Man, that was hardcore. Watching her just drive away with her sunglasses on . . . chilling.
I assume you refer to last night’s episode. Yeah, I thought about that too. It was ethically – no, screw that, I’ll say what I mean. It was morally very iffy. I would have wanted to do the same thing, but I’m not convinced it was right.
I was starting to question Brenda’s compass when she charged the ‘bank mastermind’ with murder. I thought it was fine and clever to use it as a bargaining chip against the driver to scare him into giving them info. But it’s going to be a tough sell for a DA trying to convince a jury. And more over, it seemed less about the crime and more about her frustration with the FBI interfering in the case. Not very mature, Brenda.
And now I’m really not on board. Again, threatening to leave him at his house without protection as a bargaining chip for giving up his immunity would have been fine. But actually sending him to his obvious imminent doom? I don’t think so. If some citizen had done something similar, Brenda would have been on their vigilante asses quicker than you can eat a chocolate. It’s also something that would seem to be pretty obviously illegal.
But even if you could justify the vigilantism and say the guy deserved to die, and also claim that it was somehow legal, there’s still the issue of recklessness. Really smart Brenda, to help create a situation where bullets will be flying. Ever think that there might be some innocent bystanders potentially placed in harm’s way?
Really not happy with that storyline.
It was a dark ending to the episode, and the point was to be chilling – Brenda had crossed a line. She knew it, and so did everyone else. It will come back to bite her by the end of the season.
Though it worked brilliantly dramatically, I would have thought it would have made more sense for Brenda to say, “If you get back in the car with us, I won’t push for the death penalty.” That, at least would give him a reason to rescind his immunity. But he was dead if he stayed or dead if he went with Brenda, so he took his chances that he might talk the rest out of it (I doubt he could, but he was dumb enough to think he might).
Peter Principle. She gets promoted out of her field of expertise and gets into a position her talents don’t fit well.
It’s California, T-ball would have had a fair chance of dying of old age in prison. The last five people California has executed all spent more than 20 years on death row and there’d be 700+ people ahead of him in line.
I hope it does.
She didn’t cross a line this episode – she’d already crossed that line a season or two ago. This isn’t the first time she’s sent someone she’s basically said “I could help you, but instead I’ll just put you in a situation where I know you’ll be murdered” to someone who would otherwise get away with a crime.
Brenda may be good at obtaining confessions, but from a moral perspective, she’s not qualified to be a dog catcher.
I think Brenda couldn’t stand to know that she had been instrumental in setting free a man who was capable of chasing down and shooting an 8-yr-old boy. After all, he’s almost guaranteed to kill somebody else one day. And all she did was speed up the process - Gabriel was only surprised that word had gotten out so fast.
Was it only immoral that Brenda dropped him off in the face of imminent danger? If nobody had been near T-Ball’s house at the particular time she had taken him home, would that have been okay?
And yeah, she threatens this kind of thing all the time, and she’s carried through with it before. Remember the man she sent to prison under a false name - the name of the guy he’d put out a hit on - so that he’d be killed under his own contract?
And I seem to remember that Sanchez once got a suspect to confess by hinting to him that he’d be put in same prison as the guy who had murdered the suspect’s family.
There was also the time they put the suspected pedophile in holding just so the inmates would beat the crap out of him for them.
This one was different in that they (Brenda/Gabriel/Sanchez) were all witnesses to what was about to happen.
Perhaps they plan to use that to arrest the other gang members?
The other difference here, is that clearly Gabriel and Sanchez were not happy with the decision - and with Gabriel this is uncharted water for him conidering that a few episodes ago, he was the only one on her side when it came to the grandparents murdering the mother to get custody.
I’ll say it again - this episode was different because they knew without a doubt what was about to happen - in the other examples, there was some grey area left.
Wether or not he deserved what he got is supposed to be beside the point.
I think Sanchez was okay with it; Gabriel was not. Sanchez seemed to be considering killing the guy himself, frankly.
I couldn’t remember the details, but yup, that’s the one I was referring to.
The irony of that one is that with how Brenda loves to wring as much as possible out of the felony murder statute, that statute makes her 100% guilty of that man’s murder.
A couple of very nice Fritz moments. “You’ve got to help me deal with this woman!”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s the problem…”
A poster on Television Without Pity counted five times that Brenda has effectively set up a murder.
But last nights is the only one that truly bothered me - not sure why - this particular perp was probably the most deserving, and without a doubt guilty of a capital crime, but the whole way it went down just does not set well.
Almost to the point that if the show doesnt turn around, and quick, that it has effectively lost me as a fan.
I don’t agree with all of those. One of the instances is her letting a guy be shipped to Texas for prosecution rather than trying to keep him in LA, and that is hardly murder, or even absolutely certain.
Can you think of any examples? I can imagine her using various threats to get someone to confess, but I don’t remember her actually following through with leaving someone in harm’s way…
Sure thing – post #52. In the commission of a crime (she knowingly put him in the system under the wrong name) she deliberately put him into a situation where she knew he would be murdered. Under the felony murder statute, Brenda is, as she so righteously loves to put it, “just as guilty as if she pulled the trigger herself”.
Wow I don’t remember that episode. I guess Brenda can pretty hard edged when she wants to be. I guess it makes for good drama and good storyline, but it makes me like the character a lot less.