Anti-Thesis

"Anti-Thesis" is a second season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. This episode marks the debut of Nicole Wallace, main character Robert Goren's archnemesis.

Plot summary

In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murders of a university president and his assistant.

During the investigation, Goren and Eames focus their attention on a controversial African-American professor who wants a promotion for a department chairmanship. At first, the professor seems the most likely suspect because he had accused the victim of being a racist. But the team soon become suspicious of an underachieving grad student, who has been working for a long time on his graduate thesis, which also benefits him if that professor gets the promotion. The short list of suspects include the student's girlfriend, a visiting professor with a shady element in her past.

As the campus investigation continues, Goren and Eames suspect that at least two of the possible culprits might be romantically entangled which results in a third murder. After that, they discover that the main culprit, Nicole Wallace, is a cunning, dangerous adversary who has more than these crimes to hide.

Cast

Facts

• 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] In real life, West wears an afro haircut and goatee, teaches African American Studies, and was criticized by the President of Harvard University for releasing a rap music album. Similar to West, the fictional Professor Sanders of the history wears an afro haircut and goatee, teaches American Studies, and is criticized by the school's president for releasing a rap album.
• Sanders is the name of the largest lecture hall on Harvard's campus, while Winthrop is a traditional Boston family name with long ties to the Harvard campus. In the episode, Winthrop quotes a line of dialogue almost identical to a sentence attributed to Summers. According to the professor, the sentence reflects the charges of racism against criticism of the spoken word.

Footnotes

External links

• IMDb entry
• Official website