The Ledger

Showtime

In this episode (7.17), part 3 of a three-part series, McCoy prosecutes a movie director for the murder of the director's ex-wife, a film studio boss. But McCoy runs into some severe obstacles along the way. The first part of this series is "D-Girl," and the second is "Turnaround."

The episode begins with some civil attorneys going over evidence for a sexual harrassment lawsuit at the film studio. They come across an audio tape made while the victim was still alive which features someone saying that Ms. Ellison, the victim, should be killed if she plans to testify against the studio. The civil attorneys bring the tape to Schiff, McCoy, and Ross. Ross quickly learns that the person making the threat against the victim was her boss, the head of the entire studio corporation. She also learns that the victim had decided in the days before her death not to testify against her employer. Cheekbones also visits the victim's assistant, played by Janeane Garofalo, who tells her story of the studio chief harrassing the victim and other women at the company. Meanwhile, preparations are being made in the courtroom for the trial. Extra seats and tables have to be brought in, and the defense, lead by Cheekbone's ex-husband Neal Gorton, seems to have an army of experts and partners working on his behalf.

As the trial begins, Gorton makes the first witness, a cab driver who took the defendant near the airport, look foolish, and makes him admit that McCoy coached his testimony. Afterwards, McCoy watches as analysts on a CourtTV like channel say it looked bad for him, but they defend his behavior. This is one of many references in the three-part series to the media attention the case is getting. Back at trial, Det. Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) is the next witness, and the defense attorney goes after him, claiming his affair with another studio exec influences his opinion of the defendant. He insists he did not have an affair with her, but it looks bad. He takes his anger out on McCoy, who he feels should have stopped the line of questioning sooner. McCoy says, I would have, had I known you had this relationship with the woman.

Next, the defendant's use of drugs and relationship with his psychiatrist comes into play. When the issue is raised, the judge calls everyone into his chambers, where our old friend Dr. Elizabeth Olivets gets into a bit of a shouting match with the defendant's psychiatrist, a sleazy character named Dr. Duvall, whom she calls a "two-legged pacified" because he over-medicated the defendant. The judge tries to reach an accord with the attorneys, even putting his arms around them both to get them to calm down. As things start looking a little worse for the defense, Cheekbones and her ex-husband meet at a bar and discuss the connection between the case and their post-marital relationship. He says he wants to humiliate her by getting an acquittal. They talk about a plea bargain without really talking about it, and the next day, the conversation shows up in the tabloids: Ross leaked it to make the defense look weak. Schiff praises the move, but McCoy is sick of trying cases outside of the courtroom. Ross and Schiff tell him to get with the times, and Schiff asks him, "How old is your tie?" But the defense attorney Gorton strikes back at Ross by serving her with papers seeking sole custody of their daughter. She then has to deal with that in addition to the case. In a rage, she storms into Gorton's office and angrily confronts him. It's clear he's doing this to her because he knows it will damage her performance in the case against his client. He tells her she'll be able to visit the daughter after he wins custody. From here, we get another look at the personal lives of the investigators, as the story follows Curtis to his temporary apartment, where he meets with his wife and daughters. They seem to be making some progress, but are interrupted when the studio exec who is infatuated with Curtis calls in the middle of it, and Curtis's wife answers the phone. "It's your girlfriend," she says. Ouch.

Looking for more evidence, McCoy and Cheekbones go over the defendant's financial records, and find that he had dinner with his psychiatrist an hour before the killing. When the psychiatrist is put on the stand, he refuses to discuss what was said at the dinner or afterwards, claiming privilege. He also claims privilege about conversations with the victim, who was also his patient. McCoy argues that the vic's parents can release that privilege. They do, and he gets access to the doctor's records about the victim. He and Cheekbones discover that the psychiatrist was the only person who knew that (a) the victim had slept with a male assistant, and (b) she had changed her mind about testifying in the harrassment case. Since her boss also had knowledge of these things, McCoy and Cheekbones conclude that the psychiatrist must have notifed the boss. Ross visits a recently-fired studio executive who corroborates this information, and he tells her that the psychiatrist "handled" the victim's desire to testify, meaning that he convinced her not to, apparently at the behest of her boss. It begins to look like the psychiatrist might have had a reason to kill her, assuming his career would be over if she ever found out about this double-dealing.

McCoy and Cheekbones look into it a bit more, and the Gorton catches wind of it. He insists that all their evidence be turned over to him. McCoy argues that none of it meets the various burdens for having to be turned over, and the matter is scheduled for a hearing before the judge. McCoy begins to prepare for that hearing, and just as a pile of relevant case law comes in, Cheekbones announces she's going home to be with her daughter. McCoy can't believe it, and they argue about priorities. When she's had enough, Cheekbones yells at McCoy and SHE QUITS. McCoy is left with an incompetent female assistant who is unfamiliar with the case and not as talented as Cheekbones. Oh well. He has a bit of trouble at the hearing the next day, and the judge rules that all evidence must be made available to the defense.

Though Cheekbones is no longer at the case, we still learn what's going on with her. We follow her to family court, where she has the custody hearing with her ex-husband, whose attorney argues that Cheekie spends too much time at her job. Ross counters that she's quit and she's looking for a more flexible position.

Back at the trial, Janeane G. takes the stand, where the defense gets her to admit that she accepted a large payment from a tabloid, "The National Tattler," for leaking a story about her boss (the victim) and an affair with an actor. The story had enraged her boss at the time. Things are going well for the prosecution now, especially that Cheekie's not around. McCoy and Schiff regroup in Schiff's office, where McCoy paces around until Schiff tells him to get some help: "Call Cheekbones," he says. McCoy heads over to her house (again at the house!) and convinces her to come back on board, because the defendant is "a monster" and he can't "send him to hell" without her.

Cheekie gets right back to work and cross examines the studio boss, poking a whole in the defense's theory that the psychiatrist committed the crime, arguing that since she decided to testify, there was no reason to kill her. After this, she prepares McCoy for cross-examining the defendant, telling him all the tricks that her ex-husband would have used to prepare the witness for McCoy's cross. In his examination, McCoy forces the defendant to admit to all the coaching he received from his attorney, and then gets him to pick up the murder weapon and demonstrate how he hacked up his wife's body, exactly what the defense didn't want the jury to see. Thanks, Cheeks! Once the guy has the knife in his hand, McCoy really goes after him and gets him all worked up, and finally manages to squeeze a motive out of him: the victim had control over the defendant's career, and had him directing movies about talking bears instead of movies like "Crooked Streets," the promising film he directed 8 years earlier that had been critically hailed as a "daring foray into neo-realism." Once he starts remembering the bad old times, the defendant gets very emotional and enraged, and starts gesturing with his hands while he's still holding the big knife. Finally, he snaps, and jumps up and calls his wife a "vindictive bitch." It's all over after that, and everyone knows it. I hate these kinds of endings that rely on sudden emotional outbursts, but what are you going to do.

The jury comes back, and --- spoiler coming --- finds him guilty. McCoy is pleased, and the defendant collapses. The victim's parents are happy, and McCoy and Cheekbones share some kind of weird caressing high-five handshake gesture that indicates all is well between them. Outside the court room, Gorton announces he is dropping the custody proceeding against Cheekie as soon as she convinces McCoy not to seek the death penalty against his client. Of course that falls flat, and he gamely signs a letter dropping the matter anyway. Contrived. Back at the office, for some reason, Schiff, Cheekie, McCoy, Curtis, and Briscoe are all gathered around, talking about how the defendant was sentenced to death. McCoy proposes going out for a drink, by Schiff's headed home, Briscoe has a date, Curtis has a date with his wife (awwww!), and Cheeks is headed home to her daughter. Everybody but Schiff and McCoy leaves. Although the previous 10 minutes of the episode have felt pretty contrived and forced, the next minute makes up for it all:

Schiff says to McCoy, "it began with a murder and ends with an execution. Take the rest of the week off." "Adam, it's Friday," McCoy replies. "So it is, says Schiff. "See you Monday." Schiff exits, sucking his side teeth as always, and McCoy sits down and reaches for a drink, alone. It's a terrific portrayal of the lonely fight for justice, and a moment that captures McCoy's character and life perfectly.

The major theme in this episode, and indeed the whole three-part series, is the relationship between one's work and family life. The victim, defendant, Ross, and Curtis are all caught up in the tension between the two. For the defendant, it was too much for him to bear, and he killed his wife/boss. When her husband used their daughter to manipulate her performance on the case, she had to choose between the two, and at first, she chose her family life. Curtis, meanwhile, gets cross-examined on the stand about a supposedly adulterous affair and how it affected his judgement on the case, but he has to deal with the consequences of his testimony at home. In the end, it is McCoy who has only work to think of: his job is his life, and so he has no conflict of interest. Nothing stands between him and the pursuit of justice.

Posted by adm at February 9, 2004 11:24 PM

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