Major Crimes season 6: summary & episode guide

Season 6 starts with a new chain of command. Leo Mason is the assistant chief, Wes Nolan is a permanent member of the squad, and Camila Paige arrives as a recruit Provenza already knows. Julio is away on bereavement leave, so Buzz spends more time in the field. The first case takes five episodes. Three 15-year-olds slip away from a Catholic school’s museum trip. One of them, a diabetic without his insulin, turns up dead; the other two surface alive in Mexico and are brought back to Los Angeles. The case closes with a doctor in custody and one of the surviving boys charged with manslaughter over the death of his violent stepfather. [2][1][3]

Two personal stories run underneath. News about Phillip Stroh in the premiere puts Rusty on edge, and he would rather protect himself than lean on the police, so he asks to carry a gun. Sharon agrees, trains him to use it and warns him what taking a life costs. Then Sharon collapses and is diagnosed with a heart condition. The wedding is briefly in doubt, but she stays on the case, and in episode 5 she marries Andy with her family and the squad there. [1][4]

The second case opens with a well-known attorney shot dead in her car and widens into a pattern of sexual assaults on servers at Tackles, a restaurant chain. A former waitress connected to the case is found suffocated. Sharon has a setback, and Rusty and Gus are struggling. In episode 9 Sharon collapses in the middle of an interrogation and dies in hospital. Provenza is put in temporary charge. As word of her collapse spreads, a scene at the restaurant where Gus works shows that Stroh is back in Los Angeles. [1][3][2]

The last four episodes are a manhunt. DDA Emma Rios warns the squad that Stroh is probably back, and she is soon found drowned in her own pool. He has help: Dylan Baxter, a young British hacker who has been listening in on Major Crimes, so Stroh stays a step ahead. Stroh’s birth mother tells the squad what he did at 16, the first time he raped and killed, and that leads them to the victims he started with. In episode 12 Buzz finds the hack, the squad sets a trap for Baxter, and Rusty works out what Stroh is really after: money. Another murder ends with a warning that Rusty is next. [1][3][5]

Key connections to revisit

These checkpoints explain the recap; they are not a complete watch path.

Police storm Baxter’s house and kill him, and the countdown on his screen turns out to be a dead man’s switch, not a bomb. A travel file sends most of the force to an airstrip, where Stroh never shows. Rusty has been uneasy all day about the “Ms. Bechtel?” on Stroh’s list, and a photo in the Bechtel home shows Provenza what it means: a boat moored in the marina. He leaves Rusty and Gus behind and goes aboard alone. Stroh drops his knife and raises his hands. When he bends for the handcuffs, he reaches for a gun on his ankle, and Rusty, from the stairwell, shoots him five times. Provenza puts the shooting down as his own, in self-defence, so that none of it lands on Rusty. [5][1]

Then the squad changes shape. Provenza gets permanent command of Major Crimes. Julio takes a promotion to lieutenant and a job in Criminal Intelligence, and Andy moves into his desk. Buzz is sent to the police academy to come back as a probationary detective. Rusty agrees to spend five years as a prosecutor in the DA’s office once he passes the bar. Fritz brings word that Brenda is worried about Rusty, which is as close as she gets to appearing. The series ends on Provenza telling the squad he could keep doing this job forever. [5][2][1]