Directed by: Michael M. Robin
Written by: Leo Geter
First aired: August 19, 2013
A young man, who failed to get on a reality TV show, turns into the worst house guest you can imagine, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake as he tries to get the life he dreams of by taking his victims’ identities. Meanwhile, Rusty’s secret comes to light and he has to deal with the consequences.
This case once again allows us to see the murders both through the eyes of our favorite detectives as well as through those of the killer. You may remember that the season 1 finale “Long Shot” was done in the same manner. As I am a big fan of good scene transitions, this episode made me very happy. The editing on Major Crimes is pretty great, anyway, but these types of episodes offer opportunities for some really fancy cuts.
After the first rather ominous scene, we see the team and DDA Rios at the crime scene. Rios is trying to be so very brave, but the smell is getting to her. This time, it is Amy who is teasing her about her squeamishness. What I find remarkable is that, instead of joining Amy, Provenza tells Rios to sit on the couch while they go check out the body. I feel like that might have been a well-meaning gesture to spare her the sight of the body. It is bad enough that Sanchez offers to film the body so that Buzz doesn’t have to see it. I guess the joke is on Rios, considering that she’s sitting on another dead body…
Like with the last episode, Taylor once again tries to stick his nose into how the investigation is run by insisting on having the photo of their suspect released to the media. Both Sharon and Andy object to this course of action because of the risks involved in letting their suspect know that they’re on to him. Of course, they turn out to be right about that, because informing the media leads to another death—one that would not have happened if Taylor had listened. On the other hand, maybe they would not have found their suspect in time, either. Like Taylor says, there’s more than one right answer. I just love Sharon’s facial expressions when she has to deal with Taylor. And if you listen closely, there’s this moment, when she turns toward Andy, where she makes this little, annoyed hum. LOVE IT!
This time, the case doesn’t end with a deal for their killer. Instead, he shoots himself while on a video call with Captain Raydor. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to witness that, so it is not surprising that she was struggling with it. We see that in the immediate aftermath, but even more so in the following scene where she discusses the sad conclusion of their case with Lieutenant Flynn. She’s obviously second-guessing the way she went about apprehending their suspect, beating herself up over the fact that he killed himself. But it’s Lieutenant Andy Flynn to the rescue—and may I say how handsome he is in his vest? His view of the matter is a lot more practical than Sharon’s. In his eyes, it’s one less dirtbag to worry about, and they don’t even have to worry about a trial. In season 5 we will hear Sharon mention to her priest how Andy’s and her approach to these kinds of things is very different, and that he doesn’t get why she struggles so much with the death of a killer. That may be true, but in this case, he seems to find the right words to make her feel at least a little better. Also, he calls her Sharon. It’s the first time since he tried out her name after confirming that she wouldn’t accompany him to his daughter’s wedding as his date. Those were the moments we lived for back then.
The episode starts with our old friend, Rusty’s pen-pal. The music is familiar by now, and the scene provides the opening for what will be this mid-season’s cliffhanger. Almost since the beginning of this season, the threatening letters have been the dark cloud on the horizon. When we saw Rusty hide one of those letters for the first time, I think we all knew that it would come back to bite him, and here we are. In the last episode, Rusty told Kris about the letters (and I have voiced my opinion on that asshole move in the last review). The choice he put before her is an impossible one, but I think she does the right thing when she decides not to keep his secret. I’m not entirely sure why she went to talk to DDA Rios instead of Sharon, though. Maybe it was a matter of access or availability? I feel like Sharon might have been able to limit the fallout a little more easily if she had known first. Either way, in my opinion Kris did what she thought was right, and I wish that Rusty could respect that. We will later find out that he does not, in fact, respect it. Surprising, I know. But just imagine what she would have felt like if she had kept Rusty’s secret and his pen pal had killed him?
Of course, there are consequences for hiding the letters. From what he told Kris, the worst-case scenario for him would be if Rios sent him to the witness protection program and he would lose his home with Sharon. Can you imagine what the kid who first moved in with her a season and a half ago would have said if you told him that? Sharon knows a little more about how these things work and what criteria a threat must meet in order to justify the cost of witness protection. We have already seen that in episode 2×02, when the letter first came up. But even she seems unsure about what will happen. Although, to be fair, she probably hasn’t had a great deal of time to evaluate the situation. Depending on whether it was her or Taylor who had Rusty picked up from school, it could have been anything between a few minutes and an hour. There are two outfit changes between the time when Rios tries to tell Sharon about her conversation with Kris and, I assume, finds the letters and the moment when Taylor and Rios finally call her into his office to inform her about the letters. So it is entirely possible that they already sent someone to pick up Rusty. I bet Sharon was not pleased to be thrown into that situation unprepared. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for the eventual lecture that Rusty surely got from her once the initial dust settled.
In this episode, however, all we get is one short moment between them in the hallway with only one sentence from Sharon. Only? Well, as sentences go, this one is BIG! “Whatever happens next, know I love you.” For all we know, this is the first I love you between them, and the way she says it, with tears in her eyes and that tone of voice, it almost sounds like a goodbye. She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to hold on to him, and it’s breaking her heart. That moment still has the power to make me cry, even though I know it all works out in the end, and even though, these days, my love and compassion for Rusty Beck is not what it used to be back when this episode originally aired. Be that as it may, this scene, with the music and the slow motion and the top-notch acting is perfection!
And because not knowing what will happen with Rusty is not enough of a mid-season cliffhanger, we are left with this cheerful thought just before the end.
