EPISODE OF THE WEEK: MALEDICTUS

[Patcat]

Will air October 1 at 4am EST on the USA Cable Network
19th Episode of the First Season. First aired April 21, 2002.

Written by Stephanie Sengupta and Rene Balcer
Directed by Frank Prinzi

Guest Actors:
David Thornton as Kenny Strick
Veanne Cox as Martha Strick

Synopsis: Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a Russian mob princess whose tell all biography made her many enemies.

Quotes:
Eames (to Goren as he examines the head): "You lose a contact lens?"

Goren (pulling a necklace from the head's mouth): "What do you think this means?"
Eames: "Robbery wasn't the motive."

Eames (to Goren): "Don't tell me you read Russian? Oh brother."

Goren (to Deakins' comment that the FBI believes the murder was a mob hit): "Tell 'em to keep an open mind. It's what we do."

Eames: "I smell a bestseller."
Goren: "I smell a motive for murder."

Eames (in response to Goren's description of Kenny Strick's masochism): "I learn something new every day."

Eames: "And here I thought maple syrup and hockey players were Canada's biggest exports."

Goren (explaining options for Kenny): "Truth...Fiction..."

Discussion:

The initial discussion of this episode questioned whether the ten-year-old Kenny Strick would have killed his mother because of her pregnancy. Would child of that age believed he could make his mother get rid of the baby? Wouldn't the child have known he could've killed his mother?

Another aspect of the initial discussion was the relationship between Kenny and Martha Strick. One poster compared to the relationship between Riff-Raff and Magenta in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (g). It's certainly a weird relationship. When he meets Kenny and Martha, Goren mistakes them for a romantic couple. Is this a very strange relationship?

In spite of everything, will Martha find out the truth? Is it possible that she already knows the truth?

How do the Stricks fit in with the way LOCI presents sibling relationships?

Did the Chase Academy make things worse for Kenny?

Is Kenny sympathetic?

What is Kenny's relationship with the victim?

Is Kenny relieved at having been caught?

Does the Russian mob father care about his daughter?

We have a decapitation and bones, masochism and hints of incest. How does this episode rate on the LOCI creepy meter?

Comments:
Another episode where Goren and Eames investigate a weird and wonderful story among the rich and decadent. The Stricks are certainly among the most unusual of the fun couples of LOCI. There's nothing explicit about their relationship, but the implications are creepy. Kudos to David Thornton, who manages to make Kenny repellent and sympathetic at the same time. This is also a very disconcerting episode, starting with the shock of finding the victim's head to the shot of that one bone (a femur, possibly?), and the tangled, unhealthy relationships. I enjoyed how Carver joined with the detectives to snare Kenny at the end. Also, watch how the camera dances around Goren and Kenny during the final "aria"--it's as much a participant as the two actors.

Submitted early this time, for which I beg indulgence.

Patcat

[Moonbeam]

How does this episode rate on the creepy meter?: Very creepy in part due to the performance of David Thornton (is he still married to Cindy Lauper)? He walked that line between brutality and fragility very well. The use of old buildings and furnishings along with low lighting helped set the mood too.

How do the stricks fit in with the way LOCI presents sibling relationships?: Geesh, there seems to one in every family, no?

Being the savy LOCI fans we are, we know the Russians were a red herring. That's all I have for now.

[DonnaJo]

Man, you picked a good one. Patcat. ;D

This is such a fantastic episode. It's weirdness is delightful, and the Goren eccentricities abound.

My two favorite scenes. Although it's tough to just pick two:

* Goren grilling the Canadian Dominatrix. When he stuns her (ands us) by smacking his hands together by her ear and says, "You hit him....hard." That whole mini aria is classic Goren, so well written & well done.

* Goren questioning Kenny Strick in his home. Says to him.."You pluck your eyebrows." Kenny leans in (as if to kiss Goren?) but pulls away, dazed. Goren's reaction isn't shock or distaste, like other straight men - merely curiosity.

For what its worth, I don't believe that Kenny & his sister had an incestuous relationship. He was emotionally unstable, broken & needy, and she treated him accordingly. She was motherly to him - cradling his head in her lap, for example. She knew that he craved that loving touch. But did they sleep together? No, I don't think Martha took it that far

[Patcat]

I view Martha as the more stable of the two Stricks also. And it's certainly possible to have a complicated, dependent, unhealthy relationship (or even healthy one) without sex entering into it. Having said that--do you thank Kenny wanted to have sex with Martha?

Patcat

[DonnaJo]

I think that if Martha was open to it, that Kenny would have sex with her. Given the right situation, like Kenny being upset & vulnerable.

Looks like he might be interested in some hanky panky with Goren, too. Even though it's stated that he's straight. I mean, how straight can a cross dresser be? Usually they are bi-sexual, aren't they?

Jeez...I'm in over my head here. Anybody know?

[Ladyheather]

Did anyone notice that Ilana (was that her name?) and Kenny both had the same blond wig on? He had it on during the bridge scene. If her hair was not a wig, it was very funky looking.

Kenny and his sister might not had been involved sexually but it was pretty close. Everything but sex. I think that is why both Goren and Eames looked at each other when Kenny set Goren straight that they were brother and sister.

[Patcat]

A couple of thoughts that came to me:

Why send for Canadian prostitutes? My impression is that there are plenty of sex workers in New York City.

I think it's possible to see Bobby in the early episodes as sending out ambivalent sexual vibes, especially when he's dealing with individuals like Kenny who seem to have an ambivalent sexuality. Now, whether this is because Bobby is playing these people or he's possibly bi-sexual I leave to others to dicuss.

Patcat

[Ladyheather]

I always thought that for the most part, Bobby played it pretty neutral on that kind of stuff. He needed to get info from them, so his personal opinions were kept pretty close to the vest. Eames seems to be a bit more openly opinionated on stuff.

Maybe the Canadian girls were for appearances. Having them from out of town maybe keeps them out of the papers. He did have some unique sexual needs and local girls might share some of that with the media. Kenny would bring them in and then ship them back home on the same night.

[quietfireca]

I really enjoyed the excuse to re-watch this epi as I got so much more from it this time.

Creepy is right!
I was shocked at how brutal Goren was being to Kenny about a murder committed by a 10 year old (obviously I wasn't looking at the big picture at that moment).

But the thing that hit me most was the grace that Goren had in allowing Kenny to choose how much he told his sister about their mother's death. Wow. And that Kenny had the grace to thank Goren at the very end.

Now about that Mountie in Toronto! Gee whiz! Talk about stereotypical. Who wrote those lines? lol! I laugh every time I think of him - cause it might not be that far from the truth. At least they didn't have him in his dress reds.

[SarahIvy]

I ADORE this episode. It is profoundly disturbing and creepy. If not so incredibly well written and acted it could have easily crossed the line into CSI-style attention-grabbing shlock. Instead it manages to be nuanced and fascinating.

Yeah, I always assumed the Canadian working girls were for privacy reasons. His tastes were so specific, I suspect every sex worker in NY (and then every gossip rag) would know all about him due to it being such excellent gossip fodder.

This is also one of those early episodes where Carver played a larger role, which I enjoy immensely and really miss.

DonnaJo, cross dressers can absolutely be straight, and in fact often are. Actually, I don't think I've ever met a cross-dresser that wasn't straight...drag queens are a totally different ball of wax. An excellent example of a well known cross-dresser being my hilarious and awesome secret boyfriend Eddie Izzard

That scene where Goren invades Kenny's space and comments on his eyebrows I think served a twofold purpose for Goren.

1) To make Kenny uncomfortable and throw him off-kilter (as is always Goren's technique with the personal space bubble invading).

2) To judge Kenny's reaction to his closeness. I mean at that point they're not sure what the deal is with Kenny...is he gay, straight? Sleeping with his sister? A cross-dresser? Would Kenny be weirded out and uncomfortable (which is how I read his reaction), or would Goren detect some attraction and titillation (I do not get that impression at all from Kenny)?

[tjara]

Ok, this ep ranks high on the weirdo-scale and I think I've to see it at least one or two more times to catch some more of the details and to really understand.

First off, was there another episode in which Goren smiled more?

Did the Chase Academy make things worse for Kenny?

I guess so. Boarding schools are though even for emotionally stable and settled children, so I guess the effect on vulnerable children is higher. And Chase had even had the task to make them behave properly and was closed down because of what went on there.

What is Kenny's relationship with the victim?

I was wondering about that, too. I think they are somewhere between friends and lovers.

Does the Russian mob father care about his daughter?

Not openly. He may be upset about her death and everything, but he also feels betrayed.

Is Kenny relieved at having been caught?

I think he is. You can see the weight being lifted off his heart. Also, I thought that maybe the bond to his sister was cut. They had a strange kind of dependency, more than just siblings, but maybe not lovers, though I tend to believe that he got some pleasure out of her dominant tone and stlye?

I guess my favourite scene was when Deakins asked Goren about his eyebrow-pluck comment and Goren turned to Eames....
Though I have to say there were lots of great scenes... I mean the photographer hitting on Bobby - she even touched him... and you knew he was just playing her, no serious intentions behind his cute smile and eye contact... I had the feeling that Bobby, while acting weird, was in control the whole episode and he played with each of the suspects. As someone else has said, I think Bobby usually is very vague about his own feelings and intentions and I think his strange behavior was testing the waters, no implication about his own feelings or desires.