Major Crimes: Personal Day

July 2, 2014 12:16 PM - Season 3, Episode 2

A confessed murder is released from prison early for good behavior and repentance for his crime, only to proclaim his innocence to the police who took his initial confession. The seventeen-year-old murder case is reopened, with the episode focusing on Det. Julio Sanchez. Rusty admits to Raydor his reason for the suspicious visits.
posted by filthy light thief (4 comments total)

Streaming online at TNTDrama.com, with the video to expire on July 15, and you have to prove that you have the right TV provider.

I'm wondering if Sanchez's side cases become an on-going story line, or if that was included to show a facet of him as a good guy who wants to do right for the families who have been overlooked by the LAPD in the past.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:57 PM on July 2, 2014

I was sure it was going to be the dad in the wheelchair because I recognized the actor!
posted by viggorlijah at 7:00 PM on July 2, 2014

I think there's always been a vigilante streak to Sanchez' character, it usually comes out in his willingness to make physical threats against suspects. I don't remember if this is the first time he's had to be restrained from actually carrying them out. I know one of my least favorite scenes from The Closer was the time they had him use the threat of police brutality to successfully get information from a suspect. I forget the case - they needed the guy to tell them where he was supposed to meet his accomplice so they could get there before he killed someone, so it was the classic straw man scenario of "but what if you had to torture someone to stop a bomb going off?". And I forget if we actually saw Sanchez beat the guy - I remember he hit himself and ripped his own shirt, while telling the guy that he was going to charge him with assaulting a police officer and everyone would believe him.

I hate it when procedurals treat police brutality like it's a logical interrogation tactic that produces true results, instead of the clusterfuck miscarriage of justice that it actually is, so I really hated that scene. (And I think the guy was caught in the crossfire at the meet with the accomplice, so there were never any repercussions for anyone.)

So, I think it's good character growth for Sanchez to find out he was wrong about a case. I don't know if they'll ever mention these cold cases again in the show or if that scene with the grandmother is the end of it. But I'd hope that knowing he was wrong before will keep him from going down the 'ends justify the means' road in future cases.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:02 AM on July 4, 2014

I think there's always been a vigilante streak to Sanchez' character, it usually comes out in his willingness to make physical threats against suspects. I don't remember if this is the first time he's had to be restrained from actually carrying them out. I know one of my least favorite scenes from The Closer was the time they had him use the threat of police brutality to successfully get information from a suspect.

My wife has been re-watching The Closer, and recently saw Ruby, in which Gabriel snaps and a number of people on the team work to cover up what happened, even though it jeopardizes the case and Gabriel's career. In the counter to the scene with Sanchez, Gabriel's actions are treated by Johnson as the miscarriage of justice that it is. And I think that by losing Dep. Chief Johnson and being lead by Captain Raydor has changed a lot of how the procedures are handled. I wonder if some of that was to get away from the "anything to close a case" attitude under Johnson.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:16 PM on July 5, 2014