Brenda Leigh Johnson
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The Closer character |
|
| Brenda Leigh Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Time on show | 2005 to present |
| First appearance | Pilot/The Closer |
| Last appearance | N/A |
| Portrayed by | Kyra Sedgwick |
Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson is a fictional character featured in TNT's The Closer, portrayed by Kyra Sedgwick. Brenda heads the Priority Homicide Squad of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). As created by Sedgwick, Brenda is an intelligent, determined, and exacting woman. Brenda may offend some people involved in her cases, or coworkers, but she has powerful skills to determine the facts of a crime, compel confessions, and close cases. Thus, she is "a closer".
Contents |
[edit] Biographical
Brenda Leigh Johnson spent 7 years with the CIA, 4 years with the Washington, D.C. Police Department, and 3½ years with the Atlanta Police Department before moving to the LAPD.[1]
[edit] Washington, D.C.
While living in Washington, D. C., Brenda was trained as an interrogator by the CIA. After joining the DCPD, she became involved with her married boss, William Pope.[2] After refusing to leave his wife, Pope broke up with Brenda. However, he later divorced that wife to marry his current wife, Estelle.[3] During this time, Brenda also met Fritz Howard, a FBI agent then working in D.C. who transferred to Los Angeles 3½ years before the show begins. Thus, Fritz left D.C. for LA slightly before Brenda left D.C. for Atlanta. Fritz knew about Brenda and Pope's relationship in D.C. [4]
[edit] Atlanta, GA
Next, Brenda was a Captain with the Atlanta Police Department.[5] Brenda's husband made false allegations which resulted in an ethics investigation while she was a member of the Atlanta Police Department. He accused her of having an affair with a younger police officer. Brenda believes that her husband did this because he was jealous of the time she dedicated to her work. They divorced soon after. The marriage was obviously a difficult one[6]:
| “ | If I liked being called a bitch to my face, I'd still be married. | ” |
After being cleared of the ethics violation, Brenda decided to seek a new job. Brenda was offered a job with Homeland Security, but decided to accept the offer to head the LAPD Priority Homicide Squad.
[edit] Los Angeles, CA
The Priority Homicide Squad handles any sensitive, high-publicity murder cases. As the Assistant Police Chief, Pope was responsible for her coming to the LAPD and is again her boss. He wanted her for the job because the squad was not providing prosecutors with cases they could win.[7]
During her first case, Brenda was told she would not be able to obtain DNA results from the LAPD for many weeks; so, she contacted associates at the FBI. Fritz noticed that the results were for Brenda and personally delivered them.[8] Brenda and Fritz became involved and currently live together.
[edit] Work Life
[edit] Habits
Brenda's trademark is her "honeyed Georgia cadence" and her catch phrase is "Thank you; thank you very much." (Her "Thank you" is pronounced approximately /θeɪŋkjuː/.)
In the pursuit of justice, Brenda is willing to use the Russian mob[9] or the Mexican prison system[10] to stop criminals she can not capture.
Brenda is a severe workaholic, to the sacrifice of her personal relationships. She tends to micro-manage her investigations and take a close look at details.
She loves junk food and sweets but is currently trying to lay off them. She usually hides all types of junk food in drawers, purses, and other places.
[edit] Problems
When she first started leading the Priority Homicide Squad, the squad gave her a cold reception. Her entire squad applied for transfer in support of the former head of the squad Captain Taylor. She dismissed the lack of acceptance and threw their applications into the trash can, right in from of them. Her peers were also resentful of the rank she was given when she joined the LAPD.[11]
Brenda alienated the FBI[12] and the LA District Attorney's office.
Eventually, she earns Taylor's respect by solving the murder of the child of his friends.
Estelle and Pope divorce. When Chief Pope is going through divorce proceedings, he asks Brenda to go through a deposition at his custody hearing. She agrees to do so.[13] Pope gains custody of his children and Estelle, furious at Brenda for her deposition, goes to the Squad Room and yells at Brenda, in front of everyone, that she better not find out that she is sleeping with Pope again. Everyone in the Squad room, including Captain Taylor learn that Brenda had previously had an affair with Pope. They ask themselves the inevitable question, was she transferred here and given such a high rank due to her relationship with Pope?[14] Brenda is embarrassed by what happened and refuses to talk about the subject. Captain Taylor later makes a statement in front of the entire squad about what had happened. He discredited what Estelle had said and that Brenda had been falsely accused. Either the Chief or Pope made say that. Brenda later gathered all the pictures and memories of her relationship with Pope and threw them out in the office trash.[15]
Near the end of season two, Brenda was put on administrative leave (with pay) when a shooting occurred in her division. While investigating the death of a former mob hitman's wife and an FBI agent, Brenda realized that it was the hitman (a mob informant for the FBI) himself who killed his wife when he learned she had an abortion. The hitman had been in protective custody at the time. Another FBI agent had helped the hitman's wife go to a doctor to have an abortion. When the hitman discovered this he shot the FBI agent in the murder room by grabbing Detective Lt. Provenza's gun right out of his desk. Det. Sanchez shot the mob informant and he died.
While Brenda is on administrative leave, her squad is taken over (and basically dismantled) by Commander Taylor, with whom she has had a difficult and quarrelsome relationship. She was contacted by an old CIA friend to investigate (secretly) the death of an Arab teenager. She solved the case (her way) and recovered her squad.
[edit] Trivia
- The Priority Homicide Squad was originally named the Priority Murder Squad, and thus had the unfortunate acronym of PMS. Pope changed the name after Brenda pointed out the problem.[16]
- Brenda's favourite drink is a "big glass of Merlot".[17]
- Brenda got her house, and her cat, from a murder victim whose case she solved.[18] The cat is female and named "Kitty".
- Brenda was a "military brat"; her father was a Captain in the U.S. Army.[19]
- Brenda speaks "German, Russian, and am fully conversant in Czech"; however, she does not speak Spanish. Thus she feels somewhat handicapped in Los Angeles.[20]
[edit] References
The citation style for specific episodes is Season # : Episode #, " Episode Name ".
- ^ 1:4, "Show Yourself"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:2, "About Face"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:3, "The Big Picture"
- ^ 1:9, "Good Housekeeping"
- ^ 1:1, "Pilot/The Closer"
- ^ 1:3, "The Big Picture"
- ^ 2:10""The Other Woman"
- ^ 2:12 "No good deed"
- ^ 2:12 "No good deed"
- ^ 1:2, "About Face"
- ^ 1:2, "About Face"
- ^ 1:3, "The Big Picture"
- ^ 1:4, "Show Yourself"
- ^ 1:13, "Standards & Practices"
