Heart of Darkness

Season 16, Episode 13, Aired

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8.1
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A journalist's suicide becomes suspect after Green and Fontana find evidence at the scene suggesting that it wasn't a suicide after all. Their suspicions turn to the reporter's girlfriend after learning that he was still sleeping with his ex, but their investigation soon leads them in a different direction.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (5)

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  • This was one of the best L&O episodes I've seen in a long time. They've done assisted suicide before but never as pertains to the mentally ill, which is a big topic right now. Amazingly well done!moreless

    9.6
    "Superb"
    By critblast, Mar 02, 2011
    This was one of the best L&O episodes I've seen in a long time. Extremely well written, it managed to combine great twists and turns with a probing debate over a very complex ethical issue involving whether or not it's okay to assist a depressed person in killing themselves. The acting was excellent, especially that of Waterston who seemed genuinely engaged with this issue and also the defense lawyer for the girlfriend who was amazing. Who is that guy? I just wish more of the episodes dealt with complex issues in such a dramatic and powerful way. Great job guys. Please give us more like this.moreless

  • How many Euthanasia episode can they do?

    2.1
    "Terrible"
    By Milks23, Jun 29, 2010
    How many Euthanasia episode can they do?

    I mean, I swear I can go back through the sixteen years of this show and find at least two episodes on Euthanasia in each season.

    Didn't they just do an episode this season where (Age of Innocence), although, it was not about Euthanasia, but the man was going to take his wife of life support......it's close enough to be the same damn thing.

    Okay, the girlfriend was the suspect, no wait his brother wanted him dead more than her....poor man, he must have been a real pain in the butt!

    Overall, its the same thing over and over again. Please, end the show.moreless

  • heart of darkness

    7.5
    "Good"
    By thefanof, Jun 17, 2010
    I really dislike Dennis Farina as one of the detectives and am really glad his tenure on this show was short-lived. Farina just stood there like a tool and never contributed anything. His mannerisms were poor and you never saw this guy as a cop. Just two years Law and Order fans truly regretted.

    But the storyline here was really good. Assisted suicide is always a controversial issue, and it was even moreso here tonight. The revelation of a third party being involved was a classic Law and Order twist and definitely had me hooked until the final fade to black.

    Great episode.moreless

  • Guy commits suicide with a little help

    7.0
    "Good"
    By angelspinknose, May 18, 2010
    This was a very painful show to watch. You knew something had to go wrong. Who would voluntarily stay to watch someone commit suicide? You would have to be nuts yourself. Assisted suicide is such a hot topic I'm not surprised the show had a twist at the end. I'm not surprised it was the brother helping the guy kill himself.

  • This episode seems more revealing of the tattered upholstery and worn carpets that occupy the internal production of the show, than of the usually-demonstrated superb writing and producing talent usually on view here.moreless

    6.5
    "Fair"
    By kammbackspirit, Jan 19, 2006
    You know it'll be a sub-par story when all Fontanna can quip about the suicide note is that '...who(m)ever it was couldn't even spell his name right.'

    There was nothing here, sadly. The writers simply dumped on the cast. This is so unlike a Dick Wolf production. There's a reason the cast includes Ms Merkerson, for instance, or Mr Waterston, and it's not to portray Lt vanBuren telling someone to '...go check-out the shrink...'

    The crew and cast have spent years perfecting the now-well-known "L & O Twist;" what we instead get here is a clumsily-cobbled momentary glimpse of a moving shawdow in the background of a taped-for-history 'end of life ceremony' that is barely worth the wait.

    The 'real' culprit seems more like a characterization that was phoned-in to the script, and an element of the mystery to be solved. The acting wasn't bad or good, on the part of any of the characters taking part in the episode; however, most of those we usually see are capable of so much more, that it was really telling (at least to me) to see them so lightly employed.

    There might be a zillion reasons why this script was the one that made it to the air; however, IMHO they need to get back to scripts that're more than just sentences jumbled together if this show's gonna return to what it should be about, what it's always been about, and what it could be about. This episode was in almost every way most certainly not the pinnacle of the New York Police Procedural.

    Thanks.
    moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • TRIVIA (0)

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  • QUOTES (8)

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    • Gerald Ruane: I wanted him to be at peace. Jack McCoy: You wanted peace from him, isn't that a more accurate statement?

    • Jack McCoy: I'm not going to set the precedent that depressives and schizophrenics can take an exit with the help of overburdened loved ones, whose act of love may have been tempered by frustration, anger, resentment.

    • Angela: I was trying to find a new doctor for Tadhg. Joe Fontana: We think you were getting him all the right prescriptions for downers.

    • Jack McCoy: He didn't have bone cancer or advanced A.I.D.S. Even Kevorkian limited himself to terminally ill patients.

    • (Talking to Tadhg's girlfriend, Angela.) Joe Fontana: He had a kid with another woman. You're the scorned woman. You got revenge. Admit it!

    • Ed Green: Why wouldn't you let Tadhg alone with Sean? Sarah Ridell: He was so unpredictable. You never knew which Tadhg would show up.

    • (Talking about Tadhg.) Angela Burkett: One day he would want to marry me and buy a house with a yard and a puppy, and the next day he wouldn't speak to me.

    • Joe Fontana: (Reading the suicide note.) [H]ow many well-versed neat freaks do you know that spell their own name wrong?

  • NOTES (0)

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  • ALLUSIONS (2)

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    • Joe Fontana: It's signed "Tadhg" but it's written by John Keats. I know my romantic poetry. The quote in Tadhg's alleged suicide note -- "Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain" and so on -- was written by John Keats as Fontana says. It is from Keats' poem "Ode To A Nightingale."

    • The title of this episode, Heart of Darkness, is also the title of the Joseph Conrad novel that inspired the movie Apocalypse Now.

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