Of all the ADAs who came and went over a 20 year series, it is Gill Hennessy's character, Claire Kincaid, who is my overall favourite.
Though confident, bright, knowledgable and hard-working, Claire conveys a sense of the unsettled ingenue, and no matter how committed to each brief (read episode), she may not be a right match, psychologically, to her chosen profession.
This uncertainty is alluded to in another episode when she jokes with an old classmate from Law School (fitting setup to the close of this episode) about them both packing it all in to run a flower shop - I presume somewhere in Hicksville where there are no city cops, disillusioned lawyers and no dregs of urban mankind; the meat & spuds of the Law & Order franchise.
These career doubts percolates nicely into Kincaid's final episode on L&O, when she returns to aforementioned Law School (after a pointedly grim start to the day) and has a philosophical chat with her old Professor (step-father) about the whys & wherefores of the death penalty.
Her black leather jacket & denim jeans betraying a rebellious spirit; but also a sense that she's in soul searching mode about her career in law, after going through a recent work-related trauma.
*****
The subsequent ADAs, have their own strengths & merits...but none have Kincaid's self-deprecating charm and moral uncertainty about their chosen profession. It's this self-doubt and and a conveyed sense of uncertainty that made Kincaid particularly special IMO.
A forlorn ending, but a must-see episode for all fans as we get to see the very human side to cops & lawyers: Briscoe & Briscoe's sidekick, McCoy & Kincaid.
Poor Claire...
Though confident, bright, knowledgable and hard-working, Claire conveys a sense of the unsettled ingenue, and no matter how committed to each brief (read episode), she may not be a right match, psychologically, to her chosen profession.
This uncertainty is alluded to in another episode when she jokes with an old classmate from Law School (fitting setup to the close of this episode) about them both packing it all in to run a flower shop - I presume somewhere in Hicksville where there are no city cops, disillusioned lawyers and no dregs of urban mankind; the meat & spuds of the Law & Order franchise.
These career doubts percolates nicely into Kincaid's final episode on L&O, when she returns to aforementioned Law School (after a pointedly grim start to the day) and has a philosophical chat with her old Professor (step-father) about the whys & wherefores of the death penalty.
Her black leather jacket & denim jeans betraying a rebellious spirit; but also a sense that she's in soul searching mode about her career in law, after going through a recent work-related trauma.
*****
The subsequent ADAs, have their own strengths & merits...but none have Kincaid's self-deprecating charm and moral uncertainty about their chosen profession. It's this self-doubt and and a conveyed sense of uncertainty that made Kincaid particularly special IMO.
A forlorn ending, but a must-see episode for all fans as we get to see the very human side to cops & lawyers: Briscoe & Briscoe's sidekick, McCoy & Kincaid.
Poor Claire...