Legacy (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)

Plot summary

In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the case of Paul Phillips, a student at an elite private school, found dead, hanging from overhead pipes in the boiler room.

The detectives survey the crime scene and meet a Renaissance art teacher, Mrs. Anna Nobile, who found the boy's body. They learn that she has a daughter, Tessa, who also is a student at the school. Preliminary findings indicate that the death appears to be suicide, until Goren looks below the surface. He discover fresh mud on Paul's sneakers, while Eames adds that the knot was a sailing knot and Paul's cellphone and backpack are missing. They tell Captain Ross about the victim. His father is a corporate raider, known for toughness, as Goren theorizes the man was embarrassed by his son. Then, the detectives meet with the victim's parents. The mother says he was looking forward to his school prom, but she doesn't know how it went because they went out of town to a regatta. The father does not respond well, insulting them. At the morgue, Dr. Rodgers informs detectives that the cause of the young man's death was asphyxiation by hanging, but his skull was bashed in. Rodgers shows them the two to three day old bruises all over his body, concluding the victim was brutally beaten before his death.

Goren and Eames go talk to Jack Walker, a boy the grief counselor said Paul might be friends with. At home, Jack shows the detectives a make-out, grotesque cartoon the victim made. Later, a police computer technician shows them the video of a girls group, wearing sports goggles and masks, attacking Paul, knocking him down, kicking and punching him furiously. Nevertheless, the investigators cannot prove their theories until meticulous research yields a lost clue that could be the missing link to resolve the case.

Cast

Fact

• This episode bears many resemblances to a controversy over appropriate disciplinary action in incidences of online misbehavior on Facebook, where students of Horace Mann School were implicated in making racist and sexist comments, and derogating specific teachers in those terms (see Horace Mann School Controversy).

External links

• IMDb.com
• Official Website