Let’s just take a moment. Just one. To celebrate the huge and wholly unbelievable feat we’ve just witnessed. Brenda Leigh Johnson is now a Howard! Four seasons from the first time we saw them together, sitting across a high-top table at a hotel bar, Fritz making her promise that if he gave her the evidence she needed she’d stay at the table and catch up with him instead of scurrying off to do her job. Even back then he knew our girl better than she knew herself. And that was just the beginning. Now we’re watching them get ready – STILL – for their wedding. The day has finally arrived and as Claire and Willie Rae stage a battle of wills (and décor), Brenda and Fritz both fly off to work. But the wedding – and what it means for Brenda – still takes center stage. So when she calls Pope from the “toilet phone” she asks if he’s coming to the wedding. He says he told her he is; she wants the RSVP card. She needs the paperwork! She’s taking charge, telling him he’s liable. Responsible. He needs to take her wedding seriously. In some ways I think Brenda does this to convince herself to do the same. And in the process, another inch is placed between the old lovers, pushing them further from their shared past. Further from any chance of a shared future. And closer to Brenda’s wedding to Fritz.

This whole episode seems to be about RSVP’s. Responding. Stepping up and taking ownership of decisions, actions, relationships. And here, Brenda is the first to man up. Next is Daniels. She and Gabriel have become such a problem that a transfer now looms over the squad. She slaps him! He wants to report her! It is heartbreaking and hilarious all the same. So much of their relationship has been kept off-screen, yet we understand. We can tell they hurt. They still care. And they cannot co-exist. Not if something doesn’t change. And Provenza sees that too. So he steps in to take control in Brenda’s stead. With an unparalleled authority, he makes it quite clear to Daniels, Gabriel and the rest of the squad that this is to be resolved. One of them is to request a transfer. And that is that. But will they be able to do what they know they should?

Which brings me back to Brenda. Now, even though her own squad bets on whether or not the wedding would happen (shame on you, Sanchez!), I knew in my heart of hearts that she was going to go through with this. Our girl has been to some dark places. But the one thing that has remained a constant for her is Fritz. Somehow, he gets her. And loves her all the more. She just needed to do this on her terms, in her time. And as she tells the husband she’s investigating, “I’m making vows today, so listen up,” I believe her. She is finally responding. Stepping up. Showing up for her life outside the Murder Room. Sure, it will take some getting used to. But Fritz remains by her side to remind her why she made that commitment. As he said, in perhaps my favorite line EVER in the history of this show, “I’m fully aware of who I just married so hurry up and change because I want to dance with you.”

* SIGH *

Brenda trusts what Fritz says and, in that moment, she learns to trust herself outside the job. She owns it and takes responsibility for it all. And the best part? She’s celebrating it. In the same beautiful move that she made at the end of the pilot, she sinks onto her bed, Ding Dong in hand, rewarding herself for a job well done. A life well done. Only this time, it’s a sweeter reward. You see, wedding cake frosting makes everything sweeter. And if anyone deserves all the sugary sweetness in the world, it’s our girl, Mrs. Brenda Leigh Howard.

Toby Herman is a graduate student at Northwestern University. She braves the Chicago winters with the bitterness of a true Jersey girl. She enjoys the recent resurgence of the color orange, Kirk Cameron circa 1989 and discovering that celebrities are "just like us." For Toby, nothing ends a day better than a Brenda-sized glass of Merlot.



The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer/speaker and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.