Major Crimes - Foreign Affairs - Review: Closed Mind = Bad Investigator

The cold open this week is an ISIS inspired assassination video. The killer threatens American servicemen all over the world then decapitates his victim. The Major Crimes Unit is enlisted by the FBI to find the victim so that they, the FBI, can find the terrorist that did the deed. Oddly ISIS, never claimed credit for the attack. They just praised it.

Tao is at his geeky best, helping them to narrow down their search area. They find the body in short order. Despite that, the MVP of the episode goes to Dr. Morales for kicking the FBI out of his Coroner’s Office. That was an awesome scene!

They find the body and weapon in short order, which is what leads to the awesome scene with Dr. Morales. The victim is identified as Nick Greenbourne. The examination of the body raises some questions about the FBI’s theory of ISIS related terrorism.

For one thing, in a set up where the murderer usually wants the world to hear the victim scream, Greenbourne’s mouth was taped shut. Special Agent Morris, who has dealt with the Major Crimes Unit before, shares Raydor’s opinion. He’s trying to stall his partner Agent Soto to give the team a chance to solve the case.

Greenbourne is indeed a veteran who was reported missing by his best friends and men he served with on his last tour. They follow the trail into his last night alive and find the key to the mystery. Greenbourne’s last night was spent with his buddies (Miguel and Vince) at a strip club (that, incidentally Julio is very familiar with. lol) throwing around $100 bills.

Tao’s esoteric expertise comes in handy once again. He recognizes an abnormality due to the sequential serial numbers and the fact that the same Treasurer’s name is on each bill.

This leads to the discovery that the bills are from a batch that was sent to Iraq for Sunni allies. The solders transporting the money were ordered to destroy it when they came under attack. Nick and his buddies were the men ordered to destroy the money, and they’re the men spending the money.

Nick didn’t spend much of his split of the money. Vince did. He bought cars, other toys, and now needs topay for his expensive wedding. Raydor has him. The FBI doesn’t leave empty handed. They arrest Vince on terrorist charges because of what he said during his video. No one is sure if it’ll stick, but they’re going to try.

They’re still setting up for the solution of Buzz’ father’s and uncle’s murders. Rusty determines that the tape is too dirty for him to see anything but static. Raydor, in all her devious glory, gets the FBI to use their superior software to clean up and digitize the video. What confused me was that final scene when Buzz sent Rusty the video to watch. I couldn’t quite figure out why they chose to have us see Rusty’s reaction to the video rather than us seeing Buzz’. Do you have any theories about this?

The down side of the lack of movement on Buzz’ story was the time spent listening to Rusty discussing his feelings of impending brotherhood. The only real positive in this regard was Sharon and Gus needling him. It was a nice family scene we don’t usually get. Must say though, I missed Andy in this scene.

I enjoyed the episode. Because this is Major Crimes we knew 2 seconds in that this wasn’t going to be an ISIS related murder. I liked the way the evidence let to the bad guy. I didn’t expect the burned money angle. Hopefully, Agent Soto has learned that stepping to a case with a closed mind can lead to an embarrassing situation. She’s lucky that the only people she will be embarrassed in front of is the LAPD. Would have been worse if the truth came out for her bosses. There were several highly entertaining scenes. Dr. Morales throwing his weight around was tops on my list.

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.

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