Jack McCoy and his new assistant, Jamie Ross, get off to a rocky start together as they try to prosecute a carjacking/murder suspect after the judge excludes a cassette tape that could prove... Read allJack McCoy and his new assistant, Jamie Ross, get off to a rocky start together as they try to prosecute a carjacking/murder suspect after the judge excludes a cassette tape that could prove his guilt.Jack McCoy and his new assistant, Jamie Ross, get off to a rocky start together as they try to prosecute a carjacking/murder suspect after the judge excludes a cassette tape that could prove his guilt.
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Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be loosely based on the 1996 Kathleen Weinstein case. A New Jersey schoolteacher, Weinstien was carjacked and subsequently murdered in March of 1996. She had had the presence of mind to secretly record 46 minutes of her conversation with her killer, thus providing enough details to catch the suspect and prosecute him. Much like in the episode, after the forensics team had found 24 minutes of recorded data on one side of the cassette tape, they later found another critical 22 minutes on the other side of the tape.
- GoofsThe tape that was found is central to the plot, but it was not found in the tape recorder in the victim's purse. It was found days later, mashed into the mud at the crime scene. The recording goes right up until the time the victim is killed. When was it taken out of the tape recorder? The victim couldn't have done it. If the killer knew about it, he'd have taken the whole thing, not taken out the tape and thrown it away.
- Quotes
[about ADA Claire Kincaid's death]
Jack McCoy: You know, before it happened... she wanted to quit. I talked her out of it.
Det. Lennie Briscoe: Yeah, well... I could have kept walking past that bar.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Law & Order: Showtime (1997)
'Law and Order' fared very well when it came to the previous season premieres, the weakest being Season 5's "Second Opinion" which was still good. My memories of "Causa Mortis" were very positive, while not considering it one of the show's best or most memorable. Seeing it again for the third time recently, it still is very good and actually better than remembered. Change is always hard and unsettling and "Causa Mortis" didn't do too bad a job. As far as Season 7 goes, it is around high middle category in ranking.
"Causa Mortis" isn't perfect. There is a loose end regarding the cassette tape in who extracted it (not explained, seeing as it was impossible for it to have been the victim) and why it was unrealistically treated the way it was by the killer.
Although Carey Lowell portrays Ross very well, she and Sam Waterston (even for two characters that don't get along here and where McCoy is struggling with coming to terms with the events of "Aftershock") don't have much chemistry here, too clinical and dismissive somehow.
However, "Causa Mortis" does a huge amount right. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough while also taut. The script is typically, certainly for early 'Law and Order', tight and thoughtful. Standouts being the "I believe in monsters" line (one's on the same wavelength with Ross here) and where Curtis mockingly references Alan Dershowitz while also perfectly summing him up in the process.
The story is very intriguing with a very harrowing beginning and lots of intrigue in both the policing and the legal scenes. Will agree about the motive and the reaction of one of the characters when hearing of it being truly chilling, ended up hating that character just as much as the killer at that point. The acting from all the regulars is excellent and support is with no obvious complaint either.
Summing up, very good start to Season 7. 8/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 25, 2021
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- 242 Dyckman Street, New York City, New York, USA(Gas Station in Inwood section of Manhattan)
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