The Manhattan DA's office finds itself in the middle of a battle over the death penalty when it asks the Canadian government to extradite a Canadian-born woman facing multiple murder charges... Read allThe Manhattan DA's office finds itself in the middle of a battle over the death penalty when it asks the Canadian government to extradite a Canadian-born woman facing multiple murder charges.The Manhattan DA's office finds itself in the middle of a battle over the death penalty when it asks the Canadian government to extradite a Canadian-born woman facing multiple murder charges.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
- The 1995 Patrizia Reggiani (a.k.a. "The Black Widow") case. Reggiani, an Italian convicted criminal and former socialite, was convicted in a highly publicized trial of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci.
- The 1999 Stanley Faulder case. Faulder was the first Canadian citizen to be executed in the United States since 1952. Faulder, a Jasper, Alberta native, was convicted of murdering Inez Scarborough Phillips, a 75-year-old woman, in Texas in 1975 during a robbery in her house. He was caught, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1977. Faulder had previously served three years in prison for auto theft in Canada. Despite diplomatic complaints by the Canadian government, Faulder was executed by lethal injection on June 17, 1999. His last appeal was rejected about an hour before his death.
- GoofsWhen Detective Curtis discovers the bag of white powder in the toilet tank that he believes to be cocaine, he dips in a finger and tastes the substance, No police officer, especially an experienced NYPD detective, would ever taste an unknown powder. Tasting it proves nothing, and the bag could be filled with poisonous chemicals as well as any potential drug.
- Quotes
Patrick Sinclair: Mrs Harker used drugs. Mrs Harker ran around with a bunch of low lifes. Mrs Harker was a lousy mother to Mr Harker's daughter.
Detective Rey Curtis: The girl wasn't hers?
Patrick Sinclair: No, from his first marriage. Mrs Harker spent his money like water. Mrs Harker was having an affair.
Detective Lennie Briscoe: But she baked delicious oatmeal cookies.
Wealthy businessman Ronald Harker and his young daughter are found shot dead in their house as first signs point to the wife Stephanie (Bellamy Young). As Briscoe (Orbach) & Curtis (Bratt) try to track her down they learn of her close friend Doris Nichols. While theories are being calculated including a possible affair involving Doris with her being the shooter, they're suddenly called to another crime scene still in the same night. Doris lays dead on the ground and the wife says she attacked her and it was self defense. It's when pieces are reexamined, Stephanie's history retraced that the story falls apart.
I'm gonna dance around talking about the story in finer details because I don't wanna give spoilers or ruin the developments to be had here. What I can say is the tale has a lot of little pieces that when added up make for a solid watch. I will however share the title gets it's name because the accused is a Canadian citizen and one of the side plots involve the death penalty, cooperation between nations for extradition, sharing of evidence. Some of it allows for nice quips, but it also gets taken a bit farther than it needed to go and isn't the best part to be found here.
The real winners here with 'True North' are the main cast. Both Orbach, Bratt have a lot of little pieces - people, facts, motives - to track down and when it gets to court, McCoy (Waterston), Schiff (Hill) & Carmicheal (Harmon) get good pieces of dialog. The latter in particular - new to the show this season - gets shown off nicely and even has a mild clash with the detectives, Lt. Van Buren (Merkerson). Kudos also have to be given to guest star Young at the heart of this tale and her fantastic thunderstorm of emotions in the finale.
- refinedsugar
- Jun 11, 2024