January 17, 2004
11.14 A Losing Season
In this episode (11.14), a fender-bender leads to the discovery of a shot and dying pregnant woman in the trunk of a car. Thorough investigation yields a couple of suspects who, it turns out, stole her car, not knowing that she was in the trunk. Further investigation reveals that a prominent basketball players (a member of the "New York Cheetahs") is involved in her death. Criminal associates of the basketball player are brought in, and they point the finger at the player. McCoy and Carmichael have to figure out who's telling the truth, a process made more difficult by the efforts of the player's lawyer, played by semi-regular guest star and well-known character actor James Rebhorn.
The episode is notable mainly for the wide patch of plot covered by the script. The path to convicting the murderer is a long and vertiginous one. The ep begins with a traffic accident involving an elderly Jewish couple and some Russian thugs, and ends with an NBA star with connections to the drug world on trial.
Other noteworthy elements of the episode include the performance of a friend of the player, who is one of the hardest thugs I've ever seen on the show. A convicted murderer who has served hard time, he seems entirely unintimidated by Green and Briscoe. His performance seems heavily influenced by both Don Cheadle and Isaiah Washington, two brilliant actors who plays a couple of thugs in Out of Sight. The best moment of the show -- indeed, one of the best moments in the history of the show -- comes when he tries to tell McCoy the gun they found in his apartment is inadmissible because there was no probable cause for the search. "That's poison from the fruit tree," he says with confidence. What he's trying to say is "fruit from the poisonous tree," an oft-repeated phrase on L&O that means any evidence that comes from an unwarranted search is inadmissible, including further evidence found because of that evidence. It was a clever gesture on the part of the episode's writer to have a character interpret a half-learned phrase learned from what are presumably countless brushes with the law, and to make that phrase a sort of joke about the show itself.
I also want to mention that the episode takes Briscoe and Green to Lot 61, a pretentious but popular club in Chelsea that I went to and hated shortly after it opened several years ago.
Posted by adm at January 17, 2004 11:06 PM
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