The Closer: Controlled Burn (Episode 401)

Just plain Brenda. The hills are on fire in LA. It is totally freaking Brenda Leigh out. Not only is Brenda dealing with a crime scene that encompasses an entire park-area of wildfire, but she's being shadowed by a reporter named Ricardo. She's got four bodies to deal with, and the LAFD won't talk to her. This is because she isn't supposed to be there, as the LAPD is only supposed to manage evacuations, direct traffic, and tow cars. Pope and Taylor tell her they're not sure they're dealing with arson, though Gabriel thinks they are. Brenda is freaking out over the "massive, massive" crime scene. "It's not a muder anymore, it's a natural disaster," she says. Pope and Brenda argue about the reporter, and two firefighters bring in another charred victim. Pope pulls rank, and Brenda can only say, "yippee." Four minutes in and not a "thank you, thank you so much"? Whatever, show.

All the regulars assemble outside the fire zone, and Brenda asks if someone was seen running out of the fire (CLUE). Flynn doesn't know how an arsonist could have escaped amid all the authorities. Daniels chimes in that the last victim was found where the homeless are routinely found, which may explain her missing ID. She stumbles with a box, and when Gabriel goes to help her, insists she has it. It is weird. Awkward bells are ringing, and everyone glances at each other with looks of "the hell"? Buzz breaks it up to show Brenda video footage of the assembled crowd, which includes Billy Croelick. Croelick was a suspect in a first season case--he was released from prison because the woman he'd supposedly murdered showed up freshly dead after three years, and Brenda couldn't tie him to anything. He has a fire fetish, likes tiny blonde women, and stalked Brenda through the episode. Hence the look on Brenda's face.

Back at the station, Taylor and Pope do the exposition dance for Ricardo, telling him that Croelick is suing the LAPD for wrongful imprisonment. Ricardo likes this angle, which makes Brenda, watching footage of the fire, sigh in disgust, given that she doesn't want to make it harder to find Croelick. His picture in the paper makes for unreliable witnesses, plus, they can't say he's an arsonist, as he was never convicted for it. Brenda tells Ricardo to stay away from Croelick, given that he likes to stalk people. Brenda takes a call from Provenza while Pope threatens Ricardo away from publishing a photo of Croelick. "Thank you so much!" Eight minute mark! Drink! Brenda puts it this way to Ricardo: he can visit the county morgue with Brenda, or on his own and a whole lot deadder.

Amid some coroner comedy, Dr. Morales informs Brenda that their victim was definitely not homeless, given the clothes she wore and the state of her teeth. She did not die as a result of the fire; a blow to the head killed her, and she was drenched in alcohol before she was lit on fire. Morales says he can rehydrate the hand for prints, possibly. The body is also the epicenter of the fire.

Kitty's waiting for Brenda when she and Ricardo arrive home. Brenda is weird about the cat--more weird than usual--because her landlord doesn't allow pets. Fritz gets the evil eye for letting Kitty wander the house to be scene while the curtains are open. Awkward exposition: Brenda and Fritz moved into the rental six weeks ago, haven't unpacked, and aren't getting married until they find a house. Brenda excuses herself to change before going to see the firefighters. Upstairs, she gives Fritz guff for not getting a plumber in to fix the toilet, since they can't call the landlord because of Kitty. And also, Fritz peed in the shower, to Brenda's great dismay. Brenda strips and changes, and Kyra Sedgwick is in SUCH great shape. Brenda is also losing her mind (and has lost her favorite, signature brown cardigan). Fritz is understanding, because he is whipped.

Gabriel meets her at the hospital to question a firefighter (at the apparent concern of his wife, who wants them to go easy on him). Brenda asks if he and Daniels are having problems. He doth protest too much, and Brenda basically tells him she can't handle it. He's so cute, but he's totally in trouble with Daniels for something. Brenda questions a firefighter named Tom (played by Brian Krause), who points out the location of the body in question. He tells the detectives that they were looking for her (CLUE) in a way, given that homeless people tend to gather there and they wanted to make sure everyone was out. They'd rousted people not long again, but he wanted to make sure they hadn't come back. He describes one weird guy who is generically scruffy but not necessarily homeless. Gabriel shows him photos, including Croelick's, but he can't ID any of them. Brenda asks how someone could have started the fire and gotten out before it was sealed off (CLUE), and he says they might find another body. Arsonists, he says, aren't usually very bright (CLUE).

Back at the station, the PHD theorize about Croelick as suspect, with Ricardo listening. Daniels says the fire is 95% contained; she's giving details, and Gabriel hops in to help her out, earning him a nasty look from Daniels. Provenza asks Tao if they know about the Jane Doe with the teeth yet, but it's no go. Sanchez (Sanchez! I missed you most of all!) kicks Ricardo out of his chair and says Croelick is low-profile, but still a pyro.

And enter Croelick to be creepy to "just plain Brenda," as he still calls her since their first interaction in season one. He offers to talk, since they're all looking for him anyway. He is cree. pee.

Everyone's gathered in Buzz's nest, with Ricardo, while Brenda talks to Croelick. He says he's already been to her old place, given that he's gross. Croelick and Brenda spar about what they may or may not have found at the scene, and whether he is or is not a suspect, and what it may or may not have to do with his case. Dude is totally bipolar. He wants Brenda to take him to the fire site and take advantage of his expertise. Provenza arrives above to say they haven't ID'd Jane Doe yet, just as Croelick starts to leave. Brenda asks for an alibi, so Croelick bargains: he'll go to Griffith Park or invoke his right to counsel. Brenda tells him to wait, and upstairs, Pope grins: "he took the bait."

The crew hikes to the epicenter of the fire. Croelick gets a total fire boner about how they are all just fuel for the potential fire. He tells them they're standing at the spot where the woman burned, pointing out her wallet in the ashes. There is, he says, another body. He also tells them that the brush has been hauled away as though the murderer meant to take the body with him, but the flames got out of control. Brenda: WHERE'S THE BODY? Croelick picks up a totally toasted rat: picked up the flame from the dead girl and took it to the hills. He hands it to Gabriel, offering his best "thank you, thank you so much." It is not bad. He makes some fireball sound effects and tells them that it happened fast. Brenda and Gabriel are about ready to lay the trap, but Croelick surprises them by knowing that the girl was dead before she was set alight, which is so not Croelick's style. Which he knows courtesy of Ricardo.

Gabriel, Taylor, and Brenda gather to flame the reporter's ass. He called Croelick's attorney, which is how he found the pyro and interviewed him before Brenda and her team. Ricardo says that he's the one who found Croelick and convinced hime to come in, so they should be grateful. Brenda wants all his notes and tapes. They shout over each other about what's against the law, her asking or his withholding. Tao pops in to tell them that Morales can get fingerprints off Jane Doe. Ricardo asks what they need to make an arrest, other than Croelick taking them to the scene of the crime and describing what happened. Brenda: "Untainted evidence." Taylor: And your notes, dickwad. Taylor tells him to shut up and gets in his face about reading him his rights; Brenda makes to leave, and Taylor apologizes for the fuck-up and offers to call Ricard's editor.

This part is less gross than Brenda thinks it is; I watch TV, so I'm not that put off. Tao, Gabriel, and Brenda meet with the coroner, who wants Brenda to put the rehydrated skin on her own hand to make the print. She has to take off her gloves to do it, so she's wearing the blackened, rehydrated skin of a dead woman on her first two fingers and thumb. Tao tells her to keep her eyes on Gabriel, who, after an initial gross-out, tells her there's nothing to it: "It's just science!... at work." He's so cute. Again. Daniels, I hope he did something REALLY BAD for you to be so mean.

Jane Doe is Linda Harold, who stalked a boyfriend and was fingerprinted for it. The stalkee has an alibi, but he does say Linda always needed to know where he was. She was reported missing when she never made the nightly deposit for the bar she worked at. Pope arrives, Ricardo in tow, and Brenda leads them to the hall. She exposits that they're trying to find Linda's missing car, which Brenda thinks the murderer used. Pope says the LAPD and the Times have reached a compromise; Ricardo reluctantly apologizes. Pope says Brenda accepts. "I do?" Pope: "That's great." The rest of the deal: Brenda catches Ricardo up on what he's missed, and he gives her his notes. Brenda mulls for a second before sticking out her hand for the notes. Ricardo hands her his bag, and Brenda leaves to go through Linda's stuff.

In Brenda's office, the boys tell Ricardo that there's nothing connecting Linda and Croelick, though it looks like items were removed from her home and there was no forced entry. Flynn explains that Linda reached for the phone, and the murderer yanked it from the wall. And, Sanchez adds, grabbed her LIKE THIS: he grabs Ricardo by his midsection and hoists him into the air so his feet are sticking up in midair. Brenda, without looking up, tells Sanchez to put Ricardo down. He complies, then acts out the crime loudly and forcefully so that Ricard, if he had any doubt, will know just how much Sanchez could fuck him up if he felt like it. The killer pushed Linda into some shelving and dropped her to the ground, hard, then smashed her head in with a bookend. "WHAM!" Sanchez adds. The killer cut up the carpet, rolled Linda into it, and put her in his trunk to take her to the park, where he lit her on fire. Ricardo wants to know where the computer and carpet are, and Brenda explains that the fire would have to have been suspiciously hot for the first and been toxic from the second. Ricardo says this means the killer is an experienced arsonist. She insinuates that Ricardo could be a suspect, because she is pissed at him, saying that sometimes the how is more important than the why. What she wants to know is HOW the killer got away. She supposes that, with all the authorities and media, the killer would have had to abandon the car, but given that they haven't found it yet, didn't. Thus the conundrum: the killer got out of the fire, for one, and for two, took off in the victim's car, and wasn't noticed.

Enter Fritz, exit Ricardo (without his notes). The landlord is coming to fix the toilets in their de-Kitty-ed apartment. Because Kitty, and all her things, are now living in Brenda's office. Brenda says maintenance will take him away, though Fritz says Brenda can just pick her back up in the morning. Brenda gets that look: "They take her away, and I pick her up later," she mumbles. Fritz still thinks they're having a conversation, but Brenda's done. She apologizes to Kitty and puts him aside, saying she has to go. She remembers what Pope and Taylor said about the PD's role in fires: they tow cars. She leaves, handing care of Kitty to Fritz. As usual.

Impound lot. Firefighter Tom has arrived to collect a car. Brenda pops up and reintroduces herself. She does her sweet-talking, "I know you did it" thing, saying the car that he's got the keys to belongs to the victim he pulled from the file. Gabriel reads him his rights, and Flynn pops the trunk. Ricardo snaps photos as Gabriel explains how Tom rousted the homeless so he could dump Linda's body without being seen, and he controlled the burn by cutting away the brush. Plus, the phone in Linda's house has Tom's number in redial. Brenda supposes that Linda, who had a history of bad break ups, wanted to talk to Tom's wife about their affair. It was sheer luck that he'd changed into his uniform when he burned Linda, which allowed him to escape with his fellows when the fire got out of control. Brenda tells him to think hard and be honest: did he kill Linda on purpose? He says he didn't, he didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted to keep her from ratting him out. The shelf fell and she died before he could get help. Brenda, doing her thing, breathlessly says she believes him. They're going to have to charge him for arson, and also? Four counts of felony murder for all the people that died in his fire. Ricardo snaps a pretty badass photo of Brenda Leigh.

Brenda gets home to find the plumber on his way out, and Croelick waiting for her in the dining room. She pulls her gun on him and calls for Fritz, while Croelick is like, "hey, baby, I come in peace!" He reminds her that she found the location of the body because of him, and she asks why, since that's the case, he came. He brought her some candles and a flip lighter, a creepy gesture of friendship. Where friendship is stalking. Croelick tells her that he's going to settle for $4 million and leave LA, so he's come to say farewell to his old flame. Brenda walks him to the door at the point of her gun, at which point he blows her a kiss. Fritz arrives just as Croelick leaves, dinner in hand, surprised to find Kitty waiting in the kitchen and candles on the table.

Trying to get a hold of herself, Brenda explains she called the landlord and gave him a big, fat security deposit. Fritz tells her he has something for her, too, and procures her beloved brown cardigan. When he asks, she lies that she's okay, just tired. He tells her the candles are romantic, but she says they were a gift from someone she worked with. Someone creepy.