I am hoping they don't break Fritzie and Brenda up!

Plus, I liked the setup of this episode too; different, for The Closer, and intriguing.

As soon as Pope admitted to Brenda that he had been sleeping with the DHS auditor the previous year, I got to thinking that, beneath ol' Will's balding, Joe Average exterior, beats the heart of a regular slut! Let's see - he was seeing Brenda while he was married, then dumped Brenda AND his wife for Estelle - and then, while Estelle was stepping out on him, he was cultivating his own extracurricular relationship - while still holding out hope that Brenda might choose him over Fritz! (And, sometimes, I truly wish Brenda had chosen him...Fritz is cute, but such a wuss here lately...)

"I think the only reason the "FBI were involved" is because she mentioed to Fritz that a DHS laptop and cellphone were missing. He has an obvious duty there."

No, almost every episode now Brenda calls Fritz trying to use him as a back channel to get something that she as a police officer can't, or at least as quickly as some one throwing around an FBI badge. In this case. she couldn't get a cell phone dump because it was restricted and DHS wouldn't allow her to have it, so she called Fritz to pull strings (which is actually kind of funny if you know anything about how disfunctional DHS can be). And Fritz didn't take it as his duty to send the agents, he did it because he was annoyed with her.

It is true that DHS, once notified of an employee's death and that a laptop with classified information was missing, should itself have notified the FBI.

I think the only reason the "FBI were involved" is because she mentioed to Fritz that a DHS laptop and cellphone were missing. He has an obvious duty there.

We've seen the custody battle before, when Brenda had to be deposed.

Brenda Leigh? Really? I never knew the spelling!

There didn't have to be any rumors floating around re: Sgt. Gabriel's sexuality for the coroner to hit on him. The doctor wasn't going to know what his chances were unless he took a chance, and I think he'll probably take Gabriel's cluelessness as a sign to keep trying.

Should be pretty funny to see how it plays out.

As much as I enjoy JK Simmons in the role of Pope, and while there were specifics in the affair subplot that depended on the Pope/Brenda dynamic, I found myself thinking that perhaps it might have been better to have this turn out to be Taylor's storyline instead. Gossett really does need to have a good episode of his own and this could have been it.

I don't see how the DHS grant is a problem for the squad. They took some shortcuts on the required training, but they passed so there's no evidence of that. Now they've been activated and assisted the FBI in clearing a murder case with national security associations; I don't see how this hurts them. The audit was on a different DHS grant.

Fritz is being a passive-aggressive jerk. Yes, Brenda is too dependent and yet dismissive of him, but grow some balls and set boundaries instead of acting like a prick. In real life the wedding might never occur, but I don't think the show will go that direction. Fritz dying in the line of duty, however, and Brenda Leigh dealing with the repercussions would not shock me.

I too was intrigued by Dr. Morales chatting up Sgt. Gabriel, although, of course, Gabriel was oblivious to what was going on. I've liked Jonathan Del Arco since he played Third of Five/Hugh on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and it's nice he got something to do besides mouthing technobabble to steer the plot along.

And wow, is Chief Pope a slut or what? Now Brenda Leigh has a different view of their previous relationship, and knows that he'll lie to her.

I thought this episode was about average for this season. They have made Pope such an unlikeable character that it is hard to find symphony for him when he pines after Brenda.

I do agree with the above review about fritz and on the above comments about Commander Taylor. Seems as if Commander Taylor is way less confrontational than he was and it is not real becoming of his character.

The only real problem I have with this episode (other than it being just average - something that I am sadly getting more and more accustomed to) is that in the opening credits we see 4-5 Crows or Ravens circling in the air. That in itself is OK because they do scavenger dead animals, but for the audio track they put in a Red-tailed Hawk squealing. All three birds are used so much in television and movies these days one would think they could get it right.

I wasn't all too impressed with this episode and really the last few have not been all that great. I'm especially hating the Pope and Fritz story lines; and if we want to talk about and thankless role on this series how about Commander Taylor. He's always lurking in the background but never really offering anything to the story line. If I was Robert Gossett I would be one unhappy actor.

As so often happens with this series, the writers give us about 9 or so really great episodes, but as the season starts winding down the quality goes with it. Regardless, this is still one of the best procedurals on television. Kyra Sedgewick needs to win an Emmy.