He belongs on the Major Crimes team in The Closer and Major Crimes, working first for Brenda Leigh Johnson and then for Sharon Raydor. He is the tech guy, so much so that at one point he complains about a grifter being called "tech-y" because it is offensive to true tech geeks. (He later changes his mind when the grifter turns out to have invented a legitimate app.)
He can also be, to borrow a phrase, "a total badass." And he gets his own Atticus Finch shooting-the-rabid-dog moment in Season 7 of The Closer. In the episode "Under Control," Tao's son is in the squad room since the episode's victim, a young boy, belonged to the same summer camp, and Tao's son, Kevin, alerted his father to the problem of the missing youngster. The death came about due to the hatred between a man, his ex-wife, and her lover. During a confrontation between the husband and lover at the police station, Tao steps in and barks, "E-nough!"
He sees his son watching and tells him, "Go into the break room and watch some TV."As Tao marches off with one of the combatants, his son gazes after him in awe. Turns out, his dad is not just a mild-mannered, overprotective Clark Kent who isn't letting him take his driver license exam, but a police officer with serious skills.
Yet Tao, like Atticus--and Dean Cain's Clark Kent--returns to his mild-mannered persona, which is one reason we love him. And he is willing to re-think his positions, as when he supports his son taking his driver license exam.
But the "badass" lurks...
