S24.E20 Sins of the Father

[Xeliou66]

Episode description 

When a car mechanic is murdered execution-style, Shaw and Riley suspect his job was a cover for more sinister talents. As the trial gets underway for the arrested suspect, Baxter, Price and Maroun are faced with who should answer for the crime. 

[Xeliou66]

Surprised no comments yet, because this was a great episode. One of the revival’s very best - gripping story from start to finish.

I liked having a classic case of a drug murder, and each character played a nice role in the episode, although Maroun once again annoyed me (more on that below). This had a really good investigation by Riley/Shaw, nice to see Shaw back and I’m glad there’s no lasting tension between him and Riley after his last episode, they had their normal rapport and banter in the investigation and they did a good investigation and had some good one liners. The scene where the guy shot at them was intense and I the scene where they found the drug lab and discovered the bodies were dumped in the water was chilling.

I liked the twists and turns the case took and how they built the case against the mastermind - Ernesto was in serious denial about his scumbag dad and he needed to face the truth, glad he seemed to pull his head out of his ass at the end and hopefully sticks with the deal and avoids his family. Maroun’s defending him was annoying me, he needed the wake up call they gave him but whiny Maroun wanted to go easy because he wasn’t evil like the rest of his family, Maroun is such a softy and she had some nerve to imply Baxter was unethical to want to put the screws to him - he didn’t know about the murder ahead of time but he knew afterwards and still wouldn’t help, that was obstruction and an accessory after the fact, and Baxter was 100% right to charge him to get him to flip on his dad. Maroun didn’t seem to care about all the people dying because of Antonio. Maroun really irritates me often and I wouldn’t miss her if she departed the show.

I really liked seeing a lot of DA/police interactions, and we even got Baxter visiting a crime scene, that rarely happens. They are doing a great job of making solving the cases a team effort this season and having a lot of interaction between the main characters.

I liked Baxter being the one to personally look into the phone messages and him reading the texts was kind of funny to me. Also I liked the opening scene for once, with the jerk complaining about his car, that added some humor to the show and I kind of expected the auto shop owner to play a role in the case other than just being a witness given his role in the opening.

Overall this episode was great, maybe the best of the season, excellent story and good stuff for each character. Other than my complaints about Maroun, no flaws here. Really strong.

[MerBearHou]

Agreed @Xeliou66 it was an excellent episode from beginning to end and felt like the best of the old L&O over the years.  Great police work, well done involvement by Baxter, Price was good, terrific to have Shaw and Riley together again, and once again, the very weak link was Maroun with her absurd whininess and telling the story about her family which was meant to pull on heartstrings and guilt the lawyers and PD into going soft.  I was so nervous when Ernesto was in his parents’ house — him agreeing to find evidence against his absolutely horrible father showed that Ernesto had a moral compass despite the family that raised him.  Heartbreaking moment at the end when he asked to see his mom and Maroun told him she wasn’t coming.  Fitting but sad.  Maybe another reason I enjoyed this so much was the lack of a trial — it was a refreshing change.  Keep it up, L&O — this one fired on all cylinders.  

Edited May 2 by MerBearHou

[dubbel zout]

It cracked me up that when they went to arrest the cousin (or whoever that was), Riley and Shaw brought along some backup, so no foot chase was needed. Fastest apprehension ever! Hee.

I had a hard time believing the son was that naive about what his father did. I can see willful ignorance, but come on. What drug kingpin hasn't murdered a few people along the way? 

As for Maroun's story, I'm not sure how applicable that was. Her family didn't seem to have the money to send more than one kid to good schools, whereas the drug guy would have had plenty. What he wanted to do was keep his son out of the family business.

i don't think the show knows what to do with Maroun. She doesn't work as some sort of moral compass/working class perspective for the DA's office, and her obvious discomfort with doing what needs to be done to get a conviction makes her a bad prosecutor. It doesn't help that Odelya Halevi gives Maroun no personality. To be fair, Hugh Dancy doesn't give Nolan much of one. It's a big problem with the reboot.

[storyskip]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

It cracked me up that when they went to arrest the cousin (or whoever that was), Riley and Shaw brought along some backup, so no foot chase was needed. Fastest apprehension ever! Hee.

I had a hard time believing the son was that naive about what his father did. I can see willful ignorance, but come on. What drug kingpin hasn't murdered a few people along the way? 

As for Maroun's story, I'm not sure how applicable that was. Her family didn't seem to have the money to send more than one kid to good schools, whereas the drug guy would have had plenty. What he wanted to do was keep his son out of the family business.

i don't think the show knows what to do with Maroun. She doesn't work as some sort of moral compass/working class perspective for the DA's office, and her obvious discomfort with doing what needs to be done to get a conviction makes her a bad prosecutor. It doesn't help that Odelya Halevi gives Maroun no personality. To be fair, Hugh Dancy doesn't give Nolan much of one. It's a big problem with the reboot.

Agreed about Halevi, I have never seen any range from her. But I respectfully disagree about Dancy.

I firmly believe Nolan’s personality “suffers” depending upon the director. For example the episode Fear and Loathing, the director seemed to give the actors more leeway to craft their narratives, and Dancy, Donovan and Brooks all had a chance to incorporate fun quirks into their performances that showed different sides of their characters. 
 

With the exception of Halevi, who has been a weak link from the start, I tend to blame character inconsistency/wooden performances on the writers and directors.

[blackwing]

I agree that this episode was a nice change of pace in that it broke away from the usual formula of the first suspect being a red herring, then a tip off to the next one, leading to an arrest at 29 minutes past the hours.  Then a trial.

The investigation about the drug lord was well done.  I agre with the sentiment that there's no way the son couldn't have known what his father was up to.  There's definitely some willfull blindness going on in that household on his part and the mother's part.  I also didn't buy the ignorance about him not knowing what his cousin was doing, or that his cousin had been arrested and then subsequently killed in prison.  The cousin's parents would have been notified and surely someone in the family would have said something to Ernesto or his mom.

I was afraid that the dad was going to kill him.  I thought the dad broke his neck and then we were going to see the police officers enter the room, see Ernesto dead on the ground, and then episode fade to black.

Instead, he gets put into WITSEC.  I wonder how they explain it to his school?  "Had to leave suddenly.  Oh and by the way, his father got arrested for murder."  

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

As for Maroun's story, I'm not sure how applicable that was. Her family didn't seem to have the money to send more than one kid to good schools, whereas the drug guy would have had plenty. What he wanted to do was keep his son out of the family business.

i don't think the show knows what to do with Maroun. She doesn't work as some sort of moral compass/working class perspective for the DA's office, and her obvious discomfort with doing what needs to be done to get a conviction makes her a bad prosecutor. It doesn't help that Odelya Halevi gives Maroun no personality. To be fair, Hugh Dancy doesn't give Nolan much of one. It's a big problem with the reboot.

Yet another instance of Bleeding Heart Maroun.  She revealed that they got by because her dad did illegal things to earn money to put her through school.  So she thinks the Chinese gambling ring (led by the actress who played Madame Gao in the Netflix version of Daredevil) should get afforded the same breaks.

I'm so tired of Maroun.  She obviously isn't cut out to be a prosecutor.  I think the actress is bad as well, but I disagree that she doesn't give Maroun any personality.  Maroun has a personality, it's consistently whiny and self-righteous.

I am hoping for a "shocking" season finale in which Maroun gets killed on the courthouse steps.

[marc20]

not only a non-trial episode but heavy on action, which was well done but don't want the show to go too far in that direction

[marny]

I think Maroun’s character suffers because the writers don’t know what to do with her. As is the apparent requirement on this show, the female ADA sidekick is merely a sounding board for the brilliant male ADA’s self-righteousness. She doesn’t get to speak at trial— she doesn’t have any actual function as a lawyer. If you watch the older episodes, it was always like this. Jack McCoy’s hot sidekicks always disagreed about some moral issue in the case or questioned the integrity of certain decisions and then either got smacked down by the DA himself (or, briefly, herself) for having an opinion or got to give a smug one liner at the end when it turns out she was right. Truly a thankless role that makes no sense when there’s much better gender parity in the law than there used to be. 

I’ve said it before but a lead female ADA would be nice. Or even letting a female ADA speak on the record would satisfy. I remember Connie got to speak in trial once but it was because the male ADA noticed a juror thought she was hot and took advantage. Which is a truly a gross excuse to let a woman matter on this show for once. 

[storyskip]

Maroun has gotten to sit first chair a couple of times. I am not digging back through multiple seasons, but I believe at least half of those times she’s almost tanked the case because of her empathy for the defendant, or witness for the defense. I can think of at least 2 separate instances where Maroun has had an opportunity, been about to blow it/blow up her career, and Nolan has had to intervene.

I do not enjoy Halevi’s performance, period. But from a character perspective, Maroun is NOT doing her own career any favors by trying to pretend she wants a career as a prosecutor.

At this point it would be logical for her to do a reverse of what Nolan did. It was cut from the reboot pilot, but we know that Nolan was a public defender who grew to realize his beliefs in the law were better suited for a DA.

Maroun could be the same. Recognizing, after years as a DA, that she is better suited to being a public defender. It doesn’t even have to be seen as a “demotion”. Rather a natural, lateral move that would afford her multiple paths for growing herself and her career.

Even if Nolan retired and Maroun became the EADA, she’d be weak because, when she’s sympathetic towards the defendant or a witness, she never wants to play hardball. We’ve seen Nolan struggle with his marching orders, from Jack and Nick, but at the end of the day he sets aside his personal feelings and gets the job done. Maroun struggles with this compartmentalization.

 

[Raja]

2 hours ago, marny said:

’ve said it before but a lead female ADA would be nice. Or even letting a female ADA speak on the record would satisfy. I remember Connie got to speak in trial once but it was because the male ADA noticed a juror thought she was hot and took advantage. Which is a truly a gross excuse to let a woman matter on this show for once. 

My mind went to she was serving as a public defender during their strike.

With the template change to the squad Lieutenant and the Executive ADA's assistant prosecutor was seen as a done and done for gender roles on the show.

[marny]

2 hours ago, storyskip said:

Maroun has gotten to sit first chair a couple of times. I am not digging back through multiple seasons, but I believe at least half of those times she’s almost tanked the case because of her empathy for the defendant, or witness for the defense. I can think of at least 2 separate instances where Maroun has had an opportunity, been about to blow it/blow up her career, and Nolan has had to intervene.

I do not enjoy Halevi’s performance, period. But from a character perspective, Maroun is NOT doing her own career any favors by trying to pretend she wants a career as a prosecutor.

At this point it would be logical for her to do a reverse of what Nolan did. It was cut from the reboot pilot, but we know that Nolan was a public defender who grew to realize his beliefs in the law were better suited for a DA.

Maroun could be the same. Recognizing, after years as a DA, that she is better suited to being a public defender. It doesn’t even have to be seen as a “demotion”. Rather a natural, lateral move that would afford her multiple paths for growing herself and her career.

Even if Nolan retired and Maroun became the EADA, she’d be weak because, when she’s sympathetic towards the defendant or a witness, she never wants to play hardball. We’ve seen Nolan struggle with his marching orders, from Jack and Nick, but at the end of the day he sets aside his personal feelings and gets the job done. Maroun struggles with this compartmentalization.

 

I’m actually fine with her being a prosecutor and still having empathy. Our justice system would be much better if more prosecutors did. I’ve worked on both sides of the aisle and the best prosecutors were ones who understood how to treat people with humanity. 

[Irlandesa]

On 5/2/2025 at 9:44 AM, dubbel zout said:

I had a hard time believing the son was that naive about what his father did. I can see willful ignorance, but come on. What drug kingpin hasn't murdered a few people along the way? 

As for Maroun's story, I'm not sure how applicable that was. Her family didn't seem to have the money to send more than one kid to good schools, whereas the drug guy would have had plenty. What he wanted to do was keep his son out of the family business.

I think what they wanted wiht the scene got lost in the writing of the scene.  I thought she was going to argue that, as the first gen "golden" child of immigrants, she was protected from the real source of her father's income and the same could be true of the son.  But, that's not what happened so it was strange.

Quote

I don't think the show knows what to do with Maroun. She doesn't work as some sort of moral compass/working class perspective for the DA's office, and her obvious discomfort with doing what needs to be done to get a conviction makes her a bad prosecutor. It doesn't help that Odelya Halevi gives Maroun no personality. To be fair, Hugh Dancy doesn't give Nolan much of one. It's a big problem with the reboot.

I kind of think if the same complaints are being made about her week after week, they kind of do know what they're doing with her.  Maybe not well but she actually has a point of view.  I find it easier to predict her take than Nolan's.

But I agree with the performances.  The funny thing to me is these are the only two characters who haven't been replaced even though they've been the weakest links since the beginning.

I've seen Hugh Dancy be good in other things but for me, his character is the most important to replace as he's the one with the more prominent role in the show.

[Xeliou66]

I think they’ve made Maroun’s character pretty consistent - she’s soft, somewhat whiny and frequently very sympathetic to suspects. She’s definitely the weakest link of the main characters. I for one have no issue with Price, I may cut him some slack because the lead prosecutor character will always be compared to McCoy and no one can live up to that, but I like Price pretty good overall and this season has been his strongest IMO. I love Riley/Shaw, Brady has grown on me in the second half of this season after a rocky start, and I like Nick Baxter and what he brings. If anyone leaves, please let it be Maroun, she’s clearly the weakest link.

This episode overall was one of the season’s best - there was a bit more action than normal and no courtroom scenes, but it worked very well for this case and it had good twists without feeling forced or overboard and it flowed nicely from start to finish. 

[MediaZone4K]

 

this was a particularly strong episode, one of the best this season.

When they went to the Chinese neighborhood it felt like old Law & Order or SVU where they explore a culture when visiting an ethnic enclave. But what I thought was going to be a Chinese spy episode turned into a Hispanic drug cartel murder. Cool twists.

There was no trial but they still found a way to bring the prosecution in.

[blackwing]

On 5/3/2025 at 9:07 AM, storyskip said:

Maroun has gotten to sit first chair a couple of times. I am not digging back through multiple seasons, but I believe at least half of those times she’s almost tanked the case because of her empathy for the defendant, or witness for the defense. I can think of at least 2 separate instances where Maroun has had an opportunity, been about to blow it/blow up her career, and Nolan has had to intervene.

I do not enjoy Halevi’s performance, period. But from a character perspective, Maroun is NOT doing her own career any favors by trying to pretend she wants a career as a prosecutor.

Agreed.  The episode this year (I think) where she didn't care about the consequences and was going to go confront someone, but Nolan stopped her.  Many times she has argued for the defendant's point of view or for leniency.  Just a few episodes ago she was telling Nolan they needed to give the defendant a plea.

I think the actress is terrible.  She has an incredibly whiny voice and I don't know if they are doing anything interesting or not with her makeup, but she always looks like she has duck lips.  I agree with the sentiment that she is the weakest link of the six core team members and yet has kept the role even as most everyone else has changed.  Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with her as long as the actress wants the role, as a female Middle Eastern actress she adds diversity to the cast.

On 5/3/2025 at 11:24 AM, marny said:

I’m actually fine with her being a prosecutor and still having empathy. Our justice system would be much better if more prosecutors did. I’ve worked on both sides of the aisle and the best prosecutors were ones who understood how to treat people with humanity. 

I think it's fine to have empathy.  What I think is not fine is when that empathy overrides the law.  There have been many instances when it seems like she would just rather let the defendant go because she feels sorry for him or her.

[ML89]

Shaw and Riley had lots of backup when they didn’t need it and then none in their shootout and finding of Breaking Bad East, when they needed it. Yes, guys, great idea to go investigate the sketchy containers at the dock at midnight without even one uniform.

I have to join the chorus of Maroun needs to go, and I’m not that big a fan of the rest of the DA’s office. How we’ve cycled through everyone else and not at least her is a mystery  

 

[Raja]

23 minutes ago, ML89 said:

I have to join the chorus of Maroun needs to go, and I’m not that big a fan of the rest of the DA’s office. How we’ve cycled through everyone else and not at least her is a mystery