Brenda has been taken off active duty because of the recent shooting of a serial killer. Pope awaits word from the Police Department psychiatrist that she is fit in order to allow her back. Brenda is having none of this and she sneaks around to work with her squad.
Pope puts her on PR duty to do a drive along with a reporter, Greg Pierson, who is writing an article about how tough the PD has it because of budget cuts and the need for more staffing. Unbeknownst to the Police Department, this reporter is out to write an expose on the incompetence of the Department.
During the drive along, the reporter gives Gabriel a couple of addresses he has received as tips for locations of nefarious activity. As they are driving down an isolated street to find one of these places, shots ring out, hitting the car, missing Brenda and Gabriel, hitting the reporter and his cameraman. Brenda tries to save Pierson, but to no avail. The cameraman is wounded but alive.
Brenda’s parents are in town for a visit and, with Brenda at work, Fritz greets them at the house. When Brenda finally arrives home, she is covered with blood and tells them “It’s not mine.” She wants to take them sight-seeing but her dad says she’s the only sight they’ve come to see, so it’s okay that they are in lockdown with some cops babysitting them during the shooting investigation.
Well, of course, Brenda can’t sit still for this, goes downtown on the pretense of being a witness to the crime and works with her squad to find the culprit. Turns out the son of a man who committed suicide in response to an expose done by Pierson was the tipster who gave Pierson the location as he lay in wait to take Pierson down. Whew!
Brenda can’t wait to interrogate this guy, Bill Hawthorn, but she’s not allowed to work yet. Ingeniously, she tells her squad to release him, then she follows him to the elevator, gets him alone, knowing the cameras are taping his every word. She tells him that the tipline call can be used for voice recognition and his hands still have gunshot residue, though these things are not true. She asks him “Why me?”, why did he want to kill her, coming almost to tears, though she knows she was never the target. Feeling for her, he says “I wasn’t aiming at you, it was him, Pierson, he killed my father”. This is the most blatant confession she has ever gotten. When the elevator doors open, the cops are waiting to arrest him. Somehow I wonder how legal the tape of the confession is since he was not aware he was being questioned by the police.
I enjoyed seeing her parents together. Barry Corbin and Frances Sternhagen make a cute couple. And they provided the few light-hearted moments in the show:
- Dad says “We don’t want to take your room, Brenda, but where will Fritz sleep?” To which Fritz gets this look and then the dad laughs.
- Mom is so thrilled, but not surprised, when Brenda blurts out at dinner that she and Fritz are engaged. Dad asks Fritz why he didn’t call first to ask for his blessing, then he gets up and stands over Fritz at the table with an angry look, then he laughs, pulls Fritz up and hugs him, saying “Now you’ve got a cat.” Fritz says, “It’s not my cat,” and dad whispers in his ear “It is now and you better make that cat very happy.”
It was good to see that both parents are accepting of Fritz, and Brenda no longer has to worry about how they feel about their living together.
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