Echoes of My Father - Law & Order S1 E4
Episode Details
Season 1 Episode 4 The Reaper’s Helper
Released October 3rd, 1990
Main Cast: Sgt. Max Greevey, Det. Mike Logan, Cpt. Don Cragen, ADA Ben Stone, ADA Paul Robinette
Supporting Cast: John Curry, Bobby Holland
Notes
-The episode opens with a murder in the victim’s apartment and everyone the detectives talk to has no idea why Bobby would have been killed. His parents provided what they could, his boss called him a good worker and he had some friends. It takes ten minutes until we meet a woman who had a drink with Bobby the night he was killed. We find out that Bobby was gay. I remember the times when being gay was a secret “you know” topic when it came to TV shows. Gay rights and gay visibility have come a long way since the 90s.
-Scenes I Enjoy: I tend to enjoy the detective work more than the case law parts. The series of events that lead to Greevey and Logan obtaining three of the address books and using a chalkboard to figure out who each of the victims had in common. This is the kind of detective work that appealed to me as a kid. It’s like solving a puzzle in Zelda. The solution is among all the pieces you’ve collected and when you get to the answer, there is a great relief.
-John Curry gets arrested and we learn that Bobby had AIDS. During questioning John asks Robinette if he knows what AIDS looks like. An interesting moment for the audience as my guess is most people have no idea what AIDS really looked like at the time. The movie Philadelphia did not come out until 1993 and that was the first time I remember “seeing” AIDS on a screen. In the context of the late 80’s/ early 90’s, this must have been jarring for the audience, but this was the reality for those with AIDs. These were the discussions being had in the AIDs community and the audience is probably being exposed to this reality for the first time. Even today, AIDs is far from the news cycle and the idea of helping another person end their life to avoid the end stages of an awful disease is far from the front of many people’s minds.
-The Dad is an interesting character. He seemed accepting of his son being gay and moving into the City. He sits down in front of ADA Stone and he changes his story that he “hated his son being gay and the people he hung out with.” Even when the Dad says that it feels like there is love and caring in the way he speaks about his son. Gay children are still kicked out of their homes today. Bobby’s father is very pragmatic about this situation. To make the situation complicated, Mom and Dad have different opinions about what Bobby wanted. Mom brings a letter from the Gay Men Allied Against AIDS organization to talk about taking AZT.
-The detectives are given the rest of the episode off and we are on to the DA’s office. Adam Schiff, Ben Stone, and Paul Robinette are all watching a press conference outside the courtroom where Conrad Gordon is talking about the government allowing gay men to die from the AIDS epidemic. I remember this very well as a kid. I remember watching Road Rules and Real World and people getting tested before they started a sexual relationship being something some cast members openly talked about. My sense of the gay community as a preteen was that creators of TV knew the gay community was a thing, but it didn’t need to be talked about. I’m sure the studios were happy to convince themselves that no one wanted to see it on TV so there was no need to acknowledge the subject. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell applied to more than just the military. It wasn’t long after this episode that Magic Johnson went public with his HIV diagnosis. He may have contracted the virus from one of several extramarital heterosexual relationships but the spotlight of HIV on a public figure, the rise of antiviral drugs, and the realization in the heterosexual community that HIV and AIDS were not a “gay disease” brought the conversation of AIDS to the forefront. Throw in movies like Philadelphia that would release in 2 years and the conversation around AIDS was wildly different than what it was when this episode of Law and Order was being filmed. The show’s writers were ahead of their time, and I have to wonder how much of the conversation they were trying to drive.
-Back to the scene, the dialogue turns into Schiff and Stone talking about the moral implications of the case. Schiff is thinking about politics and Stone is thinking about the law. I think this is another example of where the law falls short. Stone is worried about real murders being dismissed on the grounds of being considered mercy killings. The law is not equipped to handle the idea of someone with a terminal illness wanting to be in control of their own death. Stone is so focused on the law; that he loses the humanity of the situation. It is possible Mr. Curry intended to murder the three people with whom he was present for their last breaths; a point Stone makes in the dialogue. However, with the AIDS epidemic and the knowledge a reasonable person would hold at the time, the question would have to be asked; Should there be an early off-ramp for those who want to take it rather than go through a painful, unpleasant death? It’s like the law should be used to ask the social question(s), How did we get here and why would we let this situation happen again?
-The episode reaches a climax when the defense calls Det. Logan to the stand. The Defense asks Det. Logan if the police he received any special instructions from the District Attorney’s office. ADA Stone had asked the detectives to look for any reason to drop the charges. The case falls apart in the eyes of the jury. Robinette turns to Stone when Logan is called and says “She has very good sources”. The last scene of the episode is the defense lawyer approaching Stone outside the courthouse asking Stone why her office got a phone call about the discussion with Det. Logan. It was a nice twist and showed the humanity Ben Stone carries around with him. He may be the truest defender of the law but he has a heart when he needs to.
Final Review
This is an excellent episode built around a taboo topic of the time. The nuance of the case as it is being processed through the 90’s legal system and the conversation this brings up today. There is a wall built between the authorities and those in position to say they are, or someone is gay. There is a “no going back” pause and I remember what that was like as a kid. I remember what that was like in college when friends started to come out. My new favorite kind of L&O episode is the one that makes the law look fragile. I don’t root against the law. I think it is a good thing the law gets examined and recognized as something that isn’t perfect. Sometimes there are situations where the law isn’t the pillar of society that should be dealing with a situation. In this case, assisted suicide is a long way off from being part of the societal conversation. As of this writing, 8 states and The District of Columbia have legal assisted suicide. Good episode.
Remembering Dad
My Dad and a Little Me
Dad was very handy when it came to woodworking. We had a wall unit built of several hexagons. All the bees would have been impressed with this wall unit. We had a lot of books in this wall unit, some statues, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Let me tell you, growing up in the age of not being able to reference the internet for school papers, having the full Encyclopedia Britannica in the house felt like an unfair advantage. In 8th grade, I had a project where my Dad helped me build wooden tools that would have been used by medieval workers. I have, to be honest, my dad did most of the work. Looking back, this was probably one of those “fun projects” that he didn’t get to do when he was my age and he just ran his way through each tool. My teacher liked it so much, it stayed on the wall for several years after I had left.
Another project Dad helped me with was to build a wooden car. I don’t remember was grade it was for and while it was another “Dad did most of the work” situation. I painted the car yellow and black. The wheels did not spin very well, but we put it together and had it painted in a matter of an hour. I remember walking into the garage with him to the side of the garage where his car was parked. There was a small pile of offcuts of lumber. I wish I learned more about using power tools and woodworking when he did his projects. My feeling now is that he did most of his woodworking when he was trying to get a project done. I know how I am when I work on projects, I am go go go, get the job done, and remember to take the time to explain what I was doing wasn’t something that naturally occurs to me. He was probably the same way. There is a lesson in there somewhere but I’m not in this series to explore lessons of lost time.
One last memory. There was a manual drill he had. The handle was black and the gear you turned by hand was red with a black handle. When Dad was working on the wood floor in what would become my Mom’s office, there was a scrap block of wood left out. I took the hand drill and used all the different drill bits to try and drill the block into oblivion. I was not successful, but I remember spending a few hours working on this block over the course of my Dad installing this wood floor. I remember this being one of those projects that takes a few weeks to get done so I came back to this block over time, but I never got to the end. I probably gave up.
CHR;)
