January 25, 2004
9.21 Ambitious
In this episode (9.21), a man who installs stereo equipment in clubs is found murdered in his van near the Hudson River. It turns out he has tenuous connections to both the mob and the FBI which come back to haunt him. Sean Russo, a jailed crime boss's young son who is looking to step into his father's shoes is the lead suspect in the case, especially after it's revealed the victim was planning to tell his friends in the FBI about connections between the mob and a strip club that owed him money. Eventually, McCoy convinces the club owners to testify against Russo guaranteeing them time in a secure facility and witness protection for their family. However, when a federal prosecutor initiates a racketeering case against Russo and his associates.
The prosecutor deliberately ignores McCoy's deal with the club owners and, after Russo rolls on other members of the crime family, indicts them, too. They please with McCoy to help them, but his hands are tied.
The federal prosecutor on the case is the same one from an episode called DWB, which involves the dragging death (by police officers) of a black man. (The actor who plays the prosecutor has been on L&O a bunch of times, usually playing different characters.) Apparently, McCoy did something in that case to anger the prosecutor, who wanted to take over the case on civil rights grounds. In this episode, however, the prosecutor gets his revenge, and has McCoy over a barrell, and relishes it. McCoy even follows the prosecutor into a courthouse men's room at one point to berate him, but the prosecutor is unmoved. McCoy realizes he's beaten, and for once, he's out of last-minute tricks to save the day. Even Schiff appears to have sold him out earlier in the episode, encouraging him to turn the case over the feds, and then doing it himself when McCoy refuses.
The episode is notable mainly because of two cast members, both of whom play the strip club owners: Joe Piscopo, who needs no introduction, and Mark Linn Baker [screen shot], best known as Larry on Perfect Strangers. His acting style in this episode is extremely mannered: he's playing someone who at every moment seems about to have a nervous breakdown. In a way, his character anticipates his next appearance on a Law & Order show: he recently appeared on Criminal Intent as "Wally Stevens," the actuary with Asperger's Syndrome who was at the center of an intricate scheme and who gave Goren a run for his money. Linn Baker's performance in that episode is one of the best in CI's history, and it was funny to see him next to D'Onofrio, who's performance on the show is similarly idiosyncratic.
The episode's teaser involves a young couple on their way to the courthouse to be married. Just before the discovery of the body, the bride-to-be says to no one in particular, "I'm about to marry a family of morons!" This mirrors the theme of family in the episode, and foreshadows a comment later in the ep in which Curtis says of young Russo, "If that's the future of the mob, we have nothing to worry about," indicating that Russo is not particularly bright.
The title of the episode, "Ambitious," refers to the ambition of the young Russo, the strip club owners' American Dream, the career ambition of the federal prosecutor, and possibly McCoy's own ambition which blinded him to the play being made by his federal counterpart.
Posted by adm at January 25, 2004 02:11 AM
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