Brenda Lee's parents, Clay and Willie Ray, turned up on The Closer this week and everything turned funny in "Relative Matters." Thank you, Santa, for this welcome development!

After last week's fiasco, I needed something fun at the expense of Brenda and Fritz and I just knew the parental units would provide it. Having Provenza waling about all the calls Brenda was frantically making to her team and declining the calls was icing on the Christmas-themed cake.

However... as soon as I saw the name Jake Busey in the credits, I immediately thought I knew who the bad guy would be. Poor Jake for taking that role in Contact so many years ago. Of course, there was also a guest star with the last name Fischer-Price, so bizarre things were bound to occur.

Sadly, Brenda's parents didn't fly in a for a pleasant visit, but to tell their daughter in person that Clay has cancer. He and the Mrs. handled it like pretty much everything else: With humor and joy. Even with his mood swings, Willie Ray never lost sight of her husband and his needs. I applaud their marriage. I also happen to know several people who have successfully battled thyroid cancer, so I have little doubt he'll be with us through the end of the series. Unless they decide to prove me wrong and hit him with a bus. Hey, it could happen!

Given last week's episode - that consisted of an entire squad of men drooling over Buzz's decent looking sister - I found it hard to believe that there wasn't a crowd of thousands in the camera room looking at Claudia Shipley's cleavage. I was dumbstruck by this chest, but nobody else noticed? Not only will I never understand men, but I will never understand screenwriters.

Something that drove me crazy was how the FBI found it so much more important to wrangle a burglary ring of the rich (and no doubt famous) rather than work with the LAPD to find a murderer. Who CARES about people who had their stuff stolen? Sure, it's a pain in the butt to replace, but you can guarantee they were well insured and replaced what they lost with items better than those that were stolen.

It was nice to know The Closer proved me wrong by not taking the easy way out and making Busey the bad guy. Sure, he was culpable, but not the actual murderer. A nice surprise! I have to say I wonder if people really spill their guts as quickly and easily as they do on cop shows. I've seen it a few times on real police drama, but mostly they spend hours and hours going around with their stories. Guess that wouldn't make for such compelling viewing in the long run.

I did appreciate how the killer said she never liked her brother-in-law as much as when she was blowing his head off. At the very least, she had her sister and nephew at heart when she was doing the killing. A real family woman, she was.

It didn't have everything I would have hoped for in a final Christmas Closer, but it did make up for last week. An absolute perfect ending to the episode? Fritz taking Clay's advice and bopping him over the head when he got a little out of touch with reality. Merry Christmas indeed!

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.