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Law & Order: Criminal Intent Season 6 Episode 8

The War at Home

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9.2

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 11/14/06

Ross, Goren and Eames are called in on Thanksgiving when Amanda Dockerty, the daughter of the first deputy commissioner of the NYPD, goes missing while on leave from the army. The investigation into her disappearance soon turns into a murder case when Amanda's body is found, but Goren's mind is anywhere but on his job as he struggles to deal with a personal crisis concerning his mother.moreless

Fan Episode Reviews (15)

The worst L&O:CI episode ever!

1.0

By donelson, Dec 12, 2010

This is the worst episode ever. Sloppily written, full of plot holes, disjointed direction, poor and unconvincing dialog, sloppy editting -- all-in-all, a mess. Even D'Onofrio has his head down in this one, and not in his character's playful-wistful way, either. You can tell he's not impressed with his dialog here. Erbe is relegated to a real back-seat, even though she's supposed to be leading, as D'Onofrio has been written "away with his mom". The writers allow Erbe to be steam-rolled by the supporting characters, who are an unconvincing lot. The victim's father is a real caricature - you've seen this character and heard his dialog on many fourth-rate detective shows at least a hundred times before. This episode is a real load of dog droppings. I really hate it when Hollywood hacks screw up a really good show, either out of greed or just laziness. The producers here clearly didn't care enough about the show to do their jobs. --> AVOID this episode if you LOVE this show!moreless
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This is a very intriguing episode as it delves into the personal life of our beloved Detective Goren. Thanks for finally showing us Bobby's pain.

10

By sweetp7900, Nov 21, 2010

He has made mention many times about his mother and her condition (and Nicole Wallace spent many dauntless hours agonizing him about her condition) to finally see them together and what she actually puts him through is incredible. For an investigator who actually puts himself into the mind of the criminal -- I am sure Bobby has tried to assess him mother the same way (it is his nature to do so with anyone). This was a long awaited episode with Mrs. Goren. Thanks for finally showing us Bobby's pain.moreless
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Female soldier goes missing on Thanksgiving and the Major Case Squad gets torn away from their families to investigate.

9.7

By Beecharm3r7, Jul 04, 2010

From what I've heard this ep was either love it or hate it. I absolutely loved it. The crime itself wasn't bad.

D'onofrio was amazing in this and got to show a lot more levels to his character. I love when they get into the personal stuff with him and I'm glad that they showed just enough to reveal how hard a time he was having, dealing with his mother's illness. He's overworked, stressed, and now he's forced away from his mom on what might be her last thanksgiving. But, Goren of course tries to do his job despite everything he's going through and all we see is Ross and the others act like he's slacking off.

There were some great metaphors in the ep about good soldiers needing good leaders, and it was clear that Goren felt his leader (Ross) wasn't cutting it. He misses Deakins and he doesn't even have to come right out and say it.

I liked Goren's outbursts because they were appropriate to what was going on in his life. We saw why he wasn't acting out and felt for him.

I started to warm up to Ross because of this ep. It was the scene at the beginning, with him toasting his family. The part where he thanks his family for coming then says in a dry, unenthused manner "Todd." That little comment was amusing.

Throughout the whole episode I kept wanting to slap everyone around Goren and tell them to smarten up for not understanding his situation. And of course I wanted to hug Goren...it really tugged on the heart strings.

I liked the scene at the elevator because we both see Goren acting out and trying to send a clear message that he was obviously drowning; but at the same time he didn't want to come right out and scream at Eames. it was like he was more disappointed in her than angry and i can see why. he expected her of all people to have a little more sympathy for him. Hence him telling her to "back off". He didn't see the point in her efforts if he felt like they weren't getting anywhere. Meanwhile, she's asking about his mom and brother, trying to sympathetic but it's like they couldn't just get on the same page. It's a catch 22.

Overall, great acting by D'onofrio, Erbe, and Bogosian. Crime plot - average. Goren's plot - excellent.moreless
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A great episode that had me hooked

9.5

By vicky24c, Apr 27, 2009

In this episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, the following happens. We open with a girl going missing after spending the night with a friend. And so, on Thanksgiving, the team are called in to help find her. The reason? Her father is the first deputy commissioner of the NYPD. Amanda also just returned from a tour in Iraq and is due to get married the following weekend. The team then find her car in a parking lot. There they find a purse in the nearby woods, and so a search is launched. Soon her shoes are also found in the woods, and so her friend is brought to the scene for questioning. There she confesses that she, Amanda and another Army friend all went into the city for the night. She lost Amanda at about 2.00am and hasn't seen her since. Soon Amanda's underwear is found in the woods and so is her dress. All of her clothing from that night have been recovered, so where is Amanda? Or worse still where is her body? Soon the team believe that Amanda herself may have scattered the clothes and has now gone AWOL. When the family hear this, the father gets angry and says that she would never do that. We soon learn that Amanda was born in Ireland and so she has an Irish passport. Soon the father calls off the search. Both of her passports are found in her bedroom. Soon her fiancée fly's in and the team question him. From him we learn that Amanda slept with another solider when she was in Iraq. Soon from where her cell phone was used, the team work out where she was on the night she was last seen. So the team now believe that they know where Amanda (or at least her body) may be and so they head there. There they find her body in an oil drum. She has been shot, in execution style. When a tox test is run on Amanda, we learn that she was drugged. Soon the team have 2 suspects, the Army friend who went with the girls to the club and another Army person, who Amanda slept with in Iraq. But since neither of them will confess, the team are stuck. But Bobby goes back in with Eames, and they manage to break him. We learn that she was killed so that she won't tell her father about murders which took place whilst they were in Iraq. As the details of her murder are told, from the killer own mouth, the father starts to break down in tears.moreless
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It's Thanksgiving, but things are far from alright as everyone is called in for a missing person case.

9.8

By Liria, Apr 07, 2007

The Commissioner's daughter is missing on Thanksgiving, and everyone is doing their best to try and find her, but Goren has to try and deal with personal problems with his mother in the hospital. Torn by both sides, Goren seemingly loses it, which was just great to watch! The main reason I watch Criminal Intent is Bobby Goren, hehe, so getting to see a bit more of his strangeness and the things that tear at him, as we've sometimes have been shown a glimpse of, is just great. Btb, seeing Fran Drescher in a serious role kindda threw me off, especially when she started crying, but I think I just seen her so many times in comedy roles that I'm fixated. It had no impact on what I thought of the episode though. This ep put together a clever plot with just enough of character to make it one of my favorites of the season so far.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Vincent D'Onofrio	Det. Robert Goren
Kathryn Erbe	Det. Alexandra Eames
Eric Bogosian	Capt. Danny Ross

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Michael Biehn	Leland Dockerty	Guest Star
Fran Drescher	Elaine Dockerty	Guest Star
Shane McRae	Wesley Burkhartz	Guest Star
Leslie Hendrix	Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers	Recurring Role
Hudson Cooper	Det. Jefferies	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- Eames was a bartender at one time.
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- Eames was married to a cop named Joe who died in 1998. He once gave her a taser gun for their anniversary.
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QUOTES (6)
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- Frances Goren: Oh, it's amateur hour here today. The doctors, the nurses, they talk to me like I'm an idiot. I'm telling you, I've had it with these people. And you if you don't come soon I I'm walking out. (hangs up the phone)
  Robert Goren: (quietly over the dial tone) Mom?
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- Robert Goren: Maybe you should console him, commissioner, he was almost your son-in-law.
  Leland Dockerty: My daughter's dead, detective. I don't owe anyone my sympathy right now.
  Robert Goren: Well, maybe you never do. Maybe that's why Amanda never told you the whole story.
  Danny Ross: Detective!
  Leland Dockerty: What do you know about my daughter? Or about what kind of father I am?
  Robert Goren: Uh, well, as little as you know about who I am. (walks out)
  Danny Ross: (calling after him) Detective, you're out of line!
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- Robert Goren: You wanna fire me? Fire me, I don't care.
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- Alex Eames: (about a suspect) He took off after we talked to him? That doesn't make him look guilty.
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- Alex Eames: My husband, Joe, he was a cop. He gave me a Taser gun once for our anniversary. Sometimes you want to be more than your job.
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- Alex Eames: When I tended bar, we cut people off if we thought they were losing control.
  Jackie: We get a lot of soldiers here, straight from Iraq. They deserve to forget themselves a little.
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NOTES (2)
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- Leslie Bloom was credited as production designer in the episode's original airing, but later broadcasts had Harry Darrow in the production designer spot.
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- Special billing was given to Rita Moreno (and) in this episode.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Robert Goren: She could have staged this and gone AWOL.
  Alex Eames: AWOL, or a runaway bride.
  
  This might have been a reference to the 2000 movie Runaway Bride which starred Julia Roberts as a woman with commitment issues who keeps leaving her fiances at the altar. It could also be a reference to real-life runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, who disappeared from her Georgia hometown right before her April 2005 wedding, and then re-appeared days later in New Mexico. She claimed to have been abducted and sexually assaulted. She later admitted that she was not a crime victim and had simply fled to avoid her wedding.
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