With The Closer ending its Summer 2011 run, and only a few episodes left for Brenda Leigh Johnson in the Winter finale, the question looms larger and more crucial than ever - who on the team, or close to the team, has been feeding Brenda's nemesis Goldman the information he wants to use to destroy her?
Episode 7.10 concluded with Goldman brandishing files of all of Brenda's cases - how did he get those, who pointed him in their direction?
Pope has been a quietly despicable character this season, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if he was knifing Brenda in the back - even more than he did when he directed Raydor to continue her investigation.
We know that Gabriel disagreed with some of Brenda Leigh's actions and directives, so it wouldn't be shocking if he was the leak. That's logical. But gut-wise, I just can't see him as the traitor.
Then there's Commander Taylor, who has been in competition with Brenda Leigh since the beginning, and whose career hasn't exactly flourished in the past few years.
That's about it for obvious choices. I guess I would go with Pope out of the above.
But what less obvious culprits?
Captain Raydor has been almost nothing but supportive of Brenda this season - but could she be playing some sort of double game, designed to get Brenda out of the picture? Why would she do that? To take over Brenda's job, or even become the new Chief?
Fritz of course loves Brenda. Could he be seeking to get her out of the job that has almost killed her in two out of the last three episodes? A long shot ... nah, I can't see Fritz doing that ... but he did say last night that Brenda is using up her nine lives.
As for Provenza, Flynn, Tao, Sanchez, and Buzz - I can't see any of them turning against Brenda, for any reason.
That's what's making this closing of The Closer so good - in addition to the excellent action scenes. My best guesses at this point are Pope, Raydor, and, as an extreme long shot, Fritz.
See you back here this Winter.
See also: The Closer 7.2: Pope ... and Who's the Leak on the Closer, Part 2
And The Closer 6.1: The New Building ... The Closer 6.2: Fun Bumps ... The Closer 6.11: Andy Flynn
And from Season 5: The Roots of Testimony on The Closer and Finding Killers vs. Hearts on The Closer and Brenda Leigh's Niece and Libby from Lost on The Closer and Tom Skerritt on The Closer and Det. Richard Tracy on The Closer and Pres. Laura Roslin vs. Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and The Closer Closes on a Fine Note for the Season
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Episode 7.10 concluded with Goldman brandishing files of all of Brenda's cases - how did he get those, who pointed him in their direction?
Pope has been a quietly despicable character this season, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if he was knifing Brenda in the back - even more than he did when he directed Raydor to continue her investigation.
We know that Gabriel disagreed with some of Brenda Leigh's actions and directives, so it wouldn't be shocking if he was the leak. That's logical. But gut-wise, I just can't see him as the traitor.
Then there's Commander Taylor, who has been in competition with Brenda Leigh since the beginning, and whose career hasn't exactly flourished in the past few years.
That's about it for obvious choices. I guess I would go with Pope out of the above.
But what less obvious culprits?
Captain Raydor has been almost nothing but supportive of Brenda this season - but could she be playing some sort of double game, designed to get Brenda out of the picture? Why would she do that? To take over Brenda's job, or even become the new Chief?
Fritz of course loves Brenda. Could he be seeking to get her out of the job that has almost killed her in two out of the last three episodes? A long shot ... nah, I can't see Fritz doing that ... but he did say last night that Brenda is using up her nine lives.
As for Provenza, Flynn, Tao, Sanchez, and Buzz - I can't see any of them turning against Brenda, for any reason.
That's what's making this closing of The Closer so good - in addition to the excellent action scenes. My best guesses at this point are Pope, Raydor, and, as an extreme long shot, Fritz.
See you back here this Winter.
See also: The Closer 7.2: Pope ... and Who's the Leak on the Closer, Part 2
And The Closer 6.1: The New Building ... The Closer 6.2: Fun Bumps ... The Closer 6.11: Andy Flynn
And from Season 5: The Roots of Testimony on The Closer and Finding Killers vs. Hearts on The Closer and Brenda Leigh's Niece and Libby from Lost on The Closer and Tom Skerritt on The Closer and Det. Richard Tracy on The Closer and Pres. Laura Roslin vs. Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and The Closer Closes on a Fine Note for the Season
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
14 comments:
GABRIEL!!!
Why not? Remember the episode, Grave Doubt (season 3) with the man running for mayor who killed his brother when he was younger? Gabriel in incensed by Brenda's handling of the case. I think he finds her insensitive at the core.
They are close, but so were Caesar and Brutus. . .
It can't be Tayler, Pope or Raydor, they are not close enough in the loop to have been able to leak what Gabriel said in the car when leaving Baylor's house.
Even if Raydor was in loop, it would defeat the whole purpose of her character as the Other female is she were guilty. She has been making subtle overtures of admiration to Brenda Leigh since the beginning.
It's got to be Gabriel. He was a bureaucrat from the beginning. Then she mentored him to stick to the letter of protocol to get a confession to get the criminal tried in court. He has never been okay with her taking it in her own hands when the legal system can't get justice.
Buzz! He is the one who is always outraged by things not honest, etc. He seems like a typical passive-aggressive type. He is the only character that has been at all crime scenes and interviews documenting everything. I still think this even after he saves Brenda's life in a recent episode.
My Choices are:
Pope, Taylor, or Gabriel.
Pope ordered Raydor to reopen the investigation after it was closed, stating he needed to make sure he did everything he could to keep his job. He has been very quiet. Not overly helpful, but just enough to stay under the radar. And was quick to want her to sign that agreement saying she was as fault for Tyrell's death.
Capt. Taylor's only way to advance in his career died when Chief Delk died. He was running things before Brenda arrived and had hand picked her squad. With her gone he would be a shoo in for her job. Although he had warmed up to her, she made him look like a fool in his tv interview and yelled at him in the last episode.
Det. Sgt. Gabriel was suspended by Brenda for 10 days for beating a suspect to make him tell where he had hidden a young girl's body (Ruby). Taylor hid the incident by sending the suspect to Riker's where he was attacked by other prisoner's - masking the bruises Gabriel had given him. But the guy was later killed to prevent him from ever taking the matter to court. But Brenda was outraged by it and wanted Gabriel punished. NOW SHE HERSELF has facilitated several murders, as the defense lawyer has pointed out. Gabriel has got to be a little outraged by this double standard. At least he didn't kill anyone.
Saucy - Buzz is a good long shot guess - for the reasons you say, and also because we really know the least about him...
Cassandra - Stimple wasn't killed to avoid him going to trial. He committed suicide to avoid going to County general population.
I watched all the episodes that Goldman mentioned, which are The Big Picture, Ruby, Tijuana Brass, Power of Attorney, War Zone, and Fresh Pursuit. So here is my opinion taking in all the episodes.
Of all the squad, Gabriel had an issue with all of these cases except for Power of Attorney. Pope had an issue with her in all of these cases except Power of Attorney. Gabriel has more to gain in the long run (think about it, he probably would be forced to quit, but if he goes into politics, he could use as an ad campaign that he stood for civil rights of all men and cleaned the LAPD of unethical behavior) but Pope has the short sight prize. He gets Brenda Leigh off his back, who constantly undermines him and his authority, and has become more of a headache, with the bad press articles and ever increasing bad decisions on her part. As a bonus, he gets to possibly keep the job of Chief of Police, which he was gunning for the six five seasons.
The question would be when did Goldman find out about the suicide: before Tao left the building or after he connected with the squad?
Buzz with the FBI.
The FBI hates Brenda. She ruins their cases, their informants, their stake outs, undercover operations etc.
If someone tipped off the FBI about Brenda, they would come after her with a vengence first chance they had. Do you remember when Buzz walked into the room and said that he suddenly had about $70,000 from the government for surveilance equipment as long as he spent it quickly? What better way to put Brenda and her team under surveilance than with her own equipment. Of course, they would need Buzz's help with the equipment. They probably had the car wired for surveilance when they dropped Terrell off at his house. They were building a case against Brenda and establishing a pattern. The whole Terrell law suit was just a guise to set Brenda up for a federal case.
Why was Fritz so insistent on complete secrecy from the lawyer about where the retainer money came from. He probably caught wind of the plot and was caught between a rock and a hard place.
They probably had something on the sleeze bag Goldman and made a deal for him to pursue the case.
Pope brought Brenda in. He may have wanted her gone, but a large federal case would reflect badly on him. It would end his career with the LAPD. He either wanted her gone from the Terrell trial or was forced to cooperate.
They tried too hard to make Gabriel out to be the mole.
I disagree w/ everything- remember when Raydor was questioning Provenza and he declined to answer that one question? That just screamed LEAK to me. I wouldn't be surprised if Flynn was in on this too...
Flynn/Provenza- the devious duo whose attempts to be heroes always screw things up. Flynn's gotta be the mastermind of it all- probably uses Provenza as his henchman.
There IS always Fritz, but somehow- I don't see him being that sabotogical and devious.
I can't believe I'm the only one saying this... but it's obviously Taylor.
The point about what Gabriel said in the car not being known to anyone is the cinch.
It's not Gabriel, because he's too loyal. But he always thought of Taylor as a mentor, so it's likely that when he has trouble with his conscience he went to Taylor for advice.
Also, Taylor has the most to gain. As a matter of fact, he's the ONLY one who has anything to gain.
And about him not being enough in the loop? please look through as many episodes as you like, he's ALWAYS watching... even when there's no earthly reason why he should be involved... and if you do happen to find a situation that he wasn't actually privy to himself, it can be easily attributed to him getting information from Gabriel.
It's just so clear to me that I don't know how the characters don't see it... and for gods sake, how all you people don't see it... it's just staring you in the face...
I dont want it to be but I think its Provenza!!!!!!!!
Just getting around to watching the reruns and totally into this. Bummer no one is talking about it anymore. For the record, there is no leak. There are other explanations for everything.
Just for the record, what do you mean by "for the record"? Have you traveled into the future? :)
It has to be someone in the car that heard what Brenda said to Gabriel and Sanchez. I don't think it would be Sanchez he told Brenda not to trust anyone. He also told her that they did nothing wrong that it was just a matter of time before Terril Baylor was killed and nothing could have prevented it. So I think it was Gabriel or he told Pope and Pope is the leak. Pope will do anything even sell out Brenda to stay on top and Brenda was one of the candidates for the top job.
Pope.
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