Choice of Evils

Season 16, Episode 15, Aired

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After the body of a teenage boy is found dead in a warehouse, detectives use DNA to connect the boy to a convicted rapist and serial killer, then to the boy's mother, Allison Ashburn, the convict's ex-wife. While trying to solve Danny's murder, Fontana and Green learn that he recently got his girlfriend Tina pregnant, and his mother had seen him recently when she had given him money despite having claimed she hadn't seen him for months. Allison finally admits that she murdered her son after the police arrest her new husband John, but claims she did it to save the world from her son, whom she was convinced would become a monster just like his biological father. Borgia and McCoy face an uphill battle trying to convict the perfect soccer mom.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (3)

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  • The whole subject was disturbing

    8.5
    "Great"
    By angelspinknose, Oct 16, 2010
    Pretty good episode on the whole. The subject matter was sad. The ending was correct in my opinion. She shot an unarmed man and tried to cover it up. Just because he was a bad person did not give her the right to take his life in cold blood. Law and Order finally getting back on track.

  • Who's that brunette sitting next to McCoy? Oh wait, this is meant to be a new episode.

    4.0
    "Poor"
    By Vessa289, May 31, 2010
    I always look forward to a new episode of Law & Order, despite claims that it isn't the show it once was these days. I disagree. This episode proves it is exactly the show it once was.

    I don't normally like to criticise, so I will say that this was a well-written episode with great acting all round. I especially enjoyed seeing Molly Price in a role outside Third Watch, as I think she's a great actress. I was also happy to see Penny Johnson Jerald and hope she'll be in the show more often as this defence attorney character.

    The problem is- they've done this episode before. I got a distinct feeling of de ja vu watching this as my mind frequently went back to the Season 13 episode 'Mother's Day' (where Southerlyn was the pretty ADA sitting next to McCoy, hence my confusion at seeing Borgia there instead).

    Mother's Day was about a woman who killed her beloved son because he was a schizophrenic and she found out that he had killed two people for no reason other than they were there. Her lawyer tried defending her actions by saying that she had done it to protect other innocent people from her son.

    In Choice of Evils, a woman kills her son because he killed someone for no good reason, and is shaping up to be the same kind of psycho as his serial killer father. She tries to justify it by saying that she killed him so that he wouldn't kill his brainless girlfriend (who thinks it's romantic that he threatens a murder-suicide) and other innocent people.

    Okay, so it wasn't word-for-word the same episode, but it was too familiar for me to enjoy it properly for it's own merits. I know it must be difficult to write new storylines every season, and normally I don't care so much. But in Mother's Day, the mother (who looked a little like Molly Price) killed her son, who was also named Danny. They couldn't name him Jimmy or something for this episode?!

    A good episode, but essentially a rerun. Disappointing when you've been waiting for a new episode all week.

    moreless

  • Good episode; makes you wonder where it's all going ...and happy when you find out there is no medication defense.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By bluejayfusion, May 31, 2010
    Enjoyable episode if not overly simple. Played up the soccer mom angle for all it was worth. Alison Ashburne's defense was an interesting one and I for one was glad that they didn't go into some psychobabble about PMS or Prozac or insanity. Been more than enough of that recently. I can say that I continue to admire the writers and actors of Law and Order. Sometimes we criticize their material for not being as fresh as some years ago, but in reality,how many of us can think up even just a season's worth of viable L&O plotlines and defenses?moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • TRIVIA (1)

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    • When Van Buren asks about the beating the suspect has taken, Green tells her that the suspect shot at him, and he's 'sensitive about that', which ties in to the episode Tombstone when Green was shot and nearly died. Although Phil Cerreta was also badly wounded in the third season, Ed Green is the only detective to return to the show after a serious injury.

  • QUOTES (9)

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    • Anita Van Buren: You wanna explain the suspect's condition? Joe Fontana: I don't know, it was dark in the tunnel, I guess he fell on his face.

    • Alexandra Borgia: Were there other times when Danny hit you? Tina Keith: Sure. When we missed the train because I wasn't walking fast enough, or if some other guy was looking at me . . . Alexandra Borgia: It sounds like he hit you for nothing.

    • Alexandra Borgia: How many soccer moms have you convicted of murder two lately? Jack McCoy: So she's sympathetic. Alexandra Borgia: More to the point, Danny Ashburn isn't.

    • Jack McCoy: Mercy beyond the law is above my pay grade.

    • Tina Keith: He used to promise that one day he would kill me and then himself. It meant he loved me, you know? Danny was twisted like that.

    • Allison Ashburn: I used to pray that something would happen. An accident. So that God would take Danny back.

    • Joe Fontana: You know it's amazing. You gave this kid a life, somebody stole it, and you just don't give a damn. You're as dead as he his.

    • Alexandra Borgia: He tormented his family, he battered his girlfriend. Danny Ashburn wasn't a victim. He was an argument for birth control.

    • Elizabeth Olivet: Conduct disorder is the worst psychiatric diagnosis in pediatrics. Parents say it's like living with a terrorist.

  • NOTES (0)

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  • ALLUSIONS (2)

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    • John Ashburn: I took the kids to that penguin movie. The 'penguin movie' is the documentary March Of The Penguins, narrated by Morgan Freeman.

    • Sean: Give peace a chance, you know. He references the 1960s song Give Peace A Chance written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney .He was obviously being ironic; he had shot at the detectives while they were pursuing him.

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