Major Crimes - Down The Drain - Review - "All Mothers Make Mistakes"

3.11 - "Down The Drain"

Previously on Major Crimes, Sharon Raydor put a major smackdown on Sharon Beck, and reminded her of where she was, and why she was there. Rusty got himself an internship of sorts on a procedural tv drama, "Badge of Justice" and things were primed for Sharon to formally adopt Rusty so that he could move on with school, and get out from the shadow of his mother.

"A baby with 4 dads!"

In what seemed to be a fairly run-of-the-mill discovery of a woman's body in a storm drain, things quickly fell into perspective as the Major Crimes division looked into the evidence on her body and found that she had recently given birth to a child. With the added evidence of a blood-stained baby blanket found feet from where the body was found, Sharon pulled out all the stops to find that baby as soon as possible while checking into the identity of the deceased.

They find out that she was actually a surrogate mother for a couple who had no chance of conceiving. Things become murky when the couple states that in order to save money on the process, they didn't go through any actual official proceedings with their surrogate mother, who was identified as Heather
Lawson.  Pressed for further details, the husband mentions that towards the end of the pregnancy, Heather started pressuring for more money per payment period, and since she had the legal right to refuse the child to the couple, he paid upwards of $10,000 to keep her in line with the agreement. Then, one day the couple received a call from the doctor at the hospital to ask how the child was doing a few days after it was born, and they assumed it meant that Heather might have backed out of the deal.

After accessing Heather's email that she used to communicate with the Glover family, Tao found that Heather was not really acting as a surrogate for the Glover family, but was in fact scamming that family as well as 2 other families with the same baby, including video updates and daily emails. Each family was tracked down and brought in for questioning:  The Hunts, a well-off Texan couple, who actually had the baby in their possession, and the Maguires, a local male gay couple came in to explain their situations. It turned out that the Maguires had the same phone call from the doctor asking how the baby was, only a few weeks after Heather pressured them for more money. They had given up hope of having the child once they realized they were in a sort of "auction" scam. The Hunts had met with Heather the day she died, to receive the baby and in return she made them pay her an extra $20,000 dollars on top of their original payment as well. She had successfully philandered all 3 of the families, but didn't quite make it out alive.

Each family seemed to have a possible stake in killing Heather, but none of the families really fit the bill of the killer. The closest match was the Hunt family, but they seemed to be ignorant of heather's death, even though they noticed that night that Heather looked distressed and worried when she met them. Sharon pieced together from a video update Heather had sent out that the OBGYN was a female, while the Glovers and the Maguires had heard from a male doctor on the phone. After some more digging they pieced together that heather had an ex-boyfriend named Thomas, which threw a new angle into the mix as they had to add a 5th possible father for the child.

After tracking down Thomas Barnes, through outright lies and leading, they got an admission of guilt of sorts from Thomas. As it turned out, the child was his. He recounted the night Heather died she vehemently stated that she would never let him keep the child, as he was too unreliable to be a decent father. He then claimed that when he went to get the child back from the Hunt family just outside the hotel during a rainy night, she attacked him, and inadvertently hurt herself and fell.

Sharon remained skeptical of Thomas and reminded him that she sustained a swollen windpipe from a deliberate punch that led to her suffocation, and there was nothing accidental about him hiding her body and taking her money. Back in the monitoring room, they immediately started working out his deal: 2nd degree murder, and he'd have to give up the child to one of the 3 families patiently waiting in a boardroom for the child to go home with them.

In the end, what could have ended with a 3-way fight by very upset families who had the promise of a child taken from them actually played out completely differently and for the better, as the Hunts and the Maguires backed away for the Glovers to claim the young baby boy. It was hokey, but definitely worked to tug on the heartstrings a bit.

"By structure, I mean family..."

Speaking of which, the importance of having a family was the heavy-handed theme of the episode, as Rusty found himself very close to being adopted by Sharon, but didn't know how to quite tell his birth mother about their plans. Sharon made Rusty agree to tell his mom about it, because it was a big change, and it was something that needed to be known.

As you could imagine, the other Sharon, still delusional enough to think that she shouldn't even be in jail in the first place, didn't take the news well. I would argue though, that in the middle of her self-absorbed rantings and abject attempts of lashing out at Rusty for what felt like a betrayal, she didn't really go as far as she had earlier this season... She seemed primarily upset that he could call someone else mother instead of her, even as he was plainly stating that she would remain his mother by name.

Rusty carefully doled out what he had to say to his mother, and when she spat venomous words back at him, he coolly hit her back with the hard fact that he was at the very least being honest with her, which was more than she ever did for him. Ever. Furthermore, he explained that in order to get on with his life, he needed an actual family unit that he could be a part of, something that she could not give him. Something he could only get from Capt. Sharon Raydor.

She pleaded with him to remember that all mothers make mistakes! She can't just be abandoned like that for her mistakes!? (If this were my mother, I'd have to just walk away, as the irony would simply be too much for me to handle) Instead of going around her 'reasoning', he simply stated that he knew mothers made mistakes, the difference in this case was that the mistakes she made were illegal.

Ouch. Rusty isn't your little dispensable excuse for your shitty life decisions, Sharon Beck...

"I will give you a reason to be proud of me."

Much like the child in between the 3 families and a father who was unworthy of his child, Rusty was between two Sharons, and Sharon Raydor became quite transfixed with how fortunate it was that she had Rusty come into her life. She teared up more than once this episode just enamored by what Rusty meant for her, and what she could hopefully be for him as well. It was a strong and genuine performance for Mary McDonnell, who had to focus mostly on the case this episode, so we only got glimpses behind the armor when it came to how she was feeling about the impending adoption.

At the end, they were officially pronounced a family, and everyone cheered.

Sidenotes:

- "I will always be your mother" sounded more like a threat than anything else
- Andy and Sharon have a little moment where he's holding the baby... 

- "You get caught in a flood...sometimes you drown." - I often wonder if they are trying to outdo other cop procedurals with their awkwardly stale one-liners. Flynn and Provenza are chock full of 'em.
- Ever Carradine really knows how to make my skin crawl with disdain for her character. Good job...

What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!

About the Author - Wilson Crawford

Wilson is an avid fan of television, music, and the occasional video game. He enjoys well-written, thought-provoking characters and series that get better with age. Current favorites include The Good Wife and Mad Men. Past favorites include Damages, Fringe, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, and Veronica Mars.

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