The Closer's most dramatic arc belongs to Miss Kitty

By: Start TV Staff     Posted: February 4, 2019, 12:20PM

The Closer is an award-winning crime drama centered on Kyra Sedgwick's emotional portrayal of Brenda Leigh Johnson, but today we want to talk about her character's cat.

Kitty shows up in the eighth episode of the first season, "Batter Up," and remains a fixture on the show until we all are made to say a difficult goodbye in the fifth season episode "Red Tape." In that first episode, Kitty's just a stray that Brenda takes in because she thinks he's sick. It turns out Kitty is not sick, and not a boy. By the end of the episode, we see Brenda with a basket-full of kittens, and for the rest of the show, Kitty becomes known by that real cat's actual name, Miss Kitty.

In an interview with the Digital Journal, Sedgwick summed up Kitty's dramatic arc: "I loved the whole cat arc, getting the cat and her not wanting the cat, and then the cat becoming an intrinsic part of her life, and then the eventual demise of the cat."

The real story behind the scenes of the cat's final episode is just as tragic as the loss of Miss Kitty onscreen. It seems the cat in real life was experiencing kidney failure, and rather than replace the cat that stole Brenda's heart, The Closer decided to put the character to rest, too. In an interview with AJC.com, Sedgwick explained the cat's deeper symbolism beyond being Brenda's BFF, saying Miss Kitty “represents Brenda’s independent self. That cat is the thing she had before Fritz came along.”

So while many fans might point to Brenda's wedding as one of the most weepy moments on the show, it's saying goodbye to Miss Kitty that still stings, making it arguably the show's most dramatic arc, and definitely a favorite for the show's star. 

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