Frame (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)

"Frame" is a seventh season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Plot

In the Season 7 finale, Detective Goren brings flowers to his mother's grave and finds an old framed picture of him and his older brother Frank. When Frank is found murdered the following day, the victim of a poisoning meant to look like an overdose, Goren deduces that his nemesis Nicole Wallace killed his brother.

Soon afterward, Goren's mentor Declan Gage is also found to be poisoned (but alive), and Goren and Eames are led on a scavenger hunt, which leads them to Wallace's former stepdaughter, Gwen Chapel, in Arizona — she is now dying of cancer, which is believed to be the factor that incited Wallace's actions — and ends at a hotel where they find a box with Goren's nephew Donny's name on it, containing a human heart. Although Goren believes that Wallace murdered Donny to torment him, M.E. Rodgers confirms that it is in fact Wallace's heart in the box. Goren refuses to believe it, claiming that Wallace has "nine lives". Gage suggests to Goren that Wallace had a partner who acted on her wishes, and that they were trying to frame him for her murder and Frank’s. Later evidence turns up that Frank Goren had a life insurance policy naming William Brady (Goren's undercover alias) as his beneficiary, supporting Gage's theory. At this time, Goren reveals that he has confirmed that serial killer Mark Ford Brady is his biological father.

In a twist ending, it is revealed that Gage planned the entire chain of events as part of an elaborate plan to "free" Goren from his troubled past. Goren realizes this after he notices someone has "tried to glue the pieces of his life together" throughout the case. He learns that Gage wrote a book on female serial killers (such as his daughter Jo, who, as it turns out, is in a coma after biting off her tongue) to attract Wallace's attention, and knowing she would try to seduce him, he spurned her advances to engage her. Gage suggested to her that he also hates Goren, thus manipulating her into killing Frank. Then, Gage knew that Wallace would try to dispose of him afterwards and beat her to it: He cut out her heart, mailed some flowers in her name (aside from the ones she herself mailed to Goren), and faked his own poisoning to set the scavenger hunt in motion. Gage thought that Frank was "going down anyway", and that the people in Goren's life were like "dead weight" to him, and saw this plan as a way to give his protegé a "clean slate". Gage assures Goren that his nephew Donny is unharmed and still missing, as killing him would never have helped Goren.

After that, Gage tells Goren that Wallace's final words were "Tell Bobby he was the only man I ever loved".

Cast

Facts

• The title of this episode, "Frame", may refer to either a presumably innocent person who is caused to appear guilty or a decorated border for a picture – or both. In this case, Goren is framed for killing his brother, Frank, and he discovers a picture of the two brothers framed near his mother's grave.
• This is the first time since "False-Hearted Judges" (2005) that Goren and Eames have led a season finale.
• Wallace herself only appears in two brief scenes in the episode: before the opening credits in brief flashes with her face concealed, and in the flower shop mailing flowers to Goren. In contrast to previous episodes featuring her, the focus is shifted towards Goren and his personal problems, and Wallace's role in the crime is more of an extension of this theme.
• In the flashbacks with Nicole Wallace, Courtney B. Vance was still in his role as Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (season 2).
• This also notes that Goren's nephew Donny Carlson, is still missing; not even Nicole Wallace or Declan Gage knew where he was; because Goren stated, "Nicole doesn't have Donny, if she did she would have sent a more recent photo."
• This episode also denotes that Donny Carlson is Goren's only known or mentioned living relative. In "Faithfully" (which was the episode set to air after "Frame") Goren is seen sitting with family at the dinner table, so he possibly has more siblings than Frank. Later in that episode, he shows Eames a picture of his niece. He also hints in "Frame" that Wallace thought Frank was all he had, next to Donny.

External links

• Official Website
• IMDb.com