In the season finale, the Major Crimes squad must find the one witness to the assassination of a judge before the sniper gets to him first. Daniel Dunn explains his violent behavior to Sharon, prompting her decision to offer him a deal.
Recap:
An official ceremony is held to appoint Dr. Massoud as Superintendent. As the judge starts to swear him in, he falls forward, appearing to have to suffered a sudden heart attack. When they open his robe, however, they find that he’s been shot, creating panic among the crowd. They find the shell casing in the pool; it came from a precision rifle. Chief Taylor was on the scene first, as he was there for the ceremony and says that they only received threats over Massoud’s appointment.
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We flash back to the start of the ceremony, only this time from the sniper’s point of view. He made a call to confirm payment.
A bullet hole in the wall by the front door of the empty apartment suggests that the sniper was interrupted when packing up. No blood is found at the scene, but there are two sets of skid marks—the sniper went after their one witness and, for some reason, knocked off the side-view mirror of the car before leaving.
Daniel Dunn interrupts the investigation; Sharon hasn’t returned his calls. He’s lucky he’s still breathing! He apologizes but defends his behavior and wants to speak with Rusty.
According to Dr. Massoud, the ceremony went as planned, and they had rehearsed it just the day before. All along, they’ve thought that the sniper missed his target, Dr. Massoud, when Tao confirms the sniper’s use of a very precise piece of artillery. Judge Cully was his target.
Digging for background information on Cully, Sykes finds that his decision in a recent case could help legalize marijuana in California. Fritz wants to take a closer look at the ballistics report and take it back to the FBI.
Our smart sniper asks officers for help in finding the person who knocked off his mirror. They look up the license and give him a phone number.
The witness goes home to pack up his things. His father arrives shortly after; he works in the building and was questioned by the officers but is worried they’ll suspect him because he is undocumented.
Fritz confirms that this assassination is related to the legalization of marijuana; several other prominent figures were killed with the same rifle, making this an FBI case.
Raydor is completely willing to hand over the case to the FBI but maintains their search for the missing witness.
When Buzz is able to make out the plates from the security camera, they come to a Gustavo Reyes, the witness’s father and handyman of the building. They also learn that someone else recently called about the car. They arrive to Reyes’s home just moments after the sniper left. He killed Reyes when he was unable to learn where Angel, his son, had gone.
The sniper has set up shop, high above, keeping his sights on Angel’s car.
After they find out that Angel works in a restaurant, the detectives slowly replace both the staff and customers with members of the LAPD and federal agents. They’re now faced with the task of finding their sniper, and the FBI wants him taken alive; he’s been hired by the Maldova Cartel to remove those seeking to legalize marijuana. It’s bad for business.
Angel gives a stellar description of the sniper, but they’re running out of time and have a lot more area to cover. Since the parking lot is filling up with cars, Raydor decides to move the employee vehicles, mainly Angel’s, to a more remote location to corner the sniper. As “Angel†leaves the restaurant, he is shot, and the sniper comes out of hiding. All guns are drawn on him, and when he points his weapon upward, he is met with a barrage of bullets. He declines to give his name in his last dying breath.
Daniel’s meeting with Rusty is probably not what he had in mind, as Daniel is met by the entire squad in the conference room. He has two choices: either surrender his parental rights to Rusty, or be charged with assault and battery of a minor. He chooses the former, making Rusty a very happy orphan now surrounded by his new adopted family of law enforcement.
Review:
What a great episode! And they ended it, making one of their best deals: keeping Rusty away from Daniel. It’s nice to see how they’ve come to accept him as one of their own.
I’ve come to like this series more than I thought I would; it has this fresh but familiar feeling to it, and I can’t wait for Season 2!
– Lindsay
