Bum bum! Meet Audrey. We know she's a good person because she's with a woman, complimenting the daughter's artwork. When a gust of wind blows a couple of the pictures over the terrace where they're standing, Audrey offers to pay for them, remarking that it can be the woman's daughter's first sale. Down on the street, a couple is arguing about the plastic surgery the man just had when stones begin to rain down, one of which hits him in the head. thing we're back up on the terrace with the police. Audrey is on the ground covered in blood and stones, and Green remarks that any of the tools around would have killed her faster than stones. Lupo ominously remarks that maybe the killer wasn't going for speed.
At the morgue, Dr. Rodgers tells them that Audrey was hit over 30 times, many after she died. Anita and Lupo get into a discussion about how the method of killing is rather Biblical. They then go to see the husband, whose alibi is solid. Anita has them check on his religious background, which he says is pretty nonexistent; they don't go to church and she was accepting of everyone. The only thing that seems to surprise him is the news that she came home at noon, since he said she could never be torn from the gallery, where incidentally she'd had a crisis that morning. Just then his daughter comes out of her room and his son walks in the front door, home from college. The girl runs and hugs her brother, Jason, who has a creepy detached air, made all the more noticeable by the fact that he was front and center in every single promo for this episode. They then go to the gallery where they find out from one of the employees that the crisis was that the featured artist tore down all his paintings right before his show. He said that Audrey was "a child playing with dynamite." They figure the dynamite is him since he's Albanian and an artist. I never knew Albanian artists had such a specific reputation -- now I know. Audrey tried to speak to him on the phone, he hung up on her, so she declared the show cancelled and went home.
So off they go to visit the guy, Konstandin. He's an Albanian Muslim and his paintings are all against the oppression of women in Muslim countries. He specifies that it's against men who twist the religion to suit their beliefs. Either way, the religious aspect coincides nicely with the stoning. Konstandin admits that he warned her that there were threats by an Albanian family of bakers who threatened to take him out if they went through with the show. The boys go off to visit them -- the head of the family is a typically shady, smug, large accented man who claims to have nothing to do with it, and is eventually rescued by his nephew, a lawyer, who sends them on their way. When they get back to the car they have a note from none other than the Feds across the street. Turns out they've been monitoring the Bositch, Head of the Bakers, and actually provide the alibi for all of them during Audrey's murder. More conveniently, the agent they talk to has been monitoring Audrey on suspicion of funding a terrorist group. It's really like they wanted to pull out all the stops on this, the last episode filmed before the strike, and work in as many different storylines, wacky characters, and confusions for a poor recapper to lose her mind.
At the station, Agent Big Brother describes how they monitor international calls to pick up suspicious characters like Audrey. He plays a tape of the conversation that caused her to be flagged, and Green does not hide his delight in pointing out the words, "jihad" and "suicide bomber" referred to names of paintings, not some terrorist plot on her behalf. Agent BB could not be more relieved when his phone rings. Lupo listened to the rest of the tapes and find ones that pretty much announces that she and Konstandin were having an affair. They go back to visit the husband who says he knew she'd strayed but that they'd had a happy last couple of months, stressing that they were a happy family.
As it turns out, a family so happy they didn't notice that their son moved out of his dorm a month before. They find a cell number that belongs to a girl at the local pizza place, who claims not to know him. But we all know that sullen teenagers are dirty liars, and they're able to piece together with the manager where Jason has been living. Just in case we weren't going to figure it out by the kids slumped all over the dumpy furniture, the title card announces it as, "Drug House." They wind up finding Jason walking out a door in another room, and he seems stoned or possessed -- it remains to be seen if it's good acting or really, really bad acting -- and Lupo has to push him to the floor when he doesn't really respond.
They interview him and he keeps the spacey look on his face, but now with a little creepy Mona Lisa-type smile. He doesn't react to his mom's photo and eventually begins to speak once they accuse him of being a druggie. Finally he tells them that she destroyed herself by committing adultery, and adds, "Evil thoughts come from the heart. But not from my heart." But as it seems they're about to get him to speak, Anita walks in with his counsel, Rudy! Aw, he put that Notre Dame education to good work. She shows them the report that blood matching his mom's type was found on his shoes. Lupo then fills her in on the religious references when Green decides to look up at what's going on -- Rudy has his hand on Jason's forehead. They bust in and it turns out that by "counsel" he meant "Pastor." They pull him out as he yells bible passages to Jason and Anita gets a bit more to do this week by reading Jason his rights and arresting him for murder. In court Jason tells the unamused judge that Jesus Christ is his counsel. His state-appointed counsel is a guy named Jeffers, who enters a "not guilty" plea and requests a competency hearing, to the surprise of no one. Connie argues for him to not be released on bail since his dad didn't notice when he dropped out of college and moved into a drug den, and might not be the best to look after him now. The judge agrees. Connie is a gorgeous woman, but I'm starting to wonder if she's growing her hair out and has hit the awkward stage, because it's been looking a little lank lately. Maybe it's just too much conditioner in an effort to impress Cutter. Anyhoo -- Dr. Olivet is back, and she is there to try and rule on Jason's competency. In a detached voice he tells her he was ministering to the drug addicts, and that he has revelations from God telling him what to do. Rudy tells him he's special and if Rudy says it, then it must be true. He says that his mother died so that she could be forgiven, and he goes to gaze at the mesh screen over the prison window -- I mean, at the dew on a leaf -- to talk about God's beauty.
Olivet relays to Cutter and Connie the conversation about his revelations. But she tells them it's extremely controversial to label religious fanatics as mentally ill, and as Jason seems to not be hallucinating and understands what's going on, she thinks he's competent. Connie has been working on a laptop while they've been talking -- that's some good wireless that works outside the courthouse -- and finds out that Jeffers requested a functional MRI test. None of the three of them can guess why, so let's go back to court to learn. The scan shows extreme activity in his brain during what he calls a revelation, and they have 19 episodes of such happening. Cutter keeps trying to object but is overruled, and eventually the judge rules that this brain activity shows her that Jason is not competent. In case we don't realize what the horrific repercussions of this ruling are, he mutters to Connie that now every religious zealot who claims they've had a directive from God can get away with whatever they do on the grounds of mental illness. He then reiterates that Jason said he'd always had the revelations, and tells her to find out if he was "incompetent" before he killed his mom, too.
She goes for a stroll through the park with Jason's dad, who tells her he had nosebleeds and fainting spells that the doctor said was normal. He was normal and a bit homesick when he left for college, but then a few weeks before he bludgeoned his mom to death he stopped calling and answering his phone. Connie mentions the ministering to the drug addicts and Dad tells her he was always caring and must have had an effect since a "rough-sounding girl" kept calling for him. Her name was Brenda, calling from someone called "Angelwood Camp." Lupo and Green head out and find it's a camp run by Rudy. They wait at the gate while someone gets Brenda, and Green hears some enthusiastic group chanting coming from behind the trees, which Rudy assures them is kids playing. Ah, Brenda, who spends her time not working at the pizza parlor at Angelwood Camp. It's very helpful now that she has a video camera on her. Cutter shows Jack the footage. Brenda narrates that this is "A Day in the Life of Christian Warriors." Rudy talks to the kids about wanting to die for Jesus, then shames them into admitting they're hypocrites. Then, fast-forward to him with the kids, who are wearing fatigues in the woods, chanting "This means war!" against people like "Muslim infidels" and "blasphemers." Jack is horrified that it's a school for fanatics. I'm just so shocked -- Rudy seemed like such a nice boy when he was carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders.
They watch the video again with Connie and Olivet, and are particularly interested in the portion that shows Jason coaching the kids in basketball -- he's perfectly kind, contained, and appears extremely competent, and this is the day before his mom was killed. Olivet leaves to make a report and Jack thanks her, to which she shoots him a pointed look back. My guess is she might not be over him totally discrediting her in court recently. In chambers, the judge agrees with our merry band of prosecutors, and declares Jason competent to stand trial. Jeffers pulls Cutter aside and tells him basically that he still thinks he's incompetent, and asks Cutter to hear what Jason has to say, off the record. What Jason has to say is that he realized he was a hypocrite and needed to go see his mom about her affair rather than turn a blind eye. Also, it comes out that God doesn’t always use the revelations to talk to Jason, but sometimes does it through Rudy. Jason went to visit his mom that day with Jason and Billy -- who he tells them are 10- and 12-year-old kids. Nothing like bringing the kids along for a little bit of righteous killing to raise 'em up right.
The detectives are back -- this is always very confusing with me when my characters bleed over into the half of the episode not normally theirs -- talking with Billy and his dad. And this is really where the episode goes into full-on disturbing, nothing funny about it mode. Billy's dad defends him as a God-fearing Christian. But then even he has the sense to be appalled when Green says that Billy went along when Jason killed his mom. Billy calmly replies, "She was a Jezebel." Lupo asks if Rudy told him that, and Billy agrees and also refers to Jason as "God's prophet." Outside, Connie and Cutter decide that if three kids all hear advice from Rudy and then go stone a woman to death, they best charge him as an accomplice to murder. Jason has accepted 15 to life from Cutter and Cutter thinks he'll be a star witness. Jack doesn't seem so sure, and we cut back to the interview room where Billy is screaming at Green to repent, or to burn with the infidels. Okay, so that part was back to being a little bit funny. They go to the camp and arrest Rudy, and as he's taken away the kids all begin to chant, "This means war!" Ugh, disturbing again. At Rudy's trial, Jason says that a message from God told him to go to his mother's house and that God would give him the tools to cast out her sin. Turns out this answer came from Rudy, which is one way God speaks to Jason. Jason tells them that Rudy told him they were in a war with Muslim infidels, and a time would come that Jason would be a general in God's army. At this point, a girl gets up and starts yelling "God Bless," and is escorted out by security. As she leaves she tells Cutter, "You'll burn in hell for this." Oh, I'm sure he's got other reasons worse than kicking you out, girlie. Basically, it turns out that Rudy goaded Jason into killing his mom by telling him he was a hypocrite for allowing sin in his home. He also suggested that Billy and Noah go along so that the "innocent should witness the rising up of their general." This elicits more yelling from the peanut gallery. the defense lawyer gets up and Jason admits that Rudy didn't tell him directly to kill his mom. Rudy's up on the stand , and says that he never told Jason to kill his mom, and that it was God's will and God telling him what to do. Cutter looks genuinely bothered by Rudy as he gets up to question him. His questioning leads Rudy to admit vehemently that there is a religious war going on, but claims he's not advocating violence. Cutter goes on questioning him holding one of his posters that proclaims, "This Means War." Cutter calls him out on humiliating the kids and breaking them to get them to do his will and fight his war, but Rudy yells that he's making them strong so that they can stand up to the kids being raised as suicide bombers. He finally comes around to admitting he's advocating violence since the enemy is violent. He also thinks Audrey got what was coming to her because she allowed herself to become, "defiled by his blasphemous seed!" It's more and more vehement and highly disturbing as he justifies everything he's done, and compares Jason to Joan of Arc, leading an army of Christ. In closing arguments, Rudy's lawyer pins it all on Jason making his own decision, not Rudy's, who only told Jason to make peace with his mom. When it's his turn, Cutter shows them the video one more time of the kids chanting, freezing it on one darling looking little girl yelling with her fist in the air. It also shows Billy crying when being called a hypocrite, running into Jason's arms. He calls it brainwashing, and then shows pictures again of Audrey's broken face, pointing out that he whipped up the boys into a frenzy and then sent them off to Jason's mom, knowing full well what would happen. It's a pretty good argument.
But this is Law & Order and it's not guaranteed that things will turn out as you think. Back at the office he wipes down the board to prepare for an appeal, and Jack calls him on counting his chickens too early, given that the jury's been out for two days. Connie seems to agree with Jack, and then gets a page that the judge is calling them in because a juror had a Bible in the jury room. Jack's got the line of the hour, "Sounds like one of your chickens just got run over!" In chambers, the juror says he was only consulting the Bible for guidance and to do the right thing. He's excused, and while Cutter fights for a mistrial, the judge just orders the juror dismissed and an alternate to take his place. Rudy's lawyer has a point when she reminds them jurors are sworn in on the Bible and the whole trial takes place "In God We Trust." Cutter says they should stick to the laws of men and are tainted, but the judge does not agree that it had any sort of bad effect.
In fact for Rudy, it had a pretty great effect, as he's found not guilty on all counts. Cutter looks like he might vomit all over the table. At the office he looks at the MRI and thinks that the jury liked Rudy's message. Connie asserts and hopes it's just that they didn't prove their case. I'm on Team Connie here. Cutter points out the small victory that it will be 15 years before Rudy gets his army's general back from jail, and Jack just tells him, "Let's hope the war's over by then." Indeed.
But also, let's hope that in a month when new episodes return, the bruises have all cleared up from my being bludgeoned over the head with Important Current Issues. Even for this show, the last couple of weeks have taken unsubtlety to a whole new level.