The whole plot of the prechear's wife being murdered was good and I liked the reasoning behind her death. There were a number of parallels between Bobby and Corliss taht I liked. They both were burdened with taking care of people they love, to the point of financial ruin and the death of their personal and social lives. The anger Corliss had was clearly what Bobby felt.

Bobby and the preacher (Tom Arnold)also had some nice similarities. At one point the preacher says "I have demons". Goren asks, "Are they inside or outside?". The preacher replies "both". Goren seemed both surprised and understanding about this and I got the feeling that this was another of subtle ways that we know Goren has demons inside and outside as well. It's possibly foreshadowing some sort of breakdown he may have.

What made this episode especially great I think, are the short clips of Bobby's personal life. As with the previous episodes of CI, the scenes are short and sweet. It's never enough to be considered a soap opera, but at the same time we do see the personal life and the troubles Goren faces.

In this episode, we see more of Frances Goren (Rita Moreno) dealing with her illness, that she indeed is going downhill, fast. When Bobby discovers the financial cost of saving his mother's life is more money than he has, the look on his face could outdo any sad puppy. While investigating the case Goren has a run-in with his brother, whom he has been out of touch with for a long time. Bobby's shocked to learn about how his brother Frank has been living. We can assume Bobby's angry with his brother for not helping take care of their mom, but as soon as Bobby sees Frank here, he is nothing but sad. D'onofrio's acting shone through here as his subtle methods show us more emotion and depth with a simple look of the eyes. The interaction between Bobby and Frank (Tony Goldwyn)are very good and just seeing the way Bobby was looking at his brother, made me want to cry. Eames' reaction to learning of Frank's identity was perfect. Shock, disbelief, and pity all rolled up into one simple expression of raising her eyebrows, her mouth dropping open slightly, and her eyes widening. It was not overly done and just a great reaction.

Eames had a few scenes on her own to which she pulled off nicely as always.

Two scenes other than the ones already mentioned, which stood out, are as follows:

Frances Goren's birthday at the hospital. We see the clock on the wall which indicates that it's almost 1:30pm. We know that Frank promised to meet Bobby at 12:00pm and we know that won't happen. In fact, I was pretty sure, from Bobby's reaction in the previous scene with his brother, that Frank wouldn't likely show up. The clock is shown a few times in the scene and I think that's for our benefit, to emphasize how Frances doesn't have much time left and this is likely her last birthday. A present sits on a table near Frances and Bobby wants her to open it. She refuses, wanting to wait until Frank shows up.

Bobby looks utterly heartbroken that Frances seems to not care about the present he got her, nor the fact that he is there in the first place. All that seems to matter to her is that Frank isn't there. Then when Frances asks about Frank, Bobby pulls a classic 'Bobby' move and tells her everything she wants to hear, bending the truth. He doesn't want to upset her despite how hurt he is that she's taking him for granted. It was a short scene but D'Onofrio easily made me want to cry from how great his acting is.

The final scene that stuck out in my mind was the very last scene at the ME's office. Bobby tried to keep a level head but he seemed so lost and out of control...like a lost and frightened little boy. I wanted to jump through the tv and hug him.

Overall, the murder-plot was good but the personal stuff was fantastic. Love D'Onofrio's acting ability and how a simple look on his face can convey so much. Erbe also got a little more to work with this episode and she didn't let us down one bit. Good as always. Tom Arnold was surprisingly good here as was Tony Goldwyn. Rita Moreno and D'Onofrio should both win some sort of Emmy.

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.

The way Goren and Eames uncovered the killer's plot was good. I liked their little scene together where Eames pretends to be new to the city and Goren hits on her. Classic. The actor who played the killer did a good job because he was creepy. And as for his character's sister...um...yeah...she was...disturbed. I loved Goren's reaction just after she talks of strapping her brother to the bed and beats the @#$% out of him and laughs. Goren's staring at her, his mouth hanging open. It's rare to see him shocked like that.

This episode only made me love Goren more. The way he puts the chair under the vent and tells the killer "up". It was funny.

Eames got in some good lines, such as "a smell YOU can't identify?" The idea of wanting to kill women to make them art was really disturbing...as was pretty much everything about the killer's family. But since it was creepy, that only shows that this show, its actors, and the writers are awesome.

One word. Hilarious.

There was an actual plot, mind you, a small one. We find out the things Anya and Xander are annoyed with each other about in a fun dance number.

Willow can't sing but we love her anyways.
Tara's got an amazing voice, as does Giles.

I wasn't too crazy about the buffy/spike scenes but Buffy's solo's were great. S.M.G has a great voice and the songs suited her. I loved the part where Giles tells Anya and Tara to back Buffy up and instead they become backup singers/dancers.

The demons were funny and a little stupid. They looked like wooden dolls. The concept was weird but I still love this episode. It's one of the best of the series.

Touching Evil is a show I didn't even hear about until it was already cancelled. I saw one show on tv before it disappeared. I believe that if there was better publicity here in Canada for it, then it would have had a better chance.

I think it only aired on one station here, and that was a Canadian station. USA and some of the others it was aired on likely lost out on the Canadian audience because most of us don't get it.

With that said, I have seen all the episodes now. Downloading allowed me to watch the amusing and sometimes disturbing show.

For Cop shows this was one of the better ones. I love Creegan's oddities and how he puts the pieces together. Unfortunately, I think his oddities probably pushed some viewers away. Jeffrey Donovan truly shined and it's upsetting that he didn't get a chance to prove how far he could take his character. This is a smartly written show and all the actors played their parts well, even the guest appearances.
If this show ever gets put back on tv, I would definitely watch.