‘The Closer’ summer finale sets up a cliffhanger

Monday aired the summer finale in the seventh and final season of “The Closer,” but the way TNT has been airing this show, there’s still a four-episode parcel of episodes set to resume in November.

Which explains why what I’d thought was the series finale ended on such a cliffhanger.

The summer finale of “The Closer” opened as I expected it would. Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, head of the Major Crimes Division in the Los Angeles Police Department, in a courtroom, facing civil charges in the death of confessed murderer Terrell Baylor. Last season, Baylor was escorted to his home and left there, and was subsequently murdered by fellow gang members.

Her fellow detectives and Brenda are summoned to a crime scene before the judge can rule on the defense motion for summary judgment. A county sheriff’s deputy has been shot dead in an apprehension gone wrong, his partner is on the scene. The shooter has escaped and the shooter’s accomplice has been apprehended.

As the investigation progresses, the partner gets shadier as details emerge about the stolen car they were pursuing. Also, the accomplice was improperly searched and manages to sneak a gun into Brenda’s interrogation room. Fortunately, Buzz sees him poised to fire and stops Brenda from entering the room, saving her life.

The investigation progresses and the car thieves are run to earth – Brenda actually gets to apprehend the suspect. And the judgment is that the civil suit is dismissed – Brenda’s attorney, played with brilliant smarm by Mark Pelligrino, crafts and delivers some beautiful legal argumentation on her behalf – Brenda is free to celebrate.

Confrontation

Or so she thinks. The attorney representing the Baylor family – played by Curtis Armstrong – confronts her in her interrogation room. Apparently he’s had nothing to do with his time but to go through every case she has ever in any way been involved with and he outlines a pattern of what he calls lawless behavior he intends to pursue in federal court.

My reaction to this is a class action suit brought by criminals against the police for arresting them is a novel concept, and I can’t imagine a judge in any court giving this more than a passing glance. If anyone in television is more conscientious about compiling evidence and building up cases specifically so that they will hold up in court I’m unaware of them.

That confrontation – such a cold close-out for as warm a character as I find Brenda to be – was not what I was expecting, however, and I wondered if I’d missed something.

Indeed I had. Brenda Leigh Johnson has a four-episode epilogue to “The Closer” coming up this fall with new episodes set to air starting in late November.

I’ll just express my gratitude in Brenda’s signature style: “Thank yewwwww!”