The Closer Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Orr]

New season starts tonight on TNT. Looking forward to seeing Brenda Lee, Fritz and the gang back at work. My wife, who is home recovering from surgery, says she's enjoyed the all day marathon on TNT today.

 

[Stephen Orr]

Wow, no comment on last night's episode?

Looks like it takes place a few months after the wedding. Plot involved a family that is executed for no apparent reason, although they basically telegraphed what happened when Provenza arrived on the scene. The whole episode, while still a bit fun, had some lazy writing, and did not live up to the usual crackerjack show I am used to.

Oh, and Brenda's cat is probably not gonna make it.

 

[John_Lee]

Or even earlier with the ME.

 

[Stephen Orr]

True, I forgot about the ME.

 

[NeilO]

it was still great television and a welcome return.

 

[NeilO]

For fans of Medium, some of the suspense of the episode was eliminated by the casting of Miguel Sandoval. There is no reason for him to be cast if he wasn't going to get an opportunity to act. His voice on the phone was unmistakable.

For a while I feared we were going to see another kidnapping plot where the money is delivered in a backpack, but luckily things went in a completely different direction. Lieutenant Provenza was a blast this episode and the "Plan B" at the end was quite a surprise.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Any one notice that TNT seems to running the shows in backwards order so far? Everything that is serialized about the show is going in the opposite order, with last Mondays episode seeming to really be the first of the season.

The issues with Kitty, dealing with Daniel's departure and the unfolding of Provenza's love life particularly telling. It's all backwards.

Kitty dies at the end of the season opener, but is still alive but in varying degrees of sickness in subsequent episodes.

What's up with TNT?

Or am I seeing it all wrong.

 

[NeilO]

I thought Kitty was just starting to be seriously ill in the first episode this season.

 

[Patrick_S]

I don't understand the comment tht TNT is airing them out of order. To me it appears that they are in order.

I've really enjoyed the first few episodes.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yeah, I don't recall the incident referenced in you spoiler as having happened in the season opener. I remember the storyline being set-up, not finished. And Provenza's love life is tracking in perfect order. He was cranky as hell in the first couple of episodes because he had just broken up with one girlfriend and he's been happy in the last few because he's found a new one. (Or reconciled with the old one, but I'm inclined to think it is someone new.)

There was nothing "backwards" about Daniels' departure (unless you think it odd that Gabriel is still talking about her much later - but that it is much later is the point of the scene: Taylor telling him to move on. It was a matter of tying off a storyline that hadn't gotten a lot of screen time. If we're to believe that Gabriel really cared about Daniels then we needed to see a scene like this at some point.

All-in-all the flow of time seems perfectly conventional to me.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Well, to lose the spoiler if in fact it isn't, but I thought in the very last scene of the opening episode, I heard Fritz tell Brenda over the phone that Kitty didn't make it at the vet's office.

My wife and I both heard it that way. Then the next episode, Kitty is alive again.

Did we both just not hear Fritz right?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't still have the episode on the DVR, but I'm pretty sure you guys did mishear it. As I recall, Fitz told Brenda that the vet said Kitty was not getting better, but he did not tell her that Kitty had died.

If he had, the subsequent episodes wouldn't merely be out of order, they writers would have changed the plot in the interim. In the most recent episode Fitz and Brenda decide to have Kitty put down by the vet at home, in the evening. It wouldn't make any sense for Kitty die at the vet's office during the day, without either Fitz or Brenda present, in a "subsequent" episode. The simplest explanation is that you misunderstood what Fritz meant in telling Brenda that Kitty's condition was not improving.

In fact the season opener introduced the idea of Kitty being seriously ill, which has been followed over the last several episodes, culminating in the decision to have her put to sleep in the most recent show. It all tracks, just like Provenza's romances.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Which we also see as going back wards.

To us, the order seems like it should be...

The most recent episode first, Provenza is merely smitten. The previous episode next, Provenza is really in love and practically singing about it. The first episode last, Provensa is now all down on love because of a breakup or something that just happened. None of which we've seen anything about yet either way it goes.

But I suppose it can go the way we've been shown so far. I did notice that Provenza was wearing the same pink paisley tie in this last episode that Flynn mentioned in the second episode as being "new".

If we did mis-hear what Fritz said about Kitty, then that does throw our interpretation of events off. We didn't keep it on the DVR either for us to go back and listen harder.

 

[David Norman]

You can watch the video from the tnt.com site "Products of Discovery"

TNT- The Closer

SInce the episode has aired I won't add the spoiler tags:

Brenda returns home and calls for Kitty
Brenda: Where's Kitty?
Fritz: The Vet didn't want to release her after all.
Brenda; Why?
Fritz: Brenda, she's not doing too well.
Brenda: Last night you said she was getting better.
Fritz: But now she isn't
Brenda: Oh-h-h! Yesterday I left here and she was eating breakfast and now I might not see her again. Why didn't I know that this could happen?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Provenza has always fancied himself a ladies man, is always flirting and always seems to have something going on. As I recall he was going after a witness (or two) towards the end of last season. In the opener it is clear that one of those relationships has gone sour. It isn't terribly surprising that we don't know which one because - apart from Brenda and Fritz and Will and his divorce - we don't get much into the private lives of the characters. (Daniels and Gabriel were an exception as they are both members of the squad. Even the Brenda/Fitz thing derives largely from their professional relationship, and the only reason we got into Will's divorce is that he and Brenda work together and she was called as a witness.)

So Provenze got dumped over the hiatus and was grumpy about it. Then he got a new lady and was so happy about it that people started noticing it. In the following episode he had toned it down. Ever notice the difference between newlyweds and married people? That first rush of excitement does tend to wear off.

And Provenza, who is usually a fairly private person, and who doesn't like getting ribbed by the younger detectives, would naturally get a grip on himself so as not to invite too much scrutiny after the intial burst of euphoria.

There is still nothing at that suggests that any episode was run out of order. Especially given that all the other continuity markers (especially Kitty's illness) track in a perfectly linear fashion. It would be a really odd episode in which Kitty's story moved forward but Provenza's moved backwards.

Occam's razor. The simplest theory that fits the available evidence is likely the correct one. In this case the simplest theory is that the writers and schedulers responsible for the show know what they're doing and that you and your wife misunderstood some dialogue and plot points.

Regards,

Joe