Monsters of Television

“Nothing personal, Mike. Now let’s see if you really did learn something from me.”

Mike may not have his BA, but he's still a badass

After the show came back from the Olympics, “Steel-Eyed Death” provided some character depth for Lupo while still remaining firmly rooted in its procedural aspects. The episode would’ve remained the same had Lupo’s history with violent crime scenes not been revealed. While it does give us a glimpse into Lupo’s life (as well as the limits of his relationship with Bernard), the formula remained in service of an overall crime narrative, not a character one.

This week the procedural aspects matter less than the character aspects. In particular, Cutter is given a significant degree of not only back story, but there are very real stakes in the episode due to the show’s tendency to drop characters with little warning (barring knowledge of non-diegetic dealings).

The episode begins in media res, with the case nearly solved. Lupo and Bernard arrest Cedric, a young man suspected of (and then identified as) the killer of a gay man 2 weeks prior to the episode’s events. 11 minutes into the show’s runtime, we have a guilty verdict. The evidence is a bit thin (no discussion of the weapon is made), instead resting on the single eye-witness testimony of the murder man’s husband.

The show decides to double back and still provide a procedural beat to the episode. A legal group run out of Hudson University, the Innocence Coalition, challenges the ruling after it has discovered a number of other facts about the case that the police and the DA’s office overlooked in its investigation. The charge from the Innocence Coalition is led by Emily Ryan, Cutter’s old law professor and mentor.

It’s at this point that the show’s procedural aspects begin to serve a character narrative. Cutter is driven to maintain the guilty verdict (hate crimes seem to be an especially touchy subject with him), and Emily, despite her claims to the contrary, seems genuinely motivated to put Cutter’s career on ice (as Rubirosa notes after Emily deliver’s this entry’s epigraph). She goes so far as to reveal, in court, that Cutter never actually got his Bachelor’s degree, and has been lying the entire time about it.

The procedural element not only allows this information to come out, but it ultimately becomes to the focus of the episode, as Cutter and McCoy attempt to figure out a way around the issue, but there’s a very real threat of not only Cutter’s convictions being re-examined, but that he could be disbarred since he claimed to the DA’s office and the New York bar that he had his BA.

The show’s format makes this a very real threat: Cutter could very well be dismissed and replaced with a new ADA next week. The show’s willingness to replace characters with limited internal motivation, even mid-season (Serena’s “Is this because I’m a lesbian?” being a very recent and good example) ups the stakes of the episode beyond the legal proceedings and centers it around a character.

The entire drama culminates nicely in Cutter’s confrontation with Cedric in jail, with Rubirosa, Emily, and Cedric’s non-entity of a defense lawyer, in the room. Roache’s work in this scene, as a man on the edge of losing his job and his reputation, makes the monologue directed at Cedric that much richer, as Roache allows the anger to bleed through. The line delivery is angry but logical sounding, and it ultimately serves the ends of the procedural as Cedric takes a deal to avoid an even harsher sentence.

The procedural gives way to this character drama, a struggle not to maintain a conviction, but to maintain integrity. It’s a compelling drama that emphasizes that the show’s procedural elements, while often what the show is recognized for (“The original is still the best” as TNT says), the compelling character work that the show is capable of is why people should be watching.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• The episode also provides a brief look into how Van Buren’s cancer treatments are proceeding. She comforts a young girl who is also going through radiation treatments. The scene feels a little out of place, given the rest of the episode, but it does acknowledge the on-going character arc.
• Speaking of acknowledging on-going character arcs, the potential romance between Cutter and Rubirosa is briefly mentioned as a witness picks up on the sexual undertones of the their relationship. It’s a frustration that Rubirosa is often given little to do but to arch her eyebrows sarcastically or knowingly, but De La Garza does it so well that I almost willing to let it slide.
• Lupo has the worst taste in winter clothing. Heavy jacket over a hooded sweatshirt and big sunglasses? Lucky he shaved the beard last two weeks ago.