[Saving Grace.] 1x07-1x09. (spoilers)

[delga]

 The final three episodes of the season all pack quite the punch, and I'm interested in what the four remaining un-aired episodes feature because this seemed both a fitting end to the current run whilst also being somewhat incomplete in some ways.

Episode 7 came on the heels of the Rhetta episode, and introduced us to more of Grace's family, namely her pushy younger sister, Paige, and their Native-American Grandfather, GeePaw. Again, I don't really remember the case (what's new?) but Grace's relationship with GeePaw was touching, as were her frustrations with her sister, Paige. GeePaw has Alzheimer's and Grace is forced to begin the long slow process of saying goodbye. It's an unsettling pattern in her life - only two episodes before she threw out her dying aunt. Grace's life is filled with loss.

Another reason I enjoyed the episode was because it once again brought up that Grace once had a relationship with Butch (something brought up before with Ham's jealousy). Butch falls for Grace all over again when they go horse-riding and by the end of the episode, Grace wakes up with Butch in her bed.

Oh, the case featured some sort of Native American ritualisation of the corpse, and we finally had a Bobby showcase which was really nice. We found out that he's half-Cuban, that the guys tease him about his 'Indian-fu' and that he helped to look after troubled-teens, one of whom died at war, the other who was killed by the soldier's foster father. Bobby's loss is great, too. The episode had a lot of laughs in it, but naturally ended with weight.

Episode 8 featured Grace getting shot; the cold open ended with Earl rushing towards her, full of worry. It's a close call. The case follows Grace and the team as they try to figure out who killed who in the shootout, and how to get the head runner. The twist in the tale was that the gangster's grandmother was responsible for the trouble; she'd been running the neighbourhood. At the end of the episode, she kills her grandson. It's shocking and horrible.

The beginning of the episode is actually very intense, and excellent entertainment. Watching the team go through their pre-warrant rituals is fascinating and funny. Ham tapes down his necklace; Butch pulls on a Texas sweater; Bobby kisses a picture of his family and puts it in his flak; Grace - I love Grace - Grace puts a tampon in her boot. A tampon. What a woman. They team then jumps hard on the spot to make sure they're not making any noise. (Sound-check). It was a brilliant insight into the ritualisation of attack methods, and the buddy-system that Grace truly belongs to.

Grace's boys rally around her - Ham and Butch feel some of their mutual jealousy over Grace, but the whole team feels the hit. There's a scene when Grace returns to work before she's really fit to, and the boys all come in for a hug. It's heart-warming because the team really feels like Grace's natural family. She loves all of them, and they love her. In a later scene at Grace's house, Grace falls asleep whilst the guys are there. Bobby notes that he didn't like seeing Grace in the hospital bed. The three guys then argue over who should stay with her - Butch wins because he doesn't have a wife or family. That was a pretty funny segue, actually, subtly reminding us of Butch and Ham's relationship,how they're brothers battling over the same girl. Ham's jealousy is his natural bravado - he's pushed Butch away before when nothing was going on; Butch's jealousy is founded in wanting Grace, and knowing that Ham has a claim on her. Butch tries to cook Grace breakfast: she doesn't really eat breakfast. It's all very touching, and funny, as are the football references which come back in the final episode.

A side-plot in the episode features Leon Cooley, the convict that Grace 'killed' in the first episode. He grows enough to allow his ex-wife's future husband to one day adopt his son. Another painful but excellently executed scene.

The episode ends with Rhetta revealing to Grace that the cop that was killed was the one who managed to kill one of the opposing shooters. Grace - looking tiny and fragile, inspecting the bruise she got from the bullet she took (the flak caught it) dresses in her dress greens and heads for the funeral. Two especial details that I liked about the episode include Grace talking to her priest brother, and the cops wearing black bands over their badges to show that they were mourning one of their own.

Episode 9 was aired this week as the season finale and starts off with Grace being tied to the bed by one of her one-night stands, who bolts when he realises that she's a cop. Ham finds her like this and takes off, jealous and hurt; Earl refuses to help her but sits by trying again to make her a believer. Ham returns to unlock her cuffs only when the new Captain is about to send Bobby over to see if something is wrong with Grace. Later they argue because Ham is hurt, but Grace points out that he only came over early to get in a booty call before work - leaving his wife in the process. By the time they make this week's arrest, they seem to be on marginally better terms.

The case of the week was very important and brought to fruition some ideas I had about Grace's past. A girl is found stabbed and assaulted in a warehouse (on a humorous note, Ham opens the body bag and finds a dead bird which makes him flip out; the guys are pushing retaliation on one another because of a recent football game on which they were all betting. Later in the episode, Butch wraps Ham's desk in clear wrap. All great indicators of the world in which Grace and her team live) and the guys find the word EVIL written on the wall in her blood. Butch reveals that he has a hard time looking at murder victims' purses because they remind him of  his sisters.

When Grace finally sees the scene, she recognises it as a continuation of a cold case in Tulsa. She also finds out that the wall actually reads DEVIL. We learn that 11 years ago, Grace was doing what she does - i.e., going into bars to get laid - and that she woke up after a blackout and found that she had been stabbed and that the wall read DEVIL in her own blood. She collected evidence from her own house, went to Tulsa police, filled out a report and the moved to Oklahoma where in the present day, the evidence she collected helps her to put away her attacker. Grace talks to the perp alone, the team present behind the glass as she confesses her attack. Everyone feels the burden that Grace has been carrying around, and I think that the attack was probably what set Grace off on her promiscuity binge. She kept at it to prove to herself that she was still alive, still a survivor.

The subplot of this episode involved Grace's nephew in a bullying scam. Grace hardcore interrogates him and the puts him in a cell for a day. The kid learns his lesson, that's for sure.

The episode ends with Rhetta realising that the things that Earl leaves for Grace are a message. A wooden duck and the Ganesha statuette (duck, elephant) represent avoidance of memory. Rhetta's heart breaks. Earl tells Grace that God's plans for her are coming to fruition, and that contrary to his belief, Grace had actually made some progress and that maybe she was ready to move on to the next stage. It was a powerful scene, heading back to the landscape that Earl first led her to, and Grace holding on to Earl for assistance.

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The whole season has played out this way, amusing and yet able to push buttons, digging down to the core of human nature. It's almost as though Grace punishes herself through gluttony, distancing herself from those who love her because she doesn't believe in herself. From her family to her team, from her home life to the way she tackles her cases and her entanglement with Earl, I have loved this series so much, and I can't wait to see more. I really hope I don't have to wait a whole year for it.

Next up: more Damages which is now well into the second half of the season.