Law & Order CI “The Consoler” Recap & Review

It’s going to be an abbreviated recap & review this week due to time constraints. But that shouldn’t take anything away from the fact that “The Consoler” was a fine episode.  It was originally scheduled as the premiere episode of Season 10; instead "Rispetto" aired in its place. As Goren must undergo 7 mandatory sessions with department shrink, Dr. Paula Gyson (Julia Ormond), and as she didn’t appear in "Rispetto" , it’s possible they got “Rispetto” out of the way to allow continuity with Goren and Geisin for 7 episodes in a row. Goren’s psych analysis is apparently to confirm that he’s not “crazy” and is fit for work for the Major Case squad. Goren seems better than ever – at least on the outside.  But. the scene with Goren and Geisin was the only time the episode lost momentum. Thankfully it wasn’t for long.

The case involved what appears to be a suicide of a young woman, Theresa Esperna,  who worked at a bank. The bank’s only client was the Catholic Church, managing the trusts of people who have sued the church over sexual abuse by priests. There is some inconsistency with the evidence surrounding her death, and a large amount of  funds for one of the victims appears to have been moved to an offshore account, and there is  no obvious suicide note. Detectives Bobby Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Alex Eames (Kathryn Erbe) believe this could be a case of a murder made to look like a suicide. Complicating matters further, the woman to whom the money from the trust belonged had been in a car accident and she appears almost vegetative.

The detectives have three suspects – Johnny (Jon Prescott), who worked for Theresa; her friend Natalie (Lauren Hodges), and Monsignor Hugh McTeal (Neal McDonough). While the priest’s behavior seem suspect, his fault is that he’s somewhat creepy and he’s not keeping his vow of celibacy. He’s now in trouble with his boss, the cardinal. Natalie’s error is that she lied to the detectives; she had found Theresa’s body earlier and moved it.

But when the tech people find a suicide note on Theresa’s iPad, it only casts more doubt on whether it really is a suicide. Eventually the detectives determine that  Johnny, who apparently was also a victim of sexual abuse by a priest when he was a child, had managed to abscond with the money. Theresa was the only one who knew the truth about the money, and he drugged her and then made her death look like a suicide. Goren had determined that Johnny wrote the suicide note – which was really an accounting of his own confession.

While “Rispetto” was a nice opening to the season for Law & Order Criminal Intent, “The Consoler” was a far more powerful episode. It featured Goren back to his usual brilliant yet quirky self, mentally nimble and physically intimidating. This is the kind of Law & Order Criminal Intent that I loved but what viewers haven't seen in years. I continue to hope that the viewers keep coming and that something will save the show from its planned demise at the end of season 10.

I’ve provided a few extra photos below – while I don’t have time for a full recap, I still wanted to share as many photos as possible.

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