Law Order: Criminal Intent Anybody...

Law & Order: Criminal IntentAnybody get a Rebecca vibe from this one? Penned by the great Gerry Conway (the same guy who created The Punisher for Marvel Comics), the case involved Dr. Christine Ensel, a plastic surgeon whose parents pushed her into medicine so she would fulfill the promise of her late brother, Frederick, whom she'd never met because he died of leukemia nine months before she was born. The timing was no accident. Frederick was the Ensels' pride and joy, a selfless child who did things like raise money for food to send to starving orphans abroad. His de facto ascension to sainthood made him a royal pain in the bum to luckless Christine, who was forever in competition with her bro's ubiquitous memory. As creepy as it was to see the Ensels cleaning the wine off Freddy's portrait as their daughter was hauled to jail, the real surprise was that it took Christine so long to chuck a bottle at his omnipotent visage. (I wanted to throw bottles at the TV when Bono blabbered self-righteously on 60 Minutes I settled for used tissues instead.) Poor Christine. Annoying, manipulative folks aside, she also had to contend with a visual impairment that threatened the future of her practice (Logan's pencil trick was wonderfully devious). It doesn't excuse dosing Kerri with morphine and carving her up like a Halloween pumpkin, but still, I think we understand Christine a little better. In fact, Christine might have had a shot at clemency had she gotten Antonio to carve her demented parents instead.