I’m not sure I’ve ever felt worse for one of Brenda’s confessing killers than I did for Monroe last night, as he admitted to whacking his demon seed son to death with a hammer. And I found myself annoyed at Brenda. Couldn’t she be gentler with this poor man? Couldn’t she see what a terrible bind he was in?
Actually, I think she did see, which explains her decision to nix having kids, but more on that later.
I like demon seed plots, because they confirm (albeit in a blackhearted way) my strongest belief about parenting: you don’t mold kids, you unfold them. And sometimes you unfold adorable Dartmouth-bound soccer players, and sometimes you unfold little Sergeis, who stuff their hamsters down the disposal and stomp on baby birds.
So that is my answer to your murmured question, Brenda. I think some people really are just born that way. The Closer writers, however, carefully stayed on the fence with the nature/nurture debate. Sergei was adopted from Russia where maybe he was abused in one of those grim orphanages.
Or maybe he wasn’t.
I do hold parents responsible for some things, and the Monroes had a lot to answer for in their daughter — not a psychopath, just a brat. To start with, they could have taken away the black lipstick. But however obnoxious she was, I knew she didn’t kill Sergei. And I knew the dog-loving neighbor was a red herring, even after his spluttered, "I want that kid dead."
And heartbreaking Jason Hetner … it’s always rough being 14, but it must be hell if you’re gay and have an unrequited crush on a Sergei who tempts you, taunts you, and blackmails you.
But I knew Jason didn’t kill him.
I knew it was the nice, mild parents. I just knew. And I didn’tentirely blame them, which made the whole episode all the more complexand upsetting. Honestly, people, what are you supposed to do when youhave a little Jeffrey Dahmer on your hands? When anger camp doesn’twork and the Russians won’t take him back? Murder isn’t the answer, butwhat is?
Returning to the interrogation scene, did other people think Brendawas too hard-assed? Did you find her hammer-banging overly, um, hammy?
Obviously, she was more sensitive to what the Monroes were goingthrough than she initially appeared, which I assume informed herdecision, revealed shortly thereafter, to forgo having children.
Fritz: "I take it then you’re not interested in what school district we buy into?"
Brenda: "I don’t think we need to worry about schools."
Fritz: "I see."
Fritz! Brenda! Talk to each other! It does not bode well for yourlong-term happiness that something this important is swept so neatlyunder the rug.
But here’s a question: If kids are a hot topic, how old is Brenda?Kyra Sedgwick turns 43 today, which is the tail-end of childbearingage. I think Brenda is meant to be younger. Was her age dropped in aprevious episode?
And given that the guy (boyfriend?) she was dancing with last nightwants to have a baby with her, Grace Anadarka is clearly meant to be alot younger than fifty, which is Holly Hunter’s age.
Yes, I stayed up for Saving Grace. Thanks for all the inputlast week. Coming in at the season’s penultimate episode, I had no ideawhat was going on, but I liked the gritty atmosphere. The music. Theboozing. The dishes piled up in Grace’s sink. Given how the ads haveturned me off, I was unprepared to find myself feeling far more warmlytowards basket-case Grace than I did towards Brenda last night. Am Ithe only one?
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Although Brenda’s attitude in the final interrogation with the parents was a little off-putting, I’ll take her over the monumentally self-centered Grace any day.
Did anyone notice that the cardboard box at the scene was labeled ‘Dead Dog’? Cracked me up.
There is one other thing that was bothering me–why did Flynn ask the next door neighbor to put his hands in his pockets when they finished questioning him? For the life of me, I can’t figure that one out.
Jennifer – Your recaps keep getting better. I think it would benefit your insight into the series greatly if you did a Closer marathon and caught up with some of the finer character points. Fertility has been a topic in some past eps for example. Your writing is terrific (ignore the unemployed humps) you just need a little more insight into what makes these people tick. I’m glad you saw Grace last night – it was a great intro to Grace herself. Keep up the good work – it keeps getting better!
Really Michael’s sister!
I did notice the “dead dog” written on the box, and said to my spouse, “Did that say dead dog on the box?”
I assumed the hands in the pockets was so he wouldn’t need to put handcuffs on him when they took him for questioning.
As for Brenda’s age, I thought she went through early menopause a few seasons ago. Anyone else remember that?
In a previous episode, Brenda acknowledged celebrating her 40th birthday– a difficult milestone for her– and thought she might also be pregnant. (She wasn’t.) So, the topic of children has come up before– with her being very reluctant and Fritz being more willing.
OK, people, here’s the thing: Brenda’s job is to get a confession. Her job is to push people — push them HARD — until they spill the beans about themselves or point the finger at someone else. She was obviously trying to get the husband (or wife) to confess OR blame their spouse. But when the wife and husband genuinely broke down because they couldn’t control their terrible son, Brenda’s face showed that she sympathized with them and hated doing what she was supposed to be doing. Her job is not to judge them or provide excuses for what they did or figure out if it was “justifiable” homicide — her job is to get them to confess, pure and simple, and then let the justice system sort out the rest. I’m sure that there are plenty of police officers who sympathize with the criminals but who are required to do their job, no matter what.
As for the baby situation, Brenda did have a health scare last year and for her to have kids is now more difficult, but not impossible.
I love this show – I laughed out loud at ‘Dead Dog’ written on the box. Nature vs Nuture – age old question – I used to think 100% Nuture but now, not so sure. It seems there are ‘Natural Born Killers’ every where.
hello peeps! age aside – there was a whole storyline last year where brenda is going through premature menopause. so whether she’s in the age range to have kids is moot – she would have to adopt if she’s already menopausal. and i don’t know who would want to adopt immediately after that disaster of a family example.
Brenda suffers from some sort of condition that makes fertitlity a problem and has had her suffering from menopausal symptoms, that’s why she has to lay off the candy because it makes it worse and can leave her unable to have children.
So everyone feels more sympathy for the parents than the child they killed. Sergei was evil and deserved to die? I don’t think so.
I do believe that “nature” has a lot to do with the kind of person you grow into, but abuse and neglect during the formative years is something that is extremely difficult to overcome. Sergei was adopted from another country and lived in who-knows-what conditions until the age of eight.
Sergei’s parents had other options. If he had killed animals before, they could have had him arrested and requested a psychological examination. They could have had him committed, if not with the state then in a private institution- they were his “parents” after all.
On a note to Ms Reese, being Goth doesn’t make her a bad kid and certainly not a brat. The child-killers had no problems with her. The dad put a lock on her door to protect her from her brother’s impulses. And, in Theresa’s voice mail on Sergei’s phone, she was angry about Sergei causing their mother to cry.
Besides, simply taking away black lipstick will not turn a girl into Marcia Brady. She was a teenager, after all.
I thought I also glipmpsed some compassion from Brenda when the boy revealed that he was gay and that Sergei had been blackmailing him.
I thought I also glimpsed some compassion from Brenda when the boy revealed that he was gay and that Sergei had been blackmailing him.
Did anyone else notice that the bratty older sister was none other than April (Luke’s daughter) from Gilmore Girls?
I didn’t find Brenda off-putting in the interrogation room–she knew it wasn’t the sister, only used her to crack the parents. Feel sorry for the parents? To a degree, yes. But remember they lied to Brenda et.al. non-stop from the beginning, wasted their time and resources, caused discourse between Will and Fritzie-I’d be hacked off too.
Even if Brenda didn’t have the surgery for her early menopause, and probably way difficult to conceive, and that she’s 40, she is SO not the mother type. Plus she’s seen too much ugliness in her various positions, I don’t see her with babies, no way.
Oh….last night’s Grace was a good one to come into–and I want to know why the two shows are constantly compared–because the leads are women in law enforcement? Not enough of a match, as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t think that anyone deserves to die, no. But since this is a tv show, I feel perfectly okay in having more sympathy for the parents and, most of all, for Brenda who had to drag a confession out of them than for a vicious child who would probably have ended up killing human beings and going to prison for it. And that was kind of the best case scenario for poor evil Sergei.
The only thing I didn’t like about the episode was the anviltastic demon child plotline coinciding with Brenda’s having to make an immediate decision about whether or not she seriously wanted to have a child. I’ve seen it done before, and I would have appreciated a little more subtlety. I expect better from this show.
No one deserves to die but my question of the day is…if you were his parents, what would you do? They are protecting the daughter, sent him to mental institutions, tried to give him back to Russia, all to no avail. What recourse do they have?
I think The Closer deserves a full tv recap, not this half-arsed half-page. The Closer also deserves the writer’s full attention, without delving into Saving Grace.
Maybe Betty Draper from Mad Men needs to spend some time with Sergie and then she won’t think her own little angel Bobby is so bad.
I agree that the recap/critique should be far more in depth. I am disappointed that they have not addressed Brenda’s betrayal of Fritz in a previous episode. Their relationship is an integral part of the story. The audience deserves to see how they reconciled. If they continue to evade important issues, their relationship could explode. Is that what the writers are building up to–a cliffhanger season finale?
Jason, the friend who Sergei bullied, was the same actor who played one half of the Spy Kids, the Richard Rodriguez movie about a family of secret agents.
Amen AJ! Leave the Saving Grace commentary for another recap. Keep the focus on the Closer please. This was a good ep, but I always prefer to see a few more clever gags thrown in (like the classic “Idiot” and “Bigger Idiot” on the white board pics of last week’s suspects). I think the Dead Dog marker on the box was about it last night. Love Brenda and Fritz together, but they’re sure throwing in plenty of foreshadowing for a potential split.
yes,Brenda did go through menopause,so unless they;re gambling on a ‘change of life’ baby,it’s a no go.What fantasy land is Fritz living in?
“Returning to the interrogation scene, did other people think Brenda was too hard-assed? Did you find her hammer-banging overly, um, hammy?”
I didn’t think she was too hard-assed at all. At the end of the day, Brenda’s priority (no pun intended) is *always* going to be the victim. And Sergei *was* the victim, his bad-seedness notwithstanding. The father didn’t just physically discipline Sergei in a way that might have actually cowed him; he *crushed the kid’s skull*. I had no problem with Brenda tearing into him for that. I mean, I don’t think one can argue “Murder isn’t the answer” while in the same breath expect Brenda to go easy on a murderer just because said murderer didn’t have — or didn’t think he had — any other options.
As for the hammer, I saw that as Brenda’s deliberately and carefully OTT way of confirming her suspicion that the daughter wasn’t the killer. I think she suspected the parents by that point; she just wanted to ascertain which one of them did it.
I enjoyed the show! I think it is great that they would bring to light, the kid you have done everything for and that you can with a difficult child-What would you do??
Been there done that, it is not easy and is very hard. it is always the parents fault-jail, institutions don’t work and no one takes you seriously- he is just a kid. Thanks for the “real life” situation.
Brenda had the onset of early menopause but by modifying her diet and having a surgical procedure it was nipped in the bud
Apparently Brenda missed the profiling class that teaches that most, if not all, serial killers begin by torturing & killing animals as children. These people are sociopaths and I felt sorry for the parents for having to deal with this child. Yes, killing him was extreme, but I’m sure after God knows how long of putting up with his behavior, they just snapped. Maybe they could’ve had him committed to a psychiatric ward, but eventually he would’ve gotten out & would probably be even worse than when he went in. As for Brenda & Fritz having kids, I think he’d be a great dad, while her…eh.. not so much. Considering she can’t even commit to buying a house together with him, I’d be a little bit leery of their future together. That said, I love everyone on her team, and hope no one leaves or is written off anytime soon.
To Jennifer Reese–We’re in a time where there are actually TV shows that have depth and are worth actual discussion, those of us that like to dissect the eps, the arcs, and the character development are looking for the same when coming to recaps like this. That is why some of your commentors get pissy with short, uninspired entries. Leave Grace to her own recap–these are not sister-shows, one is not a spin-off of the other. Enough already.
For a good model of great recaps, read the Mad Men recaps–that writer is good at this.
This comment is not in a nasty tone–just wondering if you understand why you get smack talking comments about your recaps. They look like you’ve never watched the show before, or that in the present, barely watch each episode. Gotta dvr those babies and watch at least twice, & take notes–that’s how much ’stuff’ is packed into these episodes–nuances especially, are missed the first time around.
You can do it, you have it in you, just need to flesh it out.
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Don’t forget to check those prior eps for your questions. There was a whole episode about her acting all crazy and they found out it was her 40th birthday. I think her decision about kids had to go with not just this case but a good amount of her cases were dealing with kids, the boys in the cherry picking game, this sergei kid, the kid a season or two ago whose parents let him run off to Mexico. I’m 33 and I’m not even sure if I want kids just because what kind of world will I be leaving my kids in. She did feel for the parents but she doesn’t like to lead all on a wild goose chase. She did the dramatics so they would blurt out something which they did, that they knew exactly when he died.
And Grace’s last name is Hanadarko.
I love this show and can’t stand “Saving Grace” so count me in on leaving that commentary out of this recap.
It seems obvious to me that Fritz and Brenda are headed for some type of blow-up. The fact that they didn’t address what happened last week or how it was resolved amazed me. When the child issue was brushed aside so easily this week, it just seemed as if they were piling on the layers. Despite Brenda’s medical issues, there are many other ways to build a family. It seemed quite telling to me that this episode was built around an adopted child. If that was what was in Fritz’s mind, it gave Brenda another basis to argue against it. The parent’s so-called resolution of this problem was absolutely repulsive and certainly would give Brenda more reason to question whether or not she wanted a child. (Not that I think she’s particularly maternal in nature anyway.) Great interplay between Pope and Fritz in this episode too!