While CSI:LV episodes tended to rely on dysfunctional relationships rooted in jealousy, Law & Order Criminal Intent episodes tended to rely on lost opportunities.
That is, Law & Order: Criminal Intent showcased what I consider to be one of the most damaging perspectives within the human psyche: I should have had this type of life.
One of the most chilling representative episodes is "Phantom" starring the ever impressive Michael Emerson as the villain. The episode is based on the true story of Jean-Claude Romand, the French man who pretended to work for WHO, took money from relatives, and ultimately killed his wife and kids and parents. Emerson's character pretends to work for the UN, "invests" money on behalf of a number of people, then kills some of that number--the show's detectives, Goren and Eames, save the family. The episode, naturally, presents the psychological motive in starker relief--but the critical moment is the same: the life the villain invented about himself is about to come crashing down/be revealed.
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| Marvelous Elizabeth Marvel |
Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns to this theme several times, from Michael Gross (unnervingly) as the bad guy who wants the girl and kills to impress her--only to be disappointed by her utter lack of enthusiasm--to the publisher who pins all her faith on one of those horrible survivor memoirs (that turns out to be made-up). How they imagine their life's trajectory is out of sync with the reality around them.
In fact, one of the first episodes uses this theme: "Art," in which an art forger kills because she so desperately wants to have a show of her own work. She is owed it.
An intimate relationship isn't the direct cause of the last two cases--although an adulterous
couple does pay the price in one of them--but the couples of "Consumed" and "But Not
Forgotten" (with the amazing Alicia Coppola) do. In both cases, a wife decides to
take revenge on her husband for the life she believes he stole from
her.
One of my favorites on the reverse side is "The Gift" in which a conman protects his nutty girlfriend, who believes she has psychic powers--but actually has a form of epilepsy--because "we don't do so well without each other." He knows exactly what the relationship is and sacrifices himself to protect it. "Someone will be there to catch you this time."
