What I like about the Law and Order: Criminal Intent series is the episodes are not all about who-done-it. Sometimes, the viewer already knows who the ‘perp’, police lingo, is. This is one of those episodes.
The classic three act story begins with an introduction through snippets of the antagonist group, led by, Carl, (Jake Webber) with, Gia, (Michele Hicks), Jayce Bartok and Jake, (Lenny Venito). The four mastermind a multiple million dollar jewel heist and leave three fatally shot victims. Bartok’ s role is a cameo one as he is one of the three. While his murder was intentional, the other two, a college couple, trying to take advantage of the female’s parents being out of town, were just caught in the clichéd, wrong place at the wrong time as it is their house that was used as the conduit to the jewelry vault.
We see a synopsis of the planning and execution of the robbery which is enough to reveal how detailed and precise Carl is. It tells us he is ruthless and that he leaves no stones unturned in his plan.
This sets up the episode perfectly as he is up against the crack special New York Police Department unit (NYPD) led by cerebral Detective Goren, (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his partner, Detective Eames, (Kathryn Erbe).
The two start playing super sleuths, collecting statements and evidence from the little they have. They start with the parents of the dead girl and find out they were duped by what appeared to be a scam offering them, through a letter, a vacation in Las Vegas with all the trimmings. This was just to get them out of the house. Detective Goren shows some moxie, by ‘promising’ the parents that he will find the killers even though one of the investigating officers had already told them that the chances of catching the killers were slim to none. The battle of wits begin.
The detectives are meticulous. They first check the local library as they feel the thieves must have been working with a blueprint of the location and tracking the vehicle involved in the robbery. They find out that Gia was the one who borrowed the blueprints and that Carl was linked to the crime vehicle. Both used forged credit cards. The forger happens to be Jake. Police sketchers are able to come up with likenesses of the two main culprits.
One of the big pluses of this Law and Order series is the very intuitive detective work. One particular piece of evidence is from surveillance video taken from the jewelry store. Here, Detective Goren, picks up on a nervous quirk of Gia on a surveillance video clip of the jewelry store. This was while she was ‘casing the joint.’ She bites her nails. He makes a mental note of that.
There is more drama when Carl kills a mob link and plants some of the stolen jewelry on his body. Goren’s boss, Captain James Deakins, (Jamey Sheridan) falls for the smokescreen but not Goren. He figures out that Carl did this just to buy time to sell the stolen jewelry.
The build up to the climax is triggered by the identification of Jake, (Venito). He is fingered by a railway train porter who remembers him meeting the murdered Bartok when he arrived from Montreal. There just had to be a Canadian connection, eh. The porter picks him out of the police profile book. One of those instances when being a bad tipper, works against you.
Jake is nabbed when he goes to an electronic store to pick up a laminating machine to replace the one he mistakenly left at his deceased mother’s house that he had fled earlier. He needs this to make fake passports for the gang’s get away. Of course that just starts the chain of arrests.
Jake, through compelling arguments from Assistant District Attorney, Ron Carver (Courtney B. Vance) sings and the whereabouts of Carl and Gia are revealed. Carver utilizing legal quid pro quo, offers to take the death penally off the table and instead settle for life without parole. Jake is penitent, claiming he did not commit any murders and he has no priors. But as Carver put it, “it is just a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing,” so he is guilty anyway. The offer is put classically, you can choose life or death.
The hideout is raided but initially neither Carl or Gia are at home. It is while returning from an errand that Gia is grabbed.
At first, Gia is not cooperative but Goren’s argument that she may have AIDS through anal sex with Carl, makes her flinch. He picks up on her nervous quirk and is able to use her as bait to catch Carl.
This particular episode was intriguing. You know the case would be eventually solved but the intricate police work makes you follow the action from start to finish and the intuition of Detective Goren makes you hang on his every move.
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