Issue # 9, 3 – 9 August 2008

Posted by AJ in TV Rewind.

Show: The Closer
Episode: “Live Wire” (4×04)
You Can Watch It: Mondays at 9pm on TNT

This week on The Closer , Brenda and Priority Homicide take over a case involving an unidentified man who has been shot in an alley while wearing a wire. Obviously, not so good for the unidentified man or his family, and seeing as how the victim was discovered by Brenda’s favorite LA Times reporter, Ricardo Ramos (see “Controlled Burn” 4×01), not so good for Brenda either. After spending much of the start of their investigation trying to figure out if the victim was an informant for one of the various law enforcement branches working in Los Angeles, Brenda and the rest of PHD discover that the guy was a real estate agent who got fired and turned to selling drugs to make money for his family. How…noble? Unfortunately, while trying to figure out who the victim was and because she discussed the case at home with her FBI-employed fiancé, Special Agent Fritz Howard, the FBI took a special interest in the case. Apparently, good ole dead guy here was part of an elaborate South American drug-smuggling crime ring that they’ve been trying to bring down for five or so years. Ouch. Brenda, desperate to see the victim’s killer actually do jail time instead of being carted off to some undisclosed town in Idaho, played a little trickeroo on Fritz. She may have manipulated a conversation they had over breakfast so that Fritz and his team would stake out the victim’s house (where his family lived) and not the victim’s secret loft (the one he used as a front for all his criminal transactions and the place where he housed the receiver that recorded everything from his wire). After using Ricardo Ramos to plant some information in the newspaper to make the killer think the police hadn’t already found the wire’s recordings, Brenda planned a takedown at the victim’s loft. And when Fritz asked her where the victim lived, she game him the address of his house because, well, you see…he didn’t live at the loft. In the end, Brenda got her killer—it was the victim’s screw-up friend from high school that got him involved in the drug smuggling business in the first place—and she even convinced him that his safest bet would be to go straight to jail and to not cut a deal with the FBI. Sounds like success. To everyone but Fritz. The episode ended with the couple having a blowout in their kitchen and Fritz storming off tired, angry, and hungry to some AA meetings.

Conclusions:
If they break up, I will punch someone.

—-

Show: Burn Notice
Episode: “Scatter Point” (2×05)
You Can Watch It: Thursdays at 10pm on USA

This week on Burn Notice , Michael gets suckered into taking another pro bono case (when all he really wants to do is work on figuring out who burned him) by his unresolved issues with his dead father. Oh, Michael, always the reluctant hero. The show opened with Michael essentially being accosted by some random dude with a baseball cap confessing his entire criminal record to him while Michael took out his trash (a bag that, I guarantee you, was filled with empty yogurt containers and perhaps some beer bottles from Sam). The dude, Trevor, is trying to keep on the straight and narrow for his son, a change of heart he experienced during his last stint in jail. However, Timo, one of Trevor’s many crime associates, insists that Trevor assist him with his next job: a jewel heist. Trevor used to be what they call an “expediter,” meaning he arranges the transportation and escape routes for a crime team. Timo only likes to work with the same people—a paranoid eccentricity that would have saved his life had he maintained it through the entire episode. After attempting to get the jewel heist called off by having Timo’s safe-cracker arrested (can’t use the same safe-cracker, can’t do the job, right? Wrong.), Michael poses as a possible hire for Timo’s new safe-cracker—Joseph. I love his damned cover identities. This guy Joseph was a super prick and he talked with an, “I’m an art student in New York City, and, even though I am actually from Minnesota, I am better than you” voice. Anyhow, Michael, posing as Joseph, gets himself hired. Then, whilst Michael is off with Sam and Fi working on his small personal matter (his burn notice), Timo calls together his team to get started on the job. Thank goodness for backup! While the jewel heist goes down, Fi wires bombs back at Timo’s safe house and Sam cuts trips the alarm at the jewelry exchange (earlier than Tomo would have liked, of course) from the street. It all ends with Trevor never having to actually do the crime (so as not to break the promise he made to his kid), and one of Timo’s own members shooting him because Fi’s bombs made them all think Timo set them up. Now, if that isn’t a happy ending, I don’t know what is. In burn notice news, Michael was this close to getting a crack at going into Carla’s fake office building to have a look around. But, thanks to Timo calling the job early, Carla had enough time to notice Michael on surveillance footage and cleared out. In subplot news, we found out that Sam has been married since the 70s but never bothered to divorce his wife even though they decided the day after their wedding it was all a mistake. And we found that out because Veronica proposed to him. And now he has been kicked out and will be crashing at Michael’s place indefinitely.

Conclusions: Michael’s gonna need to buy some more yogurt. And I hope he kept that digital picture frame Carla left him. It was nice.

Until next week, dear readers. Don’t forget to be kind and read your weekly TV Rewind !

TV Rewind |