3:20 - "D.A.W." 2004-05-16

[Patcat]

A good, economical script with a fairly straightforward (especially when compared with recent episodes) plot. A story that was not so much a whodunnit or whydunnit as it was a willtheycatchhim. And the doctor was smart enough that I had some doubts that they would.

Kevin Tighe was splendid as the doctor, who was a fascinating and terrifying creation. For all of the possible motives for his actions, in the end his reasoning came down to Goren's chilling conclusion, "He kills because he can."

I liked the fact that Deakins urged Goren and Eames to continue their pursuit after Carver warned them to back off the doctor. He may be a political creature, but Deakins is first a cop.

Patcat

[Metella]

yes, and that trait of Goren's of not only NOT answering a question, but just plowing on as if he had not even HEARD the question .... going right on into the case with Deakins.

I also thought that another Doctor might "get away" from our detectives - so great build up.

This is my kind of villian - no rearing in a basement or whatever, a bad guy just because he gave in to some base cravings. And I also liked how he GRADUALLY became a very bad guy ... at first just being a pain to argue with (per x-wife) then a junkie who wouldn't admit it, then on probably to giving out the morphine just to defy the laws against it, then to deciding when to have these patients who ADORED him die.

Now, I was getting soooooo disappointed when Goren didn't dig into that plate of food at the end.... until it cut back to him chomping on the other's guy's steak. Guess Goren knew the other guy wasn't going to have an appitite.

I think the guy confessed way too easy for someone who set the dectives up on a wild rush to be there for his next dead body who he was spoon feeding. I was with it all the way until he cracked from the transparient "you are a poor doctor - killing your patients - not catching the diagnosis because you were high" I got him being torn down in front of others & starting to slip, don't know how else they could have gotten to it - but it felt weak.

[pompusone]

I really enjoyed this episode -great regulars and great villian. But I agree that the doctor caved too quickly in the end. He was so obviously playing with them and getting off on it, it just didn't make sense to me that Goren could taunt him into losing his composure quite so quickly. 45 minutes (or whatever it is minus commercials) just isn't long enough for some of these stories.

[Patcat]

And, as a bonus, Goren in that leather jacket!

Patcat (yeah, I only watch LOCI for the story and the acting (G))

[trisha]

I decided to record this while watching a movie with Mr. Trisha last night only to find the recording pretty screwed up after the first half, so forgive me if I'm missing some of the finer points, but I believe I have a pretty good handle on what went on at the dinner party.

The doctor is a megalomaniac, someone who not only has a strong thirst for control, but who actually believes he is omnipotent. So, it was infuriating to him to have Goren tell him in front of all his friends that he is an impotent fraud who constantly makes mistakes leading to the deaths of his patients (basically saying that the doctor never meant to kill anyone) and that the doctor doesn't even have control over his own drug addiction, which is why he sees no problem enabling other drug addicts. In his thirst for control, he let everyone know that he is God; he decides who dies, and how- he never made a mistake. He meant to do everything he did. When he realized that he had just confessed to murder and that he was going to be arrested, he made one more desperate attempt to take control and tried to stab himself.

I didn't catch the last lines Goren and Eames said as they were leaving. Can someone help me out? I don't want to wait two weeks

[Observer2]

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I’ve watched it twice already – plus reviewing some particular scenes – and I’ll probably watch it again before the week is out. To me, this is classic Criminal Intent. It’s like the scenes in an old tapestry – so rich with details that every time you look at it you can see something else that you didn’t notice before.

Like you guys I loved the way that Goren and Eames got played by this guy. His maneuver with the “DOA” was exactly right for how his mind would work. Beautiful!

However, I didn’t think that the ending was weak. That kind of personality structure is very brittle, and Goren was once again incredibly ruthless. He peeled away the layers of the doctor’s defenses, backed him into an emotional corner and then, with brutal precision, called up for the doctor all the original pain and helpless horror that he had been defending himself against for all those years.

My mother was spared that kind of pain until her last few days, and I was in my thirties when she died, and those lines still hit me hard, vividly evoking those last few days. For the doctor they would have called up the unbearable experiences of that teenaged boy.

For years he had defended himself against those unbearable feelings by pretending that being able to kill his patients at the moment of his choosing erased that helplessness, and by basking in the admiration of others – which helped him believe in his illusion of power and control. But there was Goren, attacking that feeling of control, and convincing all those people who moments before had been looking at him in admiration.

The very fact that Goren was attacking his illusion of control - and convincing those people - with a lie about drug addiction, and that the contempt Goren and Eames were showing seemed linked to that lie, added to the doctor’s urge to shout them down, to re-assert control, and to explain himself.

It seems to me that every element was precisely tuned to put pressure on the weakest points of his defense mechanisms. I watch Court TV pretty regularly, and I’ve seen actual videotape of murderers confessing after being hit with less skillful psychological pressure than that.

[Observer2]

Trisha,

We cross-posted, but I think we said much the same thing in different ways. I think my only real disagreement would be that rather than saying he actually believes he is omnipotent, I would say he has a desperate *need* to believe he is omnipotent – so it was not only infuriating, it was also threatening to the self-image he needs to maintain.

[NikkiGreen]

What a great episode! RB needs to write more of the Teleplays.

According to tvtome.com this episode appears to be "ripped from the headlines" of the case of Dr. Harold Shipman, a British physician and pethidine addict convicted in the homicides of fifteen out of the over 200 elderly patients he was suspected of murdering during his thirty year medical career...

ETA: www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/shipman/dead_1.html

[darmok]

I just quickly scanned the article, but it sounds like the LOCI folks stayed closer to reality than they usually do. Given the magnitude of the crimes, that's scary.

I liked the episode, but then I've always been partial to Kevin Tighe (Emergency was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up). He got them twice in this episode - once when he called their bluff, and the second time when he staged the DOA.

I agree with Observer that it wasn't a weak ending. Goren knew what buttons to push and he pushed them hard (the public embarrassment in front of his colleagues and girlfriend). At one point Goren mentioned the panic that the doctor must have felt when he was 16. In F.P.S. Goren mentioned that panic was a primitive emotion. It is that primitiveness that keeps the doctor from seeing what they're doing. He must prove that he had control and did not give into the addiction again. And, as Trisha said, he makes one more attempt to take control by taking his own life. But Goren, rightfully, won't let him "get off that easily."

[Sirenna]

The physical resemblance of the actor who played the doctor and the character's past history to Harold Shipman was uncanny.

I admit this episode had competition for my attention with 'Supermillionaire'. What can I say? Even Goren in a leather jacket can't compete with someone winning that much $$$ simply because they know on what airline carrier bush gave his 'mission accomplished speach."

I also found the ending a bit pat. Usually Goren makes the villain squirm much more before roping him in and this allows the villain to strike a few blows at Goren. I've always liked this scene in LO:CI. Others find it a stock device but for me it's the counterpoint to the physical sparring we might see on other shows where the good guy and bad guy duke it out at the end and the good guy always wins (Yawn). The verbal sparring in the final interrogation scenes is always more cerebral and for me much more engaging and a prime reason why I watch the show. I wince just as much for Goren when the villain scores - like E/N dropping his Social security # into the conversation. It also lets me learn more about the characters, not just their background but their motivations - like Connie slapping him which is such a childish, spiteful, uncontrolled thing to do which is exactly how a character like Connie would express himself. I really didn't see much of any of these aspects in this scene's episode but then again I didn't give it my full attention but then again maybe that's why...

I did like how Goren moved the man out of his place as head of the table, moved himself in and helped himself to the guys food. Like the top dog ousting the lesser dog from his own food bowl.

[rune]

Forgive my having a silly moment, but Kevin Tighe turns 60 tomorrow (8/13) according to my calendar.

Happy B-day!

[RivErStaR]

Hi all. I've been lurking for a pretty long time but I thought I'd pop up from the æther and say a few things!

They've just screened this episode in Australia and I must say that it ranks right up there as one of the best I've seen this season. To me I could see the LO:CI of the old days, before it seemed to almost lose the plot by mid season 3 (even though shows can't *really* lose the plot because the powers that be are the ones who create the plot! )

It kept me hooked from beginning to end and even during the commercials I didn't flick, which is something I do a lot of because I can't stand them.

I absolutely adored the doctor as a villain and found he was someone I could love to hate (and as much as I loathe clichés, this one works). I was kind of disappointed that they caught him out in the end because I feel this episode moved along so well that it would have made for a really strong climax if he escaped -- although to do so would draw E/N parallels, which I personally don’t want -- because he did, after all, manage to outsmart them twice before: he called their bluff about the dead Jewish woman being exhumed and later with the DOA. The only thing I don’t really understand is why Goren and Eames couldn’t see that whole DOA situation coming. It was the only thing in this episode that I found I could predict and the entire set up by the doctor was to me so obvious that it might as well as had a flashing neon sign reading “This is a set up and I’m going to get you good! <evil laugh>” On the other hand, it was fun to see our detectives get one-upped by the bad guy.

Finally, I also think that the title of this episode is clever. I didn’t know what DAW was until I went searching on the internet and thanks to google, I found a definition that fits (because somehow, I don’t think that “common black-and-grey Eurasian bird noted for thievery” is at all appropriate! ;D ). According to an online glossary, a DAW (Dispense as Written) “limits pharmacists to dispensing a prescription according to a specific provision authorized by the member's health plan,” which is what the doctor in this episode was doing, albeit with a perverse twist. I’ve always loved that the titles of each episode make you think -- or go out and do some research so you can see how they fit -- and this is just another one of my favourites.

[Metella]

Riverstar - good take on that, I never thought of the Doc really escaping - but that would have been a good spot to let another Doctor slip by Goren. Good point.

[kawaiidragonfoe821]

Patcat said:

A good, economical script with a fairly straightforward (especially when compared with recent episodes) plot. A story that was not so much a whodunnit or whydunnit as it was a willtheycatchhim. And the doctor was smart enough that I had some doubts that they would.

Kevin Tighe was splendid as the doctor, who was a fascinating and terrifying creation. For all of the possible motives for his actions, in the end his reasoning came down to Goren's chilling conclusion, "He kills because he can."

I liked the fact that Deakins urged Goren and Eames to continue their pursuit after Carver warned them to back off the doctor. He may be a political creature, but Deakins is first a cop.

Patcat

it kind of reminded me of that 1st season ep 'the good doctor', i thought they would never catch him & they couldnt ever proove that he did it, i like eames' & goren's discussion at the end; 'he wasnt convicted on the evidence, he was convicted because the jury didnt like him.' & goren says 'i'll take them any they come'

But anyway... onto THIS ep LOL. I love the end scene when Bobby takes the food from the waiter & helps himself LOL, also when he gets the Dr. to asmit what he's done & the look on the Dr.'s face when he realizes whats just come out of his mouth LOL pure poetry.