Monsters of Television

“She wanted to forget.”

Law & Order is a twisty show. Often there are red herring witnesses and suspects who do 180s at the drop of a hat. But the show will often also twist around a little too much, pull baits and switches, and bounces between ideas link a pinball. At this stage in the show’s run, it knows how to turn on a dime even if those turns feels a little unnecessary.

“The Taxman Cometh” is bogged down in these turns. It starts off as a case about an accidental overdose and turns into a case about alternative cancer treatments, tax loopholes and gay rights. Yes, that’s right. The becomes all three of those things, shifting between each of them as dictated by the plot.

Indeed, the accidental overdose that sets the investigation off is put aside 10 minutes into the episode, and I had even forgotten who was responsible for the overdose until the perp comes back at the end of the episode for the final theatrics (“Bravo.”). I’m still not even entirely sure how and why figuring out that the perp benefited from the victim’s death (made $1 million in inheritance dough)  led to the detects discovering a cancer patient conspiracy.

The perp’s wealthy grandfather, Henry, (I think…) had died of cancer at the Balicheck Clinic, despite being a wealthy donor to a major hospital (including a cancer wing with his name on it that Van Buren had been to). The show uses the Balicheck Clinic (run by Cousin Larry) to poke at alternative medicinal clinics for serious medical aliments (like here on 60 Minutes). It should clearly, based on societal anxieties, that Balicheck is doing malicious and devious things…

But you’d be wrong. It was the tax lawyer.

Turns out, to exploit a loophole in the tax cuts passed during President Bush’s term, the tax lawyer for multiple rich families kept referring his clients with ailing family members to the Clinic where he has Balicheck keep them alive until into 2010. It turns out that there are no estate taxes for 2010 inheritances, and the tax lawyer was making out like a bandit on the legal fees as the executor of the estates. It should, clearly based on being a tax lawyer (the worst possible kind, I suppose), that this and the Bush tax cut soapbox would be the final bit L&O, and the tax lawyer would crumble under the cross…

But you’d be wrong. It’s really about gay rights.

Turns out that the aunt(?) of the very first victim knew about the tax loophole, kept her father, Henry, alive until 2010 to cash in on the money. But it turns out she also adopted her ex-girlfriend back when gay marriages weren’t possible. I hadn’t heard of gay couples adopting one another to achieve legal statuses (ways to share property, finances, achieve visits in hospitals), but it’s a neat idea. However, the ex-girlfriend (played by a still alive Clea Duvall) stands to inherit all Henry’s estate in the event that Catherine is out of the picture. And Clea Duvall is pregnant with Catherine’s baby!

Cutter, in an effort to make his case against Catherine, makes the case that the adoption between the two women is a fraud and was actually, in all sense, a marriage. The family court judge agrees. And then declare Clea Duvall off-limits in criminal cases due to marital privilege. Eventually, through theatrics of saying that Clea Duvall’s baby will end up with the family member who brought the heroin that the very first perp OD’ed on, Duvall talks and everyone goes to jail (or earns $50 million).

So, actually, Monopoly was the culprit!

These kinds of twisty twists are what Law & Order are known for, but I think, as the recap shows, they don’t always work well. The adoption angle in particular felt a little forced whereas the marital privilege turn felt natural given the circumstances. As a result, the episode feels overstuffed of ideas, instead of driving home a few big ideas (like tax loopholes).

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Interesting that the show resisted making a cancer episode about Van Buren, but I applaud the show’s restraint.
• Jeremy Sisto was one of the reasons I never got around to the second season of Six Feet Under, but I do enjoy him on this show immensely.
• Yes. I watched that 60 Minutes piece which is why I knew about it. I occasionally watch 60 Minutes despite only being 25.