Sunday January 13, 2002
E2102
A psychiatrist who provides expert testimony at criminal trials lays down an insanity defense to hide his obsession for his younger girlfriend after revealing to her that he hired a corrupt detective to murder her brother-in-law at his son's Bar Mitzvah after alleged reports that her niece had been abused by him.
Write a Recap »A court appointed psychiatric expert goes off the deep end when he falls in love with the sister in law of a highly respected heart surgeon. In his zealous pursuit he has the surgeon killed for a false motive then pleads temporary insanity. hide show
A decent episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. You have to love episodes where Bobby gets to trade wits with professionals in the field of psychology. In a way the psychiatrist was insane but it was in his pursuit of this younger woman. Imagine having the need so bad that you would kill someone just to get what you want. Of course that is always the motive for murder, but a man in this field with these connections it is amazing.
This case was loosely based on another incident so that amazes me even more. What would make someone in this mans position think that a person is going to respect them more for having someone killed? It makes it worse when you find out the surgeon was innocent of the charges and was only guilty of manipulating the system to his advantage. The soon to be ex-wife as well as the case worker were culpable in bringing about the murder, but who could have seen someone doing this?
The episode itself was well done if not a little dry. It makes one sad to think people are so desperate for love that they will do something like this. This episode really brought that to light. So well done and another great performance by D'Onofrio and Erbe. Thanks for reading...
A doctor is shot on the day of his son's bar mitzvah, and the murder appears to be connected to an acrimonious custody battle. But the detectives learn that a lovesick psychiatrist had ordered the killing, thinking it would win him the hand of a lady.
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Michael Gross was very good as the doc who hired a suspended cop to shoot
the brother-in-law of a beautiful woman he was ardently wooing, (and who was not returning the emotion). When he learned the woman's sister was frantic her daughter had been molested by her father, he arranged the father's murder.
The molestation had never occurred, but that hardly concerned the shrink. His motivation was impressing a woman far younger and more desirable than he could reasonably be expected to attract.
With his background in expert witnessing, the shrink had been crafty enough to fictionalize a mental illness for himself - persecutory disorder, delusionary type, just in case.
But Goren wasn't about to let that get by, especially after realizing the doctor had done nothing in the way of urging therapy to the mother of the little girl he believed had been abused. In a couple of very entertaining scenes. Bobby lowers the boom on the doc, including one long stare session which led the shrink to demand, "will someone please tell him to stop looking at me?"
Even funnier was the inevitable finale, with Goren needling, needling, needling about the relative attractiveness of the doctor and his desired. Altho the doc managed a few taunts, like the sarcastic "listen to this amateur psychologist", he was no match for Bobby's non-stop ridicule..."he had dug into his reptilian brain" for ways to impress the woman, but could come up with nothing more original than second-hand murder. By the time BG gets to mocking the doc for making 14 phone calls on one evening to his desired, (tho admitting "I've been there. Every man in this room has") the physician is more than ready to crack. REALLY crack, as opposed to fake crack.
Carver seals it with a "he's not crazy, he's in love. Maybe it's hard to tell the difference, but the law can".
Bye, bye doc!
Note: neat sleight of hand there by VD'O, (and gee, after he referred to it as a "useless" talent).
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