EPISODE OF THE WEEK: FAITH

[Patcat]

Will air on the USA Network, Thursday, November 6, 2008. First aired April 28, 2002. 21st episode of Season One.

Written by Theresa Rebeck and Rene Balcer
Directed by Ed Sherin

Guest Actors:

Polly Draper as Christine Wilkes
Mia Dillon as Barb Windermere
Remak Ramsay as Douglas Lafferty
Matthew Sussman as David Cantler

Synopsis: The death of a retired reporter/publisher leads Eames and Goren to a terrible deception and a person who's willing to kill to maintain it.

Quotes:

Detective: "Lucy Hot Pants there thinks the guy died of spontaneous combustion."
Goren: "Right after he was spontaneously hit in the head. I count three impact wounds in the right side of his skull."

Lafferty: "This whole house of cards is going down."

Goren (on Lafferty): "Tough, sentimental old bird."

Goren (about the murderer): "She overthought the event."

Eames: "You know us. We like men who play with the building blocks of life."

Goren: "Maybe I haven't had enough tragedy in my life."

Deakins (about the book's rough draft): "I think the word you're looking for is awful."

Carver: "Crime isn't supposed to pay."

Eames (about the supposed insurance policy): "Erica isn't the only thing that doesn't exist."

The initial discussion of this story included some questions about whether such a hoax was possible. Judging from the number of similar cases that appeared to have inspired this episode, the answer is yes. FAITH's events seem to have been based on several cases, notably those told in the book THE NIGHT LISTENER by Armistead Maupin and Anthony Godby Johnson (later made into a film starring Robin Williams). Information about this case and links to others like it can be found at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Listener_(novel)
In all of these cases, very intelligent and sometimes very prominent people were taken in by stories of valiant and sick children.

Does Christine kill to protect Erica or to protect her delusion? Does Christine have doubts, and does she kill the man who planted them?

Is Goren unnecessarily cruel in this episode?

How will all of the people who believed in Erica react?

Do Barb and Toby know or believe Christine killed Doug?

Is it stupid of Barb, posing as Erica, to call Eames?

Do Eames and especially Goren seem particularly angered by con artists?

Is Barb in it for the money or the love and attention?

How could Barb and Toby believe they were going to get any insurance money?

Who's the worse criminal--Barb or Christine?

Would this scheme have eventually unravelled?

Comments:
A strong episode. A wonderful early crime scene investigation, some great observations by Goren, and terrific interaction between Goren and Eames are some of the highlights. I particularly like the scene where Goren spreads out the trail of gravel on the desk to lead back to Barb.

At various points in this story, I wanted to smack both Barb and Christine. Christine, for being so obstinate and stupid; Barb for her infuriating smugness.

I originally selected this episode because I though FAITH might be an interesting lead-in of sorts to FAITHFULLY. It does occur to me that a recurring theme in LOCI is what people believe in and what they will do to protect those beliefs. Eames and Goren both seem to feel a special anger towards people who manipulate the faith of others.

For your consideration and comments.

Patcat

[dragonsback]

Donna brought up the topic of "Faith" last month, and I was moved to gas on a bit about it. I may be breaching protocol, but I'm too fagged at the moment to do much more than cut and paste.

Happy to delete this post if I have repeated myself twice in too short a space.

Forget lame "Erica", forget implausible gullibility, forget the plot points on which this ep hangs like a door off its hinge. This episode, frame for frame, is a jam-packed Goren lexicon.

Everything you love about the guy, every instinctive nuance that VDO brings to the role, every paradoxical juxtaposition that effortlessly flips the character from sensitive-quirky Bobby one minute to ruthless-quirky Robert Goren the next - it's all right here in 43 minutes of one of the best episodes ever written (by Theresa Rebeck, btw).

Even Eames gets a droll snark in a season of mostly snappish shih-tsu follow-up lines: "We love to play with people who play with the building blocks of life'. Or maybe I should say, even otherwise totally neglected Deakins gets a great moment ( shown in pic above in this thread).

And the guest cast is just out of this world, playing the hell out of a great script.

Of all the memorable moments in all of Season 1-3.5, one of my favorite augenblicks (might even be my top favorite) is the hallway scene with the skirt-chasing prof.

As you may recall, Eames is "playing" him for information, in the guise of an adoring co-ed. Goren slips up behind the prof, and together the two detectives slowly enclose him, revealing their true intent , like the jaws of a Venus flytrap, all velvet and acid bath.

Then you see this instant of great characterisation. VDO does this little smile and nod of mock sympathy for the professor - it's a moment I can watch again and again and again, event though I have never been able to adequately describe it. It's meant only for the audience - the by-now utterly confused prof doesn't take it in. ( There is a similar moment in "Probability" when Goren does that wonderfully poisonous "Awww" to mock the French woman, but in "Faith" it is just that bit more subtle, more complex. )

And of course, while the prof is an inveterate campus wolf, he's also a kind-hearted guy, too, and Goren (as Rebeck writes it) balances the sting of that mocking nod with a genuine warm word.

Never get bored with this one. 8 out of 10 on the Replay-O-Meter

[Moonbeam]

Even with all the great moments dragonsback alluded to, I can't watch this episode because of Polly Draper. She is so annoying.

[fuzzytweetie]

My favorite line is Bobby asking about menstration and the look on Deakins face.

[outerbankschick]

I've always been blown away by Christine's utter naivete. She was taken in by a voice on a phone and a manuscript that was, as Deakins put it, "awful" until she got a hold of it. She never met Erica, and didn't seem suspicious at all that there was always some excuse as to why Erica couldn't meet with her. Just proves that book smarts don't equal common sense. Christine didn't seem to have a skeptical bone in her body.

[deathroe]

But this is the most obviously allegorical CI episode that I can think of. Barb, Toby, Christine--they're not real, not really. They all represent specific types of or aspects of "Faith": the blind believer, the exploiter, so on. That's why it makes terrific sense for Christine to be so one-dimensional: it's because of what she represents in the unfolding pageant.

[Patcat]

In defense of what seems to be Christine's extreme gullibility--in the real life cases this story is based on, some supposedly very intelligent people were taken in by stories with less details and credibility than Erica's. My understanding is that some people still believe that some of these fictions still exist. Christine wants so much to believe that her heart blinds her to what her head tells (or should be telling) her. If anyone is interested in these stories, please check out the wikipedia links. Truth really is stranger than fiction.

All that said, I see your point Deathroe, of the characters as representations of faith. Where would you put Goren and Eames in that equation?

Patcat

[fuzzytweetie]

IMHO, I see G/E as the grounding force. The sensible sounding boards, so to speak. They're both believers, but they're also pragmatists.

[Moonbeam]

Even when it's obvious they don't understand each other, they both have faith in each other.

[tjara]

Ok - I must admit I'm one of those natural born skeptics, too - and my first reaction to this episode was like "yeah, right, like that would happen". And then I went to the www to find the "headline" that inspired this story. And oh well - my whole perception changed. It's a clever episode indeed.

Another one in which I value Jamey Sheridan a lot. His look when Goren asks "Erica" about her period is just priceless (and has been nicely screencapped in the other Faith-thread) and he has one of the best lines in the whole episode, too. When Eames comments that all of the correspondence on Ericas computer makes for a full-time job, he replies, some money in his hands: "Full time salary, too!" ;D

I know this is a quote from the other thread, and it's old, but I still want to reply.

Well, when Goren said that that the answer should have been 'whatever is happening to her body, she shouldn't have to think about.' is true, for him to conclude that she was a fake solely based on her reaction to that question was a little premature. She could just as easily have been caught off guard by the bluntness & extreme personal nature of the question & that could've been why she hesitated & then became flustered when he pressed the issue.

After I laughed at Deakins look, I had a similar senitment. And then I went online and read a little bit about ALS and then I rewatched the episode. I can understand why Goren at that point had figured out that she probably was fake. ALS usually kicks in a lot later (40-60 years) and is slightly more common in men than in women. It also slurrs your speach, and while Erica talked very "weakily", which is typical, her pronouciation was quite clear. Also, she tried to stirr away focus from her and make Alex the subject of the conversation (I thought that was the whole point of the children / kindergarden-comments). And since Erica was quite frank about her sexual abuse in her book, she shouldn't have a problem talking about that topic, neither should she be afraid of opening herself to strangers, as she did that on the phone more than once (Christine & Prof we know about, but there may have been others.) And as Goren pointed out - you don't have to think about your condition. This is why he talked about her physical abilities first - she had those points down in her con act, but she didn't have that particular detail down.

What struck me the most was Goren's "unrelenting pursuit" of the murderer. When he "plays" Christine at the end with that phony, heartbreaking, desperate call from Erica (really Barb the faker) I was thinking how much he's changed over the years. This Goren had no qualms ripping a perps heart out for the truth. A far different reaction from Goren than what appeared to be some guilt after arresting the mom in "Please Note." Old Bobby wouldn't have felt the need to explain his actions, or look away uncomfortably.

Interesting comparison, DonnaJo. Though I didn't perceive Bobbys comment in "Please note" to be an explanation. It was anger and disdain boiling to the surface. Though I can understand how one could view it as an explanation.

Does Christine kill to protect Erica or to protect her delusion?

She kills to protect Erica. I don't she know that Erica is not real until after her confession. We never get to see when and how Goren tells her that Erica is not real. When she makes her confession, she makes it to protect Erica (so she can have the money).

Is Goren unnecessarily cruel in this episode?

Not unnecessarily, but he's very cruel none the less. I guess it's got to do with the nature of the episode, which essentially is about people fooling/playing other people. Well, Goren is an expert at that, so he goes a little bit "overboard", probably because he's faced with people that aren't as easily fooled as the usual perp. I thought he was similarily cruel in "Crazy".

Do Eames and especially Goren seem particularly angered by con artists?

Maybe not by con artists, but by people who use and abuse people's true faiths and believes.

Is Barb in it for the money or the love and attention?

Both. I guess for someone to come up with such a story you have to be suffering from a dissease similar to "Münchhausen"-syndrome, which usually is about getting attention. But then she saw what the book sparked and how she could make money of it.