- Fritz' sister, a newly-discovered 'intuitionist', assists Brenda and her team with a case that involves text messages that imply a murder and a suicide that isn't what it seems.
- With Brenda and Fritz's wedding just one week away, Frtiz's sister, Claire Howard, comes to stay with them. She's a bundle of energy and a bit ditsy, informing Brenda she is a psychic (or, as she prefers to call herself, an "intuitionist"). With Fritz busy on a major drug case, Brenda offers to take Claire in to work to keep her occupied. The Major Crimes squad has recently come into possession of a pay-as-you-go cellphone with increasingly threatening text messages. They have no idea who the individuals might be but can determine, from the messages, that one party got the other to kill her husband; however, once the deed was done, messages stopped being returned to the other. Claire thinks she can help them by telling what she "sees," but while a skeptical Provenza thinks it's all nonsense, Mike Tao isn't so sure. With all this happening, and despite his disdain for psychics, Provenza gives his own reading on the future for Chief Johnson.—garykmcd
- A young man stands over a freeway overpass. He puts on his work crew reflective vest and holds a litter picker. He finds a cell phone in the dirt. He turns it on. It's cracked, but seems to work. He takes it in to priority homicide, saying through his terrible allergies that he found a clue to a murder. He wants them to make his 20 hours of community service to go away. He threw a banana peel out his window. Flynn looks over the text messages, which Sneezy says talk about offing some dude. Brenda looks at the messages with Flynn. She's late to meet Fritz's sister. A picture of the lawyer Philip who got away is on her screen. Daniels and Gabriel read the messages which include "he's dead" and "are you ok?" and "it's my job, I'll be ok."
Then a bunch of incoming messages that get increasingly hostile.
The messages were sent to prepaid phones.
They try to make sense of a message that seems to reference a local Taiwanese restaurant. Brenda starts taking down info from Phillip's rape case and then leaves to meet Fritz's sister.
She comes in to meet Claire, who's super excited to meet her and calling her "sister." She's made a whole vegan meal, if it can be called that, and announces herself as an "intuitionist," which is different from a psychic She's started her own company back in Jersey called Claire-voyant. She's given lots of tips, but never officially consulted.
She's thinking about moving to Santa Fe to be closer to them. Fritz seems to shrink three sizes at the idea.
Brenda says maybe Claire can help with her murder case -- it's time that she takes on the crazy relatives for a change. Fritz decides that's a good time to call Brenda into the kitchen to brief her on Claire's varying interests and general flakiness.
Claire screams from the other room. The phone is charged and working again. It just got a text saying: "U R dead."
The next day at the office, Brenda runs into Pope, who isn't convinced there's a murder. He's there on Saturday because he has to find someone to fill a spot on CI. That might mean pulling from her team.
In the squad room, Provenza and Flynn are entertained by Claire, who claims to see a bridge, river and barking dog. She's also consulted with a sketch artist. And then she goes into a trance.
Brenda asks about the message they're trying to decode, mentioning vermilion, Taipei and Bergman's, a department store.
Claire pops up saying the first marriage was devoured by jealousy and someone was having an affair with someone at work.
Brenda sends Flynn to Bergman's and suggests Claire go with her.
Sanchez walks in and reports that Vermilion is a play. Tao shouts out that it's also a river, like Claire said. Brenda asks them to find someone who died near the time of the play and near the restaurant.
Taylor briefs them on a director who died in a car accident near a bridge. Just like in Claire's vision, Tao says.
They go to the victim's mansion, where, Tao notes, a dog is barking in the background. Brenda decides to go in under exigent circumstances, Christine Thompson's life was threatened. They bust into the garage and find a dead woman on the floor of the garage.
The car was running and the door shut.
Tao sees a train on the shelf in the garage, also like Claire said. Now Tao is totally freaked out.
Back at the station, Provenza mentions to Brenda that Gabriel and Daniels can't seem to be in the same room together. He notes how Sanchez was gone for four months, then Daniels for two with Homeland Security and someone is bound to notice she can do the same job with four people as with five.
Pope lurks. He heard from the coroner that there was a "creepy lady" looking at the body. Brenda explains about her future sister-in-law. They show him the sketch artist's drawing: a dead ringer for Pope.
He's ready to call it a suicide. Gabriel argues murder, given the broken front gate lock and gash on her head while Daniels argues counterpoint testily.
Futhermore, Provenza says, Mr. Thompson's schedule matches the text message schedule.
Claire comes in and shrieks when she sees Pope. But when they explain he's the boss, she dismisses her sketch as having picked up on his energy.
Flynn reports on a cabbie who picked up someone near where Mr. Thompson's car went off the road. Tao has a phone report, feeling like a soothsayer and announcing he'll fulfilled Claire's prophecy. He compared all Mrs. Thompson's phones. She first called A. Raber a few months ago and then all the time. And then not at all. On the day they stopped talking, two pre-paid cell phone were bought from a convenience store. Tao recaps the things Claire got right, including, as he turns the phone number map on its end, a phone "tree." A. Raber is a stunt man named Andrew. They watch his audition reel, which includes him jumping out of a moving cars. Brenda remembers the "it's my job" text.
Brenda wants the cab driver and the sketch artist.
As Gabriel talks to Raber, the team watches from the observation room while the sketch artist draws a picture of Raber while looking right at him. Pope wonders what in the world she's up to.
Brenda goes into talk to Raber, sure he's committed two murders. He's annoyed he's been dragged downtown. Brenda asks how he got all the scrapes on his hand. Work, he says. Brenda mentions Mr. Thompson and Mrs. Thompson. Except she says Mrs Thompson lived. Buzz tells Brenda, via earpiece, that the cab driver is there.
She accuses Andrew of having an affair with Christine. She lays out the phone records. He says they were just friends. From the observation room Claire grabs the microphone and tells Brenda to ask if he owns a motorcycle. A scuffle for the microphone ensues. The intuitionist relents.
Brenda waits it out, then shows Andrew the disposable cell phone. She asks how he staged Mr. Thompson's accident and if he remembers the cab driver that picked him up. She opens the door and the cab driver says hi, and nice to see him again. With the door shut he wonders who that man was. Then they mention the witnesses and show Andrew the drawing by the sketch artist.
Brenda says if he doesn't talk, she'll have to go with Christine's version of the events. He cracks. He did it because she asked him to. She just wanted her husband's money.
Brenda wants proof. She bought him the tickets to Vermilion, and gave Andrew the other keys to his car. He was in the backseat when Mr. Thompson came out.
He says to tell Christine he'll see her in hell. "Guess what?" Brenda says, "She's already there."
At home, Claire makes more vegan "food." Now she thinks she should get into law enforcement instead.
After Fritz leaves, Claire says she can tell that Brenda is crazy about her brother. Then she apologizes for the mistake she made about saying the victim was on her second marriage and the first ended badly. She realizes she wasn't talking about the murder, she was talking about Brenda. Claire says Brenda had an affair with a bald coworker and then married a bad, jealous guy on the rebound, which is why she's been putting off marrying her brother.
Flynn told her everything. Claire hugs her "sister" until the sister almost comes right out.
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