The Ledger

14.10 Ill-Conceived

In this episode (14.10), a garment factory owner is killed in his office. The paternity of one of his worker's baby appears to be a motive in his death, as those closest to him seem to turn against him. Briscoe and Green uncover as much as they can, and McCoy and Southerlyn figure it all out in the end.

The episode begins with some cleaning ladies working in the garment factory. They come across the badly beaten body of the plant's owner, Arnold Zachary. He is found with cooking flour on his jacket, and there is an unclear videotape of someone entering the building.

They talk to his workers, who say he was nice. They also meet his wife, 26, who is a little stuck up. They view the security tape, but can't make out a clear image of the person. The forensics lab works with the tape and they notice a logo that says "BB" on his hat, which leads them to a chain called "Bagel Baker."

They enter Bagel Baker and find their suspect: Migues Camacho. He runs, and the Ed Green Five-Second Foot Chase™ that follows is actually one of the longest in history: Camacho runs for a full 20 seconds before Green catches him. (13')

But Camacho has an alibi, which holds up. They talk to Camacho's wife, Maria, who had a close relationship with the victim, and perhaps they were having an affair: they note that Maria's baby, present during the interview, has blue eyes. The baby also drooled on Green while he was holding it, so he got a DNA sample. They walk down the street and discuss the case. (Cafe La Palette is visible in the background, so they're down on MacDougal Street.) They learn from forensics that Zachary is the father of the baby! Hm. Perhaps Camacho killed Zachary because Z. was sleeping with his wife, Maria?

They talk to Maria, who again insists her husband is innocent, as does Camacho. But when they prepare to charge Maria with being an accomplice, Camacho confesses to protect her. Camacho gets himself a shrill and annoying defense attorney, Vanessa Galliano (played by Roma Maffia), who challenges his confession, arguing that he wasn't properly Mirandized because he speaks Spanish. The judge suppresses it. (Later his English turns out to be more than passable, so this makes no sense.) They have to rebuild their case, so Southerlyn reviews the family's financial records. It appears that the victim was paying off Maria, perhaps because Maria was blackmailing Zachary over the affair. Then they learn the secret that explains everything -- or almost everything: Maria was acting as a surrogate mother for Zachary's young wife. Southerlyn presents this idea to McCoy and Branch, who support it.

Miguel is put on trial for Murder 2 (41'). They present the theory that Maria was forced to give up the baby she had for the Zachary's, she didn't want to, so Miguel killed Mr Zachary. The wife testifies that she didn't want to have the baby because she was too vain -- she didn't want to mess up her young figure! She is a real ice queen on the stand, too. And she also makes an error in her testimony that jeopardizes McCoy's case. McCoy confronts her, and they discover that due to some imaginary legal BS, Mrs Zachary will get the baby is Camacho is acquitted. What??? That makes no sense whatsoever. The wife finally shows some emotion and breaks down. Finally, Miguel admits that he killed Zachary and makes a deal for Manslaughter I.

Typical of Season 14's episodes, this one is fairly preposterous at points. The Zachary's are wealthy people, and yet they chose to arrange a surrogate birth under the table with one of their plant workers? They don't want to give up the baby so they have to kill Zachary? Wouldn't the wife just pursue the baby through other means if she really wanted it, etc. Whatever. I wish they would get some decent writers for this show again.

Posted by adm at June 25, 2004 01:01 AM

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