C.O.D.
By Hank 74
Lennie-10/10
(though in reality it would be infinity)
Ed-10/10
Van Buren-9/10
Jack-10/10
Serena-9/10
Arthur-8/10
Supporting Cast-8/10
Plot-8/10
Performance-8/10
Value-8/10
Notes:
88/100
First I will talk about the ep itself. This was an average plot, though
the seperate trials with Jack prosecuting one and Serena the other was
interesting. I think the other time something close to this happened was
in Terminal with Jamie prosecuting and Jack arguing on behalf of Adam in
civil court. Besides this little twist, there was the typical angry,
cheated wife or the disgruntled wife who wanted more money and hence cooked up
a plan to kill their husbands while drinking coffee one day.
Apparently the Billie Jean King talk of being a judge was
apparently talk for this season, unless she will appear on the CI finale this
Sunday. BTW, what are your thoughts in terms of the order of season
finales. Should the mother show be the last one to finish the season or
is it OK to have CI do the honors since it's on a weekend?
Now to Lennie. I didn't get emotional like some of you
might have. Maybe it was because this was announced before and talked
about for some time, so it was coming and I was prepared for this moment.
But the way they did his departure was somewhat weak. It didn't have more
emphasis or passion that quite frankly it should have. For instance, when
Lennie did mention his decision to Ed, there should have been similar music
used when Phil announced to Mikey at the hospital in POV. Speaking of
that ep, it would have been real nice to have just one scene at the end where
Lennie loads his things into his desk 12 years ago and then follow with him
taking his box out with him like we saw. Another problem was no emotion
from the squadroom in that final scene. Everyone was looking, but didn't
give some kind of applause or cheers. Maybe Orbach didn't want this, but
some kind of emotion from his peers, even a small one would have added the
right touch and perhaps make me a little emotional myself. Finally, the
scene where Lennie and Ed meet outside and Lennie told Ed that he was going to
1PP to hand in some paperwork could have played out a little more.
While it would have been difficult to bring in Rey and
Mikey to join in on the party, it would have been nice for Cragen to make a
visit. Also, while some might wonder why Jack didn't make an appearance,
remember that Lennie would be working exclusively for the DA's office in the
TBJ spinoff and hence the two "rocks" of L&O would still get to
meet. I'll predict to you right now that Jack will make a guest
appearance on TBJ just to say hello to Lennie next year.
I've said what I needed to say about Lennie before. I
really wished this was a two parter episode with more scenes of Lennie's
goodbye. But again, maybe JO didn't want TPTB to overdo this. It
would have been nice though to see him testify one more time at the trial, one
more time to speak to Jack about the case and the evidence, and you know what
would have been the kicker? The defense attorney for one of the two
female defendants should have been Lannie Steiglitz just like it was for
Lennie's opener on POV. That would have been a riot!
BTW, it was nice that USA did have an old SVU ep tonight
whereby Lennie and Ed made a guest appearance. I wished though there was
no NBA playoffs tonight on TNT and instead that time could have been used to
show POV, maybe Corruption, and Damaged as their way of saluting
Lennie Briscoe.
I think that is his spelling of his last name. You
know, the Dan Quayle way?