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Episode Summary

Goren and Bishop pursue a teenage Svengali who convinces three impressionable young girls to commit multiple homicides in the cause of a twisted philosophy.
9.1
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Superb
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  • A rash of fatal poisonings. Then a boatload of teens sinks. Goren and Bishop discover the coffee was spiked and the craft sabotaged by a bevy of Manson-style cultists, led by a well-read sneering teen named Connie.moreless

    8.9
    "Great"
    Now this is the criminal Nicole Wallace should have been.

    Reads Hesse.

    Not Melville. :)

    I understand the CI braintrust brought back "Connie", played by Billy Lush, for an encore this season. I will be looking forward to seeing that epi, because the smarmy little twerp is a pint-sized villain you love to hate.

    The story focuses on the fatal shenanigans of a young man who has cast a spell over local girls who have been used and abused by local boys. Representing something akin to compassion and espousing a philosophy that went over pretty big in the 60's, the young guru casts a considerable intellectual and psychological shadow over his devotees.

    Of course the professional profiler Bobby is going to get an early and easy read on the kid. All the standard stuff - delusions of specialness heaped upon feelings of inadequacy tinged with abandonment trauma - they make for your garden variety egomaniacal psychopath. It's really all over but the shouting the second Bobby spies the copy of Siddhartha. :)

    What is more interesting is the boy's performance. "Connie" combines the sly and weasely countenance of Eddie Haskell with the smug self assurity of, well, Bobby Goren. That makes for fascinating face-to-face offs, and darn it, you get it in this one, with Goren knowingly hovering over Connie, and the criminal smirking up into the detective's face, confident of his ability to outwit a profiler as easily as he swayed the minds of a group of abused girls.

    "You're busting my rump because I read books". No, kid, he's busting your fanny because you'd make a Nazi out of Nietzsche and read In Cold Blood as an instructional manuel.

    But ahh chemistry! That lil thing that was missing in sufficient abundance between Bobby and Nicole.

    OUCH!!!!!! :)moreless

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  • We love you, Connie!

    10
    "Perfect"
    One of the few episodes of Criminal Intent that stands out in my mind.

    For anyone who knows a girl that quotes her boyfriend like he's confusius, this is such a surreal case. I enjoyed the way the story played-out; numerous wierd elements gelled into a solid plotline. The villain was strange and yet believable- we all know manipulators, after all- and his teen followers were hysterical, if not sad, in their devotion. Seeing "Connie" make a cameo in a later season solidifies his presence as one of Goren's favorite 'freak-of-the-week's.

    Hmmmm.... What would have happened Connie had fulfilled his dream of moving to Utah with his two ladies? (cough, cough) HBO... Big Love.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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  • Notes

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    • International Episode Titles: Czech Republic – "Prorok" (Prophet) Edit
    • Special billing was given to Samantha Buck (with) in this episode. Edit
  • Quotes

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    • Conroy Smith: (to Goren) It was Tina. (pauses) She was mine. What did you do to her? Edit
    • Conroy Smith: No one betrays me. Det. Robert Goren: C'mon. Tina or Caroline? Conroy Smith: No one betrays me. Det. Robert Goren: (smacks his hand on the table) Think again! We got the smoking gun. Edit
    • Robert Goren: (to Smith) You just wait, with your little fishing rod, and you hook whatever damaged goods comes out of the pit. Edit
  • Allusions

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    • Conroy Smith: I should take this thing and beat your brains in with it. Because that's what you deserve. What you all deserve. Just like her -- ready to crawl out of that pit and come at you with knives. Cause that's what you deserve -- that's what you deserve! At his trial, Charles Manson said something very similar when talking about his 'family': If I could, I would jerk this microphone off and beat your brains out with it, because that is what you deserve, that is what you deserve... Edit
    • Conroy Smith: Their parents made them what they are -- I didn't do anything. At his trial, Charles Manson said something very similar when talking about his 'family': You made your children what they are ... These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. Edit
    • This episode appears to be ripped from the headlines of both the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church poisonings that took place in April of 2003 and the Manson family murders. Edit
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