CLOSER, THE: FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES (TV)
Summary
One in this drama series about LAPD Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, a hard-nosed interrogator skillful at closing cases in the Priority Homicide Division. The Major Crimes Division gets a tip that a body has just arrived at a local funeral home without a death certificate. Meanwhile, everyone in the department is getting sued except for Sergeant Gabriel for unknown reasons. The suit involves the Terrell Baylor case and Brenda’s decision to drive him home. She staunchly refuses to speak with Peter Goldman, the prosecuting attorney, who continually appears in her department to question her. The detectives arrive at the funeral home to find that the body in question is Cliff Wycoff, a local protestant minister. The funeral director claims he died of natural causes in his home, but an inspection reveals that he was strangled. Gabriel manages to speak to Mrs. Wycoff, the minister’s wife; she claims he was battling depression and took his own life in their garage, but didn’t want the church to know. Gabriel agrees to keep this information out of public hands in exchange for permission to search the house. Upon checking the minister’s credit card records, they realize he actually died in a motel room and that a call was made from the room at roughly the time of death. Inside they find a pair of people cleaning up the scene of the crime. They turn out to be Mrs. Wycoff’s parents. In the room they find the minister’s clothes, as well as a set of lingerie. They bring the couple in for questioning and discover that the call from the motel room was made to Mrs. Wycoff. Will talks to Brenda about the subpoenas; he has received one as well. She believes that Goldman is actually only after her and that the subpoenas are intended to make everyone paranoid. Mrs. Wycoff destroys all the computers in her church. While rooting through the destroyed computers, Goldman appears again and Brenda forcefully tells him to get out and stay out. An offhand comment by Goldman makes everyone in the department suspicious of Gabriel, believing he has cut some sort of deal with Goldman. Gabriel claims he has done no such thing. Brenda interrogates Mrs. Wycoff, who claims that she destroyed the computers to protect her husband’s congregation’s secrets. Brenda shows Mrs. Wycoff the women’s underwear they found at the scene; she claims to have no knowledge of the woman her husband was with. Gabriel suggests letting Mrs. Wycoff go free so she can unwittingly lead them to more evidence. The department is starting to talk about Gabriel behind his back, still suspicious. A thorough inspection of the minister’s body indicates signs of a struggle and other injuries. Brenda realizes that the women’s shoes they found at the scene of the crime perfectly fit the minister’s feet; he was the one wearing the lingerie. When Brenda deduces that Mrs. Wycoff’s parents were working to remove the minister’s scent from the motel room, she plans to guilt Mrs. Wycoff into revealing that it was her husband who wore the shoes. Brenda and Gabriel interrupt a church service to speak to a very upset Mrs. Wycoff. They get her to admit that her husband found a prostitute named “Sindy Showers” online and met with her at the motel. When she leaves them, her son Chris admits that they found him in women’s clothing and changed him into his suit so as not to invite a scandal. He also reports that they found him with his belt around his own neck and believes it was autoerotic asphyxiation. The coroner reports that autoerotic asphyxiation is possible, but that in most cases the user implements an easy way to avoid accidentally hanging themselves; none was found in this case. The department locates Sindy and Brenda questions her. She did not know the minister’s profession but says he was a regular client who saw her monthly. She aided in his cross-dressing but is shocked to learn that he died via hanging, as autoerotic asphyxiation is not part of her repertoire. Sindy goes on to say that Mrs. Wycoff arranged her husband’s meetings with her so that he could indulge in his behavior outside of the home. Brenda has Tao put together a chart showing the phone activities of every member of the family around the time of death. Once again Gabriel is targeted due to his exclusion from the subpoenas, forcing Brenda to break up the argument. Mrs. Wycoff is brought again for interrogation and she admits knowledge of her husband’s cross-dressing and confesses to setting up his meetings with Sindy, motivated by keeping his behavior away from her children. She claims that he killed himself out of shame but Gabriel points out that he wouldn’t have done so in women’s underwear, as doing so would cause further embarrassment to the family. Finally she admits to murdering her husband and placing the call from the motel herself to establish an alibi. Mrs. Wycoff is arrested, as is the rest of the family for being accomplices. Brenda takes Chris aside and shows him the phone chart. Every member of the family was contacted on the day in question except Chris. Tao says they discovered that he asked for that day off two weeks prior, suggesting premeditation. Chris privately tells Brenda that he discovered his father’s activities while fixing the computers at the church and followed him to the motel. He claims that when he walked through the door to confront his father, he was dead. However, Brenda points out that this story conflicts with established facts about the death. Chris finally tells her the truth. He recounts that when he was fifteen he was in a relationship with a boy from the church choir. His father found out, beat him, and sent him to military school. He informed the boy’s parents, causing him to take his own life. When Chris found his father wearing women’s underwear, he was so enraged at his hypocrisy that he strangled his father to death with his own belt. Brenda arrests Chris for first-degree murder. Later, Goldman returns and serves Gabriel a subpoena. He requested that he be sued so that he would no longer be singled out by his co-workers. They approve of this decision. Brenda goes home that night, feeling depressed. Fritz arrives and reveals that he too has been subpoenaed. Brenda expresses her guilt at getting her entire department in trouble over a mistake that she made. The episode ends as she suffers an emotional breakdown, bursting into tears. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: TNT
- DATE: August 8, 2011 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 106267
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Murder
- SERIES RUN: TNT - TV series, 2005-2012
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kyra Sedgwick … Executive Producer
- Rick Wallace … Executive Producer
- Greer Shephard … Executive Producer
- Michael M. Robin … Executive Producer
- James Duff … Executive Producer, Created by
- Steven Kane … Co-Executive Producer
- Adam Belanoff … Co-Executive Producer
- Sheelin Choksey … Producer
- Mike Berchem … Producer
- Andrew J. Sacks … Producer
- Giampaolo Debole … Co-Producer
- Paul Orehovec … Co-Producer
- Leo Geter … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Ronald D. Chong … Supervising Producer
- Michael Alaimo … Supervising Producer
- Duppy Demetrius … Supervising Producer
- Jim Leonard … Consulting Producer, Writer
- Gil Garcetti … Consulting Producer
- Hunt Baldwin … Consulting Producer
- John Coveny … Consulting Producer
- Roxann Dawson … Director
- James S. Levine … Music by
- Kyra Sedgwick … Cast, Brenda Leigh Johnson
- J. K. Simmons … Cast, Will Pope
- Corey Reynolds … Cast, David Gabriel
- Robert Gossett … Cast, Russell Taylor
- G. W. Bailey … Cast, Louie Provenza
- Tony Denison (See also: Anthony Denison) … Cast, Andy Flynn
- Michael Paul Chan … Cast, Michael Tao
- Raymond Cruz … Cast, Julio Sanchez
- Phillip P. Keene … Cast, Buzz Watson
- Jon Tenney … Cast, Fritz Howard
- Kate Burton … Cast, Kate Wycoff
- Jonathan Del Arco … Cast, Dr. Morales
- Ransford Doherty … Cast, Kendall
- Michael Grant Terry … Cast, Chris Wycoff
- Jessalyn Wanlim … Cast, Sindy Showers
- Curtis Armstrong … Cast, Peter Goldman
- Betty Murphy … Cast, Diana
- Katelin Petersen … Cast, Colleen Wycoff
- Nicholas McDonald … Cast, Clint Wycoff
- Peter Breitmeyer … Cast
- Raymond J. Barry … Cast
- Hal Landon Jr. … Cast