Cadaver Recap L&O Criminal Intent S10 E6

Here’s the cast of the June 12th Law & Order: CI episode “Cadaver,” from left to right: murder victim, Ben Langston (Steven Weber), philanthropist and head of Langston pharmaceuticals; his wife, Lauren Langston (Jenna Stern), Dr. Sam Harris (Charlie Barnett); Dr. Maya Zhuang (Camille Chen); Dr. Theo Kendall (Clayton Apgar) and Maya’s mom, Joanne Zhuang (Rosalind Chao)

Other characters in this episode: Bedford institute employee (Bradley White), funeral director (Geoffrey Cantor ). the Langstons’ daughter, Stella.

Major Case Squad: Det. Bobby Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio), Det. Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe), Captain Joseph Hannah (Jay O. Sanders). Also, Psychiatrist, Paula Gyson (Julia Ormond) and Medical Examiner Elizabeth Rodgers (Leslie Hendrix).

Ben Langston is a multimillionaire philanthropist, head of Langston Pharmaceuticals, who personally oversees a 20 million dollar research grant. As we open, he’s overseeing a robotic surgical procedure on a corpse. Theo Kendall asks if he read his amended proposal on spinal cord regeneration, which could lead to “a world without wheelchairs, wounded soldiers walking again — the military contract alone could be worth a fortune.” Ben says it’s not about the money and Theo makes a wry observation about Ben’s wealth. Ben observes that Theo still likes to make jokes. Later, Ben will announce who gets the grant, but it doesn’t look like Theo will get it. Theo tells his colleagues, Maya Zhuangen and Sam Harris, not to worry. Langston still doesn’t like him. Theo asks Maya to go to the Bedford Institute event with him, but Maya is taking her mom. Later, Langston and his wife are preparing for the event.

At the event, Dr. Maya Zhuang is announced as the winner for her work in creating a vaccine to help cure childhood leukemia. Mrs. Langston leaves right after the announcement. Losers Theo and Sam shake Maya’s hand. Maya’s mother, Joanne, thinks Maya should thank Langston again. On their way there, they overhear Dr. Harris telling Langston he’s a “phony and a son of a bitch.” Mrs. Langston arrives home to find her daughter Stella still awake, wondering where her daddy is because he won’t answer his cell phone. She doesn’t answer her daughter’s question why she is home so late.

The next morning, a jogger sees a dead body in the park, propped up against the tree, with a huge surgical incision on his head. Goren and Eames are taking a missing persons report from Mrs. Langston. She left the event early because of a migraine. She says her husband’s car is also missing.

The investigation begins and Langston’s Bentley is promptly found in a parking structure at a cruise ship terminal. The smell of formaldehyde in the trunk makes Goren recall the John Doe found in Riverside Park with surgical cuts on its head. They visit M.E. Rodgers who’s got the body and says it’s been dead over a year. Goren notices it was wearing Langston’s clothes.

A talk with the head guy in charge of cadavers at Bedford Institute reveals the corpse was a guy named Joe Slobotnik, nicknamed “Popeye” because of an anchor tattoo. Slobotnik’s body was scheduled to be cremated that day. The Bedford employee reveals that dead body pranks are not unheard of in their stressful environment. They release stress by posing with cadavers (and we shudder to think what else!) At the funeral home, Goren and Eames inform the distressed director that the body they just cremated probably wasn’t Popeye at all. They take the ashes and are able to identify them as Langston because a titanium pin with a serial number didn’t burn up. Who thinks this stuff up?

Goren and Eames tell Captain Hannah what they’ve found. “Congratulations, it’s a homicide,” he says. Eames says, “With no crime scene, no cause of death, no motive and our victim was last seen at an event with 100 suspects.” Captain Hannah thinks the motive could be over the grant. One of the losers (Kendall or Harris) may have taken offense.

Harris turns out to have an even better motive: he’s Langston’s illegitimate son. Kendall, the practical joker who thinks putting an embalmed penis on Maya’s desk is “fun,” turns out to be having some fun with Lauren Langston, too. The kid, Stella, blows mommy’s cover when she tells Eames mommy came home late and “fuzzy” from a playdate with Theo.

Now it’s just a case of finding out which one of these three did the dirty deed, or is it?

Spoiler: The Solution

The interrogations of Harris, Kendall and Mrs. Langston eventually lead Goren to begin to suspect Maya Zhuang. She acted out of character in suddenly cozying up to Harris, making him think they could be more than friends. Maya’s mother turns out to be a “tiger mother,” who threw out Maya’s dolls because she missed a note in a cello recital. They found that out from Maya’s sister, Orlee, who doesn’t believe Maya could have done anything wrong. Maya “never flinched, never cried” she says, laying out their strict upbringing: “no TV, no sleepovers, no pets. Maya got a B in chemistry so my mother got rid of her dog.  That’s when my father walked.” So they did have one pet anyway till Maya got that B.

When Goren confronts Maya with their suspicions, she’s about to crack when tiger mom shows up with Eames and tells her to stop talking and leave. Maya tries to take the blame for her mother but Goren knows Maya can’t be the killer because she took the oath to do no harm. (Oh? Like they never had a doctor killer before?) The very fierce Mrs. Zhang never flinches as she backs Goren up while telling him exactly how she killed Ben Langston. Maya’s only part was helping with the cover-up. Mrs. Zhuang says she will sign a full confession and won’t contest her sentence as long as they let Maya off the hook. She beats on Goren’s chest when he won’t let her go to her daughter and tells Maya she knows she was hard and strict, but look at how brilliant and accomplished she is now. “My daughter is not going to prison because she is going to cure cancer,” she says and Goren cuffs her.

Goren’s therapy session is the final scene. He’s in a good mood after bringing the case to a successful conclusion and asks if they can take the session outside on such a beautiful day. Dr. Gyson feels their privacy would be compromised outdoors and asks if having less privacy is the real reason he wants to go out. It’s a real mood-killer for Goren, who wonders why she thinks everything has a hidden meaning. Hilarious. He does the same thing in his investigations and interrogations all the time. Goren confronts his brooding loneliness head on and asks if she thinks he can have what other people have – a home and a relationship. He doesn’t much like her reply that if he works at it, he can. Goren looks in his mirror every day and sees himself as she sees him. He wants to know if she, as someone he thinks is smart and whom he respects, thinks he is capable of being in a relationship. He doesn’t like Gyson’s answer again and gets the idea she thinks he is hitting on her. He goes into a rant. She’s open, she’s empathic, she’s beautiful and uses her skills to lure patients into trusting her, then she leaves them dangling. Completely flummoxed, Gyson tries to regain control of the session to no avail. He continues to rant that the sessions (and mind you this is only the 5th one and they haven’t talked about a whole helluva lot) aren’t working. Goren says she can call whoever and tell them he is not a good candidate for therapy and if they want to take his badge away again, they can. As she continues her attempt to calm him down, he storms off slamming the door behind him.

What did you make of all that? We would have reacted like the doc. WTF?

The coming attractions for the 7th episode “Icarus” (oh no! only one more after that!) on Sunday, June 19th, show Goren back in her office confronting his anger.