Major Crimes - A Rose is a Rose - Review

Major Crimes is back with a solid episode that, in some ways, focuses more on the unit than on the crime. Despite that the crime still had a couple of twists that managed to get me to doubt my guesses as to who the killer was.

The Major Crimes unit has been called out to a murder scene because it’s possible that the murder was associated with numerous home invasion robberies in the area.

Provenza runs the scene and quickly concludes that none of the patterns found at each robbery exist at the crime scene. This isn’t their case. Major Crimes is about to pack up and turn the case over to Hollywood when they hear a 16-year-old girl screaming for someone to help her mother. In the house across the street the Major Crimes unit finds the patterns they are looking for; this is officially a major crime.


I liked the way the show addressed some of the threads from last season. I believe all of the major threads were touched on at some point in the premiere.

Captain Raydor is preoccupied with the location of Phillip Stroh though she tells Provenza that there hasn’t been anything new on him other than unconfirmed sightings in other countries.

Julio is back after five months of unpaid leave during which he was in therapy for his anger management issues. Everyone seems happy about this except for Flynn, who seems to be finding excuses to keep him out. He doesn’t want to have to worry about the cop standing next to him blowing his stack. (A rather unforgiving sentiment from an alcoholic, but it doesn’t surprise me that he’s the guy expressing these reservations.) He goes on to try to antagonize Julio during a brainstorming session, which gets so awkward that Julio asks if he should shut up. Captain Raydor emphatically says “no.”

Rusty is now in college and wants to get onto the college paper. His first article was rejected, so he has to come up with something new and better. He wants to cover this crime. Provenza informs him that he has to get permission in writing from Cmdr. Taylor. Which is exactly what Rusty does. Taylor agrees to give Rusty 48 hours to cover the story with the proviso that he focuses on the second victim, Mrs. Lewis, and her son and daughter.

His excitement over this access is short-lived because he must break the news to Raydor that he’s being followed. Initially I thought Raydor’s reaction was about trying not to give Rusty any indication that she was, in fact, freaking out. Instead she asks him to email her the picture and she’ll look at it. She was freaking out, just not for the reasons the audience might assume.

One of the things that Major Crimes does better than many other cop shows I’ve enjoyed over the years is to make the resolution to the whodunit anything but straight forward. Captain Raydor is told that there was a suspect under surveillance at the time of the murders. This allows them to quickly set a trap and round up the whole gang at once. When faced with a murder charge they get a quick confession to the robberies, but not the murders. So, whodunit?

Rusty is interviewing Mrs. Lewis’ son, Peter, when Captain Raydor discovers that the the son purchased a stun gun 6 weeks before the murder. Peter has just told Rusty that after his father’s death his mother became overly protective and controlling. He rebelled against this by dropping out of college, and she punished him by not speaking to him. Captain Raydor storms in bringing Rusty’s interview to an abrupt halt.

In barely a minute Raydor gets the name of her next suspect: the ex-boyfriend of Ashley (Mrs Lewis’ daughter.) They head straight out to pick him up. This kid isn’t too bright. When Lt. Cooper (great to see Malcolm Jamal-Warner back. I love the actor and character.) identifies himself, he opens fire. As the police run this kid down, Ashley stumbles out of his car, handcuffed and hysterical. She tells the police that he lured her to the car then threatened to kill Peter unless she went with him.

Slam dunk, right? They have their bad guy. Nope. The clean, easy solution is rarely the right solution on this show. Captain Raydor has several very logical questions. For example: How did the boyfriend know the combination to the safe?

Julio talks to Ashley about being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Raul. Peter gets in Julio’s face in an attempt to protect his younger sister. Flynn watches Julio closely, but Julio remains calm and quietly intimidates Peter into sitting down and letting him finish questioning his sister. Ashley tearfully explains that her boyfriend was a freak who, after killing her mother, threatened to kill Peter if she didn’t have sex with him. Captain Raydor shows the video of Ashley calling him a freak to Raul and gets a full confession. He also provides a way to prove definitively that Ashley conned him into killing her mother because the overly protective control was ruining Ashley’s life.

Rusty wallows in disappointment over the fact that a really interesting crime was unfolding right under his nose and he couldn’t write a word of it. Buzz points out that Rusty still has a lot to learn about being a journalist. He’s sitting on top of a really interesting story and hasn’t spotted it yet. Buzz leaves it to Rusty to figure out what it is. I really like that the unit is still guiding Rusty.

(If Buzz ever decides to leave the Major Crimes Unit he should become a teacher. He has a knack for putting lessons in front of Rusty then leaving it to Rusty to learn them. ) I love this illustration that, even though Rusty is now in college, he still needs this family. Rusty does spot the story. He decides to find out more about the murdered homeless girl from last season ("Jane Doe #38"). I’m interested in how this will play out. It promises a story for Rusty that doesn’t rehash his previous stories on the show.

I really liked the way the episode played with its theme of protectiveness. I don't usually pick up on thematic elements of this show. I'm too busy trying to figure out who the killer is before the team does.

Andy’s reaction to Julio’s return was about trying to protect Raydor. Provenza continues to try to protect Julio from himself. (Happily he doesn’t need it.) Ashley’s big brother tries to protect her from the police. Both Ashley and Peter suffered under the weight of their mother’s attempt to protect them in wake of their father’s death. Ashley’s reaction to her mother’s protectiveness is to kill her mother. This extreme reaction causes Raydor to re-think her own extreme method of protecting Rusty, because Rusty isn’t being stalked; she had Lt. Cooper put a protection detail on Rusty.

I’m thrilled the show is back and thought this was a nice return. The case initially felt really simple, but turned out to have some nice twists. And, as I mentioned, I liked the way the episode worked with the theme.

What did you guys think?

About the Author - Prpleight

Prpleight is a screenwriter and senior software engineer with solid geek cred. When not writing code, screenplays, or watching TV (sometimes she does all three at the same time), she uses her broadsword Bessie to battle evil. She's been a frequent contributor to the SpoilerTV discussion boards for several years now. Currently, she's reviewing Stitchers, Major Crimes.

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