Agony

When Sam Waterston had Jill Hennessy and Carey Lowell as his second chairs he was the strong hard one and Hennessy and Lowell were always the more liberal. But when Angie Harmon goes to work for the New York County District Attorney, let's say they never had a stronger advocate for strict enforcement including the death penalty if applicable.

Which is what is warranted here as the case is a nasty stabbing of a woman with major sadistic overtones and the stabbing homicide of a mailman. The police arrest a salesman Christopher Patrick Mullen who travels on the job and there are a lot of open cases in the places he frequents.

Harmon and Sam Waterston hir a major speed bump in geeting Mullen prosecuted. But the final confrontation with Mullen who is one scary dude is one of Angie Harmon's best series moments.

If you're a fan of Angie Harmon don't miss this episode.

'Agony' is one of those episodes with a list of suspects, lies & elements - divorce, S&M, drugs, cold cases, jealously, multiple jurisdictions, plea deals - by the boatload. It quickly narrows into a picture of a serial killer on the loose. If you're like me it's the second half where you'll find the story comes awfully close to not making sense, losing you. The thing not in question is it let's ADA Carmichael (Angie Harmon) really sink her teeth into feeling personally involved.

Det. Briscoe (Orbach) & Curtis (Bratt) on the scene of a mailman murder discover a second victim Catherine 'Kitty' Lansing (Christina Haag) barely hanging onto life. The primary suspect her separated husband is ruled out. They arrest Bergstrom (Chris Mullen) with a prior incident of almost killing a lady (charges were dropped) and it appears they have a serial killer in custody. After Kitty recovers and leaves the hospital though, she gets a threatening note which couldn't have come from him and points to it being someone closer than a stranger.

There's clues sprinkled along the way - sort of stuff easily missed - that yes when put together lead back to the guilty parties. Some of it rings true while one piece feels like it should have been looked into sooner. It's the serial killer subplot that stumbles. You have to accept that he's willing to plea to crimes in NYC not involved in to avoid possibility of extradition, death penalty. However up until this point everything has shown he's meticulous for details, doesn't leave evidence behind so why this concerns him so much feels lightweight.

'Agony' gets by on twists, nods to McCoy's (Waterston) bending of the rules in the past and Harmon. Her body language almost rivals some of the juicy dialog she's given and a palpable level of disgust. Of course she's the first ADA fiercely in support of the death penalty as well. It's an episode that comes down to legal bluffs, emotions and a killer that so hates women that he can't bear to see Abbie have any power or control over him.

A tenant found out a postman dead on the hallway. Shortly after, Lennie got there and he discovered a woman (Christina Haag) severely wounded on her bed with the open door still open. Her parents told to detectives that she recently left her husband (a cocaine addicted who abused her). Actually he had a strong alibi (a high class hooker) and Van Buren decided to rule him out. Police start questioning her lover, an antique dealer, but he had alibi as well. Luckily the victim was able to speak to detectives at the hospital after some days of recovering: she had a one night stand with the killer, she only knew his name, Matt, a real pervert; actually the guy tortured her for several days. The suspect used to play rough on bed with sexual partners, there were proofs he could have been a serial killer. What about a deal to know about more cold cases (six bodies)?

A pact with the devil. That's what McCoy had to deal with. Anyway, when a woodworker got into the scene, it's not easy to decide what's the best solution for the criminal justice system. An episode without a trial, just plea bargains.

One of my favorite episodes. I'll keep it brief. The story is a twisting who done it that is well worth watching.

The serial killer angle is revealed in the first 5 minutes after the cold open. The two halves are less discrete than usual, and there's an engaging villain. Plenty of twists and turns.