Maritime

A dead body was found in the river by two brothers in a chilly morning. The victim, a woman in her late twenties, was shot dead and dumped in the water days before. She came from Nebraska, but she was estranged from her family; after the college, she worked in a real estate firm and she used to get high in parties: forensic found in her system all kind of drugs (weed, X) and a high alcoholic level. Detectives managed to trace back the crime scene in a yacht, where another two murders took place (there were three kind of blood stains in the boat). The owner (killed as well) was a retired football player who supported his brother, a drug addicted, who soon becomes the prime suspect. The anger to be considered always the black sheep in the family and the need to score were the motives and during trial he decided to confess; but a wire transfer from his brother bank account led to another trial: is he really dead?

A sad episode, involving family matters: an abusive father who treated differently his two kids (one is the hero and the other one a loser), a grieving mother (Lizbeth MacKay) and a troubled son who always took the blame for everything.

The topic was interesting, not much new but anything centered around troubled families of some kind is already quite relatable and hard to be affected by. "Maritime" didn't sound like a unique or complex episode, but as has been said quite a number of times 'Law and Order' was very good more than once at taking something that sounds simple and elevates it to a less basic level. In fact that is, along with the handling of its themes, one of its biggest appeals when it was on form.

Season 13 did have better episodes than "Maritime", such as the first two episodes (the season premiere especially), "Hitman" and "Open Season" as far as the previous episodes go. It was the last three episodes where the season was at its strongest. It did though have weaker ones, the only disappointments of the season being "The Wheel" and especially "Seer". "Maritime" is pretty good if not great, it would have been a better episode if it didn't run out of gas.

Which it did do in the final third or so, which leaves more questions than answers and what really happened is left too vague, meaning that the conclusion felt underdeveloped and anti-climactic. Something that does bring the episode by quite a lot.

As annoying as it seems with me showing my dislike of Elisabeth Rohm as Southerlyn, it is not meant with malice or disrespect. Have always found the character flat in personality and inept and calling Rohm bland in the role is a big understatement.

However, all that is outweighed by the strong positives. The rest of the regulars are excellent and the supporting cast give committed and deeply felt performances. The case is a sad one that is very intriguing and never simplistic for two thirds of the episode, the emotion is done poignantly and the family dynamic compels, shocks and saddens.

Furthermore, "Maritime" doesn't look drab or gaudy, and the editing is far from slapdash. The music avoids getting too melodramatic in the more dramatic moments while not being too low key, it has always been a good move that it is used relatively sparingly. The direction especially shines in the character interaction in the second half. The script is beautifully balanced, there is a lot of talk but taut enough to avoid it from waffling.

Pretty good all in all. 7/10.

A body washes up on City Island and when the police figure out who she is they trace the woman to a boat that was at a party in Long Island where she was partying with her boyfriend a sports agent and his former star client a pro football player who retired early and was into all kinds of mysticism and the drugs that make you a mystic.

No trace of the other two bodies is found but the boat is found with all kinds of blood splatter. Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin arrest Craig Walker when they find out he was on the boat also.

Walker comes from one crewed up family. He was the screw up son and the pro football player was the golden boy. Such were their assigned roles, assigned by domineering father John Doman with Lizbeth MacKay as mom just going along as she always did.

My big problem is there is no evidence to say what exactly happened just something bad. And Jack McCoy shouldn't have been trying it in the first place. Jurisdiction should have gone to Nassau or Suffolk County.