Law & Order: Criminal Intent "Please Note We are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" (2008)

Finally an interesting case, a farfetched one maybe, but an interesting one nonetheless. The murders of parents in Central Park while taking their toddlers for walks is a grisly matter, and not one to be taken lightly, however I find it's nitty gritty cases like these that make for more interesting viewing than ones with say international intrigue (last week's episode). A story doesn't have to be big to be interesting to the audience, it has to be able to resonate and the murder of young parents is certainly a scary thought. Although the reasons for the murders are of a current topicality (freeing up spots in exclusive pre-schools) the cold-hearted nature of the murders energizes the audience to pray that the detectives capture the bastard responsible for such atrocities.

Team A seems to be readjusting to the distance that had grown between the two partners as evidenced in their last episode. They were back to the same crack squad they have always been with no hint of the troubles that had been brewing since the show returned from hiatus. I'm not sure if this was a point of the writers to focus solely on the case or maybe this episode was just written before the rift had been written story wise but I have to say I didn't miss it too much. I could probably go either way of whether I like there to be a bit of frostiness or whether they can put it behind them and work to solve the case. I am tempted to see them actually talk about their issues. Eames has obviously had some minor resentments build over the years and let it all out in one episode so these issues will need to be addressed. At least Team A seems to have pulled itself out of dreary cases that simply aren't that interesting. Here's hoping Team B can do the same next week.

Favorite moment: The hostage stand-off at the end was probably the most tense I've seen on the show. Even though she never would have killed Goren or most likely not even shot him, it was still well staged and acted, particularly by D'Onofrio as he talks down the mother who has been killing in the name of her child's well-being. Goren is at his best when he is getting people to confess and it nice to see a change of pace where he is trying to get the perp to do something else. After his successful negotiation, he seems agitated and I wonder if he would have preferred letting her take her own life. Maybe he's still reeling from his own mother's death in that he feels for the motherless children of this episode but his professional conduct forces him to take her in alive. It was a nice little moment that capped off a very good episode.