User Reviews

A missing person's case for a young woman takes a real unexpected twist for Goren and Eames as this woman unexpectedly ran into a cell of radical Moslems planning another 9/11 style terrorist attack.

The key to all this is Disney TV star Rider Strong in a role that you would never see him in n the Disney channel. He plays a kid converted to Islam who fell int with this crowd.

One of the great scenes in the history of the program is Vincent Donofrio interrogating Strong to spill the beans and how he challenges his conception of Islam. On a theatrical and theological level it's great.

Strong will surprise all who have only seen him on the Disney Channel.

A woman who has an Arab boyfriend who just dumped her is missing. Her family is here from Pittsburgh and her dad's a policeman. His connections get him the high priority that puts Goren and Eames on the case.

The more Goren investigates the more he's convinced - without saying it - this could be something involving terrorism, especially when the police find traces of explosives and other evidence of homemade bombs. It turns out that, yes, there is going to be a suicide bombing and that there probably are two people involved, one being an American who has converted to being a Muslim after a long "search for God." They capture him but the other one is still out there somewhere with a vest and 25 pounds of explosives. They have to find him.

Along the way, this program gets its digs in once again against religion, not centering on these terrorists begin Islamic as much just people who do bad things in the name of God. Their unsaid message is obvious. It's still an interesting and fairly intense episode. Oddly, the only person looking "unhinged" is Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio), not the terrorists!

Despite really liking 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', part of me was a little worried about "The Pilgrim". There was a real worry of how it would handle the religious part of the story, if not done right it would have been a big problem as it features heavily in the episode. Even more of a concern was how it would fare with the portrayal of those responsible, from the synopsis it sounded like they would be stereotyped having found myself offended by similar stereotypes in a few episodes of 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'.

"The Pilgrim" turned out to be better than expected and on the whole was well done, though there are far better episodes from Season 2 and certainly of the whole show. Not my favourite type of episode personally, and "The Pilgrim" definitely would have fared even better if it took more risks and wasn't as careful not to offend. That is how it did come across, and while it was appreciated that it addressed the potential problems of portraying crimes of this nature it was occasionally slightly bland. Just my view.

It is not perfect. How it starts off is pretty ordinary and standard 'Law and Order' that we have seen before, before really coming to life when things started to not be what they seemed (and luckily it didn't take too long to do so).

For my tastes, the interrogation in trying to find out the whereabouts of the explosives was a little too long. Worse was the final scene, which was pretty ludicrous and how Goren behaves has to be seen to be believed.

However, the religious elements actually didn't to me come over as heavy-handed (personally didn't think there was that much of an "agenda") and there is no real for or against opinion of it. The portrayal of the responsible was also non-biased and surprisingly sympathetic, nothing offensively stereotypical or distasteful here. In fact, the responsible could actually have afforded to have been more sinister, do agree that Goren is more unhinged. The story is gripping and as more surprising things are revealed, in ways not expected (you would never think looking from the beginning that the story would go the direction it did), the more suspenseful it comes. It becomes nail-biting towards the end.

Production values are slick and classy, with the editing (like with the second seasons of 'Special Victims Unit' and the original 'Law and Order') more refined than in the previous season. The music is dynamic enough and doesn't go overboard on the placement or orchestration despite the story's increasing tension. The script mostly is taut, cohesive and left me deep in thought and shock after. Loved the character chemistry, Goren is still as fascinating and fun as ever (apart from at the close) and Vincent D'Onofrio really becomes this character without unbalancing everything.

All in all, well done but something missing. Really appreciated its tact but it could have taken more risks. 7/10

Home grown Islam converts.

Good episode except for falsely claiming No Koran violence.

It seems no one involved in this episode's production had ever read Quran. Even the usually insightful brilliant Bobby Goren spoke from a platform of ignorance.