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S24.E14 A Price To Pay

Xeliou66

By Xeliou66
in Law & Order

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mommalib

mommalib

I loved the end of this episode, Shaw is my favorite character and he usually kind of a boy scout always doing the right thing no matter how painful.  It was a nice change of pace to see him change the definition of what the right thing is for him. It added a layer to the character. And I loved the look he left on Nolan's usually smug face. 

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MediaZone4K

MediaZone4K

(edited)

It was shocking to see the procecution finally lose...well sort of, it was a plea deal that still resulted in jail time.

It would be realistic to see a few episodes result in a not guilty verdict. It adds a layer of suspence...will they nail the perp.

I get where Shaw was coming from, and that dead actor was no saint, but I was surprised to see Shaw totally put his job aside to protect his friend.

Liked that they acknowledged that this was a ripped from the headlines of Matthew Perry.

Edited by MediaZone4K
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marc20

marc20

(edited)

just spent months going through Spravato treatments (esketamine) for depression ....done through nasal spray...completely supervised at the hospital...there is one place in my mid to small city that does straight ketamine drip...I wish I could say I got as much help as the former cop/military guy in this episode...it had some benefits but it's a tough, and weird, process and I eventually gave it up...just felt the rewards weren't worth the effort...I could definitely see how some people would get hooked on it...no withdrawal effects for me

Edited by marc20
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MerBearHou

MerBearHou

(edited)

I had zero problem with the redeployment to Okinawa.  He came darn close, but I don’t think Shaw ever admitted anything specific.  I was pleased with Baxter for listening to Nolan’s story about his brother (so both Maroun and Nolan have siblings with troubled pasts) and yet not giving into the sad story and said “make a deal”.  Yes, the awful Queen K should have gotten more jail time but I’m relieved Darryl did not have to testify and lose everything.  Sad about the Matthew Perry / Johnny Colvin resemblance and I’m just sorry that Matthew lost himself so deeply in ketamine.  I don’t know a thing about it so this episode was informative about why people are drawn to it.  

Edited by MerBearHou
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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

I think the nice thing about Shaw's actions is there's layers about what the "right" thing to do is.  Does the military guy deserve to lose everything because he self-medicates over what he experienced while deployed?  What kind of witness would he be?  He'd be torn apart on the stand as a drug addict.  How much additional time would Dr. K have gotten compared to the deal she received? 

I don't have a problem with Shaw's choices. 

The one thing that did throw me is they made it seem like this guy was Shaw's training officer way back in the day.  Did they forget that Shaw became a cop after he was a lawyer?  But the way he explained it, I thought he said he was his TO, then he signed up for the military and it sounds like he spent years there.  I don't remember the specifics but I don't think Shaw did cop to lawyer to cop but rather did lawyer to cop and has only been a cop for a somewhat shorter amount of time.  Certainly not long enough for a guy who has been in the military for approximately 20 years to be his TO.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

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Decent story but I absolutely hated Shaw here - he should be fired or at the very least suspended. I’m pissed that the show has trashed an up to this point great character. I was hoping someone would punch him honestly - Shaw was disgusting putting himself above the law and putting his friend’s career ahead of doing the right thing, he was no better than the cops who bend the rules to suit their own agenda. Price was right to tell him off but I’m sure it will be forgotten about by next episode (and I kind of hope it is, as another poster put we don’t need an Olivia Benson on the Mothership, but it would also be nice to see him suspended for his actions) but I would have a hard time trusting him again. Disgusting that Shaw thought his coward friend’s career was worth more than getting justice for the victim just because the victim was rich, Shaw was playing god and acting like St Olivia. The perp deserved a hell of a lot more than the 6 to 10 she got. Shaw was disgusting here, I mean Riley didn’t act improper when his own brother was caught up in a case and when his brother acted like a coward and got in the way of justice Riley had him arrested. Shaw thinks that because of the different social status, his friend’s career was worth more than the victim’s life. Fuck that. 
Up until the end it was a very good episode, I liked the investigation and I thought Shaw/Riley did a good job as usual and I liked their interactions with the witnesses/suspects. Price/Baxter/Maroun were good as well, I particularly liked Price tonight, although Baxter was right at the end that they needed to make a deal - the judge wouldn’t give them anymore time and it would take a long time to get the witness back from Japan and wrangle with the military over it.

On another note, it was odd that Baxter got a bottle of liquor from a female admirer given that he’s married - did him and his wife split up/does he have a mistress, and will that be revisited? I did think there was some more humor and good one liners here, I hope that continues. 
So it was a solid ripped from the headlines case about celeb drug addiction, but I hated how they trashed Shaw and made him play god and act like St O. But Shaw really soured on me after this episode and I hope this never happens again. 

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

3 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

On another note, it was odd that Baxter got a bottle of liquor from a female admirer given that he’s married - did him and his wife split up/does he have a mistress, and will that be revisited? I did think there was some more humor and good one liners here, I hope that continues. 

I think they left his marriage in an iffy place in last season's finale.  I think we're going to find he's separated in the next episode.

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Xeliou66

Xeliou66

  • Author
1 minute ago, Irlandesa said:

I think they left his marriage in an iffy place in last season's finale.  I think we're going to find he's separated in the next episode.

Yes his wife didn’t show to his election night watch party and it was unclear whether they would separate or not, but nothing has been mentioned since. I’m interested if they reveal any more about this, but please don’t make his life a soap opera

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Does the military guy deserve to lose everything because he self-medicates over what he experienced while deployed?  What kind of witness would he be?  He'd be torn apart on the stand as a drug addict.  How much additional time would Dr. K have gotten compared to the deal she received? 

I am sympathetic to all that, but that doesn’t make Shaw’s actions any less unethical. And just because the victim wasn’t a saint doesn’t make him or his family a less deserving of justice. 

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Madding crowd

Madding crowd

The stalker was clearly based off “Baby Reindeer”. I think some of these rich people drug cases are difficult to prove but it would be frustrating to the DA’s office to have a witness who saw bloody shoes and not be able to use that information. Darryl was making the choice to try something illegal and that comes with a chance of losing his job.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

On 2/27/2025 at 9:43 PM, MerBearHou said:

I had zero problem with the redeployment to Okinawa.  He came darn close, but I don’t think Shaw ever admitted anything specific.  I was pleased with Baxter for listening to Nolan’s story about his brother (so both Maroun and Nolan have siblings with troubled pasts) and yet not giving into the sad story and said “make a deal”.  Yes, the awful Queen K should have gotten more jail time but I’m relieved Darryl did not have to testify and lose everything.  Sad about the Matthew Perry / Johnny Colvin resemblance and I’m just sorry that Matthew lost himself so deeply in ketamine.  I don’t know a thing about it so this episode was informative about why people are drawn to it.  

This👆is how I felt about everything in the episode too, except I am always annoyed when jail time is "not enough." 
I mean, if 6-10 years doesn't help, will more? 
Yeah, I know. What's to keep her from killing someone else when she gets out? 
I guess in this case I'm not sure. 

 

16 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

The dead actor's stalker was creepy but adorable. From her expressions at the end of the case I'm was sure sure she or the actor's fiancé would've shot the drug dealer defendant after the plea.

Thank goodness they didn't drag out that old L&O cliché, which really wouldn't quite fit in this case. Hmmm. Maybe they were going there and took it out?

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I am sympathetic to all that, but that doesn’t make Shaw’s actions any less unethical. And just because the victim wasn’t a saint doesn’t make him or his family a less deserving of justice. 

I was pointing out that the witness wasn't going to be a good witness even if he did testify so justice wouldn't have been guaranteed.  Far from it. 

And we don't know what Shaw did.  Do we really think a cop was able to arrange a deployment for a service member in the short period?  I don't. 

Shaw listed his objections.  Baxter told him that he sympathized and then basically told him to leverage his relationship to convince Moore to testify.  And we did see Shaw try to do exactly that and got nowhere.  It's not his responsibility to get the witness to court or convince him to testify. 

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dubbel zout

dubbel zout

10 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

And we don't know what Shaw did.  Do we really think a cop was able to arrange a deployment for a service member in the short period?  I don't. 

I think all Shaw did was give Moore a head's up that a subpoena was imminent. I doubt Moore could have gotten a reassignment that quickly, but plot points must be served.

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marny

marny

I was perfectly fine with what Shaw did as far as warning his friend <shrug>. And that’s literally all he did— it’s not as though he personally flew him out of the country or concealed his whereabouts.
 

Sure, the actor’s ex-wife was disappointed in the plea deal but her ex-husband laid down with dogs and got fleas. She should have been happy that Lady K was willing to enter a plea at all. And as for the “fight for justice”, the DA was willing to give complete immunity to the doctor who was distributing millions of dollars in drugs that were harming and/or killing people.  So they can miss me with their staunch principles. God forbid a veteran who served our country and got PTSD as his thanks gets to keep his career and VA benefits. Shaw can call me to hang out any day. 

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storyskip

storyskip

Shaw tampered with a witness. Whether what he did was morally right or wrong doesn’t matter. He broke the law.

This is the exact same s**t Olivia does on SVU. Don’t like the way things are going while following the law? Take the law into your own hands.

Also, Darryl wasn’t some hero saint. He lied to Shaw twice. If he’d told the truth (at least the second time) and come forward, maybe the DA’s office could have worked with him. But he lied.

Compare Shaw’s actions to Riley, when it Riley was faced with a similar conflict of interest. Shaw has a bad habit of becoming a sanctimonious p***k when he decides he knows better than the law. No different than how St Olivia bulldozes things to fit her world view.

I wish the writers would use SVU as a containment zone for that s**t. If they wanted to have Shaw do this, fine but give us a two episode arc of Shaw getting investigated for witness tampering. Let the “drama” come from Shaw having to search his soul and decide whether he wants to be a cop, or go back to being a DA.

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marny

marny

(edited)

As an attorney, I can comfortably say he didn’t commit witness tampering. DA told Shaw to try to convince his friend to testify. Shaw tried and told him that he’d be subpoenaed if he wouldn’t do it voluntarily. So the guy bounced. Like I said earlier, unless he helped him flee the country, Shaw did nothing wrong. He just didn’t go the extra mile by stopping his friend. They threaten witnesses every week. This is just the first time a witness figured out how to tell them to fuck off without breaking the law. Shaw can sleep fine at night and Nolan was just blowing hot air because he’s a snot who hates to lose. And Shaw knew Nolan was full of shit because he said “ok, go ahead and arrest me” and Nolan stood there impotently fully knowing he had no grounds for arrest. 

Edited by marny
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dubbel zout

dubbel zout

4 hours ago, marny said:

And Shaw knew Nolan was full of shit because he said “ok, go ahead and arrest me” and Nolan stood there impotently fully knowing he had no grounds for arrest.

That was pretty satisfying, even if it once again showed that Nolan is a pretty terrible prosecutor.

The writers aren't doing the order side any favors by throwing stupid monkey wrenches into the prosecutors' cases week after week. In the good old days, if a confession got tossed out, we usually heard that the judge was pro defense or a stickler for the Fourth Amendment or whatever the reason was for the inadmissibility. Now it always seems like it's incompetence on the DA's part. It's like all of the lawyers got their JDs at L&O Law School, lol. But it's not funny, really, and it's tiresome to watch Price and Maroun somehow botch the case every week.

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Raja

Raja

(edited)
On 2/27/2025 at 7:16 PM, Irlandesa said:

The one thing that did throw me is they made it seem like this guy was Shaw's training officer way back in the day.  Did they forget that Shaw became a cop after he was a lawyer?  But the way he explained it, I thought he said he was his TO, then he signed up for the military and it sounds like he spent years there.  I don't remember the specifics but I don't think Shaw did cop to lawyer to cop but rather did lawyer to cop and has only been a cop for a somewhat shorter amount of time.  Certainly not long enough for a guy who has been in the military for approximately 20 years to be his TO

That is how I remember Shaw's introduction. But if we made the distinction between cop and detective like Fontana used to do I think we can make it work as Shaw being in law school like Lupo was and/or leaving the police service and then coming back like the Criminal Minds SSA Hochner was a prosecutor before he was a special agent.

I don't know if you can come in direct and get to homicide detective as the law school with limited other experience when Frank Cosgrove started to mentor him in the job. But another work around would be Staff Sergeant Moore being a Marine reserve and then deciding to stay full time at one point. I had a couple of co workers do deployments and come home get deployment orders again and then were close enough to a military retirement to finish off in the military service and retiring with that 50% pension. I'm not sure exactly how the military system changed in 2018.

A computer scene and an undercover scene Yee. I wonder if Wolf et al has picked up on our buzz about Connie Shi.

Edited by Raja

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