LEADERSHIPSITUATIONAL CONTROL

IN THE CLOSER, S02E01

SHOW SUMMARY
The Second Season: The Closer is currently one of cable channel TNT's most popular series. It is a crime drama about female Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) of LAPD's priority homicide division and the cases she and her elite team of detectives take on. Sedgwick brings to her character a special charm that has won her awards. Notably, she was the 2007 Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress, TV Drama. And seeing her in action explains why she won and why the show has been so successful. The Closer's sophomore season is a great watch and continues to have a great cast-ensemble, well-written stories, and a touch of humor. In The Closer's second season, there is a fantastic lineup of episodes and strong supporting plotlines. While the series does not have any major story arcs that traverse the season episodes, there are still key character developments from episode to episode. These aspects are small but fun, like Brenda kicking her sugar habit and imposing strict eating conditions on the rest of the squad. Then there's her relationship with Fritz, which becomes more serious. And at the same time, there is a little chemistry with Pope, all the while he goes through a divorce. In the earlier part of the season, there is a fun dynamic set with Brenda, her mother, and Fritz. These small but vital developments and some of the examples of what gives The Closer's characters an edge. In addition to the character development related aspects, season two continues with a multitude of great episodes. I had the liberty of watching the majority of them during its original cable television airing and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to sit through them again. While some television shows are good for a single viewing, The Closer has turned out (for me) to have high replay value. And the primary reason why I believe it has high replay is that the episodes are easy to get into, even if you have a good idea of what is going to happen in the episode. My favorite episode this season is "To Protect & to Serve". In this very strong episode, Provenza and Flynn, while getting ready to go to a Dodger's game, find the body of a dead woman in Provenza's garage. The initial opening of the episode with how Provenza and Flynn handle the situation and later how it gets dumped on Brenda's plate is very well played out. The situation forces her to call favors with the rest of the squad and Fritz. The episode ties in a strong case with the cast at the top of their game. Other episodes this season that were strong include the season premiere "Blue Blood", an off duty detective is found dead next to the body of a drug dealer; Brenda gets flak from her fellow officers when she goes against the grain and treats the dead cop as
1 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

a potential bad guy, "Critical Missing", Brenda and team get a horrible case when they find a Japanese mother and daughter drowned in what appears to be a ritual suicide; the case is especially unnerving when they get to know their prime suspect, and the twopart season finale "Serving the King", Brenda is in midst of a suspension after a blowout in "Overkill" and she accepts a temporary assignment from her old buddies at the Central Intelligence Agency. Overall, The Closer's second season is a very strong collection of episodes. If anything, it is better than the show's first season. The cast's dynamic is even better than before. Sedgwick's wonderful and fun Southern Belle charm continues to shine at the front of this elite LAPD homicide unit. The unique charm works well with the rest of the cast, especially with key cast members like Jon Tenney and J.K. Simmons. In the end, The Closer's second season is must own. It is a great addition to this strong crime drama.

CAST OF CHARACTERSi
Name Brenda Leigh Johnson Will Pope David Gabriel Provenza Russell Taylor Andy Flynn Michael Tao Julio Sanchez Irene Daniels Buzz Watson Fritz Howard Portrayed by Kyra Sedgwick J. K. Simmons Occupation/Status LAPD Deputy Chief LAPD Assistant Chief

Corey Reynolds LAPD Detective Sergeant G. W. Bailey Robert Gossett Tony Denison Michael Paul Chan Raymond Cruz Gina Ravera Phillip P. Keene Jon Tenney LAPD Detective Lieutenant LAPD Commander LAPD Detective Lieutenant LAPD Detective Lieutenant LAPD Detective LAPD Detective LAPD Civilian Surveillance Coordinator FBI Special Agent

EPISODE RECAP
A gruesome murder scene is nothing new to the Priority Homicide Division, but when one of the vics is a police detective, the pressure is on to close the case. Brenda and her team take heat from top police brass as their investigation turns away from a known drug dealer and toward one of their own. Likewise, tempers flare when Sergeant Gabriel asks that Detective Daniels be excused from the case due to her previous romantic liaison with the victim. With members of the L.A.P.D. ready to take justice into their own hands, the team has to work fast to bring in the real killer. While struggling to match DNA samples that could provide hard evidence, Brenda discovers that Gabriel
2 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

and Daniels relationship to the victim is the key to unraveling the case. Meanwhile, Fritz pushes Brenda to take the next step in their relationship. But when her former lover and boss, Chief Pope, finds himself suddenly single, Brenda must question her own feelings to find a different type of closure.ii We open Season 2 with what else but a crime scene. However, this isn't just any crime scene, it's one where an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer was shot and killed, and he is lying right next to his presumed assailant, who is also deceased. What's worse than the mere fact that the officer had been murdered, though, is the fact that he's still sprawled on the warehouse floor, with the killer. The central division officers, who are being kept outside the warehouse by the priority homicide team, are anxious to move their fallen comrade, but Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson has ordered them to stand down until she has her fill of the scene. Armed with Sergeant Gabriel's knowledge of what the murdered officer had been involved in with relation to Johnson's team and an ability to fight her way through police politics, she manages to get a good idea of what happened a few days earlier, and we get to see how the officers pay their respects to their colleague, pinning their American flags to the sheet covering his body before he is taken out on a stretcher Further complicating things this season, and creating even more tension between Chief Pope and Brenda is the fact that, unbeknownst to her, his wife has filed for divorce, and is planning on marrying another man. Somehow, Brenda's man in FBI clothing, Fritz, knows about this, and ribs her about it, asking what she does for a living when he breaks the news to her. Of course, he has a vested interest in doing so, given that Pope and Brenda had a bit of a thing back East. Fritz makes his typical guy suppositions about what Pope will do re: his old flame, but Brenda pushes them aside, hurrying to not only close this case but figure out how to fend of Fritz's requests that the pair move in together. Well, either that or he takes another job with the Feds and moves back to Washington. Creating a strain between her fellow officers, her team, and herself is something that Brenda Johnson seems to either enjoy doing, or is smart enough to mentally move past it to get the job done. Maybe that's why, as the show's title says, she's a "closer." Knowing that the murdered officer had dated Detective Daniels at one point, but only after the slain man's partner had done so creates a potential suspect within the police force, one that not only appears to have a short fuse, but fits the bill. As it turns out, though, it's one thing to randomly be a woman-stealer, but another when it happens regularly. Even Gabriel has something to say about this, and it appeared to factor very well into how she solved the case. If there's any criticism of this show that I could have is that just like FOX's hit medical drama House, the lead character might actually be too good. I'm always feeling that she is thinking the case through the same way I am, and then at some point, she goes down some random road and ends up with the golden ticket, or golden handcuffs, as it were. Sometimes, like with the case we saw this week that featured a police informant who was not to be named to other law enforcement personnel for fears of his safety, an expartner who left the force after his wife died and his son came down with cancer, there are a great many angles to be looked at, but somehow she always "gets her man." Is it any different from other police or law enforcement shows on television? Probably not, but this one seems to stand out in that the evidence she is following isn't always clear to the rest of us, or the rest of her squad, which creates for a super "A-ha!" moment every
3 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

week, but one that seems too convenient sometimes. What makes this show tick, also probably just like House, is that you actually care about the characters. That doesn't mean you have to like them, but that you are actually interested in whether they live or die, or are playing a legitimate part in the plot. If Provenza stopped making random jokes, or Flynn wasn't good for an off-color comment here or there, and Fritz didn't seem more interested in getting in Brenda's pants rather than making sure she caught the baddies, we'd miss it. It should be interesting to see the development of the show, however, with the lack of serious tension between the squad and Brenda, now that they all seem to be "in her corner" as opposed to when they all wanted to transfer away from her last year. That added a constant dimension of concern that they could look to do her in, professionally. Now, her biggest issue might be whether or not to have breakfast with Fritz and blow off her mama's telephone calls.iii

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. 2. 3. 4. Compare and contrast leader-member relations in this and the previous episode. Compare and contrast task structure in this and the previous episode. Compare and contrast Brendas position power in this and the previous episode. Which of the Leadership Actions to Change Situations listed in Table 11.3 do you think Brenda has used since she assumed her leadership role in the PHD?

SOLUTIONS
Write to starling@qatar.cmu.edu for to obtain a copy of the solution to this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Closer_characters http://www.tnt.tv/series/closer/episodeguide.jsp?seasonId=30203 iii http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/06/12/the-closer-blue-blood-season-premiere/
i ii

Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu