I've been watching The Closer since it premiered, and have enjoyed it greatly. I just watched the most recent episode, "Show Yourself" today, and am puzzled about its resolution. Sadly, Television Without Pity has failed me by not assigning a recapper to this show, so I'm here to ask for your assistance. I'll put the rest of this post beneath the fold so as not to spoil it for anyone.
To be blunt, I don't understand the resolution at all. What I think is that Captain Taylor was ultimately correct about Col. Walters' son committing suicide and his being in denial about it. Maybe Col. Walters realized who the killer really was as he watched that piece of the hotel surveillance tape again, and in doing so faced up to his denial. If that's so, then I can understand why he killed the sniper as Brenda was arresting him.
All that said, and assuming all that is reasonable, then how did Brenda know it was the mailman who was the killer? Did I miss something? Maybe she just drew the same conclusions that Walters had done once she spotted the mail truck, but I'm at a loss as to the thought process. I mean, among other things, what would the mailman have had against the Quatorze gang? The son's motive was clear, but not the mailman's.
(If you're going to suggest the mailman really was Col. Walters' son - I saw no resemblance to the photos they'd shown, but I'll go with it for now - then why did Walters decide to kill him after going through so much trouble to get Brenda to want to spare him? I don't get it.)
The other episodes have all made sense to me, but this one just didn't. Maybe I'm being dense, but any enlightenment you can provide would be much appreciated.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 10, 2005 to TV and movies | TrackBackKuff, I didn't get the mail truck thing either, but I'm sure a reviewing would clear that up. It flew by so fast that I don't think you could have stopped it long enough.
As to the resemblance of the son and the shooter, it never crossed my mind that they weren't the same person. Doesn't mean they were, though.
And why would he shoot his son when he was about to shoot Kyra? Because he owed her and put in her in danger. And because he wanted to stop him from killing again, if possible by saving his life, but not necessarily.
I watch the show, too, because my buddy and Houston resident GW Baily (MASH, Police Academy) is in it. He does great work with the Sunshine Kids, a cancer charity, but does even better work in front of a camera.
Posted by: Jason Stanford on July 10, 2005 8:47 PMOK, but that still doesn't clear up how Walters knew where the shooter would be. I did review the ending scenes (have I mentioned lately how much I love my TiVo?), but it didn't help. Maybe I need to re-watch from the beginning.
Oh, and I love GW Bailey. In the first episode, I pointed to him and said to Tiffany "See that guy? That's Rizzo from MASH."
Anyway, thanks much for the feedback!
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on July 10, 2005 8:55 PMIf I can rightly access my spotty memory, I believe that Col. Walters deceived the police when he identified which gang member was likely the next target. When he was marking the photograph, he started to check off one of the remaining gang members, then pointed to another one. The police then went to find that Quatorze.
Walters had figured out that his son was posing as a mailman from watching the security film from the convention in the hotel the shooter used for the park shooting. If the shooter wasn't Walters' son, I really can't make sense of the show. I think that they weren't very clear about the mailman from the video being a possible suspect.
I too have enjoyed watching GW Baily. I had the same reaction as Charles. Well, once I got past the "where have I seen that guy" reaction. He's got an interesting character in this show.
Jeb
Posted by: Jeb on July 11, 2005 3:04 PMI too enjoy the show "Closer" but was confused about the ending so much that I googled "The closer" and "sniper" to see if I could discover others who could or could not make sense of the "Show Yourself" episode. This page came up on google underneath the "TNT" website whose BB was useless. I guess I am not alone in being confused.
Best wishes to you all,
Senex
Posted by: Senex on January 18, 2006 7:01 PM