Fontana is accused of using excessively violent tactics to force a kidnapping suspect to reveal the location of the victim. Prosecutors are left to decide whether the ends justified the mean... Read allFontana is accused of using excessively violent tactics to force a kidnapping suspect to reveal the location of the victim. Prosecutors are left to decide whether the ends justified the means.Fontana is accused of using excessively violent tactics to force a kidnapping suspect to reveal the location of the victim. Prosecutors are left to decide whether the ends justified the means.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe episode title is from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2: "... there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so ..."
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: Like it or not, in evaluating the case against Mitchell Lowell, Detective Fontana's actions are irrelevant and must be ignored. Like it or not, the law says that you must focus only on what the defendant did. I'm realistic; I know you're good people, and as such, it's next to impossible that you could ignore what you heard, or didn't hear, in this courtroom. And I also know that by asking you to weigh the defendant's actions against the police officer's, Mr. Dworkin is, in effect, appealing to your fundamental sense of fair play. Is that a bad thing? Heck, what's good for the goose is good for the gander; we all know that. Fairness is all. Or is it? Does Mr. Dworkin's fairness leave any room for justice? That fairness exists in a vacuum, while justice, on the other hand, cannot. In Mr. Dworkin's vacuum world, we'd have to treat a rapist the same as we'd treat a man who made love to his wife. After all, they've both performed the same physical act; it's only fair. In Mr. Dworkin's vacuum world, the terrorist must be treated the same as the soldier who tracks him down and kills him. Of course he does; each of them has taken a human life, and what's fair is only fair. In Mr. Dworkin's vacuum world, the man who takes a little girl hostage while attempting to rob a bank, as long as he feeds her well, must be treated better than a cop who used excessive force in trying to save the life of that innocent child. It's only fair, but is it just? The benchmark of a civilized society is the quality of its justice. In this society, we put kidnappers and bank robbers behind bars.
- ConnectionsFeatures I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937)
"Thinking Makes it So" is one of those episodes. While not quite a 'Law and Order' high point, to me it is one of the most memorable and best episodes of Season 16 and Fontana's behaviour and why the other characters don't challenge it as much (though it's hardly ignored) are much more understandable. It is also the episode that improved the most on rewatch. My thoughts on Borgia in "Thinking Makes it So" remains the same having said that.
Borgia's character writing is the one thing that didn't work for me in "Thinking Makes it So". Actually liked her (at least she had some personality and was professional, unlike Southerlyn) and always did feel that she didn't get enough of a chance to completely shine or develop, but here she comes over as very opinionated and stubborn in a way that she was not before. She always did have strong views expressed strongly, but not like this.
Everything else isn't a problem. That is including Fontana's actions and the attitude towards it. The reactions were extreme, but it was spur on the moment anger when seeing how dangerous the perpetrator really was. What he does is nothing compared to the level of unprofessionalism seen in latter seasons 'Special Victims Unit' (which included confidentiality breaching, beating up suspects in prison and male bias).
Coming onto individual elements, the production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough without being leaden. The script is tight and thoughtful, raising some interesting questions in the legal portions, and the policing and legal scenes are equally good. The arrest in partiicular has a good deal of tension with the policing.
Performances are all strong and the perpetrator is one of the season's most despicable and creepily played.
In summary, great and so much better than remembered. 9/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 18, 2022