A young man is found murdered after sending an insulting video insinuating that two girls in his class were lesbians. This, however, came after he was beaten in response to causing one of the girls to lose her prom date. An exclusive school, Major Case are called in and Goren is immediately curious about the teacher who found the victim - the mother of the girl who missed out on the prom. After questioning the second girl in the supposed lesbian tryst, they discover it was she who led the attack on the victim, but she was clearly not responsible for the murder - although the teacher Goren was interested in lied to them. With the suspects building up, the TARU techs being to question whether the cyber date the girl had for the prom actually ever existed and this leads Goren and Eames to the question of who precisely was the target in the plot.
Whereas NCIS can get away with glossy over flaws, Law & Order is not so easily blessed, and the immediate question that leaps to mind is, given that this episode deals with the death of a minor, why is it not being investigated by the Special Victims Unit? The only solution I can come up with is that Detective Biaggi, who hands the case over to Major Case, must be an SVU detective and because of the nature of the school, Major Case has specifically been asked to take the case over. Whew! Sorted that out then.
CI finally seems to be getting back up onto its feet, with another very entertaining CI case in which Goren is Goren, Eames is Eames, no mention is made of the problems they had and Goren actually gets to do some Sherlock Holmes style observations. Notice as soon as he meets the teacher who found the body he is asking them to turn around so he can see the paint chips on her sleeve. It's so good to have the old Goren back. Now if only he'd just lose that stupid beard. Sadly Eames doesn't get any sarcastic quips to throw at anybody. Ross, on the other hand, is becoming more and more redundant, playing the more traditional role that Deakins used to play. I have to admit I prefer it that way, as his constant questioning of his lead detectives was a bit ridiculous.
Most of the guest cast turn in quite credible performances and there is some nice ideas bouncing around in this story - note the rich black girl who pretends she's totally ghetto to impress her classmates and hide the fact she is a lesbian. John Shea makes a return to the world of Law & Order, again playing the usual rich father who has no idea of what is going on, though this time he is not the killer, which makes a change. Just doing a quick scan, and I see that this is John's fourth appearance in a Law & Order episode of some description, and his second in Criminal Intent.
This was a great episode, but perhaps the thing that made it most interesting was that the plot was quite complex and well thought out. Initially it seems to be all about a boy getting murdered as payback for sending a derogatory video to all phones, but it soon gets deeper and deeper, turning into an elitist plan to bring down the common teacher who is lowering the standards of the school that she is teaching at.
Ahh...when will those rich kids learn?
"A"
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