Major Crimes - Acting Out - Review - "One Big RV Park"

3.13 - "Acting Out"

In another seemingly straightforward case this week, a former child actor was found beaten to death in a seedy alleyway. With the press sniffing around, the Major Crimes team tries to get to the truth before a media frenzy takes place. Meanwhile, things get awkward when Andy's daughter brings up some personal questions to Captain Sharon Raydor in the workplace. 

"He was incredibly hot."

"Well, now he's barely room temperature."

J-Me, (wow, that really is an awful stage name while still catchy, good job on this one, writers!) former child-star-turned-addict-turned-reformed-addict-turned-indie-actor (I am so sorry) was filming a role to get his career back on track when he was found dead in an alleyway on the wrong side of town. After removing his body and putting on a ruse for the cameras that stalked his every move in order to keep the case from spilling into primetime news segments, they found that it didn't quite add up for him to be randomly attacked by a thug, much less for the attack to be caught on an HD camera that was leaked to the press. It was determined that for some unknown reason, he was targeted specifically for murder.

J-Me may have been an asshole, and he may have been a former addict, and a lot of other things, but the episode didn't really paint any of the would-be killers in a light that would make them likely suspects at all: His agent was worried at the mere mention of someone hurting J-Me's face, the boy who followed and filmed him was only following the orders of Ana Ruiz, J-Me's sometimes-girlfriend-sometimes director, who also seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, and didn't strike me as the murder-y type. There didn't seem to be anyone that had a good enough reason, and there didn't seem to be a strong motive for the killing.

However, there was film from the last take J-Me did before he was thrown off the set of the indie movie that Ms. Ana Ruiz seemed to be worried about: In the scene, he completely ignored the script and came up with his own monologue, which infuriated Ana to the point that she verbally threatened to kill him on tape. At first, it seemed that was her motive for holding onto the footage, but they replayed the tape and listened more closely to his newly ad-libbed lines to realize that he was actually describing the murder of a cartel member, Matteo Perez, from 15 years ago.

After pressing Ana Ruiz for details on how J-Me could have known intimate details of a murder, they reasoned that she was actually the one who told him about it, as she had a hard life on the street as a child. They called her "Little Maria" and got a rise out of her, in the form of an emotional and fearful response. They said that J-Me's little addition to the script gave them the idea to go looking in room 319 of an old hotel, where they found the murder weapon for Matteo Perez. She was scared and upset, but she did not admit to killing anyone. She insisted J-Me's death was not on her.

Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, they allowed Ana's driver and longtime friend speak to whether he knew she was lying or not during the interview. In the end, they arrested him as he was the one who confided in J-Me that secret from his past. But he claimed he only hired the street thug "Crazy Diego" to rough J-Me up, not kill him, just to scare him to keep quiet. Sharon spoke vaguely of how he could come to make a deal with the department instead of simply being charged for 3 murders... And that was the last we saw of the case of the week. No actual closure there, as the focus shifted to personal matters...

"After five marriages, I know the nutcracker by heart..."

The running personal matter in this episode was Andy's daughter approaching Sharon with a question about how she dealt with having both a personal and professional balance with Andy, as she had been led on by her father to believe they were dating for the last few months.

The result was a lot of really funny awkward glances and moments throughout the episode. Sharon almost lost that steely demeanor when Nicole posed the question, and she quickly rushed to change the subject, and get out of her office.

This was the first outright mention of something that seemed to be going on in the background for a while: Sharon/Andy. There have been a few moments in recent episodes that seemed to be building up to some sort of closer relationship between Sharon and Andy, but nothing concrete until this episode.

Nicole then loudly invited Sharon and Rusty to see the Nutcracker in front of the whole office as "a family" to which everyone twitched and Rusty did his best to say "Sure, even though I have no idea what's going on right now!" Sharon immediately spoke with Andy about assuaging his daughter's idea of what their relationship was... She proposed a dinner to discuss the situation before the Nutcracker that night.

"I'm not dating."

At the awkward dinner, Andy and Sharon denounced their "being together" and stated that they spend time together as good friends, but nothing more. Andy then stated that he said they were in a relationship to Nicole to help make her like him more, which is quite ridiculous and a little sad from my perspective, but it showed how both Andy and Nicole saw Sharon as a person worth the fuss, and that was sweet in its own way, I suppose.

As they left for the Nutcracker, Rusty called Sharon out. She simply said "I'm not dating" to which he replied "Several times a month" and walked away. She then seemed to have realized that definitely constitutes as a form of dating, whether she liked it or not, and was left with a puzzled look on her face.

Sidenotes:

- "The glamour of Hollywood: One Big RV park" - Provenza is a one-liner treasure, the gift that keeps on giving.

- Who writes their name on a 5 dollar bill, honestly?

- At least in death, J-Me's career had a successful comeback? :(

- The awkwardness between Andy and Sharon was fantastic, and helped the story along.

- Friendly reminder that Rusty had never heard any music from the Nutcracker, and that his mother is a monster who should be kept away from him forever. Sharon get that boy some culture!

- Rusty getting offended with Andy using the term "gopher" for personal assistant was funny

- I have read that Sharon/Andy's "ship" name is "Shandy" but I think I'd prefer "Anron" because I find it oddly funny to say out loud

- Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the resemblance between Andy and his daughter Nicole?

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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