Episode 18/3: Misbegotten

Fan Review by Mari

CAUTION: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!

Before you get mad, remember, these are only my opinions, and I am nothing more than a tiny little human being among teeming millions.

This episode screams of controversy, and because I am not a professional reviewer, and this is a commentary, I will more than likely insert a few of my own viewpoints. Those of you who are familiar with my diarrhea of the keyboard wouldn't expect anything less, right? ; )

We tend to feel that we've come along way as a civilization, but just how evolved we are comes to light in this, granted fictitious, but very timely and realistic depiction of homophobia.

A lazy-ass male security guard lacks the consideration to give a pregnant guard the desk, and allows her to lug a few heavy boxes into an elevator. Suddenly an explosion rocks the building and the female guard is severely injured in the apparent bombing.

The woman's husband Ryan (Thomas Guiry) is tearful, and his brother Dean (Kevin Rankin) is supportive, but immediately the detectives suspect something is amiss, as Ryan has recently separated from Lori and back home living with Dean and their ailing father. Ryan's in-laws disapprove of Ryan's decision to continue self employment in a family construction business that has not had much action lately. They also dislike Ryan's brother Dean...for some reason. The police begin to speculate as to whether or not the marital strife between Lori and Ryan is motive for Ryan wanting to kill mother and baby...a cheaper and quicker alternative to divorce.

There is a hint that Detective Green is interested in Detective Lupo's sister in law. Oh God, no. Please don't do this. Please no silly-ass love triangles just to give SIL a reason to be in ths show!!! This is LAW & ORDER, remember? Don't tell me it's a way to grab at new fans. You've got plenty of new fans on board with the arrival of Sisto and Roache...this isn't DAYS OF OUR LIVES...

Luckily, only a few moments were spent on that, whatever it is destined to be. I wonder, though, what Lupo was doing when he asked Green, "You like kids?" Okay, enough of that. The detectives probe into videos of the crime scene and follow a suspicious looking little white box until they arrive at a medical lab. Information about an erroneous amniocentesis lead them to question a couple who have been desperate to have a child. Green gets a bit too personal in his line of questioning, and then gets quite personal with Lupo, revealing some obviously still difficult memories and decisions about an unplanned pregnancy. I don't mind a bit of personal stuff about our detectives...I'd rather this than what I ranted about in the preceding paragraph.

Eventually, Green and Lupo find out about Dr. Hoffman (Grand Shaud), a geneticist who had come under fire from Christian and conservative groups for his theory about homosexuality being anything but a "choice". Hoffman asserts that because of the death threats, he has ceased that research and now conducts "non-controversial" genetic studies.

The detectives follow ever more clues to a psychiatrist named Dr. Bellamy, who refuses to divulge anything at all. In an impatient and headlong move, Lupo snatches Bellamy's blackberry and downloads his address book, hoping to get something useful. The "bad" search (man, Van Buren has her hands full with these two boys of hers!) does yield some good stuff, including the connection between Ryan and Dean's dad's nitro pills and the bombing. Alas, the evidence gathered from the blackberry search is all excluded by the judge.

Thrown out or not, this evidence gives Cutter and Rubirosa new clues about possible perpetrator and motive.

More information comes their way. It turns out that the victim Lori had been seeing the same Dr. Hoffman, presumably for genetic testing for birth defects or diseases, but the sly doctor has actually been continuing his search for the gay gene in unborn children. He insists there is such a thing as the gay gene, for Lori's fetus has it. That's not the whole of it. According to Dr. Hoffman, Lori revealed that her husband's family has a history of homosexuality (the way this is worded almost makes being gay indeed sound like a disease, doesn't it?), and that Dean is gay.

After Dr. Hoffman's revelation about Lori's unborn baby on the witness stand, her father suddenly comes foreward, claiming that Dean, the chief suspect now, was with him, and nowhere near the site of the explosion. But soon enough, we learn that there is a very high price attached to Lori's Dad stepping up to defend Dean, a young man he has already stated he dislikes.

The outcome is overwhelmingly sad for all involved parties, and I think Thomas Guiry and Kevin Rankin gave excellent performances. The writers do not reveal whether the Emmersons or the Druckers are of any particular faith. I am not sure just how far along science is with the gay gene theory, but I am inclined to believe that it exists. I'm sure there will be desperate attempts to silence and/or disprove it, just as the obesity gene theory has been rejected (Hey, it's just a lot more fun to continue to insult, blame and hate fat people than it is to understand, accept and perhaps EMBRACE them). We are taught to hate and to be terrified of certain people, and what's really sad is that the people who target certain groups are people who know that deep inside, they may have similarities to those they are persecuting.

Before I say this, I want to clarify I am PRO-CHOICE: If and when the gay gene is ever proven, I will be mighty interested to learn how many Christians, Catholics and other religions who are outspoken against abortion, begin praticing and justifying the procedure because "homosexuality is a sin, a disease, a perversion, etc."

In the closing scenes of this facinating and highly provocative story, Ryan asks Dean (paraphrasing), "Why would I want my child to have the kind of life you had...the beatings you took in school?" Dean tearfully retorts, "Being gay is not a disease!" but Ryan says, "Where we live, bro, it might as well be."

It's too goddammed bad we have to realize where Ryan is coming from. Dean wouldn't have had such a miserable closeted life, Lori's and Ryan's families wouldn't have so much to fear for their almost and/or would-have-been grandbaby, if the world wasn't so full of hateful, ignorant, narrow-minded people.

This gets an A+. I'll even overlook the weird Green/Jenny Lupo thing...

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All opinions are solely those of the reviewer, and are NOT those of any actor, producer, or crew-member of NBC or LAW & ORDER, nor are they the opinions of Angelfire/Lycos Inc.