Season 11 Review
By Hank 74
White Lie
Lennie-10/10
Ed-9/10
Van Buren-9/10
Jack-10/10
Abby-8/10
Nora-7/10
Guests-9/10
Semis-8/10
Plot-8/10
Performance-8/10
Total Grade: 86/100 or a solid B.
Notes: If you see this ep, the first thing which comes to mind will be the
comparison with the season 3 classic and Phil Cerretta's finale "Prince of
Darkness." Unfortunately, this ep doesn't come close in that regard. But
it doesn't mean its a bad episode at all. See, there was a little element of
"Old Friends" in it when Jack and Abby convince the wife to testify
or else she would be prosecuted. In this case, I was relieved when we didn't
hear she was killed or anything bad happened. That's the beauty of L&O, we
sometimes don't hear what happened to the main players after the trial is done.
Just like the girl in "Prince of Darkness." Hopefully, she and her
husband were living a newer and safer life.
It was nice to see another branch of the military portrayed. Before that it was
strictly the Navy. The Marines and Coast Guard is still possible, but I don't
know about the Air Force.
Overall, this was a decent episode that chugged along from start to finish. At
times it slowed down too much, but then picked up steam. I was hoping that Abby
and Van Buren would be utilized more in terms of their past experience in
narcotics. Jack, Lennie, and Ed were great again. But Nora needs to be seen and
heard more often. She needs to carry more of the water like in this instance
talking to the Army brass, the Colombian consulate, etc.
We will see Nora's debut next week with "Endurance."
One final question though, can we put the wife in the same category as Carla
Lowenstein from "Indifference" and Lonnie Rickman in
"Slave." A person who committed a terrible crime but was subjected to
play a part in committing more heinous crimes and hence became a victim of that
participation (ie. Dr. Lowenstein's abuse and Roscoe Morales's drug smuggling
and murder?)