- Pope becomes interim chief after Delk's death, but he doesn't cancel Raydor's investigation into Brenda. Meanwhile, Major Crimes tackles a case involving a house sitter who was killed while the family who hired her was on vacation.
- With the sudden death of Chief Delk, Will Pope becomes Interim Chief while also keeping his old position as a cost-saving measure. The funeral is barely over when Major Crimes is called out on a case. Dead is Ashley Reed, a journalism student house-sitting for the family friends who find her on their return from a holiday. Obviously deceased for several days (five) by the time found, she had also babysat for Alex Banks, one of her professors who was known to have had an affair with another of his students. As Major Crimes picks apart the professor's life, a recovered laptop points them in the right direction. Meanwhile, as Commander Taylor bemoans his loss of advancement, Capt. Raydor, ready to end her investigation, continues only at Interim Chief Pope's insistence.—garykmcd
- As the LAPD undergoes a major realignment, Brenda and her team investigate the murder of a young girl who was house-sitting. Captain Raydor is forced to expand her audit of Major Crimes in light of the civil suit against Brenda and the LAPD.—TNT Publicity
- On a sunny afternoon, the entire L.A.P.D. is in attendance at Chief Thomas Delk's funeral. He died suddenly due to an aneurysm. The Major Crimes team is stunned when Pope is named Interim Chief during the ceremony.
Brenda asks Pope if Captain Raydor's audit into the "Shootin' Newton" case is over now that Delk has passed away. He doesn't have a chance to answer before Gabriel tells Brenda they have to report to the scene of a murder.
The badly decomposed body of 20-year-old Ashley Reed is found inside the home of the Dixon family. They were on vacation and hired family friend Ashley to house-sit while they were away. Mrs. Dixon discovered the body when they arrived home.
It appears that Ashley fell or was pushed to her death from an upstairs landing during a robbery. The team finds several valuables still in place at the home and no signs of forced entry. Sanchez thinks the robbery scene looks like the job of an amateur.
Texts on Ashley's cellphone lead the team to the home of Professor Alex Banks. His wife Sara tells Brenda that Ashley would regularly babysit for them and that Alex typically drove her home. Sara's fear that Ashley might have filed a police complaint against Alex places him on the top of the suspect list.
Captain Raydor discusses her audit of the Turell Baylor case with Pope. She found nothing wrong with Brenda's handling of the case and wants to see the matter laid to rest. Pope is afraid her investigation is too superficial and orders her to interview the entire department individually about the case. Already in an awkward position with the Major Crimes team, Raydor asks that Pope inform the department that her investigation is continuing on his orders. He declines.
Dr. Morales gives Brenda and Lt. Gabriel the results of his examination of Ashley Reed's body. Brenda asks Dr. Morales to check if Ashley was pregnant or recently had an abortion. According to Sara Banks, her husband had an affair with a student and paid for an abortion.
Back at Major Crimes, Brenda is irritated with Captain Raydor for continuing the audit despite Delk's death. Raydor sticks to her orders and needs to start interviewing everyone in the Major Crimes devision. Confident that Pope will eventually cancel the investigation, Brenda agrees to the interviews but not without sending the entire team out on a grid search of the Dixon's neighborhood.
Brenda interrogates Professor Alex Banks about his relationship with Ashley Reed. He denies ever having a sexual relationship with Ashley or any of his students. Brenda catches him in a lie and confronts him about the abortion he funded.
Pope criticizes Brenda for sending the entire squad out on a grid search just to avoid Captain Raydor's audit. Brenda vents her frustrations about the situation. Pope claims to be just as frustrated but assures her it's all temporary.
Sanchez arrives at the Banks residence with a search warrant.
Gabriel takes on the unpleasant task of digging through the dumpster for evidence while Taylor and Provenza "supervise". Provenza notices a bag identical to the luggage that the Dixons brought home from vacation. The bag proves to be full of stolen goods from the Dixon house, including a laptop that was not on the list of stolen items.
Alex and Sara Banks are placed together in the break room, which Buzz has bugged for the occasion. The team watches from the surveillance room as Sara accuses her husband of murdering Ashley. He denies it but asks her to tell the police that he came straight home and that she saw him arrive after dropping Ashley off.
Alex admits didn't go straight home; he drove past his mistress Chloe's house instead. He lied to the police about it because he didn't want to admit it to Sara. He pleads that it's the truth. Brenda orders that Banks be held overnight.
At home, Fritz and Brenda argue about the lawsuit. Fritz doesn't trust Pope and suspects he's trying to throw Brenda under the bus to save his own job. Brenda refuses to think that Pope would do such a thing and still lays the blame on Raydor and Delk.
Lt. Tao calls Brenda to pass along the news that the recovered laptop was reported stolen 4 months ago. By the next morning, Tao has tracked down the real laptop owner. Gerald Wein's house was burglarized months ago while his family was on vacation. Aside from the laptop and some jewelry, nothing else was taken and the detectives thought it was the work of an amateur.
The Dixon family arrives at Major Crimes to recover their stolen goods. The team distracts Jesse Dixon's parents while Brenda and Gabriel question him. Jesse claims the laptop, proving that he was the thief at the Wein household.
Brenda connects the burglaries with two other similar robberies in the area. Jesse and his friends were robbing each other's houses. He admits that it started as a dare to see what they could get away with. They gave each other the keys and pass codes to their houses to see what they could steal without anyone noticing.
Brenda confronts Jesse with Ashley's murder and demands to know who robbed his house. With the knowledge that he'll be going to jail for conspiracy to commit murder, Jesse admits he loved Ashley and would have warned his friends she was at the house. His friends swore that Ashley scared them and her death was an accident.
Jesse writes down the names of the robbers and asks that he be the one to tell his parents about what he did.
Captain Raydor takes Brenda to task for sending the entire division out into the field again just to block her investigation. Whether either of them likes it, the interviews have to get started. Brenda rejects having her actions questioned through her co-workers.
Brenda releases Alex Banks now that Jesse's seven accomplices are being apprehended. She apologizes on behalf of the L.A.P.D. and allows him to go home. Alex says he no longer has a home.
Brenda sympathizes with being unfairly accused. Alex acknowledges that he's not exactly innocent; he cheated on his wife and his family more than once because he thought he could get away with it. She commends Alex for owning up to what he's done. "It's a start," Brenda says. "At what?" Alex asks hopelessly.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content