Sharon Raydor

Sharon Raydor
First appearance	"Red Tape" (The Closer, season 5, episode 3) June 22, 2009
Created by	James Duff
Portrayed by	Mary McDonnell
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	LAPD Captain of Major Crimes Former Head of the Force Investigation Division
Significant other(s)	Jackson Raydor (ex-husband) Andy Flynn (boyfriend)
Children	Richard William "Ricky" Raydor (son) Emily Raydor (daughter) Russell Thomas "Rusty" Beck (adopted son)

Captain Sharon O'Dwyer Raydor is a fictional character on the police procedural drama The Closer, and the protagonist of its spinoff, Major Crimes. She is portrayed by Mary McDonnell.

Biography and family

Sharon was estranged from her husband Jack (Tom Berenger), an attorney who moved to Las Vegas to gamble; by season three of Major Crimes, the two are divorced.^[1][2] They have two grown children, Richard William "Ricky" and Emily Raydor. In "Down the Drain", Sharon adopts Rusty Beck (Graham Patrick Martin), the star witness against serial rapist/murderer Phillip Stroh (Billy Burke).^[3]

As of season 4, she is in a relationship with Andy Flynn, a lieutenant from her division.

Service

Captain Raydor originally joined the police force as a way to put her husband through law school, with the intention that he would reciprocate. Those plans fell through, however, once she got pregnant and had kids, and then she and Jack separated. She came to realize as a police officer that she enjoyed enforcing the law a lot more than practicing it.^[4]

A few months out of the police academy, then-patrol officer Raydor was involved in an officer-involved shooting. She attended mandatory counseling sessions afterwards, and although she thought she didn't want counseling, it turned out to be a good thing.^[5]

In her first appearance, it is mentioned that a few years before Chief Johnson joined the force, then-Sergeant Raydor of Internal Affairs forced Lt. Provenza and his partner George Andrews (Beau Bridges) to attend sensitivity training.^[6]

Force Investigation Division

As the Commanding Officer of the LAPD's Force Investigation Division, Captain Raydor is charged with investigation of officer-involved use of force and bound by federal oversight, which brings her into conflict with Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the Major Crimes Division, and the two soon develop an adversarial relationship.^[7] Over time, they have gradually come to respect each other, and Raydor is instrumental in Brenda's candidacy for Chief of Police.^[8][9] In one episode, Sharon states that she personally wrote most of the rules that the division used in its investigations.

In Season 7 of The Closer, Raydor is charged with auditing the Major Crimes Division in the wake of a civil suit filed against Chief Johnson and the LAPD by Turell Baylor's family.^[10]

Major Crimes Division

After Chief Johnson's departure at the end of The Closer, Captain Raydor is named her successor as Commanding Officer of the Major Crimes Division, to the initial disappointment of Lt. Provenza.^[11] Due to the LAPD's freeze on promotions (ostensibly), however, she is not promoted to Commander as she was promised by Chief Will Pope.^[12]

Although a competent officer and administrator, the transition from Internal Affairs to Major Crimes left Sharon struggling to close the department’s highest-profile cases, while simultaneously trying to earn the trust and loyalty of the Major Crimes squad. Unlike Chief Johnson, Sharon’s approach to Major Crimes is not to arrest the defendant on the highest possible charge, but to get the perpetrator to plead out and go to jail, without the possibility of appeal. While this is Taylor's new policy, Sharon agrees with it as she wants to put the criminals away and keep them there.

However, Sharon has proved shrewd at the deal-making process and is good at getting a good sentence for the criminals or tricking them into confessing. In one instance, Sharon convinces DDA Rios to make a deal with a murderer on a burglary charge while not bringing up the murder and leave the rest up to her. Rios was reluctant as the man would only get four years in prison, but went along with Sharon's idea. After the man signed his deal, Sharon revealed that he had just confessed to stealing the murder weapon in one of his burglaries and that the murder scene matched his MO, entrapping him. The man panicked and confessed, claiming panic in the crime despite his lawyer's protests though no one believed him due to the brutality of the crime.

She also uses various tactics and tricks to get people to confess such as pretending they have evidence they don't, giving a time-limit on deals while the rest of the squad supposedly finds the needed incriminating evidence, e.g. calling in the suspect's brother-in-law to be her lawyer, then placing him in a room with cameras with his brother (the true culprit) and letting them argue; in one particular case, hanging a privacy sign on the interrogation room door, telling the witness and his friend that they wouldn't be watching when they really were.

Sharon tends to also make unusual concessions for suspects to get them to agree to their deals, such as allowing one man to go to his daughter's wedding after he confesses before sending him to prison - though she requires the squad to go with him to make sure he doesn't try to escape.

Sharon has also proven herself to be very good at finding little clues that can lead to the killer, something others might overlook. In one case, while searching for a man who had murdered three people and kidnapped three more, Sharon noted that the victims' cat was a frequent runaway but was always found. She realized the owners had two GPS locator chips embedded in the cat: one from before they entered the witness protection program and one after. Using this shrewd insight, Tao was able to identify the victims and from there the killer, allowing the Major Crimes squad and the Special Operations Bureau to locate the man and rescue his three hostages. Provenza later gives her credit for this action, telling Sharon that they would still be looking for the man if she hadn't thought of what she did.

In "Hindsight", the five-part miniseries of Major Crimes Season 4, Captain Raydor is offered the position of Chief of Security for the National Football League, but ultimately turns it down.^[13]

Awards and decorations

The following are the medals and service awards fictionally worn by Captain Raydor, as seen in "Repeat Offender".^[14]

	LAPD Meritorious Unit Citation
	LAPD Police Medal for Heroism
	LAPD Human Relations Medal
	LAPD Police Life-Saving Medal
	LAPD Police Meritorious Service Medal

Relationships

Lieutenant Provenza

Sharon, who was disliked by the squad due to her time in Internal Affairs and her policy of deal-making, clashed with Provenza almost immediately. This is partly due to the fact that command of the Major Crimes squad had supposedly been promised to him before Raydor was hired. She has trouble at first due to barely outranking him, but she manages to come to an understanding with Provenza that gives them a good working relationship - he is usually in charge out in the field, but she is in charge in the Murder Room.

By the end of the first season of Major Crimes, Provenza comes to identify with Raydor's own frustrations. He at one point berates Rusty for inconsiderate comments that left her nearly in tears because even he could tell how much she cared for the boy despite his dislike of Sharon. Over time, Raydor comes to rely on Provenza heavily in cases and he grows to respect her; they eventually become good friends, mutually offering each other support in difficult situations. Provenza goes from calling Sharon "Captain" all the time to occasionally addressing her by her first name, particularly in situations where she needs reassurance. On one occasion, when Sanchez was wounded while taking down a dangerous suspect, Provenza recognized that the situation would greatly bother Sharon despite Sanchez's wound being minor. In this case, Provenza tells Sharon to take comfort in the fact that it was her unexpected insight that allowed them to locate a very dangerous criminal and rescue his three hostages alive, including two young children.

Lieutenant Andy Flynn

After taking control of the division, Sharon's biggest relationship change is with Lieutenant Andy Flynn. While like everyone else, he doesn't like her due to her time in Internal Affairs, he grows to respect her decisions as both a colleague and a friend.

Sharon convinces Andy to attend his daughter Nicole's wedding in Season 2; he originally avoided the event as he didn't want to walk his daughter down the aisle with her stepfather. This marked a change in their relationship - they started having dinners together, eventually going to the Nutcracker with Nicole's family. However, the two were not officially together and denied that they were anything more than friends for more than two years.

In "Acting Out", Nicole revealed that she thought they were in a relationship when they were not; Rusty pointed out how many "not dates" they went on and the two seemed stunned to realize Rusty was right. When Sharon asked him about it, he pointedly told her that they were "not dating" several times a month.

In season 4, the two went out for their first official date. They eventually reveal their relationship to Assistant Chief Taylor, telling him that they are "old-fashioned dating" with Flynn commenting that it was "so old fashioned [he's] surprised [they] don't have a chaperone".^[15] When Flynn was facing dangerous surgery, he told Provenza that if he didn't survive, he wanted Provenza to tell Sharon that Flynn loved her. Sharon later had Flynn move in with them while he was recovering from his surgery though he moved out once he could live on his own again.

Rusty Beck

Shortly after taking over the Major Crimes Division, Sharon discovered that murder witness Rusty Beck needed a secure foster home that he wouldn't run away from and took him in herself. The two had a rocky start with Rusty insisting on sleeping on her couch and that he was only staying until they found his missing mother. However, after Sharon started to lay down the law when she got tired of his antics, the two came to an understanding that resulted in Rusty behaving more. Sharon also relies on the squad to help her with Rusty, particularly Buzz and Provenza. Sharon quickly grows fond of the boy and gets upset when his mother seems about to return to his life and purposefully stays out of the situation so she won't cause conflict and is reluctant about informing Rusty of the identification of his father who she is suspicious of. After her suspicions prove right and Rusty's father hits him after purposefully ignoring him and being late, Sharon, while initially very angry, takes rational steps to remove him from Rusty's life forever with the squad backing her up. She is able to force him to sign away his parental rights or face child abuse charges and Rusty remains with Sharon. Following the situation with Rusty's father, Sharon and Rusty grow closer and she fights to keep from sending him into witness protection after he gets threatening letters. At the same time, Rusty hides most of the letters from her out of fear of her reaction and being forced to leave Sharon as she gives him stability for the first time in his life. After the letters are revealed, Sharon accepts constraining restrictions to protect him and makes a deal with him to allow him to help catch the letter writer. Rusty agrees to her conditions because he has grown to love her too and she is now being threatened. After the writer, Wade Weller, is killed by Provenza, Rusty breaks down and admits he's gay to Sharon, thinking she'll reject him and he shouldn't stay with her. Instead Sharon, who'd suspected but never pressed Rusty for information he wasn't willing to give, accepts him for who he is and brings him home. With Rusty turning eighteen, Sharon decides to adopt him for legal reasons as well as the fact that she considers him her son. Rusty agrees to the idea and as a result, Sharon divorces her estranged husband Jack after being separated for over twenty years after he refuses to accept the adoption without money. During this time, she also has to deal with the return of Rusty's mother, Sharon Beck who ends up in a rehabilitation center but immediately goes back to drinking. Sharon later learns Sharon Beck had pressed Rusty to work on the streets to get her bail money and ensures she goes to jail for a year, in order to protect Rusty, that will be extended to seven if she misbehaves. Shortly afterwards, Sharon officially adopts Rusty, though he keeps his own last name. After some tension between Rusty and her biological son Ricky, Sharon's children accept Rusty into the family as well. Sharon sends him to college for journalism and agrees to allow Rusty to live his life despite her fears when Phillip Stroh escapes prison and she wants a restrictive protection detail for Rusty. She gets undercover officers to follow him around secretly for awhile afterwards, but after seeing the outcome of the case of an overprotective mother, she backs off and calls off the undercover officer. She later follows the advice of Judge Grove and stops looking over Rusty's shoulder as he works on his Identity blog and lets him work without her supervision. After Rusty successfully identifies Alice as Mariana Wallace, Raydor informs her brother Gus of her death and helps coordinate things with dealing with the aftermath of her being identified. Raydor attends Mariana's funeral with the rest of the team and comforts Rusty on his feelings of having a lack of closure on everything. When Rusty starts avoiding Gus over the fact that he's now doing a story on Mariana's killer, Sharon heavily berates him for how he's treating Gus like he's expendable. While Rusty attempts to make what he did right, his actions backfire as Sharon knew they would resulting in Gus being angry at him and Rusty having to testify in another murder trial. However, Sharon is shown to be proud of how Rusty ultimately repairs things, stating that she's glad Rusty asks her to have Gus over for Christmas when he has no one else and has been going through a very difficult time. She is also indicated to have pulled some strings to get Rusty into a better college as Judge Grove quotes something Rusty said to Sharon when he helps Rusty transfer from Santa Monica City College to UCLA. However, Judge Grove refuses to confirm if Sharon was behind his actions or not. In the second half of season 4, Rusty starts calling Sharon "Mom" more often than not when before, even after the adoption, it was usually just "Sharon" except as a joke. In Hindsight, Part 3, when Sharon is talking about Rusty's biological mother, Rusty hugs her and tells Sharon "you're my mom", stunning her. Even Rusty's biological mother, Sharon Beck notes how good Sharon Raydor is to her son and tells him that Sharon Raydor is a much better mother to him than she ever was.

References

1. "D.O.A.". Major Crimes. Season 2. Episode 5. July 8, 2013.
2. "Down the Drain". Major Crimes. Season 3. Episode 11. November 24, 2014.
3. "Down the Drain". Major Crimes. Season 3. Episode 11. November 24, 2014.
4. "Risk Assessment". Major Crimes. Season 2. Episode 16. December 23, 2013.
5. "Jailbait". Major Crimes. Season 2. Episode 13. December 2, 2013.
6. "Red Tape". The Closer. Season 5. Episode 3. June 22, 2009.
7. "Red Tape". The Closer. Season 5. Episode 3. June 22, 2009.
8. "Help Wanted". The Closer. Season 6. Episode 2. July 19, 2010.
9. "Executive Order". The Closer. Season 6. Episode 10. September 13, 2010.
10. "Unknown Trouble". The Closer. Season 7. Episode 1. July 11, 2011.
11. "Reloaded". Major Crimes. Season 1. Episode 1. August 13, 2012.
12. "Before and After". Major Crimes. Season 1. Episode 2. August 20, 2012.
13. "Hindsight, Part 1". Major Crimes. Season 4. Episode 19. February 15, 2016.
14. "Repeat Offender". The Closer. Season 7. Episode 2. July 18, 2011.
15. "Hostage to Fortune". Major Crimes. Season 4. Episode 8. July 27, 2015.