December 26, 2003
Thrill
In this episode, the season premiere of Season 8, a pair of delinquent teenagers shoot to death a delivery boy "just to see how it feels." The legal wrinkle is that one of the boys confesses on tape to his uncle, who happens to be a Jesuit priest. This gets the Catholic church involved in a legal wrangling over the protected status of the taped confession. Several of the characters engage in a philosophical discussion about the relationship between the church and the law. It's freedom of religion versus separation of church and state. McCoy and Det. Curtis are both Catholic, but share different opinions: McCoy feels the tape should be allowed, Curtis feels it should be protected. Should a confession be privileged? If it is, it would seem that the state is allowing special treatment of religious institutions -- treatment that ordinary citizens are not entitled to. And yet, if confession is a sacred part of Catholicism, shouldn't Catholics be permitted to exercise their religious without interference from the state? Thorny.
One of the boys is represented by Stan Shatenstein, an incompetent public defender who shows up again in an episode of Criminal Intent, in which he again defends two young suspects, and is also noted for his lack of savvy.
Another recurring cast member who shows up here is Judge Rebecca Steinman (Susan Blommaert), who I mainly remember as the Satan-worshipping teacher in an early X-Files episode, although she's played a judge on many different court shows, including L&O, The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Family Law.
In terms of character development, this is the episode in which we first learn that Det. Curtis' wife has MS. He even identifies the specific strain that she has..."recurring" and '"progressive" are two words in the name. It's interesting that Curtis chooses to put his religion above his job in the same episode in which he learns his wife has a debilitating illness, a development many people often associate with an unfair god.
Posted by adm at December 26, 2003 05:32 PM