Right off the bat, I have to
say that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and I’ve really missed Major Crimes
since its last episode (Zoo Story) aired back in August. As far as I’m
concerned, when it comes to crime shows, it’s very important that the cases of
the week be interesting and engaging, otherwise the show definitely suffers as
a whole. Admittedly, I didn’t like the episode “Zoo Story” all that much as a
whole because I thought that the case they were working on that episode was
kind of boring, but I loved the subplot with Rusty’s mom being in jail and
wanting Rusty’s help to get out of jail. While I found that episode rather
disappointing for the most part, the last scene of the episode where Raydor
visits Rusty’s mom in prison and tells her about the “deal” that she had
arranged for her was truly awesome. I can’t even count how many times I’ve
watched that scene at this point. Fortunately, when it comes to this episode, I
found the case of the week very interesting. I thought it was full of twists
and turns, and it definitely had some genuinely sad elements to it as well.
The team found a dead
woman’s body in the sewer at the beginning of the episode, and after Dr.
Morales examined her body, he discovered that she had recently given birth, and
things only got more complicated from there. It turns out that she had been
trying to pull off a big surrogacy scam on three different couples by leading
them to believe that she was pregnant with their baby. One couple was
apparently very wealthy, there was another couple involved and it was clear
that the whole scam had put a major emotional and financial strain on their
marriage. The other couple was gay a couple (Two men), and being bisexual
myself, I think it’s always nice to see LGBT characters on TV.
However, the gay couple is a
part of one of the few things that bugged me about this episode, which I’ll get
to in a moment. Once the team found out that the baby was with the wealthy
couple that she had been scamming, they had to determine which couple the baby
belonged to, meaning that they had to do a paternity test. This brings me to
one of my only complaints that I have with this episode. The gay couple
apparently didn’t know which one of them was supposed to be the father since
they had apparently wanted the doctors to randomly choose which one of them
would be the father. Personally, I think the whole idea of two men having a
child together, but not wanting to know which one of them is the father is
something that I feel is a bit cliché when it comes to TV these days. However,
it didn’t bug me nearly as much here, because all of the other times that I’ve
seen TV shows do this, they’ve been comedies, namely Glee and most recently
Marry Me, that have both used this idea as the basis of a joke by having the
child be white when one of the two possible biological fathers is African
American. Thankfully, the writers didn’t try to work that joke into the
episode, which is why it didn’t bother me nearly as much here. The whole issue
of the baby’s paternity became even more complicated when the team found out
that the woman had a boyfriend in the picture, and Raydor realized that he
could possibly be the baby’s father.
In case anyone is unaware of
this, the husband of the rich couple that the team initially found the baby
with was played by Billy Miller, and being a big fan of his acting on All My
Children, I loved seeing him in this episode, and I thought that he did a
fantastic job in this episode. Although, I did think that it was kind of weird
hearing him talk with a Southern accent. I thought all of the guest-stars did a
great job in this episode though, not just Billy.
In the end, Heather’s boyfriend
was the baby’s father, and it turns out that he was also the one who had killed
her. However, due to the circumstances of her death, it sounds like the police
wouldn’t be able to charge him with murder. It sounds like they were going to
charge him with manslaughter, amongst other charges. Maybe other people will
disagree with me since he was a killer, but I thought that the boyfriend’s
backstory was genuinely heartbreaking, saying that since he himself was
adopted, holding his own biological son in his arms had meant a lot to him, so
he was devastated by the fact that Heather had told him that she thought that
he was too unreliable to be a good father and was going to give their baby up
for adoption.
Once Heather’s boyfriend
confessed to killing her, all of the families were left to decide which of them
would adopt the child, and the couple whose marriage seemed to be a bit
strained ended up being the ones who got to keep the baby. The way the three
couples came to this conclusion is because the couple that originally had the
baby basically said that since they were still relatively young and had more
than enough money to start the whole surrogacy process over again, while the
gay couple said that it was really important to them that at least one of them
be the biological father of their child, because otherwise in certain states
they could possibly be unable to be with their own child if he or she were in
the hospital. The couple that got the baby thanked the other couples for trusting
them enough to let them be the ones who got to keep the baby.
I feel like I should mention
that when it comes to The Closer, I never watched the show aside from watching
the first episode of the series and the series finale since it essentially
served as the setup for Major Crimes. The main thing that got me interested in
Major Crimes was the fact that Mary McDonnell is the star of the show, and I
had become a huge fan of hers when I watched the updated version of Battlestar
Galactica. While Mary is initially what drew me to Major Crimes, I ended up
loving all of the characters on the show and the show’s overall ensemble
nature. While I thought that everyone in the cast had at least one moment to
shine in this episode, especially Mary and Graham Patrick Martin, I also
thought that G. W. Bailey was great in this episode too. What I love about
Provenza is that he can act very serious and grumpy at times, but he can also
be pretty funny at times too, and I feel liked this episode really showcased those
aspects of the character. I especially loved the scene where Provenza was
trying to get the baby to stop crying by dangling his keys in front of the
baby, which seemed to really annoy Flynn, who was actually pretty good with the
baby. I also loved the part where Provenza was unable to correctly pronounce
the word “episiotomy” when they were talking about Heather had had one
performed on her when she gave birth to her baby.
While it wasn’t a major plot
point in the episode, Rusty is apparently working for the production staff of
the TV show Badge of Justice as an assistant now. Just in case any one might
have forgotten, Badge of Justice is the TV show that the writers had previously
established in the episode “Cutting Loose” that Tao works on a consultant. I love
that they once again referenced Morales’ dissatisfaction with the show’s
portrayal of what a morgue is like, as well as Flynn’s annoyance with Tao
working on the show.
This episode also involved
big changes for both Raydor and Rusty. Raydor’s divorce had apparently been
finalized, which meant that she would now be able to finalize the adoption
process for Rusty. This prompted Rusty to go visit his mom in prison, so he
could tell her that Raydor was formally adopting him now. Rusty’s mom seems to
be doing…better…ish compared to how she was doing in the previous episode. She told
him that the structure of life in prison was really helping her, but since she
had told both Rusty and Raydor that the court ordered rehab had really been
helping her when Raydor first met her, only to quickly get drunk again after
she got out of rehab, I’m not sure that I believe her at this point. After all,
she still seems intent on viewing herself as the innocent victim in the
gigantic mess that is her life when it really is pretty much all her fault.
While my dad isn’t a drug
addict, alcoholic or a criminal, Rusty’s mom reminds me a lot of my dad in the
sense that in most cases both she and my dad often like to blame other people
for a lot of the problems and unhappiness in their lives instead of taking
responsibility for the consequences of their actions. After dealing with all of
the crap that I’ve had to put up with from my dad over the years, a big part of
me thinks that Rusty should just cut his mom out of his life completely. It
seems to me like she causes him nothing but grief for the most part, and I
don’t think it’s healthy for someone to keep people like that in their lives.
If I had to guess why he hasn’t done that at this point, maybe he’s afraid to
because he doesn’t want to be heartless and run the risk of emotionally
destroying her. That’s pretty much the reason why I’m continually trying my
best to include my dad in my life in some capacity while also trying to protect
myself emotionally, so I definitely have a great deal of sympathy for Rusty
when it comes to his mom.
As for the actual scene
where Rusty visits his mom at the prison and tells her about the impending
adoption, I was really impressed by Graham Patrick Martin’s acting in the
scene. Whenever I’m watching Graham Patrick Martin play Rusty on Major Crimes,
there’s always a part of me that just can’t believe that he’s the same actor
who played Jake’s stoner best friend, Eldridge, on Two and a Half Men.
Personally, after having watched him on Two and a Half Men and watching him on
Major Crimes, I think Graham is a really talented actor. Honestly, I got chills
when Rusty thanked his mom at the end of their conversation for not
manipulating him that time. I really loved Graham’s acting in that scene,
especially when it comes to his delivery of his last line in the scene.
The episode ended with
Rusty’s adoption being finalized and the entire team was there to celebrate
with Raydor and Rusty. Honestly, I was really surprised that the writers didn’t
wait until the season finale to have the adoption be finalized. Since I knew
that they would be introducing Raydor’s daughter and bringing her son, Ricky,
back later this season, I was really hoping that we would see Rusty meet
Raydor’s daughter before the adoption was finalized. I suppose the fact that
Raydor decided to adopt Rusty and had the adoption be finalized before her
daughter even had a chance to meet Rusty could create some interesting drama
since Rusty is her brother through adoption now. Despite the fact that I was
surprised that the writers would have the adoption be finalized at this
particular point in the season, I really liked that it took place in an episode
where the case of the week dealt with couples trying to get a child through
adoption or surrogacy.
All things considered, this
really was a great episode. The case of the week was very interesting and
engaging. Despite the fact that I was surprised that the writers would have
Rusty’s adoption be finalized at this particular point in the season, I really
liked that it took place in an episode where the case of the week dealt with
couples trying to get a child through adoption or surrogacy. That seemed very
fitting to me. While Major Crimes is technically a drama, I think that this
episode had some nice lighthearted and fun moments too, most of which involved
Provenza. This episode featured some truly great acting from both the show’s
series regulars and the guest-stars. I was especially impressed with Billy Miller’s
acting in this episode, and I really enjoyed seeing him on Major Crimes. This
episode is definitely one for the win column.
That being said, my final
score for the episode is 9 out of 10.
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