EPISODE OF THE WEEK: ANTI-THESIS

[Patcat]

Airs 8pm EST and 10pm EST, July 15, 2007, on the BRAVO cable network

The third episode of the Second Season. First aired October 13, 2002.

Written by Eric Overmeyer and Rene Balcer

Directed by Adam Bernstein

Guest Actors: Olivia d'Abo (Elizabeth Hitchens/Nicole Wallace), Linda Emond (Christine Fellowes), Philip Bosco (Dr. Winthrop)

Synopsis: Eames and Goren investigate the murders of a university administrator and his secretary.

Quotes:

Goren: "Sometimes a whale is just a whale."

Eames: "What did you think? That she would have scones and sherry waiting here for us?"

Perhaps everything that can be said about Elizabeth Hitchens/Nicole Wallace/The Evil One has been said. Is it possible for us to look at her with fresh eyes, as if everything that followed this episode hadn't occurred? What was your first reaction to this story?

Much of the discussion of this story has centered on the Bobby/Nicole confrontation. But what about some of its other elements? What about its depiction of an academic environment?

A possibility that struck me as I watched Alex and Bobby play the couple in the shoe store (apparently a favorite scene of many)--could Bobby be gay or bisexual?

What is Eames' role in this episode? What are her reactions to Nicole? What, if any, are Nicole's reactions to her?

Who is this woman anyway? Nicole? Elizabeth? No one?

Is there any significance to the fact both Alex and Nicole are small blonde women?

There is, I think, a feeling among many on this group that Nicole is now beyond saving. But what about at this point, during this episode--could she still be saved? Does her encounter with Bobby turn her more towards evil in creating in her mind an obsession with him?

It's an old question, but one that still seems to generate some interest. Is Bobby interested in Nicole? Is she interested in him?

Bobby is blindsided by Nicole's use of his personal situation against him. Should he be? Is this something he should've anticipated?

To jump ahead in the Nicole saga a bit: She's killed Bernard, the man responsible for her "creation." Will she stop?

Most of Nicole's conquests are due to the use of her physical and sexual attractiveness. She's now getting older, and it's going to be harder for her to make use of these attributes. Will this eventually be her downfall?

Some of what we know about Bobby Goren comes from his confrontations with Nicole. Could this information have been conveyed in a different way?

A hero is frequently defined by his/her antagonist. How does Nicole define Bobby? Is she his best antagonist?

Comment: Nicole's victims litter her paths. In this episode she manages to destroy the English Department of Hudson University. I'm particularly haunted by the death of Dr. Winthrop's secretary, a complete innocent who was only doing her job.

A thought: I've always thought that Dick Wolf has missed out on several marketing opportunities with the L&O franchise. A line of HUDSON UNIVERSITY materials--t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc.--could prove to be very popular. I think the mascot should be the Hawks. Or the Corpses. (g)

Patcat

[effie]

This should be an interesting discussion. I've always like this one best of all the Nicole eppys...

and I'm with you on wanting a line of Hudson University merchandise. There is a sweatshirt in this episode, and I think a tshirt as well (check out the students being bored by Moby Dick) The latin motto for the university should be something about being a dangerous place to attend.

Perhaps the Hudson Wolves?!

**and I saw part of an episode of "Missing" on TNT last night and they had a student transcript they were looking at from Hudson University. Hmmm...

[effie]

Anyone got any thoughts on the scones line? It's a typical concluding snark from Eames.... but it strikes me as just a bit B***hy and somewhat out of character...

[Luna]

PatCat, I absolutely LOVE your idea about the Hudson University materials!

I love Nicole Wallace episodes, not because I love her (which I certainly don't), but because we get to see a whole different side of Bobby. As far as Nicole is concerned, I think that her path crossing with Bobby really does give her a whole new obsession to focus on... She's managed to escape everything else that she's done, and then all of a sudden, here comes this brilliant cop that figures her all out in five minutes! Now she has to cover those tracks. She has to take him down. Using his personal information against him is the perfect start... It's a great way to get a read on him. I do, certainly think that Bobby was blindsided and should have been... The birthdate and SS # are not exactly easy to get with nothing more than a name, as far as I know.

As for the possibility of him being gay... You know, I always wondered why they would walk into a store, posing as a married couple and then have him act flamboyantly gay. It just didn't make sense to me. Is he actually gay or bisexual? I'm not sure... That thought never actually crossed my mind, to tell you the truth, but it is certainly something to think about.

I loved the fact, also, in this episode that she is in the process of teaching Moby Dick and "man's relenting pursuit of evil."

[Patcat]

I wouldn't call Eames' reaction to Bobby's behavior as "B***hy". I think she's angry that he lost focus in this case and also concerned about him. I view her last remarks as a wakeup shout to him.

Patcat

[deathroe]

I am saving up this thread and Patcat's questions for a fun activity later in the day On the fly, though--

(1) I thought the scones comment was great for being very like Eames. In some ways, it shows that she has a deeper perception of Goren than a Nicole might have.

(2) I'm pretty sure I've seen Hudson U. merchandise on Cafe Press. I will have to look for that link later.

(3) Because I was a graduate student for so long, this is one of my favourite episodes ever. The accuracies and inaccuracies are both equally engaging. I think that I will write more about this later.

[ragincajun]

I don't think Bobby was acting "gay" in the shoe store, I think he was acting more of the upper class metro sexual type. Like in Best Defense, when he was acting like the Assistance DA's friend, which orignally aired after this episode. When the ADA frames his wife for trying to kill him, but he was the one doing it.


My first reaction to Nicole was I wanted to claw her eyes out, when she hurt Bobby. I think she caught him off guard when she started talking about his mother, which is a soft spot for him. But then he turned it around and used it to get info from her.

I feel Nicole, if she was a real person, maybe could be helped, but would need to admit her crimes pay for them, and need intense therapy.

Bobby, I think finds her interesting in a detectives way, she is a criminal mastermind, she is a challenge. Her being a intellegent, charming, pretty and a cold blooded killer, he is interested in her to get into her head to see how it works, not in a romantic way. But I can see how some might see it that way, Bobby is passionate about his work.

Nicole, needs to bring Bobby down because he was right about her, he was able to get into her head and make her look at the truth, she won't admit it, thats why at this point she is not saveable. She needs to destroy him to bring him down, crush him, to redeem herself.

About her age and getting older, As an older woman, we get better with age :-).

[Techguy]

luna said:

I loved the fact, also, in this episode that she is in the process of teaching Moby Dick and "man's relenting pursuit of evil."

It's Goren who suggests Moby Dick is about the "dogged unrelenting pursuit of evil" and he should know this trait well, as this sort of obsession sometimes blinds and then blindsides him as the chameleon Nicole/Elizabeth does in this episode. Nicole/Elizabeth, on the other hand, suggests that Moby Dick is about "man's unrelenting pursuit of his own potency" which she should know in spades as it's this sort of weakness she preys on to victimize those unfortunate enough to fall into the gravitational pull of her orbit.

I've said this before, but I've always believed IF there was an attraction between them, it was at the outset when he still believed she was Prof. Elizabeth Hitchens. Once he became aware of who she really was and what she had done, he set about Ahab-like to bring her in, which almost resulted in his undoing.

Goren also sees in Nicole a squandered potential, as the "sparkling little girl" used manipulation and devious tricks, as well as her looks, to draw victims in like flies to her web of destruction and death. Despite the fact that Nicole caught Goren off guard on more than one occasion, she is both attracted to and repulsed by the idea that he knows her better than anyone and what she could have accomplished if she had chosen another path in life. I don't buy into the idea that Nicole has mellowed or changed her ways in the slightest. She was, is, and will continue to be a psycho killer unless she is stopped. She knows Goren won't compromise his integrity, and like a cockroach she shrinks and hides from the light of his moral strength. Theirs is a moral and psychological battle of wills, and there can be only one winner in this life-and-death struggle. Goren now knows better than to get too close or entangled in this lethal spider's web.

[Luna]

techguy said:

It's Goren who suggests Moby Dick is about the "dogged unrelenting pursuit of evil" and he should know this trait well, as this sort of obsession sometimes blinds and then blindsides him as the chameleon Nicole/Elizabeth does in this episode.

Oops... Sorry... It's been quite a while since I've seen this episode!

[Patcat]

I agree, Techguy, that there might have been a spark of interest on Bobby's part when he first met what he thought was Elizabeth Hitchens. For the Evil One, however, no, not a bit.

I also thought it was telling that Nicole takes the sexual view of MOBY DICK. She views everything in sexual terms, even literature.

Patcat

[meggyd]

I liked this episode when it first aired, but have since been jaded by the whole Nicole Wallace saga. When I rewatched it I was surprised at the strength of it and how well written it was. It was quite a detailed premise, and this incarnation of Nicole Wallace was ruthless and believable. I remember being shocked (in an entertained way) at how she spoke to the detectives, at the different plot points like the death of the grad student, at how she turned defense into attack and the fact that she got away at the end. I couldn't really work out how it was going to end - a contrast to the present season where I can usually work things out in the first ten minutes or so.

I thought Eames' snark at the end was very apt. Bobby is used to winning. He doesn't expect to be outwitted. Not everyone is going to cave in.

I didn't see Bobby's turn in the shoe store as an indication of being gay or bisexual. I thought they were just playing around, being as different from their cop personas as possible. They also adopted very non-threatening personas, inviting confidences and light, casual conversation - they were there for information.

I also didn't see attraction between Bobby and Nicole. I was really surprised when so many others saw that in the episode. I saw him thinking she'd be easy to manipulate, and then shocked when he realised how smart, and twisted, she really was. I do believe she sexualises everything, and tries to use her sexuality against both men and women, so that did add a sexual element, but I thought he was more annoyed with her than anything, from the point where she claimed to be "shocked" that it took him weeks to catch a co-ed at Oxford.

Some of the episode needed a bit more explanation for the non-American audiences. For example, the immigration laws and the stuff about the "writ of habius corpus". It took a while to figure out the implications of these things.

Nicole's reaction to Eames was virtually non-existant, but this episode was from the start of season two, when Eames was just beginning to emerge as a full character. She had been woefully neglected in the writing for most of season one. Nicole was there to engage with Bobby, and did indeed prove a very useful device for establishing more of Bobby's backstory and fleshing out his character. That was one of the reasons I really liked this episode, because it made Goren seem more real and more human.

The academic environment used as the setting was appropriate for the story, but it could really have been set anywhere. Throughout CI, and other shows, we're constantly shown how different organisations have essentially the same components and the same people hungry for power while others are blind to what goes on around them. It did allow for a lot of literary allusions though - as an English teacher I appreciated those! Literature, and people's reactions to it, illustrates so much about life.

[Cassie]

ragincajun said:

I feel Nicole, if she was a real person, maybe could be helped, but would need to admit her crimes pay for them, and need intense therapy.

I see it too, and I hope that Good (Goren) truimphs over Evil (Nicole) and wins. I don't want Goren to destroy her, cause then he loses too.

luna said:

As for the possibility of him being gay... You know, I always wondered why they would walk into a store, posing as a married couple and then have him act flamboyantly gay. It just didn't make sense to me. Is he actually gay or bisexual? I'm not sure... That thought never actually crossed my mind, to tell you the truth, but it is certainly something to think about.

I always felt that Goren and Eames went in as a married couple, but then Goren shifted geers and played the sales clerk after picking up on some vibes

[diablodeblanco]

Maybe it's just me but I get the feeling that Bobby would like to snag a "thoroughbred" himself. The women I think he seems attracted to are lawyers, a stock broker, a pretend professor. His little come on to the waitress in POI was in response to her remark to him so I don't think that counts. When he is the questioner of some of the thoroughbred types, he just seems to be paying a little more attention to the questionee than to merely her responses. His demeanor is a bit different. Perhaps he is a wee bit intimidated by them?

[gorensdoppelganger]

Techguy, I like your choice for "F" on the poll, "Nicole shoulda have been carried off by dingoes". Made me laugh out loud. ;D

[Cassie]

Interesting....in "Baggage" at the end of the show. Goren plays Keith (Lee Tergensen) into picking the woman lawyer. Goren makes some comment while looking at the beautiful young woman about how Keith only goes for "thoroughbreds" I have always felt that Goren wanted to see her reaction more then Keith's. Goren made the woman unconfortable. I remember her squirming a bit.