The Ledger

14.9 Compassion

In this episode (14.9), a pediatric oncologist uses cyanide to kill a man who claims he can talk to dead people. It turns out the psychic was previously a real estate con man who ripped off the doctor, and that appeares to be her motive. Briscoe and Green connect the dots, and McCoy and Southerlyn prosecute the doctor, who may or may not be crazy.

The episode begins with two middle-aged men eating together in a restaurant and discussing the merits of Viagra. One man swears by it, the other is reluctant to try it. The Viagra advocate gestures tolds an older gentleman sitting alone behind them and says that he is probably waiting for a twenty-something date to show up. Seconds later, that older gentleman coughs and drops dead, falling off his chair.

Briscoe and Green arrive and are told it seems that the oysters he was eating are responsible. Green smells his breath and smells "bitter almonds" which we all know means cyanide was involved. I love how he says, "bitter almonds," as if that is a scent that we are all familiar with. All I know avout bitter almonds is that's what cyanide smells like, but if you put me in a scent line-up, I don't think I could tell you the difference between bitter almonds and, say, fermented walnuts. But apparently Green can, and that's why he's the detective.

Well, a bit of sleuthing leads them to the conclusion that the cyanide was not contained in the oysters themselves, but in the hot sauce that the victim, Gideon Blake, brought with him to the restaurant, which we are told is common practive amongs certain oyster lovers. As they're investigating the crime scene, Blake's date shows up, and she's not a twenty-something bombshell at all. She's a middle-aged doctor named Dr. Allison.

They question her down at the precinct, where she is sketchy on the details on Blake's profession. Finally, she admits that he is a psychic/grief counselor who talks to dead people at seances. What, you might ask, is the connection between this oncologist and the psychic? Well, there are several, but the one that is immediately revealed to us is that Dr Allison is also a grief counselor, and she hooked up (professionally, not romantically) with Blake because of that shared interest, and she had endorsed his work. But not everyone did: Briscoe and Green learn that Blake had some dissatisfied customers.

The talk to these various ex-customers, including a hippie chick in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who went to Blake to talk her dead boyfriend until she met a new guy at the gym, and an old lady who was defrauded by Blake until her daughter put a stop to it.

Meanwhile, Det. Cordova (the lady detective who seems to have replaced Profaci) tells Van Buren in a longer-than-usual-for-her scene that she looked into Blake's background and his fingerprints show that his real name is actually Lee Wayne Mapes, a fugitive con man who the feds have been looking for. This leads to a conversation with the US Attorney, who is happy to turn his files over to the detectives now that Mapes is dead and he doesn't have to worry about him any more. These files lead to a crucial break in the case: they learn that among Mapes' victims is none other than Dr Allison, the oncologist! She lost $500,000 to him.

They talk to Dr Allison's husband, also a doctor, who says he is separated from his wife. They were both responsible for being duped by Mapes, he says, and they are separated because of the stress from his wife's job. All those sick and dead kids.

They visit Dr Allison at her hospital, where they interrupt her as she's talking to a young cancer victim, who is shown looking all sickly but all chipper as Briscoe asks her how she's feeling. It's revealed that there is cyanide in the hospital and that Dr Allison had access to that cyanide since she works in the lab there, too. How she is both a grief counselor, a clinician, and a researcher is beyond me, but whatever. Anyway, based on their new theory of the crime -- that Dr Allison discovered Mapes's true identity and killed him out of revenge -- they arrest her (23 mins).

The case against Allison continues. At her arraigment, the judge (Fran Lebowitz) recognizes Dr Allison from TV -- she's been on Charlie Rose. Meanwhile, the detectives get a search warrant for her home, looking for cyanide. She talks about what a problem squirrels are in her garden, and Briscoe says she could use cyanide to kill them, but she doesn't take the bait. However, outside in her garbage can, they find a squirrel that was poisoned with the same kind of cyanide as Blake. Rather unbelievably, a judge suppressed this evidence because the warrant only applied to the house, not to the sidewalk outside it. Apparently, McCoy's argument that garbage is public property and there's no expectation of privacy, etc., didn't work.

So they have to build their case up. Southerlyn talks to her husband, but gets nowhere, and then talks to another doctor who knew Allison and Mapes. She says that she told Allison that Blake was really Mapes, and that Allison told her she'd do something about it.

McCoy meets with Allison and her lawyer to discuss a deal, and the case takes an unexpected turn when Allison tells McCoy that she talked to Blake this morning, which is strange, given the fact that Blake is dead. McCoy thinks she might be acting crazy to beat the case, and he has Skoda examine her. Skoda concludes she isn't crazy, but she does seem to believe she can talk to dead people.

At trial, the case against Allison is going pretty well, and SS and McCoy take some time out to discuss the nature of spirituality. McCoy says it's a bunch of nonsense meant to be a "pacifier," and SS says her friends gave her gift certificates to psychics for her birthday. (Which explains a lot.)

Anyway, back at trial, Allison takes the stand in her own defense, and McCoy breaks her down. She starts crying about what a failure is and how for some reason she decided to kill Mapes/Blakes. It is entirely unclear what her motive actually was, then. If not revenge, then why? She was overwhelmed by grief from her dying kids so she killed him? She sputters something about how the kids were "alone" until Blake went along with them (via her killing him) to keep them company in Heaven, but that makes no sense. Blake was all about consoling survivors, not the dead or ill. Anyway, all her weepiness about the dead kids has a visible effect on McCoy who even starts to tear up just a little in the courtroom, and he meets with her attorney in the hallway, making a deal to send her to a psychiatric facility. Everbody congratulates McCoy on having a heart, and Southerlyn reminds him "it's called 'compassion,' Jack." You mean the episode, Serena? Yeah, that too.

Posted by adm at June 5, 2004 07:20 PM

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