Steel-Eyed Death

Season 20, Episode 13, Aired

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8.2
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A family of four is murdered in their home and both suspects have questionable mental states.
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Fan Episode Reviews (3)

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  • Steel-Eyed Deaths

    3.0
    "Bad"
    By thefanof, Nov 14, 2011
    Without question, one of the worst episodes of Law and Order I have ever seen. Way too serious, way too stupid, and just a really unappealing background development for Cyrus Lupo.

    Remember the good old days when there was a distinct bad guy and the ADA went out of his way to put the intruder away? Now there are just all these unnecessary plot twists, and people being brainwashed, and crazy individuals not being held accountable for their actions.

    Get back to white and black, right of wrong, get back to Law and Order, because this was just way too boring.moreless

  • You know its some messed up stuff when Anthony Anderson doesn't start the show with a wise-crack...

    8.0
    "Great"
    By bluejayfusion, Aug 24, 2011
    While I preferred the serious nature of this episode over some of the more 'tongue in cheek' cases (like the Jon and Kate / Octomom episode), I was a bit put-off by how depressing and gruesome it was. While that may be a dumb comment, given that nearly all L&O episodes begin with people tripping over bodies while going about their daily routines, I posit that the best L&O episodes manage to somehow balance tragedy, humor, and poignance so that you can forget the initial homicide and focus on the justice-seeking. Perhaps the reason I have trouble moving past it, is that the perpetrator's motives were so... well to be honest, they seemingly had no motives! lots of excuses- amnesia, 9/11 trauma, horror core music (knew a kid in HS who liked that, he was a fairly nice guy), but only thin speculation on what the true motivation for 5 murders actually was. I think the DAs office really needed to emphasize that the young couple were 'thrill killers' and that everything else was just symptoms but not the causes of their behavior.

    For me, the saving grace that moves me to give this an 8, was the cameo by Dr. Skoda and that Lupo's full backstory was finally revealed- when they had revealed that 'his partner was killed in a robbery while he was in an alcoholic stupor' in a prior episode, it seemed out of character then, but the explanation given in this one, tied everything together and was a pleasant insight into a character who often seems enigmatic. It justified the carnage at the beginning of the episode because it drove home the point that even experienced police officers are deeply affected by the brutality they witness while going about their jobs.moreless

  • This was alright.

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By carnagae1225, Aug 24, 2011
    This episode was alright. The strange part was the fact that amnesia thing was never revisited. Looked into a deeper scope. Was it an act. We never know. Other than that the episode was alright mediocre at best. The fact that Cyrus Lupo has PTSD is like the same nonsense when Olivia PTSD. In order to emphasize with characters they have to be crippled with a psychology problem. This is supposed to be a plot driven show. Well at least it was better than the SVU episodes. And I was surprised when Skoda came back! Yes. Well thats it for now.moreless
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  • TRIVIA (2)

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    • Revealed in this episode: Cyrus Lupo once underwent nine months of therapy with a department psychiatrist because of post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse. His problems started after he worked a case involving a man who killed his wife and two small children on Christmas morning.

    • Detectives Lupo and Bernard are now clean-shaven instead of having thick stubble. Lt. Van Buren had advised them to get rid of their beards in the previous episode "Blackmail".

  • QUOTES (4)

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    • Jack McCoy: Nowadays, with what the kids see, I shudder to think what effect it has. Michael Cutter: Growing up in rose-colored innocence didn't keep us from creating the violent world our kids are watching, did it?

    • Jack McCoy: What about her amnesia? Dr. Emil Skoda: Global dissociative amnesia, which she's claiming to have, is beyond rare. And there's usually some fubar brain injury to explain it, which I didn't detect in this girl. Jack McCoy: So her claim is a crock, she's acting. Dr. Emil Skoda: Absent a medical history and a full neurological workup, yeah, it's a crock. But I could be wrong. Jack McCoy: Ain't science grand.

    • Justin Sachs: Go screw yourself, okay!? Screw the police! Screw the Morgans! Screw all 53 states!

    • Anita van Buren: By the way, without the beards, you guys look five years younger. Kevin Bernard: (to Cyrus Lupo.) Which makes you about 12.

  • NOTES (3)

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  • ALLUSIONS (3)

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    • The episode title may have been inspired by the Bob Dylan song "Shelter From The Storm," which refers to "a world of steel-eyed death" in the second verse.

    • Cyrus Lupo: Well, to quote Curtis Mayfield, Freddie's dead. "Freddie's Dead" is a Curtis Mayfield song from 1972 that appears on the soundtrack of the film Super Fly.

    • This episode is partially ripped from the headlines of the Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III case. McCroskey, an amateur horrorcore rapper who also went by the name "Syko Sam," is accused of murdering four people in Farmville, Virginia. The victims were a Presbyterian pastor, his estranged wife, their teenage daughter (who had been dating McCroskey), and one of their daughter's friends.

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