, gun pointing down, as PHD gather around him and tell him to drop the gun. He begins to raise his hands, striking the Jesus pose again, when the truck’s driver takes aim and shoots Wesley three times in the chest. Brenda gasps, and Wesley falls in slow motion. The guys converge on the driver as Brenda runs to Wesley and listens for a heartbeat. His eyes are opening and staring. Brenda tries to catch her breath.

This kid breaks my heart. Grady’s in Brenda’s living room dressed up in a suit that’s too big for him. He thanks Willie Ray and Clay for the suit and the presents, stuttering that he’s not sure he can keep them. He tells Fritz that when he sees Wes again, he’ll ask if he can. All bright eyed and fresh faced, he says he knows his brother is doing important work for the police, but does Fritz think maybe he’ll call today? Willie Ray tells him to talk to Brenda about it. Grady starts to call for her, but Fritz says to ask her at the hotel, where they’re having dinner. Fritz calls for Brenda again. Willie Ray asks if the fancy hotel will valet the RV, which Fritz says he’d love to see. Grady leads the way out, saying everyone’s being so nice to him—Wes must be some kind of hero, huh? Willie Ray says firmly, in his own way, yes. She and Grady go out; Fritz and Clay linger on the doorstep, and Clay says he’ll talk to Brenda.

With a sigh, he takes himself to Brenda’s room, where she’s sitting lost in thought. She says she’s not quite ready. The irony of this scene is perfect and awful at the same time. Clay tells Brenda to pull herself together, or Grady will think something’s wrong. She says there is: tomorrow, she’s going to have to tell Grady his brother’s dead. Clay says she won’t, either. Grady will go on thinking Wesley’s working undercover for the police, and when he’s gotten used to not seeing him, they’ll tell him the truth. Brenda’s a professional liar, Clay says, she’ll figure out how to tell him and make him believe it. He says she has a tough job in which she has to make hard decisions, but he trusts her to do it. She says she tries to do what’s right, to the best of her ability. Clay tells her they’re leaving tomorrow, and they’d like to take Grady with them. They’ll tell him something about the Witness Protection Program. Brenda says Wesley was right; she passes on his thanks and how he said she was lucky to have her parents. She tearfully says she really is. She hugs him, and Clay looks about to bust. She asks if he’s sure about Grady, and he says they are. He tells her to buck up for the holiday. And he wants his Perry Como back!

Brenda fakes a smile at her reflection and looks around at her house as though saying goodbye. Perry Como in hand, she leaves with one last look at the tree and the presents beneath.