I love being, not just wrong about who the bad guy is, but not even in the right ballpark! The season finale had me scrambling to keep up with Raydor, which is one of the things I love most about this series.
The episode opened with Raydor, not only recapping the clues so far, but asking some good questions. After comparing the murder plots, the victims, and the motives Raydor finally starts asking questions about the court appointed attorney, Calderon. {Official props to @quinquin who spotted issues with his behavior during the shooting in the first part of this story.}
The Major Crimes Unit finally has enough pieces of the puzzle to bring the clues full circle. Everything points to Bullhood Trucking. The FBI is already investigating Bullhood Trucking. One of the 10 guys picked up for purchasing the food that killed Hai Sun makes a statement that provides enough information to allow them to get a search warrant for every single one of the Bullhood trucks as well as the company itself.
It also puts them in a position to put the screws to Jordan Graff. Once he sees the pile of evidence against him, he begins to answer Provenza and Sykes’ questions. He does confirm where Simms sat in the hierarchy. Simms gave Graff orders. This confirms that Simms knew who the head honcho is.
When they raid Bullhood Trucking, they arrest Dwight’s mother, Wildred. Turns out she hadn’t been lying in previous interviews. She really knew nothing about what was really happening in her world. She confesses that Dwight’s father is alive and still in her life. It turns out that Dwight’s father is the building contractor who was standing on the outskirts of the near riot at the Z-Brotherhood apartment building worrying that his employees would not be safe.
Raydor sends Wildred in under cover to get an incriminating statement from Borja on video. She handled it beautifully. Unlike the drunk from last week, Jerry Vogel, her demanding specific answers made prefect sense. She was a mother who had just buried her only child and just found out his father’s actions put him in the ground.
Raydor sends the cops in the moment she gets what she needs on tape. Unfortunately, no one could have known Borja had a gun in his office. Wildred knew. When she had confirmation that this man had used her only son in a manner that led to his death and he didn’t appear to care, she pulled that gun and shot him. Actually, she emptied (or nearly emptied) the entire clip into him. My first instinct was to feel sorry for her. She’d just thrown away her life, but then I recalled….her entire world was just decimated. She really had nothing to lose.
The scene where the two said good-bye to each other was heartbreaking. But Julio sent him off as positively as possible telling Mark to give his grandparents a chance. Mark, no longer the obnoxious kid we first met, said thank you in a way that made it clear how strongly he meant it. He gave Julio his favorite book. Extremely difficult lesson for Julio, Foster Father means sometimes you have to say good-bye. I was doing okay with this scene (that is, I wasn’t crying) until I thought about how lucky his unborn child would have been.
Oooo Rusty got Middle-Named! Whenever my mother used my real name I was in deep doo doo! LOL
The episode took some time out to resolve the case of who killed Buzz’s father and uncle. They received a name in the previous episode, but it was one of the most common names in the country. Buzz managed to find a current picture of the right Bill Jones.
They make the arrest, but Buzz isn’t very happy. Bill Jones turned his life around. I thirty years he’s become a solid citizen with a nice house, a wife, and two children. Buzz feels that he’s committed the same sin Jones did. He believes he’s ripped a parent away from another child. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. You’re not responsible for the outcome of his actions. That one is all on Bill Jones.
Rusty, who seems to have had his empathy actually damaged in his early years, seems taken aback by the fact that Buzz doesn’t want to jump into the wrap-up interviews. But, for a change, he doesn’t try to push Buzz. Rusty seems to accept Buzz’ decision. If Rusty thinks about it he might realize he still has a pretty good answer to the thematic question he proposed at the beginning of the season: “How a traumatic event in childhood can affect a person’s whole life and how they deal with it when the grow up.” Even if Buzz never talks to Rusty about it Rusty still has what he needs to finish his story strongly.
But the bit that really annoyed me was Andy’s heart attack. The groundwork for this was laid nicely a few seasons ago when Andy started trying to eat better and exercise more. Still I found it annoying. We’ve had seasons end on a member being in medial jeopardy before. We’re in season six and stunt finales are unnecessary. I’ll be watching next season regardless.
What did you guys think about this finale? Did your guess of the ultimate bad guy pan out? Sadly the Major Crimes season is over, but I’ll be back when it premiere’s season 7.
