Post by Patcat on Feb 25, 2010 12:45:59 GMT -5
Will air February 28 at 7 and 11 pm (EST) on the Bravo Network. Also on March 13 at 6 am (EST) on USA. First aired March 28, 2004. The Seventeenth episode of Season Three.
Written by Gerry Conway and Rene Balcer. Directed by Alex Chapple
Guest Actors:
John Savage as Mark Ferrell
John Gallagher, Jr., as Gary
Synopsis: A doctor researching patients in comas and vegetative states is murdered, and the investigation leads to one of her patients and the patient’s family.
For information on comas and other levels of consciousness see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state
This story also appears to be somewhat based on that of Terri Schiavo. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case
For information on DMSO see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmso
Quotes:
Eames (to detective who states Dr. Ford treated injured cops): “Then she’s a friend of ours.”
Research Assistant: “They got me all flustered.” Eames: “I can’t imagine how.”
Gary: “We just say that to make us feel better.”
Lawyer: “I’m a lawyer. That’s what I do.”
Eames: “My bet. His clients exercised Dr. Ford’s right to die.”
Gary: “Mom deserves better than lying in diapers and staring up at a ceiling.”
Deakins: “Well, you sold me it coulda happened. Not that it did.”
Goren: “Once a murderer, always a murderer.”
Deakins: “Well, I’m sold. He tried to kill his wife, but Dr. Ford…”
Eames: “Either he’s a psychic for Greenpeace or he’s a liar.”
Rodgers: “With all due respect to the forests that died for this, Lorraine Farrell’s medical records are a whole lot of nothing.”
Eames: “His very own frozen asset.”
Goren: “No…Not our questions.”
Eames: “Never underestimate the power of a guilty conscience.”
Goren: “I wonder…I really wonder…”
Queries:
Both Mark’s wounding of Lorraine and his murder of Dr. Ford seem terribly complicated. Are they?
Is eighteen a young age for studying to be an EMT?
Why is Gary living with his grandparents?
Why do Eames and Goren have to go to New Orleans?
Will Gary get any money from the trust? Who will it go to if not him? Did Mark get any of the money from the trust? Had he spent it all?
If Mark hadn’t killed Dr. Ford, would he have been caught for Lorraine’s poisoning?
Was Dr. Ford a “voo-doo” doctor?
I confess there were several points about this plot that I didn’t and don’t understand. Who vandalized Dr. Ford’s car? Was it Mark?
How well does this episode explain the differences among coma and vegetative states?
Would a judge really have allowed Lorraine’s “testimony”? Will Mark’s confession be admissible in court? Is the research assistant betraying his work and subjects by participating in this “interview”?
What about Goren’s last comments? Does he believe Lorraine can communicate? Or does he hope she can?
Comments:
As I indicated in the queries for this episode, there’s much I find confusing about this episode, even after repeated viewings. In spite of the actors’ best efforts, I find the conclusion just too much of a stretch of belief. What judge would allow this? How could Mark or any member of Lorraine’s family agree to it? And, while I realize the goal is to force Mark to confess, how could the detectives or the ADA believe in it? I have this sense that in between takes the actors might have been laughing at this ridiculous scenario.
Then, again, maybe it isn’t such a ridiculous scenario, given recent research suggesting a very, very tiny group of people in vegetative states may be capable of conscious activity. But this research, which seems to be along the lines of the fictional Dr. Ford, has also been the subject of a great deal of criticism and skepticism.
Until that conclusion, however, CONSCIENCE has a lot going for it. Lots of Eames snark, and some excellent examples of Goren and Eames working with their captain. Even Carver proves to be easy to work with. The case begins with one of Goren’s meticulous crime scene investigations (note his anger at the way the doctor’s gloves are tossed away), and he spins the hapless research assistant in one of those wonderful dances Goren performs with suspects and witnesses that I (and I think a lot of people) love.
Submitted, as always, for your consideration and comments.
Patcat
Written by Gerry Conway and Rene Balcer. Directed by Alex Chapple
Guest Actors:
John Savage as Mark Ferrell
John Gallagher, Jr., as Gary
Synopsis: A doctor researching patients in comas and vegetative states is murdered, and the investigation leads to one of her patients and the patient’s family.
For information on comas and other levels of consciousness see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state
This story also appears to be somewhat based on that of Terri Schiavo. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case
For information on DMSO see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmso
Quotes:
Eames (to detective who states Dr. Ford treated injured cops): “Then she’s a friend of ours.”
Research Assistant: “They got me all flustered.” Eames: “I can’t imagine how.”
Gary: “We just say that to make us feel better.”
Lawyer: “I’m a lawyer. That’s what I do.”
Eames: “My bet. His clients exercised Dr. Ford’s right to die.”
Gary: “Mom deserves better than lying in diapers and staring up at a ceiling.”
Deakins: “Well, you sold me it coulda happened. Not that it did.”
Goren: “Once a murderer, always a murderer.”
Deakins: “Well, I’m sold. He tried to kill his wife, but Dr. Ford…”
Eames: “Either he’s a psychic for Greenpeace or he’s a liar.”
Rodgers: “With all due respect to the forests that died for this, Lorraine Farrell’s medical records are a whole lot of nothing.”
Eames: “His very own frozen asset.”
Goren: “No…Not our questions.”
Eames: “Never underestimate the power of a guilty conscience.”
Goren: “I wonder…I really wonder…”
Queries:
Both Mark’s wounding of Lorraine and his murder of Dr. Ford seem terribly complicated. Are they?
Is eighteen a young age for studying to be an EMT?
Why is Gary living with his grandparents?
Why do Eames and Goren have to go to New Orleans?
Will Gary get any money from the trust? Who will it go to if not him? Did Mark get any of the money from the trust? Had he spent it all?
If Mark hadn’t killed Dr. Ford, would he have been caught for Lorraine’s poisoning?
Was Dr. Ford a “voo-doo” doctor?
I confess there were several points about this plot that I didn’t and don’t understand. Who vandalized Dr. Ford’s car? Was it Mark?
How well does this episode explain the differences among coma and vegetative states?
Would a judge really have allowed Lorraine’s “testimony”? Will Mark’s confession be admissible in court? Is the research assistant betraying his work and subjects by participating in this “interview”?
What about Goren’s last comments? Does he believe Lorraine can communicate? Or does he hope she can?
Comments:
As I indicated in the queries for this episode, there’s much I find confusing about this episode, even after repeated viewings. In spite of the actors’ best efforts, I find the conclusion just too much of a stretch of belief. What judge would allow this? How could Mark or any member of Lorraine’s family agree to it? And, while I realize the goal is to force Mark to confess, how could the detectives or the ADA believe in it? I have this sense that in between takes the actors might have been laughing at this ridiculous scenario.
Then, again, maybe it isn’t such a ridiculous scenario, given recent research suggesting a very, very tiny group of people in vegetative states may be capable of conscious activity. But this research, which seems to be along the lines of the fictional Dr. Ford, has also been the subject of a great deal of criticism and skepticism.
Until that conclusion, however, CONSCIENCE has a lot going for it. Lots of Eames snark, and some excellent examples of Goren and Eames working with their captain. Even Carver proves to be easy to work with. The case begins with one of Goren’s meticulous crime scene investigations (note his anger at the way the doctor’s gloves are tossed away), and he spins the hapless research assistant in one of those wonderful dances Goren performs with suspects and witnesses that I (and I think a lot of people) love.
Submitted, as always, for your consideration and comments.
Patcat
Patrick Roy, 2006 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame