‘Major Crimes’ season 5, episode 8 review: Rusty’s confession and the fall of a TV hero
There’s pressure for almost any case that the cast of “Major Crimes” chooses to take on. When you are dealing with a case with a celebrity victim, we have a feeling that increases tenfold.
The deceased on Monday night’s episode was Chris Walker, a young guy known for playing a TV hero named Gold Storm. He was someone who was popular with fans, but at the same time not so popular with those close to him. He was labeled as whiny and a diva by many, and there were many who could wanted him gone. For Sharon and company, the challenge became trying to figure out precisely who had the most to gain from his departure, whether it be a nutritionist to his one-time agent, a guy who may have tried to force him out of the job by getting him to fail a drug test. Here’s the problem: Chris died of an overdose.
As the case winded down, Flynn did his part to help the nutritionist, an addict himself, to kick the habit. Thanks to his history with alcoholism, he knew what he was going through.
For this week’s Rusty sideplot, we saw him attend his biological mother’s sonogram and learned in the process that she’s having a baby girl. He had previously advocated for her to give up the child, but this helped to convince him to change his mind. With the help of Gus, she suddenly prepared for the future. Meanwhile, Buzz is making steady progress of his own investigating his father’s death, but we really didn’t have a lot of screen time for him this week.
Also, Rusty told Gus that he loved him! (Insert “aw” here.) Everything from his biological mother to a conversation with Andy helped him to take that step.
Overall, we’d say that Monday’s episode was a solid look at the celebrity world. Also, there was enough going on with the individual characters that no subplot felt altogether tacked-on, and we feel like these will matter in the long-term. In the end, it feels safe to call this one of the stronger episodes of the season. Grade: A-.
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quinquin
August 17, 2016 @ 4:13 am
Great episode with all ingredients I love Major Crimes for: From witty, self-deprecating humor over forward motion for at least some of the character stories, to carefully handled emotional scenes. – To top it all: I learned some things about “the business” I never wanted to know… –
As for the subplots: Maybe the storyline with Rusty and his biological mother has finally come to a resolution. It might be good to close that chapter by now. Elsewhere, Rusty’s character development has taken a huge step further, which is great. We have witnessed this development for almost five years and through some stormy weathers and it’s still compelling. – Andy was allowed to show that at times he is able to act like a mature adult. (Sometimes I wonder what Sharon can possibly see in him since she has to constantly put up with the more infantile traits of his character. She obviously feels the need to parent him on a daily basis). – And there was a small step forward for Buzz as well. Finally! I actually appreciated the apparantly slightly reduced screen time for him. To me he is one of the least interesting characters of the show.
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this episode and hope there is a lot more where it came from!!!!!