The Ledger

3.14 Promises to Keep

In this muddled episode (3.14), a female psychiatrist manipulates a male patient into killing his girlfriend to recover a diary which details his sexual affair with the psychiatrist. Briscoe and Logan investigate, and Stone and Robinette try to determine whether the psychiatrist is criminially responsible.

The episode begins with a middle-aged couple jogging in the park at night. They are discussing the lack of safety in the park and the man's "eating disorder" when the man notices the body of a woman. Briscoe and Logan are called to the scene. Items from the woman's purse are recovered all they way down the western edge of Central Park, but it appears she wasn't mugged, because she was strangled, not beaten or stabbed. They do not, however, find her keys anywhere, which suggests someone may want to rob her apartment. They visit her apartment, which has indeed been meticulously robbed. They interview her parents and her boyfriend, who have arrived at the morgue. The boyfriend says he was supposed to meet her that night, but grew concerned when she didn't show up, and called the parents to see where she was. [Since it turns out later he killed her, why would he call her parents?]

They talk to the couple's psychiatrist Dr Meade (played by veteran actress Lindsay Crouse). She tells the detectives that the victim had a drinking problem that sometimes led her to flirt with men, so maybe one of those men killed her. The victim's co-workers tell them, however, that her husband once showed up at the victim's place of work, a hospital, and was so crazy, she took him upstairs to the psych ward. They interrogate Danny, the boyfriend, using the old good cop/bad cop technique. Logan makes some good progress with him, and he gradually admits that he killed his girlfriend because he was trying to recover a diary. He also says that he was having a sexual affair with Dr Meade. He says he "needs" her.

Olivet examines Danny to determine his culpability and state of mind. It's apparent he was involved in a controlling affair with the psychiatrist and he was utterly dependent on her. The diary was his, and it documented his relationship with Dr Meade. He says he doesn't have it. The actor who plays Danny turns in a performance in this scene is pretty over-the-top and almost guffaw-inducing.

Stone decides he wants to try to charge Meade for inspiring the murder. Olivet interviews Meade about her relationship with Danny, and the scene turns into a real battle of the brains, as they turn questions back on each other, discuss different methods (e.g., Adler's, which Olivet doesn't like), and so on. Olivet and Stone try to convince Schiff that Meade is indeed criminally responsible, but Schiff doesn't feel a prosecution based on "mind control" is a good idea.

They need more evidence. They check the phone records of Dr Meade and see a call was made from her office to the victim's parents after the murder, so they think that Meade and Danny are complicit in the murder. They tape a visit between Danny and Dr Meade at Rikers. He gets her to admit an affair, during a ridiculous scene where they start talking baby talk to each other. (Lindsay Crouse and baby talk do not meld well.) They arrest Meade on her way out of Rikers (42 mins). Despite all the effort, the judge suppresses the tape, because Meade had an expectation of privacy (in an open prisoners' visitation room?!). The DAs need the diary, which Olivet gets Danny to admit he has, and he turns it over.

Meade's trial begins (45 mins). In the middle of the trial, we learn that Danny tried to kill himself at Rikers. Meade, on the stand, admits the affair with Danny, and -- preposterously -- says she had sex with Meade as part of his therapy, to show him that he could be loved in a giving manner. Things aren't going well for her, however, and she eventually pleads to Criminally Negligent Homicide, with an attached sentenced of 5 years. The ADA's believe this will lead to Danny being sentenced to time at a psychiatric hospital, but the judge vetoes that idea and sentences him to prison for 4-12 years. He is dragged from the courtroom, looking and calling out pleadingly with Dr Meade.

Overall, this episode is not very satisfying. Most of the plot makes no sense -- why did Meade have an affair with this guy? Why did Danny call the girl's parents from Dr Meade's office either before or after he killed the victim?

Posted by adm at May 31, 2004 04:29 PM

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