D.A.W. (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)

"D.A.W."
Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 20 (#65 overall)
Directed by	Frank Prinzi
Written by	Dick Wolf (creator) René Balcer (developer and story) Marlene Meyer (story and teleplay) Stephanie Sengupta (story editor)
Production code	E4522
Original air date	May 16, 2004
Guest stars
Kevin Tighe Karen Ziemba Keisha Alfred Greg Zittel Cheryl Freeman Kate Skinner Gretha Boston Gary Cowling Paddy Croft
Episode chronology
← Previous "Fico di Capo" Next → "Consumed"

"D.A.W." is a third season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Plot summary

In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the mysterious death of a woman killed in a hit-and-run incident.

During the investigation, Goren and Eames learn the victim was searching for the whereabouts of her recently deceased mother's antique ring. They focus their attention on the mother's arrogant physician, Dr. Edwin Lindgard, after research shows over 200 of his elderly patients have died of heart attacks, just before their heirloom jewelry vanishes like magic. And those patients subsequently receive prepaid cremations.

Important findings:

1) Dr. Edwin Lindgard's girlfriend is a recovering alcoholic and she badly evades mentioning his drug history when asked by Goren. They also notice the girlfriend's expensive jewelry which she explains are custom designed gifts from Dr. Lindgard. The detectives then research his past and discover he had been writing many opiate prescriptions, but had abruptly resigned at that previous employment.

2) They find out he is paying alimony to his wife, who is a pharmacist. Upon interviewing her, she admits that even after the divorce, she is still supplying him once a month with an opiate drug for his personal use: he is an opiate addict. Quid pro quo, he gives her alimony unreported on tax forms and she gives him opiates.

3) They find out that as a teenager, he had watched his mother die of bone marrow cancer. The home attendant taught him how to inject his mother with morphine to comfort her.

Goren realizes that a person with such a monumental ego cannot be stopped unless he is publicly humiliated. Goren decides the ultimate confrontation would be at a free dinner sponsored by a pharmaceutical drug representative with his girlfriend and other physicians and their spouses also present. When Lindgard arrives outside the restaurant, the detectives have the ex-wife unexpectedly appear and hand him an envelope of opiate drugs (and with his girlfriend noticing the handover from afar). The detectives appear as the main course is being served. Goren publicly exposes Lindgard's drug addiction by opening the envelope and revealing the powdered opiate drug. Goren exposes the jewel thievery by pointing to the girlfriend's brooch and then showing a photo of the same jewels set in a ring of a deceased elderly patient (the missing ring which the hit-and-run victim was searching for) and whose wake the girlfriend and Lindgard had attended. As Goren denigrates and exposes more of his wrongdoing, Lindgard finally cracks and justifies that he has the power of life and death. Lindgard then grabs a dinner knife and attempts to stab himself to death, but Goren wrestles the knife away and remarks, "You don't get off that easily."

Cast

Vincent D'Onofrio	Det. Robert Goren
Kathryn Erbe	Det. Alexandra Eames
Jamey Sheridan	Capt. James Deakins
Courtney B. Vance	A.D.A. Ron Carver
Leslie Hendrix	Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers

Fact

• The title of this episode, D.A.W., is a word play in reference to dispense as written (DAW) — a term used in medical prescriptions to mean 'no substitutions' (e.g. do not substitute a cheaper generic or other comparable medication for the medication actually written in the prescription).

• The story is based on the case of Harold Frederick Shipman, who murdered up to 200 of his patients in Hyde, Greater Manchester between the mid-1970s and his arrest in 1998. Many features of the story are directly based on the Shipman case, such as his drug addiction, previous forgery conviction, and taking of jewelry and money. When Lindgard is arrested at a party, a male guest sitting on his right looks remarkably like Harold Shipman.^[1]

References

1. ^ "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" D.A.W. (2004) trivia at imdb.com

External links

• IMDb entry
• Official Website