‘Boots on the Ground’ Recap. L&O: Criminal Intent S10 E3

Talk about a convoluted story. In the third installment Season 10, “Law & Order: CI, Boots on the Ground” (May 15), we again start out with something to do with sex — a dude in a lingerie shop, asking the saleslady for help choosing between a naughty red number and classic black. Two burly bodyguards look on. She helps him choose red and the bodyguards open the door for him, but he tells them to go first. Then we see another dude, Terrence Brooks (Michael Kelly) talking about his security business and “Boots on the Ground.” Um, okay. Then the crime: the guy who just bought the sexy red teddy is now dead on top of a taxi.

Enter Goren and Eames. The victim is Ian Masefield, an employee of Ascalon Security’s cyber warfare division. The crime scene reveals Ian was pushed to his death after the perp scaled up and onto the deck from below. Footwear is important again when it turns out the victim wore a size 12 but the killer was a mere size 9. The red teddy makes its second appearance at the crime scene.

Our suspect list begins as the detectives check with Brooks, the head of Ascalon, who never heard of Ian let alone employed him. The Major Case detectives go to an address Ian uses where Elise Clark (Michele Pawk) says he was a friend of her son, Matt. Ian used their address while traveling. Goren remarks on Matt’s mother home schooling paraphernalia, although why that would be of any interest to him at this point is ridiculous. Elise says yes, she home schooled back in the day, but she doesn’t know where her son is now.

Ian is Matt

The trail then leads to Matt Clark’s apartment where they find out he’s an expert hacker. They also find Matt’s been using a false identity – that of their victim, Masefield. Goren realizes they were telling Elise Clark her son was dead and, yet, she didn’t bat an eyelash. They return to find out what her deal is, but she has bailed. Evidence of guilty knowledge.

They learn an apartment in Matt’s building was owned by Sun Tech Industries, and Matt was working there, too. The detectives visit Sun’s head honcho, Naomi Halloran (Jeri Ryan) and tell her how Matt died. Eames says how weird it was to find sexy lingerie in Sun Tech’s penthouse since Matt, a.k.a Ian, worked for Ascalon. They correctly deduce that Naomi had Matt infiltrate her competition.

Terrence Brooks is informed that Matt as Ian Masefield was a mole, giving him some motive to do Matt dirt, but Brooks claims he knew nothing, not even what Matt may have stolen.

So far, we’ve got two high profiles competitors and a mother with ice water in her veins. Now we add Rebecca Landon (Tala Ashe). She turns up after a visit to the lingerie shop where Goren and Eames find out Matt called back and had the classic black teddy delivered to Rebecca after he left the shop. They haul her in for questioning but she maintains she and Matt were friends and more — they even have the same tattoo. They were both on the same mission: to destroy warmongers like Ascalon and Sun Tech.

After someone tries to do Terrence Brooks in with an “old school” bomb and the significance of the Matt/Rebecca tattoo (Peoples Liberation Brigade) is uncovered, mug shots reveal Elise Clark as a fugitive of the group. They collar Elise and lay the attempted murder of Terrence Brooks at her feet. She thinks Terrence killed her son so that’s why she did it. Elise also has the tattoo so Goren blames her for teaching Matt to be a revolutionary. Tough cookie Elise responds that it’s better than being a cop. But Goren realizes that mom holds the key to unraveling this mess. After a few more false starts with other leads and now prime suspect, Rebecca, he visits Elise in jail, and after some verbal sparring, mom agrees to help get justice for her boy.

Spoiler Alert: The Solution:

The detectives round up Terrence and Naomi who come separately with their attorneys. Although surprised they are both there, they are pretty cool about it until Goren reveals how Terrence manipulated Naomi by leading her to believe that Matt was sleeping with Rebecca. Terrence thinks he off the hook and starts to leave but Captain Hannah tells them both to stay put. “Let’s go to the video tape,” he says (ah! a Warner Wolf fan). Elise is shown saying Matt’s true love was Naomi. Goren tells Naomi that Matt was not the one who sent the black teddy to Rebecca. Eames says Terrence set her up. Naomi tries to attack Terrence, admits she “lost it,” but all she did was call off the bodyguards. Goren says she can work that all out over the next 25 years in the can.

Terrence is then shown what evidence they have to lock him up and throw away the key. Rebecca admits on the videotape to pushing Matt off the roof because Terrence had her 12-year-old cousin killed in a hit-and-run, so even though she cared for Matt, it was him or her family. Heinous Terrence learns that Rebecca will testify against him and Goren forcefully cuffs him. After he is taken away, Goren and Eames talk with Captain Hannah, and Eames remarks that everybody goes to jail (although no one adds that they all deserve it so they must not think Rebecca does).

At the very end, they slapped on another of those peremptory visits to Dr. Paula Geisin (Julia Ormond). Goren reveals he has mulled over the question of self-examination. An auto mechanic friend, Louis, once told him the biggest mistake people make with old cars is cleaning them out because that kills it. After a thorough cleaning, it can’t run again. All that “gunk” they thought was bad was really plugging up the holes and keeping the vehicle going. Geisen is bemused by this comparison to an inanimate object, without feelings, without thoughts and reflections. It’s just a machine meant to go. He bring up his mother’s schizophrenia. When the doctor asks him when he became aware of that, it triggers a flashback of Nicole Wallace. Goren confesses that he once used his mother’s illness in interrogation to get a confession. He frames it as a betrayal but Dr. Understanding absolves his guilt, saying he did what he had to do and it wasn’t betraying his mother. That’s a laugh. How about his mom’s betrayal, hmm? Frances Goren died at the end of Season 8 and the last thing she told her son was she didn’t really know who his father was!

These psych evals would be interesting if they didn’t just slap them on at the end, then try to create a cliffhanger because there’s just not enough entertaining dialogue. We suggest the writers go watch some Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) visits to Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). Now that was entertainment!