The Ledger

15.13 Ain't No Love: Serena Southerlyn Gets Fired (Thank God!)

Branch: "You're fired."
Southerlyn: "Is this because I'm a lesbian?"
America: "WHAT???!!!!"

[mp3]

Many fans have waited a long time for Serena's departure, but I don't think anyone expected it to go quite like this. The moment was shocking, but, after even slight reflection, seems incredibly cheap and hollow. Subtlety has been lacking from the show's scripts for the last several years, and this is, certainly, the most ham-fisted bit of writing I've seen yet.

Contrast it with way the departures of other characters have been handled: often with some "organic" dramatic build-up, and always with integrity -- Cerreta and Greevey getting shot, Curtis leaving to take care of his wife, Ross's session with the disciplinary committee, and of course Kincaid's getting killed in an already emotional episode.

Southerlyn's departing moments break with that tradition of narrative integrity and substitute shock value instead. What else could the writers have been hoping to achieve with this one? It's not like there has been rampant speculation about Serena's sexuality that has finally been "paid off" by this revelation. It's not to achieve any kind of political end, since the character is gone now and can't serve as an example or whatever. Although Serena's self-outing had some possible subtextual precedence in an earlier episode ("Guv Luv," the McGreevey one), it seems the only goal was to surprise the audience and get people talking about the show again. Quite a deviation from the show's usual "procedural" story-telling technique.

If this is where they eventually wanted to take things, the writers would have been better served had they established some indicators of Serena's sexuality earlier in the series. If that was part of her backstory, they could have worked it in a lot better than they did, shoe-horning the admission into her closing moments on the show. Also, I had a dim recollection of a previous episode in which she flirts heavily with a man she was working with. (A reader's comment below helped me find that episode.) The writers have written inconsistencies into the show before, but this one comes at such a crucial moment, it's especially disappointing.

The thing that it reminded me of more than anything else is that moment in the last Presidential debate when John Kerry went out of his way to remind everyone that Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian. It made no sense for him to bring it up, but he did anyway, essentially because of the shock value. I wonder if this part of the script was being written around the time that happened, and the writers were subconsciously influenced by it.

Oh well. At least she's gone.

So let's get to a summary of the actual plot of the episode (15.13), which bears some resemblance to the real-life case of Jam Master Jay's murder.

The episode begins at a red carpet event in Times Square, where it appears well-to-do types are arriving for an awards ceremony or movie premiere. Some characters are looking for someone, and one says something like, "He's going to miss his award." One of these people goes to look for the missing person at "the studio."

Cut to the recording studio, where the victim, a youngish black man, is found on the floor, shot to death, with a red plume of blood covering his chest.

Police, including Dets. Fontana and Green arrive. CSU brings up an empty plastic soda bottle that has been burned by gun powder. Fontana and Green immediately recognize this as "ghetto silencer." Apparently soda bottles can be taped to the barrels of handguns to dampen their noise. The victim is idenfied as Ronald Caldwell, ak "RC Flex," a well-know hip-hop DJ and producer who, Green says, has been involved in hip-hop since the early days and has had some success as a cross-over artist, too. Fontana is predictably clueless about recent hip-hop rivalries and so on.

They visit Caldwell's wife at their luxury apartment. The CEO of Caldwell's record label is there, too. Mrs Caldwell saays that Pete Andretti, Caldwell's bodyguard, would have been protecting him earlier that night at a talent showcase at a club. They visit Andretti's office, and meet his wife/receptionist, CC, who expresses noticeable dismay at the news of RC's death, although she says she didn't know him well. Hmm. Andretti (played by Soprano's veteran Al Sapienza) enters, and says he was with RC at the club but noticed nothing amiss. He has a .45, the same kind of gun as the murder weapon. He's also an ex-cop.

They go to the Groove Club, where the showcase took place, and a staff member tells them that Andretti was not with RC that night. She says another man, "Mooney," was serving as the bodyguard. Andretti lied to them. They talk to Mooney, who also happens to be a cop, and then they talk to Andretti's former partner, who says Andretti had gotten into trouble for moonlighting as a bodyguard while still on active duty. Andretti had also gotten in the middle of a hip-hop dispute during this time, and had fired shots with his service weapon in that context.

Mooney tells them that there was also a recent dispute between Andretti and RC, possibly having to do with RC's relationship with Andretti's wife, the receptionist. There's a motive, a lie, and a weapon.

Fontana and Green question Andretti at the precinct, but don't really get anywhere, despite his extremely weak alibi. He doesn't offer much of an excuse for lying to them, so we're pretty much left to assume that he did so because he was trying to hide the dispute from the detectives, a choice which has since backfired.

They talk to ME Rodgers who examines the body and tells them that there are compression wounds on RC's chest, indicating someone else was in the studio at the time of the murder and tried to resuscitate him after he was shot.

They talk to annoying omni-forensics guy Beck, who, in a bit of terrible writing that anticipates the crap to come later in the episode, mentions TWICE how much he likes gangsta rap, which he calls "gangster" rap. Ugh. Anyway, Beck's big contribution is that he gives them a demo CD containing three tracks that was taken from the crime scene. They take the CD to the record label exec, and he identifies the performer on it as a teenager named Stephen "Four Strike" Foreman. But the track is a remix of one that was intended to appear on Four Strike's forthcoming album, which suggests that Foreman was creating bootlegs of his own album material so he could sell them on the street and keep 100% of the profits. The dets theorize RC got in the way of this, and so Foreman killed him.

They visit Stephen's home in Hollis, Queens (where Run-DMC is from, by the way), talking briefly to his middle-class parents, and then find Stephen in his garage/studio playing video games with his friend. They are surrounded by expensive audio equipment. The dets tell his friend to take a hike, and Foreman denies any bootlegging or involvement in the murder, although his story is inconsistent with previous details.

Green and Fontana listen to the CD in Fontana's expensive Mercedes, and Green notes a lyric describing a murder that happened in 2003. Foreman appears to be confessing to the unsolved case on the track. They talk to the detective who originally handled the case, and learn that the prime suspect was a kid named Anthony Harrison who goes by the name "Psycho." Psycho, it turns out, is the kid who was playing video games with Foreman in the garage!

They revisit Foreman's garage, this time with a search warrant, and find boxes full of bootleg CDs, as well as a boot with gunpowder burned into it. They arrest Foreman.

McCoy meets with Foreman and his lawyer at Rikers, but doesn't get anywhere. At arraignment with Judge Feist, he pleads not guilty and immediately puts up $2 million in bail money.

Southerlyn and McCoy have a brief conversation about the importance of reputations in the rap industry. Southerlyn vists Foreman's parents, hoping to convince them to persuade their son to cooperate with the investigation, since SS seems to think Foreman is not guilty. The parents are in denial.

In the episode's second-most ludicrous scene, SS tells Jack about some stuff she found on a website called "hiphopnations.com" (nothing there -- i checked). She was going through the chat rooms or bulletin boards and finds a message written in hip-hop-ese, which she then reads to Jack, affecting the slightest gangsta-accent. Oh it is truly terrible and laughable [mp3]. Regardless, the message says that Harrison ("Psycho") is claiming to be responsible for RC's murder.

McCoy and SS visit the record label, "Detention Records," and seek the email address of the user ("New G") who left this message. At first the label's executives seem like they're co-operative, but then they demand a subpoena, which they then fight. McCoy wins the right to have the email address turned over to them, and the judge also demands that the indentity of the user be turned over to them. The label's lawyer satisfies that request, announcing that the user is "Anatoli" something-or-other, and he lives in Ukraine. Oh well. Cross one lead off the list.

SS confronts Foreman and tries to persuade him to admit the truth, or what she believes is the truth: that Harrison, not Foreman, killed RC, and Harrison is the one who tried to resuscitate him. Foreman gets all pouty, and says he's just trying to protect himself, and Southerlyn spouts off this classic line: "This was a war for your soul, wasn't it?" God. Who writes this garbage?

They confer with Branch, who tells them to try the case against Foreman, which they do.

At trial (42'), Fontana testifies, and Harrison enters the courtroom, looking suspicious. I was hoping he had smuggled a gun into the room and was going to shoot Serena, but that's not how it played out, unfortunately. Instead, Harrison eventually whispers to Foreman's lawyer that he wants to testify and confess to the killing of RC.

This causes a big debate in chambers, because McCoy is worried this is going to scuttle his case against Foreman. He asks for and receives a continuance of 72 hours to investigate.

McCoy learns that Foreman withdrew $500,000 of his advance money from the bank and apparently gave that money to Harrison in exchange for his testimony.

They call in Foreman to talk it over. He tells the story: Before the murder, Harrison wanted to use Foreman's money to buy, and then re-sell for a profit, a large quantity of drugs. Foreman was going to go along with the plan, but then RC talked him out of it. Harrison therefore saw RC as an obstacle, and murdered him. Foreman just happened to be at the studio when this occurred, and even buzzed Harrison in through the building's doors.

Afterwards, Branch and the ADAs talk it over. Southerlyn is reluctant to proceed on the case. Branch asks her what she wants the group to do, and she says something like, "What difference does it make? Every time I express an opinion around here the last few months, I get shot down." I wish that were literally true.

They debate with the trial judge whether to proceed with the trial and/or let Harrison testify. McCoy agrees to allow Harrison testify, which he does. He confesses to RC's murder. McCoy gives him a hard time on cross-examination, apparently trying to reduce the witness's credibility.

Fontana and Green arrest Harrison for the 2003 murder as he leaves the courtroom.

The verdict comes back for Foreman: Not Guilty! McCoy lost, but he immediately asks that Foreman be arrested for witness tampering.

In the aftermath, Branch calls Serena into his office, and we know what's coming. He tells her she may have been right about Foreman, but she was "right for the wrong reasons." She allowed her emotions, not evidence, to dictate her thinking, he says, and this approach is more suitable (he says) for defense attorneys. As foolish as this is, especially given the number of times that McCoy has followed hunches, passions, and emotions over the years, he stands by it. Southerlyn looks a bit perplexed until she realizes where all this is headed.

He fires her, and she asks her crazy question, and he replies, "No. No, of course not." And she says, apparently convinced, "Good....good." Roll credits!

Does anyone else suspect that the episode's title -- "Ain't No Love" -- is an acknowledgment of the audience's distaste for Serena, and an explanation for her departure?

Related: Ain't No Love by Whitesnake (lyrics)
Related: Ain't No Love by Jay-Z (lyrics)

Posted by adm at January 13, 2005 12:02 AM

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