Anti-Thesis

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For the direct contrast or exact opposition to something, see Antithesis.
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“Anti-Thesis”
Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 3
Guest stars Reg E. Cathey
Daniel London
Olivia d'Abo
Written by Dick Wolf
René Balcer
Eric Overmyer
Directed by Adam Bernstein
Production no. E3203
Original airdate October 13, 2002
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Bright Boy" "Best Defense"

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

When the President of Hudson University is bludgeoned to death in his office, suspicion falls on a prominent African-American professor who had accused the victim of being a racist.

[edit] Cast and crew

[edit] Episode trivia

This episode features the first appearance of Nicole Wallace.

  • What's in a name:

The episode title, "Anti-Thesis", is a play on words with two meanings. The word "antithesis" is defined as something being the direct opposite of what it is being contrasted against. The recurring character Nicole Wallace, introduced for the first time in this episode, could be considered both Detective Goren's equal and his opposite. Additionally, another character's 1000+ page thesis is very important to this episode's story.

Harvard University's undergraduate student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, suggested in October 2002 that the episode's premise was lifted from the nationally-publicized, real-life squabble between Harvard President Lawrence Summers and African-American Studies Professor Cornel West.[1] Similarities include

    • The fictional Professor Sanders wears an afro and goatee, teaches American Studies, and is criticized for releasing a rap album. Cornel West wears an afro and goatee, teaches African-American Studies, and was criticized by Summers for releasing a rap album.
    • President Winthrop quotes a line of dialogue almost identical to a sentence attributed to Summers; Sanders' reply accurately reflects the charges of racism raised against Summers' criticism of the spoken word rap album.
    • "Sanders" is the name of the largest lecture hall on Harvard's campus; "Winthrop" is a traditional Boston family name with long ties to the Harvard campus.

[edit] Quotes

  • Nicole Wallace: Got carried off by dingoes. It happens a lot in Australia.
  • Goren: Professor Sanders wasn't in that night grading papers, was he?
    Eames: True or false, Miss Goodman, and we don't give incompletes.
  • Goren: You use sex as an exercise in self-hatred.
  • President Winthrop: I expect my professors to be in the classroom teaching.
    Professor Sanders: I am not your professor. Just because you run this university like a plantation doesn’t mean you’re the massah and I’m yo’ field-han’.
  • Dr. Christine Fellowes: I can't have you here. You're relieved of your duties.
    Goren: In that case, you're under arrest.
    Nicole Wallace: For what?
    Eames: You just got fired. You're in violation of your work visa.

[edit] External links

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