Directed by: David McWhirter
Written by: Duppy Demetrius
First aired: September 10, 2012

---

By sheer luck, a young man is found dead in a hazardous waste barrel bound for a landfill. When Major Crimes finds his parents, they realize that they walked straight into a double kidnapping. They have to deal with uncooperative parents and heavily armed sovereign citizens in order to save the remaining child. Meanwhile, DDA Hobbs has news about Rusty’s father, leaving Sharon to decide what to tell her ward.

The opening sequence already makes clear how gruesome the case would be, as a waste barrel falls off the back of a truck and reveals a naked body stuffed inside. Everyone from our seasoned Lieutenants, to the coroner, to our favorite, snarky medical examiner seem affected.
When they find out their victim’s identity and pay his parents a visit, we see Provenza’s attitude changed since last episode. He asks Raydor how she wants to approach the situation. The Captain leaves the notification to him, letting him take the lead.

When the agitated father wants to chase them away and the mother reveals that their children have been kidnapped, Sharon uses the verbal fight between her Lieutenants and the father to slip her phone to the mother so that they can get in contact without the kidnappers (and presumably the father) knowing about it. She then pulls her people back. This time, it is Flynn who questions her decision, albeit in a respectful manner. He disagrees with Raydor’s refusal to notify the parents of their son’s death. Provenza, however, agrees with the Captain. I find it remarkable that there is no eye-rolling or snarky comment when Captain Raydor cites the rules. Even Flynn gives a little nod at the reminder, despite disagreeing with her decision.

It is good to see that Provenza seems to have let go of his grudge against Raydor, or at the very least managed to push it aside in order to do his job. We also see that he seems to have accepted Amy as part of the team, as he suggests she take the lead of the tactical side of their investigation, citing her experience with SIS. She gets to tease him about his age again when she shows him the surveillance footage from their drone. For the first time on this show, Buzz gets to drop one of his funny remarks about Provenza’s age. It is a welcome moment of levity in this heartbreaking episode and the beginning of a wonderful tradition.

Amy does get a more active role in this episode. She only slips up once when she blabs information about their case when she should not have, but we experience her badass side later on. Especially her exchange with the gun store owner sparks joy, as she threatens to arrest him as an accomplice if he won’t help them. She is also a major part of the showdown, together with Sanchez. That scene deserves special mention, because we see Provenza actually running! Yes, you heard right. Provenza is running in this episode!

One big part of this episode is Hobbs’ revelation that they found Rusty’s father, whom the boy knows nothing about. According to Hobbs, it is up to Sharon what she tells him—a decision with which Sharon is obviously struggling. When Rusty joins her, she is obviously still undecided what to tell him or how to tell him. Their conversation about the case and whether or not the police is lying to people obviously mirrors the issue Rusty is not yet aware of, and Sharon’s defensiveness probably isn’t only about the way they are handling their current case. Rusty’s strong reaction when it does not even concern him must make Sharon realize that keeping the information about his father to herself would be a bad idea. I doubt that she ever truly considered not telling him, but the how is definitely an issue and, with his obvious problem with dishonesty, it is a time-sensitive one. For the moment, she sends him to play chess on her computer, which makes me wonder… Does our favorite walking rule book keep her laptop unlocked or how else is he supposed to access it without her help?

There is a truly beautiful scene at the end of the episode. Rusty is walking into the murder room and he sees Raydor and Flynn in her office with the victim’s parents. Sharon is teary-eyed as she looks away from the distraught parents to look at Rusty, whose face is reflected in the window next to hers. The moment is set to music and is pure perfection.

With the case closed, Sharon collects Rusty to take him to dinner. The red folder with the information on his father is in her hands again, hinting at the conversation they are about to have. He is still somewhat upset about the police’s propensity for lying and the idea that Sharon might be lying to him, too. This is where the parallel between the case and Rusty comes full circle (and yes, I know that this makes no sense from a geometric POV). Just as the Captain withheld relevant facts from their victim’s parents until the time was right to tell them, Sharon keeps the news about his father from Rusty until she has had time to consider the situation.
As they walk out, Sharon almost puts her hand on his shoulder, but reconsiders at the last moment. This is very significant, as it shows how conscious she is of his boundaries, and how hard she tries to respect his space. As the show progresses, it will become clear how tactile she is with the people close to her, so it must be very hard for her to fight that impulse with him. This early development of their relationship is absolutely beautiful!

Trust is a main issue in this episode. We have, of course, Rusty wondering if he can trust Sharon to be honest with him. And then there is the team learning to trust their new Captain, Raydor trusting Provenza to handle the notification, including deciding on the right moment (of course, it doesn’t come to that, but it was her initial idea), and we have Provenza trusting Sykes to take the lead with the surveillance aspect of their investigation. Everyone seems to have accepted the new situation, and this episode takes them one step closer to being a true team.

home < season 1 < previous episode < next episode