Newest episode featured guest star was multiple repeat offender Michael O’Keefe. I think his first L&O was playing a priest that had a murdering illegitimate son. Yesterday he played an arch bishop. Glad to see the church takes care of their own.
Baxter decided that cutting a plea deal with a murdered to recover some ugly-assed crown for the church was a good deal. Price was fumbling at the end to justify it to the victim’s family, when he should have just said “see that guy over there (Baxter)? Go tell him what you think.”
And Lt Columbo was working the case again. They should just make her the focus of the Law part, she’s much better than the two detectives.
Deals to return stolen art are common. Let us say instead of it being a religious item, it was The Concert by Johannes Vermeer. If a guard was killed during that robbery (which netted 13 major works, but afaik, no one was killed), yeah the DA would make a deal to get the art back.
What annoyed me about the episode was right at the beginning when the Archbishop insisted on accessing the crime scene in order to give a blessing over the victim, solely on the basis that he had been a devout Catholic. Then he started talking about how the recovery of the stolen crown should take precedence over solving the murder. This continued throughout the episode. I hadn’t realized that the Catholic Church had such power in New York to the point where an Archbishop could interfere with police investigations.
