Law and Order: Criminal Intent: "Senseless" (Episode 143)

This especially disturbing episode of CI starts with flashbacks of kids in a park, walking around their ‘hood, in the barbershop.  It’s 1999, what is made to be with it’s soothing background music, a simpler time.  Fast-forward to the present day, where three friends are now grown up, but playing in the same park.  A girl sits on a swing while two boys twist the chains and spin her around.  Then, three thugs approach.  It’s trouble from the beginning when the girl, Naomi, won’t hand over her iPhone.  The head thug seems to have a tendency to, um, misinterpret everything that is said and pulls a gun on her.  She begs for mercy, so he shoots her in the stomach.  Trigger-finger then yells at his homies to beat the two guys and drag them into a basketball court.  There, he makes them kneel down and shoots them execution style.  Meanwhile, one of the more scared homies stands to the side and pisses his pants.  For real.  And the entire time we’re listening to these terrified screams of the victims.  This was far too disturbing for a Thursday night.

Detectives Logan and Falacci hit the scene.  This is the first episode I’ve caught with Alicia Witt and her character.  I swear she doesn’t say one complete sentence the entire episode; even Eames had more to do against the over-the-top Dinofrio/Goren.  Anyway, she explains to Logan, through incomplete clauses, that the boys were 18 and still their wallets, although one was missing his HS championship basketball ring.  Naomi and one of the dead boys, Ty, were twins and the third, Isaiah was their friend.  Naomi goes to surgery while the other two go to the morgue.  There, we learn they were shot by the same gun and that none of their DNA matches the urine.  No drugs or alcohol in their system, no gang tats on their bodies.  Yep – they were good kids, although the detectives will be incredulous to this fact to the point where it’s annoying.  In fact, Isaiah’s dad is a reverend, all three were in college on scholarships.  They were pretty much killed for nothing.

In the hospital, Naomi and Ty’s parents let Logan interview their daughter.  Through squeezes of the hand, she communicates to Logan that there were three perps and she didn’t know them previously.  Logan and Falacci canvas the memorial service at the execution site and hand out business cards.  Logan unknowingly hands one out to one of the thugs – the guilty always return to the scene!  Thankfully, Naomi gets off the ventilator long enough to give a verbal interview.  She tells Logan that one of the guy’s names was Felix; another perp had a gang-related tattoo on his neck. 

Despite the fact that experts say that the crime doesn’t seem like gang violence, Logan, Falacci, and crew look up a head member of the gang in question and run him down.  He says that his gang looked down upon the shooting and that a non-member is pretending to be one of them.  Not even gangbangers are down for indiscriminate executions.  Meanwhile, a pawn shop in the neighborhood receives the victim’s basketball ring.  The pawn shop owner is reluctant, but gives the name of a young woman, Vera.  She claims that her boyfriend, Hector, gave it to her.  The police raid Hector’s mom’s house; she screams that he’s not there and hasn’t been in days.  Logan reaches to take the lid off a vase; it’s her husband’s ashes and the lady starts going ballistic.  She flips out even moreso when Logan pulls a gun from the urn.  The detectives learn that Hector has a little brother, Paco, and they pull him out of school to interrogate him.
After talking to a lady friend of his, the detectives find Paco at an arcade.  They chase him and take him to the station for questioning.  At the precinct, a scared Paco sits next to his mom.  First, he denies everything – owning the gun, killing the kids, and even being at the park.  He also disavows all knowledge of anyone named Felix.  All of a sudden, he turns cheek and confesses… to everything.  His mom gets to show her acting chops and goes ridiculous once again.  Paco gets thrown in a holding cell and his mom gets 24 hours to find Hector and get him in before Paco’s sweet virgin ass gets sent to Rikers.

Logan arrives at church just as Hector is leaving a confessional.  He called Logan to bring him in, mostly to save his brother.  Logan now recognizes him for being at the memorial service.  Hector also has the gang tattoo, but no real affiliation – he’s a wannabe.  Like his brother, he denies being at the park and shooting anyone.  But, as soon as Logan lies and says that Felix already confessed, he starts telling the truth so he can cut a deal.  He says that Felix started it but forced Paco to pull the trigger, or else he would kill Hector.  Hector, for his part, stood aside and pissed himself.  He says that Felix is crazy and was actually scheduled to be deported back to Mexico three years ago.  Thanks, INS!

Hector gives up Felix’s last known address.  It’s a room with a bunch of squatters who quickly give up Felix’s where-abouts as soon as immigration is discussed.  Felix apparently stole a car and took off.  The cops find the car abandoned near the woods.  Logan and Falacci take off into the woods, with Alicia Witt soon getting herself nabbed by the suspect.  Felix presses a knife into her neck, that is, until she smacks him in the face and kicks him to the ground.  Pussy.  Logan repeats her name asking if she’s okay and it reminds me a lot of the word “fellatio,” which is distracting. 

Felix is picked up, but there is no one alive to identify him.  Naomi needed a second surgery and died on the operating table.  However, the detectives don’t tell this to Felix.  Logan pretends that Naomi is behind the glass; Felix puts all the nails in his proverbial coffin when he steps up to the glass and sneers “I should have shot you in the head when I had the chance.”  Logan needles away at his suspect, calling him a fake gang-banger, forcing Felix’s tremendous bravado to come out until he finally confesses.  I guess if some other alpha-male made it seem like I pissed my pants, I’d be upset too.  Then again, I’m also not a soulless murderer.  Felix confesses and screws himself irrevocably (which makes me happy). 

The episode ends on a sad note with all three pictures of the dead kids at the memorial site and really doesn’t make me feel any better about life in general.  Guess I’ll have to wait for those super-uplifting episodes of SVU.