NYPD Blue, Season 2, Episode 13, "Travels with Andy"

Written by Rosemary Breslin
Directed by Mark Tinker

PLOT ONE: UNEASY RIDERS
Sipowicz and Simone catch a triple-homicide - three workers at a coffee 
shop were killed in an apparent robbery. One of the victim's parents 
claims that it might be their daughter's ex-boyfriend, but he claims 
they've always had it in for him because he's not Jewish. He steadfastly 
maintains his innocence, even after a witness puts him at the scene of 
the crime earlier that night (he claims he just went to have coffee with 
his ex).

Before things get too intense, however, Fancy gets a call from the 
sherrif of Cannonsville, a small farm town upstate, where a young man 
picked up on a weapons charge was found with receipts from the diner 
where the triple-murder took place. They don't have much time before he's 
arraigned on the weapons charge, so Fancy orders Sip and Simone to drive 
up to Cannonsville.

Andy doesn't enjoy the drive (for reasons to be explained by Plot 
Three), but Bobby's having a great time, especially since it gives him a 
chance to send his homing pigeons on a cross-country run back to 
Brooklyn. Unfortunately, when they arrive in Cannonsville, another pair 
of detectives are interrogating their suspect about *another* 
multiple-homicide, so Bobby and Andy kill time in an antique store. In 
the meantime, back at the 15, Medavoy comes across the fact that one of 
the murder victims had just purchased a new crucifix, but it wasn't found 
on his person after the crime. He faxes a picture of the crucifix to 
Andy, who uses it to make a case against the suspect, a very rude punk 
who supports his naive parents with the money from his robberies.
The Cannonsville authorities let Sip and Simone take him back to NY, 
where Andy nearly tussles with him before throwing him in the cage.
Bobby apologizes to the dead girl's ex-boyfriend - who'd been detained in 
the precincthouse all the time Bobby was chasing down the real killer - 
and tells him he owes him a favor.

PLOT TWO: RAPE, MURDER...IT'S JUST A SHOT AWAY
Lesniak and Martinez investigate the assault/attempted rape of an elderly 
woman. When they go to interview the victim in Bellevue, it turns out 
that her doctor is an old high school friend of Adrienne's. Much to the 
chagrin of James (who harbors a major crush on Adrienne), the doctor asks 
her out and she accepts. The victim didn't get a good look at her 
assailant, but a bus driver who was in the area spotted a man running 
from the general vicinity, and it turns out that both the bus driver 
and the victim saw a man with a black & red baseball jacket. The bus 
driver is certain that the man he saw was an Indian (from India), and 
picks out a face in a mugbook, a Mr. Patel.

Despite some initial misgivings (the mugbook photo shouldn't have legally 
been there for the bus driver to see), they bring in Patel, and James 
convinces him to let them take his jacket for a lab analysis (the woman 
had sprayed mace at her attacker). The test comes back positive, but 
that's not really enough for a conviction, "But he doesn't know that," 
says James. Before they can go back into Interrogation, word comes from 
Bellevue that the old woman had a stroke and died - and if they tell 
Patel that he's now about to be charged with murder, he'll lawyer up 
instantly. They go back in and quickly convince Patel to confess so he 
can receive some help for his "problem."

After Patel's finished his statement and taken for booking, James asks 
Adrienne out for drinks to celebrate, but she already has a date with her 
doctor friend. James leaves the precincthouse alone.

PLOT THREE: REGISTER THE CHINA PATTERNS...
The first Big Fight for Andy and Sylvia since they got back together: 
Sylvia wants a big Greek wedding (which would involve, among other 
thigns, Andy wearing a crown of flowers on his head), while Andy would 
prefer to just go to some quickie chapel in Maryland and get it over 
with. Sylvia's very incensed at the thought that Andy would want to marry 
her in a place that smells of cheap booze and cigarettes. She's still mad 
when Andy and Bobby head up to Cannonsville. In the antique store, Andy 
admits to Bobby that he's having relationship problems, and Bobby 
suggests that Andy get Sylvia a cameo. Andy claims that he doesn't know 
if Sylvia would like that sort of thing Q "Maybe you should," replies 
Bobby Q but buys a cameo for her anyway.

That night, Andy and Sylvia sit down to talk and he tells her that a 
Greek wedding would be great for him - "How many times am I gonna get to 
wear a crown of flowers?" And when he gives her the cameo, Sylvia is 
stunned - she's always loved cameos (despite never owning one), but how 
could Andy have known that? The cameo turns out to be of Aphrodite, the 
Greek goddess of love, and the two of them decide to do a little pagan 
worshipping....

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Well, that was a *very* refreshing change of pace.

Earlier in the year, I complained that my problem with the cookie-cutter 
murder plots wasn't so much in their predictability but in the fact that 
they never showed us anything new about the characters - if I wanted to 
watch generic sleuthing, I can always turn on "Hunter".

But tonight's show, while still featuring two crimes solved in the hour, 
wasn't really about either crime - it was about the way the 
investigations affected/were affected by the romantic difficulties of 
Andy and James. The most important part of the "A" plot wasn't that 
Anthony Michael Hall did it, but that it gave Andy a chance to buy Sylvia 
a cameo. The most important part of the "B" plot wasn't the confession 
they obtained from Patel, but the fact that James' attraction to Adrienne 
is definitely unrequited and the fact that he had to put on a good face 
while she was flirting with the doctor.

Smits and Franz once again had great chemistry - I love the contrast of 
the overly chipper Bobby, who enjoys life as it comes, and Andy, who's 
always looking for something to grumble about. And there was a moment in 
the antique store where Simone says, "Oh, my wife used to love cameos" 
that just felt perfect - Bobby finally seems over his wife's death, or at 
least he's reached the point where he can remember the good times he had 
with her and enjoy them. And we finally got to see his pigeons!

As for the James/Adrienne plotting, I was very apprehensive at first, for 
two reasons: 1)As many people have pointed out, it seems very out of 
character for James to have an interest in Adrienne, and 2)James seemed 
*way* out of character in the first scene at Bellevue where he was acting 
grouchy and trying to drag Adrienne along to do the interview. 
Fortunately, the characterization softened - when the doctor showed up at 
the precinct, James was his usual pride-swallowing self.

I'm not exactly sure where they can go with this story, however - it's 
very clear that Adrienne is either oblvious to James' interest (not 
likely, considering that conversation from two shows back) or just isn't 
interested. So unless it turns into some kind of "Fatal Attraction" 
scenario - which would be so out of character I might quit watching the 
show - it seems as if all we'll be seeing out of this is many more scenes 
of James wearing his heart on his sleeve. It would've been nice, btw, to 
have a brief shot of James having a drink by himself - a silent 
illustration of his loneliness. 

However, while I may object to the storyline in principle, it was 
executed well, and it gave us our most expanded look at James in action 
in quite some time. For all the puppy dog behavior around Lesniak, the 
guy was born to play Bad Cop - he's not as smooth a salesman as the other 
detectives on the squad, but he makes up for it in attitude.

The Andy/Sylvia story also pleased me because for the first time in the 
relationship, Sylvia wasn't the one who had to make a concession. Yeah, 
she was prepared to have a smaller wedding, but in the end, Andy totally 
agreed to go over to her way of thinking. And I just love the fact that 
Bobby's casual suggestion about buying Sylvia a cameo turned out to be 
not only a good choice, but the perfect choice. 

The one thing that really disturbed me about tonight's show, however, was 
the way the cops were continually going over the line over casual 
circumstances. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that Martinez and 
Lesniak should never have been able to go after Rajhiv Patel because the 
bus driver shouldn't have seen that photo - the fact that they got a new 
photo for the driver to ID doesn't matter, because he already recognized 
the face from the mugbooks. So wouldn't that make the rest of their case 
poisonous fruits? An interesting twist would've been for them to not find 
out about the mug book problem until after they got the confession - have 
Sylvia tell them that all their hard work was for naught.

You also had the way Simone and Sip were smacking around Anthony Michael 
Hall - they were both playing Very Bad Cop at once - and the very rude 
treatment of Hall's parents, particularly snatching the crucifx off the 
mother's neck. I know that Andy was in a foul mood over the fight with 
Sylvia, but I think the writers went too far.

However, despite those minor instances, this was an excellent show - not 
quite as good as the Webster/Haverill two-parter, but better than 
anything else this season. 

Shorter takes:

	-As I mentioned above, Anthony Michael Hall played the killer.
	 All I can say is, he's come a long way from those "Sixteen
	 Candle" days. He was very good, though - I actively disliked
	 him throughout.

	-Another very good guest performance was from Richard Gant,
	 who played the bus driver. It was a small, throwaway part,
	 but the way he insisted that he knew the man he saw was
	 Indian struck a chod with me for some reason.

	-Missing Persons Department: Where did Donna Abandando go, and
	 who is this mannequin sitting at her desk? I can't remember the
	 last time she had a line of dialogue that went beyond, "You 
	 have a visitor, Detective." It looks like her screen-time is
	 going to perk up in the next week or so, but not in a way
	 I'm looking forward to - the writers are bringing back her
	 sister Dana. Whoopee - more "you steal all my boyfriends"
	 jokes.

	-Ironic Casting Department: Tom Verica, who played the doctor,
	 was a cast member on LA Law for about half a season. He was
	 brought on the show to be the new "sex symbol" after Jimmy
	 Smits quit. :)

	-When was the last time that we had an episode where the first
	 suspect brought in to be interrogated about a murder not only
	 didn't do it, but had nothing to do with the crime in any way?
	 I honestly can't remember.

	-Line of the Week: "We should've stayed on the Thruway. See, it's
	 		    this big red line on the map that goes all
	 		    the way *through*."
	I thought it was pretty funny, at least.

-Alan Sepinwall
-sepinwal@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Check out my new homepage!
It's at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/

RANDOM QUOTE:

"I want to know the whole story - from the beginning."
"Well, first the earth cooled. Then the dinosaurs came, but they all got
 big and fat and died and turned into oil. Then the Arabs came, and they
 all bought Mercedes-Benzes. Then Prince Charles started wearing all of
 Lady Di's clothes. Really! He just went into her closet and took out her
 best summer dress and put it on and started walking around. I couldn't
 believe it!"
	-Lloyd Bridges & Johnny, "Airplane!"