Sunday November 25, 2001
E2103
A plastic surgeon reports his drug-abusing wife missing, and ends up being the prime suspect after detectives learn he had good reason to want her out of his life.
Write a Recap »A New York City plastic surgeon's wife ends up missing and the surgeon becomes the chief suspect. During the course of the investigation we find both of them had cheated on each other and the doctor was planning to move with his mistress to Colorado. hide show
A very interesting episode that deals with what happens when you have a solid suspect but no body.
First of all the doctor had a really bad temper. He didn't think much of his wife's family, but the real kicker was the fact that he was a control freak and his wife didn't say how high when he said jump. Matter of fact she choose to go out and get her own lovers as well. The wife also had psychiatric problems which may have been cause for the drug use and it was what the doctor counts on when he finally reports her missing. Her cousin reporter her missing the day before and was afraid the doctor had done something. Her psychiatrist had also told the wife that her husband may cause her harm eventually as well.
What I find interesting were the levels the doctor went to cover up the killing. He cleaned the bathtub with a solvent that they generally only use in hospital surgery rooms. Obviously he would have access. The bathroom had been painted and all the accouterments had been replaced with new things after her disappearance. He was a pilot. He took a flight on a Sunday to drop the pieces of the body and made sure he had no flight plan and no record of the plane rental. He had his car detailed multiple times right after his wife disappeared and it was absolutely immaculate.
So no body but everything including the doctors actions pointed at him. The only surprise to me here was the DA taking this to a jury considering they had no physical evidence. Goren went on the stand and told what he knew but it was all hearsay and he got booted off the stand by the judge, but it was enough to get the overly confident doctor on the stand to testify on his own behalf. Checkmate. Overall a well made episode with some interesting situations. One of the few cases I have ever seen where they convicted someone without producing the body of the victim. They did say this case was loosely based on a real life situation at the beginning of course with the usual codicils. Basically the doctor made the case against himself. Thanks for reading...
The slinky, adulterous, coke-head wife of an egotistical, bad-tempered, control-freak plastic surgeon disappears without a trace after he finds snapshots meant for her showing he was also having an affair, leading the wife's sister to accuse him of murder hide show
This was an interesting episode because of the acting and character touches that went into the detestable, intense, sharp villain, Goren's observations about his behavior and interactions with him and his doormat mistress, and the ongoing puzzle of how the police would catch him. These were enough to make the episode entertaining until the ending. While creative and dramatic, the ending was flawed and something of a let-down.
A great challenge of an intelligent series like this that features criminals equal to the detectives is to come up with an imaginative, credible, satisfying way for the police to solve the case. Unfortunately, despite a good lead-up, this episode dropped the ball. It substituted implausible courtroom theatrics for a satisfying solution.
The plot hinged on the doctor being provoked to take the stand, apparently at his own capital murder trial, by Goren repeatedly injecting damaging speculation and hearsay into his earlier testimony before the jury. That Goren would have been allowed to testify in this way without the judge or hot-shot defense lawyer long since calling for contempt or a mistrial stretched dramatic license past the breaking point.
Nor did it go down well that ADA Carver, who an earlier episode had presented as a stickler for legal ethics, would deliberately collaborate in such an underhanded, prejudicial tactic (this was not a practice trial, for pete's sake, but the real thing). Carver even cavalierly bragged after the verdict that, though they may have lacked hard evidence, they won the case because they showed the jury that the doctor was unlikable. (This is the same type of problem with Carver's "wink-and-a-nod" behavior in "POISON.") Evidently, the writers hoped that this cynical observation about what is supposedly the "real-world" legal system, coupled with the reality that sometimes the police may never find a trace of the missing victim or strong proof, would make up for the shortcomings of the episode as a detective story and legal drama. Not so to me.
Further undermining the ending were Carver's dramatic excesses in the courtroom. From his speaking as though he were shouting to the balconies in a Broadway play, to his stiffly brandishing a long knife in each hand (an awkward scene memorialized in the opening credits), and especially to his whirling breathlessly around from the witness box to the prosecutor's table and back, it was all too obvious that this was acting rather than reality. Instead of taking in and stringing along the witness, it would have been so fake and off-putting as to immediately put the witness and his lawyer on guard and shake them out of any sort of reverie. Of course, trial lawyers use showmanship. But this seemed amateurish and went overboard.
No doubt, these theatrics were the energetic effort of an accomplished actor. But it was all too obviously acting all the same. Unlike another review, I think the series generally did a good job of depicting Carver, and I was sorry when he (and Deakins) left the series. His role as a prosecutor often put him in the position of appearing to be straight-laced, dry, and detached. Naturally, he would be more animated in court. But put the actor on the show in a different role if you want something this over-the-top. Rather than giving Carver a chance to "come into his own," this episode actually undercut the professionalism of the character.
Valerie wanted to have children w/ her husband but was afraid b/c of his temper. Doctor's wife, Valerie, is cheating on him. Valerie broke up her affair because she wanted to get back serious w/ her husband. Valerie was about to find out about him cheating. Valerie wanted to stop seeing her boyfriend. They take the car adn inspect it. Another woman was found believed to be Valerie, but turns out it was another woman. They led Dr. to believe that it was Valerie. He throughly cleaned his bathroom believed to be the spot of the killing. Found wig and clothes of Valerie's last seen in appt of the mistress. Says she was trying to protect the doc.
You don't want to be on this cosmetic surgeon's table! hide show
A cosmetic surgeon having an affair realises his wife might have found out. She's having her own affair anyway. He's a weekend pilot who takes an unscheduled flight and hey presto, wife is now missing.
It's an interesting episode because there is no actual evidence that he's done anything to harm her. In fact he's the one who comes to Major Crime to report her missing and get them on the case. But his wife's family are convinced he killed her, and his actions are to say the least suspicious.
Rob Knepper is great in the role of the cosmetic surgeon control freak up against D'Onofrio's Goran trying to trip him up.
Again, Goran manages to get the perp by playing psychological games.
It would be good if just for once Eames could be the one who 'solves' the case.
Condescending plastic surgeon gets put away for his wife's murder despite the body never being found. Goren wages psychological warfare with a variety of tactics..from feigned bumbling to witness stand trickery. hide show
Terrific episode. Altho the detectives want to put all the criminals away, the writers clearly have deeper circles of hell planned for certain kinds of ne'er-do-wells - like the supercilious, totally obnoxious doctor in this episode. (super performance by Robert Knepper)
So Goren has this hierarchy of distaste and apparently at the top are the pompous, vain, pretentious cretins who feel they're too smart to get caught. Bobby particularly enjoys making them pay...and his full range of smirks, glances and half smiles kick in at their expense.
In this case, the accused is so arrogant that he even tells his attorney, when she counsels that Carver will crucify him if he takes the stand, that "these people are just civil servants".
Oops!
There is a real neat scene in which Bobby, disheveled hair and all elbows, feigns ineptness by spilling some cola over his notes. Constantly wringing a soaked paper towel and squinting at the dripping notes, he presents a no-contest to the patronizing surgeon, whose contempt is visible.
Oops again!
What a comeuppance to have been deluded by a civil servant.
Highly recommend this one.
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