Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Never Forget Your First Time
By Couch Baron | Season 2 | Episode 6 | Aired on 08.16.1998
Said questions Diane. Interspersed through this scene are snippets of a flashback to the conversation with Schillinger that Diane surreptitiously taped. Said brings up their conversation prior to the one that was recorded, and asks if it's true that Diane was the one that approached Schillinger and asked how much he'd pay her to kill Beecher. Diane coolly denies that, noting that it would qualify as entrapment. Someone's been a good girl and done all her homework. Said asks if Schillinger offered Diane anything else. Wow, Said's eyes are asymmetrical in this scene. Now I'm just visualizing a Picasso-like painting of Said's face. And I have no idea where to put the little cap. Sigh. Diane says that Schillinger threatened to tell people that she killed Ross, but that didn't affect her decision to trap him, because it's not true. Diane's face fades into McManus's. Said asks him if Diane is trustworthy. McManus says yes, but does concede that she's lied to him in the past. Tim, if you fuck this one up, I will make it my life's ambition to invent a device making it possible for me to reach through the TV and strangle you. You have been warned. What follows is a game of verbal cat-and-mouse in which McManus rephrases Said's question so that he doesn't have to lie. Said isn't having it, though, and eventually asks, "To the best of your knowledge, did Diane Whittlesey shoot Scott Ross with the intention of ending his life?" McManus pauses long enough for me to do a bit of patent-law research, but before I actually turn out a prototype, he answers, "No." Well, there goes my invention. I was really looking forward to using it on Jay Leno, too.
Said meets Schillinger in the library, with Adebisi in the background, rocking out to music from his headphones. Said flatly informs Schillinger that they have no case, as the state has everything it needs and more. Schillinger thinks there must be some technicality, and asks about Diane shooting Ross. Said says that it's only his word against theirs, and that Schillinger will be convicted and sentenced to ten more years. Adebisi pipes up, "They got you, baby." Hee. Said piles on more bad news by announcing that he's withdrawing from the case. Schillinger accuses Said of planning this withdrawal from the beginning in order to make things worse. Said counters that things couldn't be worse, and with a smirk, he says that he wasn't sure before, but now he knows that Schillinger is guilty. Interesting -- I think Said knows that McManus was lying, but it seems that he doesn't care now that he's convinced of Schillinger's guilt. Schillinger impotently declares that Said used him, but Said says they're even in that regard, and leaves. Adebisi needles Schillinger some more. Hee. I wish there were some way I could write my recaps in Adebisi's accent -- it's delightfully snarky.