The Ledger

3.9 Point of View: Lennie Briscoe's First Episode, Phil Cerreta's Last Episode

Lennie Briscoe makes his first appearance in this episode (3.9) about a woman who apparentl killed a man because feared she was going to be raped. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino, in what is essentially a guest-starring appearance) also makes his final appearance in the series.

The episode begins (as many early episodes do) with two cops on patrol, talking about something benign. They drive by a couple walking down the street. There appears to be some tension between the couple, but they keep driving. Soon enough, they get a call to a shooting. The victim is the man from the couple they just drove by. Logan is already on the scene, and before you see him, you can hear Briscoe scolding someone about moving something. Cut to Briscoe emerging from a cloud of steam (how's that for an entrance!) and he replies to questions as to why he didn't respond to his beeper by saying sharply, "What I was doing, I don't wear a beeper." They talk to the patrolling cops who deny they saw anything unusual. Briscoe is brusque and observant at the crime scene, and he's not wearing a tie. He notes that the male cop had donut powder on his shirt.

They talk to the bartender at the bar where the couple was coming from. He says he didn't know either of them. Briscoe comments on Logan's jinx: his previous two partners (Greevey and Cerreta) were shot. They still have no idea on the victim, but some tickets in his pocket lead them to a boxing gym in Brooklyn, where they get an ID on the victim. His name is Tommy Duff. They learn he was a liquor and cigarette distributor. They go to his office, which is run down. They revisit the bar where he was, and the bartender reluctantly tells them that in fact he did know Duff and had a connection to a mobster named Jimmy Scanlon. They talk to Scanlon who denies Duff was a "bagman" for him, i.e., a man who carries money from place to place.

Down at the precinct, Logan gets mad at Briscoe for using Cerreta's desk. Meanwhile, Briscoe casually throws around a few ethnic slurs and says that Irish people kill for money. Logan asks Cragen when Cerreta is going to return, but of course, that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

They revisit the cops on patrol who saw the couple. The female cop admits they saw the victim and the woman and there was tension between them. Briscoe and Logan have lunch at Patsy's, a famous Manhattan pizzeria. Briscoe leaves without paying. Logan questions him about this (the same thing happens in Det. Curtis' first episode, by the way), and Briscoe says he doesn't pay because the guy in there will trust him if he thinks he's corrupt.

Logan visits Cerreta in the hospital. Cerreta tells him he's done as a cop. He'll be working the administrative desk at the 110th precinct. Cerreta's wife Elaine arrives.

Logan and Briscoe visit an accounting firm to interview a witness. The accountant is very nervous. He says he saw Duff and the woman (who they still haven't identified) kissing. A female witness says she saw the woman: she was blonde with very good makeup, salon quality. Briscoe says something about catching a guy in the shower with his first wife.

They visit various salons and show Polaroids of Duff. At one salon, they find the woman they're looking for: she works there. Her name is Mary Kastrinsky. They take her into custody for killing Duff (30').

Here lawyer is the old-time feminist recurring character Lanie Stieglitz, who I find quite annoying. (Thank God she's only appeared twice.) Forensics matches her fingerprints to one on the bullet or shell casing. She says that Duff tried to rape her. Schiff isn't sure it's a good case. Forensics says she shot him from 4 feet away, meaning that she could have just run instead of shooting.

Olivet interviews Kastrinsky. Olivet backs her up, but Stone doesn't. At trial (41'), the bartnender says that Kastrinsky asked him for the time repeatedly, which indicates that she was waiting for someone, and didn't just meet Duff by chance as she had claimed. Olivet is called by the defense, instead of by the prosecution. Olivet, you may recall, was raped in the episode "Helpless." Schiff tells Stone to bring this up on cross-examination and not to warn her about it beforehand. Stone reluctantly pursues this strategy because he needs to discredit her testimony in support of the defendant. Olivet admits that her own rape could have influenced her testimony about the defendant.

Kastrinsky's landlord says that she just bought her unit. She says she did so using money that was a gift from Sean McCarrick. McCarrick is connected to Scanlon. They then generate a new theory of the crime: Kastrinsky was carrying out a paid hit on behalf of Scanlon.

They confront the victim's wife, who appears to have been involved. Stone talks to Stieglitz to try to get her to abandon this feminist defense of her client, since it looks like a hit was involved. Swayed by Stone, Stieglitz rather preposterously agrees not to make a closing argument, which is one of the most ridiculous things that has happened in the history of the show. Here's this supposedly great and legendary lawyer, and she's denying her own client counsel in a murder trial? Give me a break. Kastrinsky says her own husband was abusive, and Scanlon did her a favor and killed him, so she owed him one. Scanlon is arrested for arranging Duff's murder. (59')

In the epilogue, Stone and Olivet make peace. She tells him, "Sometimes you have an awful way of being right," admitting that she, too, was fooled by Kastrinsky's story. Logan and Briscoe also make peace, and Logan tells him to use the desk. He puts the famous Lennie Briscoe nameplate in its proper location.

Here's a screen shot of Lennie Briscoe's first appearance on camera: emerging from a cloud of steam as he arrives, tie-less, at the crime scene. Opening dialogue (spoken from off camera): "Put it back," to a uniformed officer who has picked up a bullet.

Here's a screen shot of Cerreta's last moments on screen. His last bit of dialogue: "I told Mikey about the 110." He's referring to his new administrative job at the 110th precinct. Cerreta was shot in the stomach in the previous episode, Prince of Darkness.

Here's something new: I teach high school English, and to help my kids with their listening comprehension skills, I have them take notes on tv shows while they're watching, and draw up an outline of what they watched. By coincidence, one of my students outlined this episode. So here you go:

Law and Order
Outline:
Man reported dead.
Cops and detective arrive at scene.
The detectives look for witnesses.
Talk to many people who knew Tommy.
Goes to company where he used to work.
The dt investigates the cops that were on the scene.
They found the girl that Tommy was fiddling with in the bar.
Cops make ID.
The lady says that she was going to get raped.
The dt find out that it was a hit.
They arrest Scanlon and give him 25 years.
The case goes to court.
The lawyers settle outside at the court.
They put him in jail.
The lady gets 15.

Notes:
a man down report. tommy.
briscoe argues with police officer
find dead body.
gets new partner.
the dt looks for witnesses.
the two dt discuss the murder.
tommy: the dt goes to brooklyn for more information about money.
tommy was a good friend.
tommy sells beer to bars. dt found out.
they go back to the bar.
jimmy scanlon is introduced.
they go to scanlon to the company where they get the information.
briscoe interrogates the two cops. they tell about what happened that night.
mike goes to see phil [ceretta, his injured ex-parnter, in the hospital. -adm]
they go to a witness, tells them what happened.
they go to another place to get information.
they found the girl who was at the murder.
they make a positive id.
marion shot tommy during attempted rape.
find this out and prosecute her.
they talk about whether to take the case to court.
the case was taking to court, and discussing the science.
they continued to investigate.

Posted by adm at May 31, 2004 04:50 PM

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