Law & Order: Criminal Intent "Vanishing Act" (2008)

Major Case Squad's Team A invades the world of magic and illusion when Miles Stone (Jeremy Gender) who was performing the feat of burying himself alive for thirty-one days magically appears across town, dead, in the Great Carmine's (Christopher Lloyd) sword box. What a delightful case for Goren, who not surprisingly is a great fan of magic and knows every trick in the book. I supposed it makes sense seeing as how he lives to figure things out. What more could you ask from a trade which prides itself on keeping its secrets? D'Onofrio is in pure joy mode as he gleefully explains the tricks of the trade to Eames and anyone else who will listen. The background of this case put an amusing spin on the procedural formula and it's always nice to see our detectives enjoying themselves every once in a while. Especially with regard to Goren and Eames given their rough recent history. Either they're working it out or they're just avoiding it as neither take the bait when Dean Holiday (James Frain) tries to point out the apparent wedge between them. I wonder if we've moved past the tension from "Betrayed" or maybe we're just in a holding pattern until the finale. Only time will tell but it's nice to see it hasn't been forgotten in the interim.

I was very excited to see Dr. Emmett Brown himself as one of the suspects and actually just based on the previews automatically assumed he would turn out to be the killer. Usual rule of thumb for Law & Order is that the special guest star tends to be the villain, otherwise why are they there? Unfortunately here that was the case and Lloyd is gone before the episode is even half over. Contrary to his iconic role here he is an old, weary magician who sounds as if it's a struggle even to speak. He certainly had the look of a criminal but as it turns out he was framed by the true perpetrator. I only wish we got to see more of him before his departure as he was one of the reasons I was looking forward to this episode.

All in all this was an exciting case with a great humorous twist as our fearless detectives go through the obvious suspects one by one until we come to the final villain who is tricked into confessing through the resourcefulness of the detectives as is usual procedure. It's always episodes like these that provide a glimpse into the true heart of the regulars that stand out from the by the numbers murder mysteries no matter what current socio-political topic is being covered. Any time our detectives are having a good time, you can be sure that we are as well.

Favorite moment: Having the Great Carmine escape from One Police Plaza at the befuddlement of the guards is immediately figured out by Goren who cannot help but reenact the crime for Captain Ross's benefit. Despite highlighting Goren's usual superhuman powers of deduction and continuing the humorous trend of the episode, it shows Goren while still feeling the need to explain the mystery does so without completely humiliating the poor guard although Captain Ross would still like a few words with him.