‘Rispetto’ Recap. L&O:Criminal Intent S10 E1

Well, if you were expecting even a teensy teeny weeny bit of fanfare, never mind an explanation, of how Bobby Goren and Alexandra Eames came back to the Major Case Squad together, forget about it — it didn’t happen. It was just like they never left. After an intro that seemed to go on forever where we know you were waiting for our fav detectives to show up, they finally did — at the crime scene, just like any regular episode. The only hat tip was the statement from the officer who called them to the scene and said: “College kid gets popped, parents get freaked. Welcome back, detectives.”

In “Rispetto,” our heroes find the victim, Sarah Bell, still rolled up in a carpet where the paramedics left her. Goren does his typical pre-autopsy, finds 5 grand, a bunch of wigs, a jar of condoms and a clarinet. Eames reads hate messages left on the victim’s phone: “ur a lying selfish b*tch. I pray to god u burn in hell.”

They confront Nathan, the hateful texter. Goren reads another text gem (his favorite): “U used ur beauty as a weapon 2 murder the souls of innocent men.” Nathan asks why he would call 911, if he did it? “To make us think you didn’t,” Eames offers. Turns out he only knew the victim, Sarah, two weeks, but was so bowled over by her knowledge of Byron, Shelley and Keats that he paid her rent then it turns out Sarah wasn’t a college student after all. She was a hooker.

Back at the station, we don’t even get an explanation of how Jay O. Sanders got to be the captain but he is.

Jay Mohr guest starred as Nyle Brite, an eccentric and very high high fashion designer (as in stoned high fashion designer not uber high fashion) who Goren and Eames have pegged as their prime suspect in Sarah Bell’s murder, and we were led to buy into it because we saw Nyle show up at her apartment getting physical, not long before her demise.

But the victim turns out to be his daughter. Later at a party Nyle is with a call girl (he doesn’t have a problem with call girls, per se. He just doesn’t want his own daughter to be one). He asks her if her father knows what she does and tells her to please call her father in the morning and tell him she loves him.

Some of this stuff was ripped off the Charlie Sheen story, as in the guy Nyle works for, Paul Bell (Spencer Garrett), worrying more about his IPO than Nyle’s meltdowns. Goren questions the wisdom of that and Bell replies that he lost a brother to addiction. Goren says he did too, which is not even true. It’s true that Frank Goren was a junkie but Nicole Wallace killed him.

When Nyle’s crazy TV interview airs, he’s ranting and raving Sheen-style but substituting the word “instinct” for “winning.” All the investors pull out and the captain sends Eames and Goren over to see if they can substitute his studio for a cell in Sing Sing. But Nyle has been shot dead with the same gun as his daughter, and the terrified call girl is hiding in the closet.

After eliminating Nyle’s wife as a suspect, Goren smokes out the real culprit by pretending to be an effeminate Armani rep on the phone. The lure works and when the detectives catch up with Nyle’s second banana, Teddy Scola (Neal Huff), he is the one who committed both murders. He also has been designing all that high fashion and was totally sick of not getting the credit and the big bucks.

How will they reveal the story of what happened after Loyalty (Part 2) — through flashbacks and/or dialogue? Grrrr.

But still happy to have Eames and Goren back at last.

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