Family Values (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
Encyclopedia
"Family Values" is an eighth-season episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...

and the 163rd episode overall. This episode was originally set to air after "Playing Dead
Playing Dead (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
"Playing Dead" is the eighth season premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the 156th episode overall.- Plot :In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate when two drug-addicted kids are shot in their apartment, killing one in the process and injuring the other...

" which was the episode chosen to be the season premiere.

Plot

A man disturbed by the imagery of a girl wearing a low-cut costume in a school play walks out and drives to a house reciting religious scripture. He sips a mug while wearing rubber gloves. A dead woman lies on the floor next to his table. The man of the house returns and the assailant ambushes him with a hammer. Eames and Goren are called to the scene in the morning. They note that the case is peculiar because of the woman's apparent familiarity with her killer but nothing of value, even one-thousand dollars in cash was taken, nor any sexual assault took place during the home invasion.

It turns out the killer, Paul Devildis (David Harbour) and his wife Mary (Susan Misner) are the victims' relatives. He is extremely socially-conservative, even having used a towel to cover the chest of his sister-in-law after killing her. Paul learns from his daughter Kathy (Britt Robertson) that she will next be performing in a Tennessee Williams play, which he disapproves of, because of Williams's homosexuality. Paul confronts her drama teacher, Vilma (Karen Ziemba) over this. He later walks out of an alley, dropping his hammer in a dumpster. She is found dead the next morning, being killed by a hammer.

It is revealed that despite being a lesbian, Vilma taught at a conservative Christian school and not every parent approved of the drama program, of which Paul was one. Paul builds a pipe bomb which is delivered to and detonated by the boss who fired him from his bank job at which he has been pretending to work for the past five months. The body count continues to escalate as Paul's wife and pet dog are found dead in his house, but he has absconded with his daughter. Goren theorizes that Paul's mother will be next. Listening to the radio, Kathy discovers what her father has done and unsuccessfully attempts to escape. After apprehending Paul near his mother's retirement home, Eames and Goren now must race to look for the now-missing daughter before hypothermia sets in. Goren manages to use Paul's fanaticism against him to reveal Kathy's location in time.

Trivia

  • This episode was originally set to air after “Playing Dead
    Playing Dead (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
    "Playing Dead" is the eighth season premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the 156th episode overall.- Plot :In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate when two drug-addicted kids are shot in their apartment, killing one in the process and injuring the other...

    ”. But to due to the reset dates of the season premiere (Nov 08, Jan 09, and Feb 09) and the Goldblum/Nicholson episodes not ready yet, the network shifted the episodes around, no reason why has been mentioned to this date.

  • Based loosely on the case of John List
    John List
    John Emil List was an American murderer. On November 9, 1971, he murdered his wife, mother, and three children in Westfield, New Jersey, and then disappeared. He had planned everything so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone noticed that anything was amiss...

    .

Cast

Vincent D’Onofrio   Det. Robert Goren
Robert Goren
Det. Robert "Bobby" Goren is a fictional character featured in the NBC-USA Network police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio....

Kathryn Erbe
Kathryn Erbe
Kathryn Elsbeth Erbe is an American actress known for her role as Det. Alexandra Eames in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a spin-off of Law & Order, and death row inmate Shirley Bellinger in the HBO series Oz.-Personal life:...

 
Det. Alexandra Eames
Alexandra Eames
Det. Alexandra "Alex" Eames is a fictional police detective with the NYPD Major Case Squad featured in the NBC-USA Network Law & Order: Criminal Intent, portrayed by Kathryn Erbe...

Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...

 
Capt. Daniel Ross

External links

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