EPISODE OF THE WEEK: SHRINK-WRAPPED

[Patcat]

Will air on the USA network March 26 at 11pm EST and March 27 at 6pm EST.

Episode 60. First aired March 7, 2004. The 15th episode of the fourth season.

Written by Diana Son and Rene Balcer

Guest Actors:

Brent Spiner as Graham Barnes
Taylor Roberts as Camilla Barnes
Margaret Colin as Eloise Barnes

Synopsis: An investigation of a young jazz musician's death leads Goren and Eames to a psychologist and psychiatrist whose marriage is a battlefield of vicious games and their deceptively unassuming daughter.

Quotes:
Carver: "This family makes me want to go home and hug my wife."

Eames: "Transference Be-Bop?"
Goren: "Those are psychotherapeutic terms; he was seeing a shrink."
Eames: "Been better off seeing a lyricist."

There's some excellent commentary on this episode on its original discussion thread, and I strongly recommend a look at it.

Ah, the Barneses. One of many "fun" couples in the LOCI world, but these two seem especially vicious. I'm reminded of characters in an Edward Albee play.

Do the Barneses underestimate Goren and Eames?

How many people have Graham and Eloise Barnes messed up with their games over the years?

And just how do these two hang on to their licenses and practices, what with sleeping with patients and revealing confidential information about their patients?

Do Graham and Eloise feel any guilt at the end of this story? Or are they too self-absorbed?

Does Goren's knowledge and experience of psychiatry and psychology help him in this case?

In the orginal discussion of this episode, there were many comments regarding Goren's treatment of Camilla. Is he too hard on her?

Camilla does appear to be a good teacher. Is this a form of rebellion against her parents?

I've always felt sorry for Chrisian, the talented, troubled young man who falls in with this nest of vipers. Does he get lost in this case?

Is there any significance to the fact he's called Christian?

And is there any significance to the face Christian is disfigured by acid before he's killed?

Note: The play the Barneses have just attended and discuss at one point is clearly SIDE MAN, the 1999 Tony Award Winner for Best Play written by Warren Leight. (And it is a terrific play.)

Comments: Casting is so important. In this episode, the inability of the young actress portraying Camilla to convey her character's anger at her parents and the many, often contradictory, elements to her personality, is a weak point. On the other hand, Margaret Colin and Brent Spiner, cast against type, are brilliant as the loathsome Barneses. These are two more in the long line of daring casting that pays off for the show.

I can't place this episode in the Grade A section of LOCI episodes, but there's still much to admire about it. Ms. Colin and Mr. Spiner's performances; a chance to watch Goren and Eames go undercover, and Mr. D'Onofrio's performance during the aria at the episode's ends. I read somewhere that he plays Goren at these moments like a snake hypnotizing a rabbit into being eaten, and watching him slither around the hearing room and around Camilla, I can strongly endorse that statement.

Patcat

[DonnaJo]

Great comments, Patcat, about the episode.

I do beg to differ about the actress who played Camilla Barnes. I thought she did an excellent job in displaying her conflicted emotions at the end of the episode. I didn't get the impression that she hated her parents, but more that she revered them, especially her mother. She wanted so desperately to be like her, that when she tried to gain the attention of her mother's lover (so she could be like her) & was rebuked, she lashed out at her mother's lover who refused her. And her comments about killing him like her father killed the goat...did she think Daddy would be proud of her for that comparison?

Her last comments, "Now you can't ignore me..I'm your daughter, I'm yours!" are really so pathetic. And I am one of the poster's who was both surprised & disappointed in Goren's lack of empathy for Camilla. He, of all people, should have related to being ignored by his parents.

To this day, I still can't see how he Goren had so much compassion for the daughter who murdered her mom with botox, and none for this young woman.

[Patcat]

There's a lot of comment about the differences in Goren's treatment of the daughter in SUITE SORROW and Camilla in the original discussion regarding SHRINK-WRAPPED. Those defending Goren seem to feel that Goren regarded nan in SUITE as being manipulated by her father and lover and that she attacked her mother, a woman who had consistently belittled her. Camilla, on the other hand, wasn't manipulated by her parents and struck out at a relative innocent.

Although, while I tend to think of Christian as a victim, just how innocent was he?

Patcat

[Techguy]

I believe Camilla was torn between wanting to emulate her parents and feeling rage and resentment toward them for their benign (or not so benign) neglect of her. However, Taylor Roberts, the actress who played Camilla, left a lot to be desired for me in conveying Camilla's conflicting emotions. She just didn't resonate that well for me, and so the critical linchpin of motive of the perp was lacking. In contrast, Brent Spiner and Margaret Colin stole the show. Their casting and performances as Camilla's manipulative parents Graham and Eloise Barnes were spot on, elevating what in lesser hands could have been weak pathetic caricatures into brilliant portraits of egocentric self-absorption and veiled cruelty.

[Patcat]

Ms. Roberts did have the most difficult role in this story, but I have to go with Techguy with my opinion about her performance.

I love the early scene where Eloise Graham is clearly trying to distract Goren by her seductive behavior, and Goren clearly knows what's going on. Both Ms. Colin and Mr. D'Onofrio are superb.

Patcat

[Ladyheather]

I am looking forward to seeing this one again. Brent Spiner is a favorite of mine and I wish he would do more roles like this. He is very good at crazy and can be either a good or bad guy. Such a talented man.

Camilla is truly the product of the Barnes self absorbed and evil character. They do deserve each other. The joy they take in taunting each other for both pain and pleasure is sick. Camilla will turn out like them.

There was a part of her that knew right from wrong. That is the sad part of all of this. Yet there was a point before the story starts that she evolves into justifying any thing that she does to get her parents attention. I often wondered what she had done before this to try to get their attention? This was not the first thing she tried. Maybe she killed small animals first. Her father liked the kill, their African trip showed that. He liked the gore of it all.

I think Goren was not sympathetic because he knew there was no coming back for her. She was a younger version of them, and there was no treatment for this kind of pathology. They justified their evil. Not all serial killers are crazy, some are just evil.

[Cassie]

You know what I thought was odd about this show was the birthday photograph of Camilla in the living room. Goren found it, noticed that it was only Camilla in the photo, except for the reflection of the waiter taking the picture in the mirror. It showed everyone that the parents weren't at their daughters birthday party. So why would it be on display in their living room? Was the photo purposely placed in the living room by the parents, or was it an easy clue by the writers to show the parents were jerks in raising their only child.

[effie]

Interesting point about the picture. Ironically what popped into my head when you mentioned it Cassie was the the Barnes' must have gone to the 'Frances Goren school of abandoning young children' ;0) -- but then I have an odd sense of humor. :0)

The Barnes' are wonderfully, terribly twisted characters. As I'm sitting here thinking about it I wonder how much of the parent's game playing might have mirrored Bobby's parents when he was growing up.

From an acting point of view, the scene where the parents return home from the theater has always wowed me because of all the stuff they're doing -- filling wine glasses and slicing cheese and the rest of the physical stuff. It's a lot to do in a small scene in a small kitchen at a fairly fast pace!

**oh, and for the eagle eyed folks out there... watch the pictures in Eloise's office. The ones over Goren's head when he sits in the chair opposite Eloise to talk to her. When Goren and Eames come back later... the pictures are switched. :0) And actually while we see both of those pictures frequently, the one that looks like a print of an ivy leaf shows up a LOT.

[Patcat]

Frances Goren at least had the considerable excuse of an illness. The Barneses don't have that.

Patcat

[DonnaJo]

For me, worst than the birthday party that the poor child had to celebrate with virtual strangers, was the end. Camilla, their only child, is being carted off to jail, and neither parent wants to accompany her?

I felt sorry for her at that moment, even if Goren, Eames & Carver didn't. It doesn't justify what she did, but it's pathetic nonetheless.