She's not a sociopath. She is a bad guy. what it comes down to is she has always been willing to push certain boundaries to get the bad guys. But there were limits. At some point she started getting the bad guys killed if she could not get them convicted. And as the whole lawsuit confronted her with what she had become, instead of accepting it and resolving to do better (which give her particular ethos would have had to involve confession) she started crossing other lines.

Mind you, she was always willing to cross certain lines with innocent witnesses, but up to now with unsympathetic ones. For example she set up one innocent witness into lying to an FBI agent (Fritz) then scratched his expensive car as a way to trap a killer, then dropped the charges of lying to an FBI agent in return for his not filing a claim for the scratch. So she maliciously made an innocent witness she disliked eat damage to his car. And, among other things, that means she was playing around on murder investigation for petty personal revenge for someone being an asshole.

But of course you are right that none of this was adequately foreshadowed. I'm pretty sure they never intended her to be a bad guy, and then one day looked at how many people she had killed and decided they had inadvertently turned her into one. But at the same time, this is only a few steps past stuff she has done in the past. She has always been willing to pressure witnesses, and in at least some cases has ruined witnesses lives. This goes beyond what she has done in the past, but not by that much. And again, bad guy, not sociopath. The witness was completely a real person to her, and Brenda was horrified at what had happened to her. But Brenda simply was not willing to let that get in the way. If we accept that her character is still crumbling under pressure then maybe....

But I do get what you are saying. Murder of a bad guy is more believable of Brenda than complete indifference to a sympathetic witness's welfare. (She never cared much about the welfare of innocent witnesses she did not like.) And she seems to care more about getting her target than catching the actual guilty party. She caught the second rapist, and was horrified rather than triumphant because it was not rapist she wanted. In the past, she has gone out of her way to catch the real perp if she realized the one she had a case against had not committed the crime.

I have always rooted for her to get a huge comeuppance. I'm thrilled to see a cop show that shows that the "I have to be tough for the tough streets" ethos has a very ugly side. I've never liked shows where the cops smugly dance on the rules and we're supposed to like them for it.

Consuela, I agree, but I also think that Le Nubian has a point that some of how they are handling it is bad storytelling. I don't think it is as bad story telling as she thinks, because I think some of what Brenda is doing is only a bit beyond the type of thing she was already doing by the 2nd or 3rd season. But still it is that bit beyond... What is beyond is not Brenda the serial killer, but some of her lesser sins.

Typo Boy,

perhaps it is a nomenclature thing, but if I am calling someone a serial killer that person by definition is a sociopath. Further, she had to pledge various oaths as a police officer and for good or for ill, she has broken those over the recent seasons.

Connie,

I agree about showing us the ugly side, but I am surprised the writers decided to go in THIS direction. For example, there are all kinds of innocent people in jail because of false confessions. That seems like a more natural transition into establishing the moral gray of Brenda. You need not be a "serial killer" to be a problematic cop. Since her mode is confession, I can see all kinds of ways to get to this point of Brenda needs to resign (or wherever they are going).

I think the leak is going to end up being Gabriel because Brenda came down so hard on him when she thought he had crossed the line. I think that he could very easily justify betraying her when she has so clearly crossed the line so many times by holding her to the same standards she tried to hold him to.

yep. and that one might be the reason for soul searching?

a serial killer that person by definition is a sociopath.

I don't think that's necessarily true. A sociopath doesn't care about the feelings of others and is unable to feel remorse or guilt (among other things). A serial killer (who almost certainly has some kind of mental disorder) can feel guilt (i.e. Son of Sam who has found God in prison)

I think that it can be said that Brenda wants the guilty to be punished, and if that's in prison or by getting killed by gang members, she's okay with that.

Right, but I think she feels no remorse over those who have died through her actions, yes? At least that is how it is being established now.

She seems to feel guilt but be repressing it. A socialpath feel guilt about nothing, not just about particular crimes. And I'd agree false confessions would be more natural, but the problem here is the meta - they already had her kill a bunch of people before they realized what they had done. It would actually be a great ending if in the last ep, one of the confessions she extracted turns out to be false, and she has no legal liability for that, but that is the one thing that brings her guilt about other murders to the fore, so she confesses everything. (Her skill at extracting confessions from the guily is the lynchpin of her self-image. Having that go wrong might break her, especially when she is starting to crumble anyway. I'm using serial killer not to stand for mental illness, but for a murderer who has killed people on multiple separate occasions with down time in between. Anger can be a motive for serial killers - but it is still serial killing as long as the killer receives gratification. Brenda arranged for those people to be killed out of anger at their crimes and was gratified when they died. She may or may not qualify as seriously mentally ill. I don't believe evil automatically means mentally ill.

Right, but I think she feels no remorse over those who have died through her actions, yes? At least that is how it is being established now.

Why would you feel remorse over doing something you not only believe is right but is your proper job? I don't watch The Closer but that sure is what it sounds like this character is about from this discussion.

What is this character like when she is alone? Devoid of emotions? Does she truly have zero sense of morality or ethics or is it that her is all her own?