A conservative suburban wife and mother turns out to be a fugitive student radical who was involved in an armored car heist and murder of a police officer 23 years earlier.A conservative suburban wife and mother turns out to be a fugitive student radical who was involved in an armored car heist and murder of a police officer 23 years earlier.A conservative suburban wife and mother turns out to be a fugitive student radical who was involved in an armored car heist and murder of a police officer 23 years earlier.
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- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on the three different cases/incidents including:
- The 1975 Sara Jane Olson case. Born Kathleen Soliah, Olson was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the 1970s, who went into hiding in 1976 after having been indicted in a bombing case. She lived much of her life in Minnesota under her new name, which she changed to be her legal name. She was eventually arrested in 1999, and plead guilty in 2001 to two counts of possessing explosives with intent to murder, and in 2003 to second-degree murder, both stemming from her SLA activities in the 1970s. She received a sentence of 14 years in prison.
- The 1993 Katherine Ann Power case. Power is an American ex-convict and long-time fugitive, who along with her fellow student and accomplice Susan Edith Saxe, was placed on the F.B.I's Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1970. The two participated in robberies at a Massachusetts National Guard armory and a bank in Brighton, Massachusetts where Boston police officer Walter Schroeder was shot and killed. Power remained at large for 23 years. Power turned herself over to authorities in 1993 after starting a new life in Oregon. She pleaded guilty and was imprisoned in Massachusetts for six years before being released on 14 years' probation.
- The Weathermen underground anti-war movement. The Weathermen were a radical left militant organization active in the late 1960s and 1970s, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan.
- The 1981 Brink's robbery. On October 20, 1981, six Black Liberation Army members: Mutulu Shakur, Kuwasi Balagoon, Solomon Bouines (Samuel Brown), Mtayari Shabaka Sundiata, Edward Joseph, and Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson; and four former members of the Weather Underground, now belonging to the May 19th Communist Organization, consisting of David Gilbert, Judith Alice Clark, Kathy Boudin, and Marilyn Buck stole $1.6 million in cash from a Brink's armored car at the Nanuet Mall, in Nanuet, New York. They killed Brinks guard, Peter Paige as well as seriously wounding Brinks guard Joseph Trombino and slightly wounding Brinks truck driver guard, James Kelly. Subsequently, they killed two Nyack police officers, Edward O'Grady and Waverly Brown, as well as seriously wounding Police Detective Artie Keenan.The first to be tried were Donald Weems (aka Kuwasi Balagoon) and 19 May Communists David Gilbert and Judith Alice Clark amid a heavy police presence. They represented themselves and were given three consecutive 25-year to life sentences. Weems said, "As to the 75 years in prison, I am not really worried because the State simply isn't going to last 75 or even 50 years." He died of Aids on 13 December 1986. Boudin was sentenced to 20 years to life. She was paroled in 2003. Samuel Brown was sentenced to 75 years to life. Williams was jailed for 60 years in 1988.
- GoofsAt the first of this episode a hospital patient is shown receiving a blood transfusion and the size of the bag shown is the standard 1000ml bag. Blood transfusion is standardized everywhere as a 450ml volume "unit." Also, when transfusions are given, the bag typically has several stickers on it attesting to handling along its course to the patient. No stickers were seen on the unit of blood being given.
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: [to Claire] She'll be in jail until 2003... the '60s should be over by then.
Featured review
Brilliant Episode from the Very Beginning of the Sam Waterston Era
This is the first great episode of season 5; it's got a lot of meat on its bones, with a juicy, thoughtful script and a variety of strong supporting performances.
The plot involves a group of militant antiwar protestors (think the SLA or the Weather Underground) who killed a cop Detective Briscoe knew in the '60s and robbed a bank vault in the present day.
There's lots more to chew on here then simply "whodunnit"; plenty of great lines explore the craziness of the '60s, and Sam Waterston as EADA Jack McCoy is unusually sympathetic to the antiwar aspirations of these aging activist-turned terrorists - at least he is at first, before the extent of their activities/intent comes pouring out by episode's end.
Mary-Joan Negro is great as a GOP donor trying to hide from her extremist past, as are Norman Snow, Peggy Roeder, and Dick Anthony Williams playing the other members of her group. Williams in particular has only two scenes in the episode (he's the only one of the band to have been put in prison), but he perfectly sells a character who was always cynical about "the cause," admitting that he simply tagged along in the hopes of bedding some "free love" hippy-types back in the day.
Other highlights include the detectives working with the FBI in the front half of the episode, where they get something of a history lesson on how surveillance was conducted in the '60s, and famed real-life lefty lawyer William Kunstler putting in a legitimately awesome performance as himself.
This is one I'll definitely be re-watching in the future!
The plot involves a group of militant antiwar protestors (think the SLA or the Weather Underground) who killed a cop Detective Briscoe knew in the '60s and robbed a bank vault in the present day.
There's lots more to chew on here then simply "whodunnit"; plenty of great lines explore the craziness of the '60s, and Sam Waterston as EADA Jack McCoy is unusually sympathetic to the antiwar aspirations of these aging activist-turned terrorists - at least he is at first, before the extent of their activities/intent comes pouring out by episode's end.
Mary-Joan Negro is great as a GOP donor trying to hide from her extremist past, as are Norman Snow, Peggy Roeder, and Dick Anthony Williams playing the other members of her group. Williams in particular has only two scenes in the episode (he's the only one of the band to have been put in prison), but he perfectly sells a character who was always cynical about "the cause," admitting that he simply tagged along in the hopes of bedding some "free love" hippy-types back in the day.
Other highlights include the detectives working with the FBI in the front half of the episode, where they get something of a history lesson on how surveillance was conducted in the '60s, and famed real-life lefty lawyer William Kunstler putting in a legitimately awesome performance as himself.
This is one I'll definitely be re-watching in the future!
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- Better_TV
- May 5, 2018
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