The Ledger

Endurance: First Appearance of Nora Lewin and Rudy Giuliani

What an episode! This episode (11.1), the season premiere of season 11, features the first appearance of Dianne Wiest as DA Nora Lewin, a guest appearance by Mayor Giuliani, and a twist ending that is actually surprising.

The episode begins with a woman running out of a burning apartment building and grabbing the cell phone away from a passer-by so she can report the fire to the FDNY. But it's too late: the woman's son dies in the fire. The fire investigators quickly determine that paint thinner was used as an accelerant in the fire. Briscoe and Green initially focus their investigation on a store owner who had a failing business on the first floor, but then move on to the woman's ex-husband. Eventually, however, they come to believe that the woman herself set the fire. Her son was severely disabled, and the detectives believe she may have set the fire as a way out. Their suspicions are confirmed when forensics shows paint thinner on the woman's nightgown, a nightgown obtained by a bit of a ruse: Green and Briscoe visit the friend's house where the woman is staying (although she isn't there at the time), and Green fakes a cough and asks to come in and get a glass of water. In plain view in the living room, he finds the woman's nightgown, and asks the woman's friend if he can borrow it so FDNY can run some tests on it as a routine matter. The friend agrees, and the tests serve as evidence.

During interrogation, the woman requests a lawyer, and gets one, a verbose and occasionally incompetent one named Barry Peck, played by the increasingly familiar character actor Nick Chinlund. Peck is a well-dressed wind bag who flirts with Carmichael (to no avail) and irritates the judges. His examination of witnesses doesn't seem very productive either, but midway through the case, McCoy seems unsure that he can get a conviction on the Murder 2 charges that Lewin had sought. He offers a plea on Man I, which Peck rejects on behalf of his client. Shortly thereafter, Peck changes his client's defense to one of not guilty by reason of mental defect. McCoy objects, but it's allowed. Skoda is convinced the woman is not crazy, and McCoy gets her on the stand to take down her defense. However, in the somewhat extraordinary scene that follows, the woman breaks down and confesses through her sobs that in fact, she set the fire, but the fire is not what killed her son. She admits that the boy had a seizure, and instead of giving him the anti-seizure injection she usually does, she allowed him to seize until he died, then she attempted to overdose herself on his pills and set the fire, killing them both. She says she changed her mind midway through, however, and that's when she ran out to call for help. McCoy believes her, and is quite affected by her story. He tells both Carmichael and Lewin that he feels even Man I is too strong a charge, and that she does not deserve the punishment that charge would call for. Lewin tells him, "You have to do your job, Jack," but when the judge gives him a chance to include lesser charges in the instructions to the jury, McCoy lets the opportunity pass, and effectively lets his whole case go down the crapper. Lewin's response is sympathetic, but not very believable. He countermanded a direct order from her, and let a guilty woman walk away. Would a DA approve of such a turn of events on her first case? I don't think so.

The episode is obviously notable because of Giuliani's brief appearance and Lewin's introduction. The Mayor introduces Lewin to Jack in a funny little scene where he says Lewin helped him prosecute many organized crime cases, tells McCoy he's doing a great job, and introduces himself to Carmichael, who's all smiles. (Here's a screen capture of Lewin and Giuliani from the episode.) Also, McCoy tells Lewin that Schiff is off working with Wiesenthal in Vienna, tracking down Nazi war criminals. (This, by the way, aligns Schiff with Robert Morgenthau, his real life counterpart who has long been active in Jewish causes.) This episode paints Lewin as a bit tougher than she usually is. In subsequent episodes, she is maddeningly soft on various criminals who deserve much worse than her platitudes on guilt and human nature. Although I like Dianne Wiest as an actress very much, I've always felt that Lewin's character is ill-conceived and works against the justice-above-all credo that the show has always followed. It's a good thing that she was only an interim DA.

Posted by adm at February 6, 2004 12:25 AM

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