(S03E04) Wow. Just... wow. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe during this episode. I held my breath as Brenda and the Priority Homicide team looked for a kidnapper. And then I held it as Brenda, and then Sgt. Gabriel, interviewed the creepiest sex offender ever shown on television. And then again, as they found the kidnapped 8-year old they were looking for. Let's just say my brain didn't get a whole lot of oxygen tonight.

And let's talk about that sex offender for a second. Was he scary or what? I am going to have nightmares about that guy tonight. I kept muttering, "Oh my God" to myself as the guy said, "You see, everyone pretends kids don't want to have sex. But they do."

*Shiver*

(S03E03) Does anybody else really, really want cake? The scene near the end of this episode where the entire team was eating an angry bride's wedding cake made that cake look so damn good. Yeah, it was a good episode. But, what stuck with me was the cake.

I love when the writers pull out episodes like this one. Sure, there's a dead person and an investigation, but the entire episode still manages to be light-hearted. It all started with Lt. Provenza dropping a coffin down a flight of stairs, then proceeded to a fight between an angry bride and Brenda, and to the entire homicide team eating the bride's $30,000 catering (including that damn cake).

(S03E02) This was one of those great episodes that went seamlessly from comedy to drama, something The Closer does better than any other procedural on television. Think about it: CSI slips the comedy in throughout the investigation, but The Closer gets serious when it needs to.

The beginning of the episode was laugh-out-loud funny thanks to some great one-liners from Lt. Provenza (aren't you glad the budget cuts didn't get him?). When Pope's not around to bring the funny, Provenza can always step in. Some of the more memorables lines were:

(S03E01) I was very happy that The Closer didn't attempt to go with a big blow-out episode right out of the gate. This week's was really a pretty typical crime and subsequent investigation. It allowed us to get comfortable with the characters again and reminded us why we like the show. The characters are quirky and there are always plenty of twists and turns in each investigation. Sometimes we can see where they're going, sometimes we can't.

(S02E14&15) I decided to sleep on it before writing this review, and I'm still confused as hell. This episode of The Closer required intense concentration. There were a lot of names -- Russian, Arabic, American -- thrown at us, as well as a lot of terrorist scenarios.

The story/investigation was so complicated that we only got to see hints of Dep. Chief Johnson's unusual personality. I enjoyed the little tidbits in the first hour that showed her restless at her house as she waited for the investigation to conclude about the shooting in her murder room. Like you would imagine, she attempted gardening, but appeared to have killed all the plants. And she tried to go for a jog but ended up at the pastry shop "that I hate!" down the street.

Brenda Leigh Johnson is back for just one night! TNT is airing a special, BRAND NEW episode of The Closer tonight at 8 pm. The Closer wrapped its second season at the end of the summer, but it was so successful that TNT decided to tease us with one more mystery before bringing back season three next summer.

Tonight features back-to-back episodes that have Brenda going off the books. While on paid leave after the season finale's shoot-out in the murder room, Brenda is asked by an "old friend" to solve the murder of an Arab teenager who is connected to terrorists. She'll be in a race to solve the case and protect her team from the divisive Commander Taylor. The second hour is directed by star Kyra Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon.

If you don't know Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, you should. You can meet her on Thanksgiving day, when TNT plans to air a season one marathon of The Closer. That's 13 episodes in a row of the overly-friendly, but-just-a-little-bitchy "Thank You" that Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) delivers so well.

The Thanksgiving marathon is in preparation for a new, two-hour episode that airs December 4th. In it, Brenda is called upon by the CIA to assist in an "off-the-record investigation of a would-be defector found murdered in Los Angeles." Johnson has to find a link between the death of a KGB agent, several CIA agents, a young terror suspect and 20 pounds of missing plutonium. The second hour of that episode, called Serving the King, is directed by star Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon.

Also, following the special, two-hour event, season two of The Closer will air every Tuesday night at 10 pm starting on December 5th.

(S02E13) Well, I'm glad this season has come to an end. While I loved the first half, the second half just seemed to lose its steam. It's as though there were two teams of writers or something. The culmination of the season came tonight and it wasn't that great. Sure, we got to see more of Fritz and some of the minor characters got a few good lines in (Provenza's "Miss Scarlett to the rescue" line was great), but it was just like any one of the last 4-5 episodes. Nothing special. And the end? Well, although I didn't solve the case, I did see it coming with the Crown Royal bag and that's what the entire episode built up to, wasn't it?

(S02E12) This episode opens with a sombre tone when a teen-age boy is found shot to death in front of his home, in a very nice neighborhood. The kid (Carl Neilson) doesn't have any gang affiliations but he is the star witness in a murder case and his testimony could free the man on death row for the murders of two convenience store owners. Detectives start their hunt for the man described by the kid as the real killer.

But hell with the case. We've got a bitch fight between Estelle (Chief Pope's soon-to-be ex-wife) and Brenda and it ain't pretty. Estelle barges into the investigation room and, with every single member of Brenda's team present, she yells at Brenda about her previous affair with Chief Pope and accuses her of having another affair with him. Yowza. So much for spending all of last season gaining the respect of her team.

(S02E10) Uh-oh.

Chief Pope's divorce is getting ugly and Brenda's getting dragged into it. During a deposition where Brenda thinks she is testifying on Pope's character, his wife's attorney holds up a letter that Brenda wrote to him when they both worked in Atlanta and had an affair. Before she can kill the lawyer with her glare, Brenda's called away to a homicide.

This week's crime victim is the daughter of a former heavy hitter in the city. Gennifer spelled with a 'G' was a meth addict and all the doors were locked up tight. There's a suspiciously large hole in a mattress in the guest room. Brenda's still flustered from the deposition as she stumbles through the crime scene.

(S02E09) Brenda's wardrobe just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn't it? That black, strapless dress looked okay at first glance, but then the camera zooms out and we see a tule slip underneath. That has to be from somebody's prom in the '80s! And then she wore some horrible, polka dotted skirt with a grey, cowboy-looking jacket and hot pink shoes. To Brenda, clothes are an after thought. It's a wonderful little touch for her character.

*Sorry for the delayed review. I was visiting my adorable 5-week-old niece in Utah and my in-laws don't have TiVo (I know, I know. But what can you do? They're family!).

(S02E08) Wow. What a change of pace from the last few episodes. I was wondering whether The Closer was turning into a comedy... until this episode. Warning: Spoilers in the next paragraph.

(S02E07) Is it me, or is this show getting better and better? There was a lot of humor in this episode. From Det. Sanchez's knowledge of porn stars to Brenda's frustration with the inter-office romance to the master-of-the-obvious coroner, there were a lot of little quirks that made this episode particularly enjoyable.

(S02E06) The opening sequences of this show are getting awfully clever, aren't they? This time, it looks as though Brenda and Chief Pope are meeting at a hotel for an illicit affair. Given the sexual tension between the two, their past relationship in Atlanta, and Pope's recent advances toward Brenda, it's entirely plausible that the two are shacking up. Just not yet.

(S02E05)  I had a hard time with this episode. I never really understood what Brenda's motivation was to help Lt. Provenza and Det. Flynn cover up their major blunder. At the end, she makes it clear that she was protecting her own but it seemed awfully out of character for her. Or did it?