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We have a common theme on tv episodes this week: Excusing those who
commit a premeditated act of murder because REASONS, and the reasons are
not that the murderer killed the victim to keep him from carrying out a
murderous threat against someone else.

A department store executive has been murdered at his own home. There's
animosity within the firm because the CEO had ordered him to prepare
financial statements with overly optimistic earnings projections to
justify a $300 million bank loan and the CFO was pissed because it was
unlikely they'd be able to pay it back. The CEO kept claming it wasn't
illegal, but you have to tell the bank something they can check so they
understand that you'll have the necessary income to make payments. It
didn't make sense.

For reasons not explained and the cops never checked, the CEO came over
to the guy's house very late in the evening, close to midnight and then
left.

Cosgrove and Shaw come to realize that the crime wasn't to cover up
possible financial improprieties but it's related to the Army at war in
Iraq. The victim was a base commander and this is about the fallout upon
the men due to burn pits, and the Army coverup.

They learn that a man in the unit had committed suicide days earlier,
but it was because he was dying of cystic fibrosis, allegedly caused by
the burn pits. He was in a lot of pain and barely breathing and there's
no cure.

They decide one of the other men in the unit is a person of interest and
decide to grab him at the funeral. Instead of grabbing him before he
goes inside the church, Shaw starts going on and on that, even though
they've started to believe that he's going to be their prime suspect,
he's a veteran and Cosgrove needs to respect that and military funerals
are sacred. Cosgrove knows better but concedes to Shaw.

Inside the funeral, they are both spotted and their suspect bolts.
Cosgrove says something snarky to Shaw about not disrupting the funeral
once they are finally able to take him into custody.

There's all sorts of angst about the burn pits and Maroun argues with
Nolan that they should take it easy on the murderer 'cuz burn pits and
veteran. For once, Nolan keeps pointing out that the murder was
premeditated and that's the reason to prosecute him. The murderer saw
the CEO in the victim's home, drove around and around till he saw the
CEO leave, then confronted and murdered him.

At some point, the Army gives the gift of classified intelligence that
makes the murderer look bad, but one of the other unit members is able
to explain it away saying that the report is phony.

Nolan believes him but Jack "pulls rank" on Nolan and orders him to use
the report even though Nolan believes the evidence is unreliable. I
think this violates legal ethics but what do I know.

The murderer claims he blamed the victim for the effects of the burn
pits, that even though waste was being disposed of in the manner of the
Army's grand tradition (burning of garbage is sacred or something), the
victim, the base colonel, wasn't affected as offices lived away from the
burning.

This is amazingly stupid. Even if you burn garbage or have an open dump
site, the dump is situated AWAY from the encampment and situated in such
a way that the wind doesn't blow the smoke or the smell back over the
barracks. There's nothing new about this and the need to take wind
direction into account.

So it was the colonel's fault, in part.

Finally, Nolan finishes reading the Army personnel file on the murder
victim. He learns that at the time he'd resigned his commission, he'd
actually been offered a prominent posting stateside that he had turned
down. He'd argued with his superiors about the burn pits but was ordered
to continue to burn garbage.

The murderer lied about his confrontation with the victim, that he
wanted to hear his side of the story and get an apology, but he simply
shot him.

We are treated to an insanity defense in which they put an expert
witness on the stand to talk about the adverse affect of the burn pits
and how it can lead to bad behavior, but Nolan keeps emphasizing the
premeditated aspects of the crime, none of which can be ascribed to the
unwanted effects of the burn pits.

Plenty of STOOPID in this episode, but it was mostly mediocre. They've
done much worse crap than this, but barf, the script went out of its way
to make Shaw and Maroun look like unethical idiots who lost sight of
their true job to speak for the dead.

On 2022-11-19 3:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
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(SNIP a lengthy review of the episode's failings)

I look forward to reading Adam's precis of L&O episodes to be reminded
of how uninteresting, unreasonable and unrealistic both sides of the
investigation/prosecution stories are.

After ignoring Original Recipe Law & Order for years, we began watching
a season or so ago. Not sure why. With each passing week, I grow even
more puzzled.

--
Bill Idgerant
(Not a real person)