Did she tell the truth, or did she lie? Or more appropriately, which truth was actually the truth?
"Patient Zero" follows the general formula of many cases in the longstanding history of the show. Or so the viewer thinks, as they settle on the couch to watch yet another angry lover face a prison sentence for injecting his mistress with a potentially-lethal serum. Patriotism not withstanding, the episode doesn't seem intent to surprise us with anything more than laments on bio-terrorism. But as the clock ticks toward its final moments, the writers slam us with a double-whammy. The man's empirical, icy wife, formerly of the opinion that all husbands have affairs and wives should think nothing of it, buckles beneath McCoy's cross-examination. Reduced into floods of tears, she denies her former testimony and states that her husband wasn't home the night she claimed he was. But before McCoy has time to smile over this unexpected turn in his favor, what seems to be a case of spousal remorse flies into double-perjury when in re-examination, the woman admits that she is furious enough over her husband's numerous adulterous affairs to purposefully lie to hurt him.
Leaving the jury as frustrated and confused as the prosecution, the cold-hearted woman leaves the courtroom with her hand clasped in that of her newly acquitted husband. She beat the system, put reasonable doubt in the juror's minds, and will never pay for it, because there's nothing to nail her with. If they wanted to prove perjury, they couldn't because they would have to prove her admissions were only made to confuse the jury. Certain episodes leave the viewer with a sense of aghast disappointment, which makes them all the more believable. Mankind is capable of magnificent deception, and we don't always put the bad guy behind bars. It makes for a brilliant villainess, and a startling glimpse into the moral loopholes in governmental justice. The victim isn't always justified, but the prosecutor comes out the wiser for it in the end.moreless
AIRED:
The investigation into the carjacking of a vehicle containing vials of a deadly virus leads the detectives on a search for the first person infected with the virus and a biochemist whose sinister motivations were driven by passion.
 Elisabeth Rohm |
ADA Serena Southerlyn |
 Jerry Orbach |
Det. Lennie Briscoe |
 S. Epatha Merkerson |
Lt. Anita Van Buren |
 Sam Waterston |
Exec. ADA Jack McCoy |
 Jesse L. Martin |
Det. Ed Green |
 Fred Dalton Thompson |
DA Arthur Branch |
 Khrystyne Haje |
Elaine Blanchard |
Guest Star |
P.J. Benjamin |
Owen Franks |
Guest Star |
Daniel Gerroll |
Dr. Charles Blanchard |
Guest Star |
Robert Turano |
Det. Ed Pachuco |
Recurring Role |
Mark Kenneth Smaltz |
Judge William Koehler |
Recurring Role |
Mary Lou Mellace |
Judge Antonia Mellon |
Recurring Role |
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (9)
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(Jack accuses the defendant's wife of perjuring herself as she changed her version of the story on the stand)
Jack McCoy: That's perjury!
Elaine Blanchard: Prove it.
Jack McCoy: I don't have to. You already admitted it on the stand.
Elaine Blanchard: Right, of course, I did. But then I corrected myself. And told the truth, whatever that is. -
Jack McCoy: Hell hath no fury like an unrequited lab tech.
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Lennie Briscoe: Since you're strictly legit, you wouldn't mind us taking a little look around. I'm in the market for a new fender.
Mechanic: You guys got a warrant?
Lennie Briscoe: Ed, you hear that?
Ed Green: Yeah, I think I do.
Mechanic: Hear what?
Lennie Briscoe: The sound of a woman calling for help.
Mechanic: Ah, this sucks!
Ed Green: Female in distress, that's exigent circumstances! -
Lennie Briscoe: Anna Hopkins isn't on any FBI or Homeland Security watch list.
Ed Green: Oh, I'm gonna sleep easy now. -
Lennie Briscoe: And all this time I thought the 14th Amendment outlawed separate-but-equal car theft rings.
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(Serena and Jack are talking about Dr. Charles Blanchard and his attorney.)
A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn: She's calling Elaine Blanchard tomorrow.
A.D.A. Jack McCoy: And the jury will see it for what it is, a woman lying to protect her husband.
A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn: Why she wants him is another question.
A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Different people expect different things from marriages.
A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn: And I guess you're an expert on that?
A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Before you go any further, she left me 'cause I spent too many nights like this. -
Lab Tech: Are you kidding? The only one in love with Charles Blanchard is Charles Blanchard.
Serena Southerlyn: So there was nothing personal between him and Anna Hopkins?
Lab Tech: Sure there was. He made her nauseous. -
Cop: Took one in the chest. Drove up the block like a bat out of h-e-double-hockey-sticks.
Lennie Briscoe: What precinct are you from, Sesame Street? -
Grocer: The city's a cesspool. Two years ago, guy comes in my shop, points a gun, I give him whatever he wants. Nothing worth your life for.
Ed Green: Now those are words to live by.
Lennie Briscoe: Or die for.
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NOTES (0)
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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This episode is ripped from the headlines of the Dr. Richard J. Schmidt case. Schmidt infected his estranged girlfriend with HIV-positive blood under the pretense of giving her a B12 injection. This case, in Louisiana in 1998, was the first time this type of evidence (matching AIDS strains in this case as opposed to SARS strains in the plot) was used in a US criminal court. The doctor currently is serving a fifty-year sentence.
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