Homo Homini Lupis

Infobox Television episode
Title=Homo Homini Lupis
Series=
Season=1
Episode=14
Airdate=March 3, 2002
Production=E2113
Writer=Dick Wolf (creator)
René Balcer (developer and story)
Director=David Platt
Guests=James Colby
Ritchie Coster
Jordan Charney
Marianne Hagan
Frank Pellegrino
Stephi Lineburg
Suzanne Shepherd
Andrew Pang
Jordan Gelber
Angela Bullock
Prev=
Next=

"Homo Homini Lupis" is a episode of the television series "".

Plot summary

A broker, Lucas Colter, in deep debt to a loan shark, and despite several days of frantic money raising, is unable to meet his obligation. Following a partial, inadequate payment, he returns home from a morning jog to find his family apparently kidnapped. He denies that anything's amiss to his mother-in-law, but she goes to the Major Case Squad with her suspicions that the family was kidnapped for ramsom.

Detectives Goren and Eames attempt to gain Colter's cooperation, but he avoids them. As the police follow Coulter, he takes a call from the kidnappers, who begin by threatening the lives of his family, and commence to rape his older daughter, Maggie.

Following her rape, Maggie adjusts her blindfold enough to spy a tattoo on the back of her rapist.

Lucas Colter turns to his father, Melvin Coulter, who wouldn't help him before but does help him now. The family is returned home, safe but traumatized, and all of them deny any kidnapping to the police. Goren and Eames suggest to Melvin that the kidnapping was staged, but are unable to convince him. Believing that Melvin must know the loan shark, they locate one through his finances, and convince the loan shark to give up his "collector." The loan shark's contact, a drug-mob bagman gives up the kidnappers' location and the leader's unusual "Bonanza" ringtone.

The police sting the kidnappers, and one of them draws a gun on Eames, who fatally shoots the man. Goren pursues the other, who disappears into a diner. Goren calls the man's phone, and finds him by his ringtone.

The police still lack evidence for holding the remaining kidnapper, whom they've identified as Simon Matic, though they've learned of his war record as a Serbian soldier in Bosnia. With time running out before they must arraign or release him, Goren and Eames talk to the family to find any means of positive identification, and learn that the Maggie Coulter was experiencing Stockholm Syndrome.

After questioning her mother, Susan Coulter, Eames and Goren interview Maggie in her room. Eames asks for a basic identification, and plays the comforting therapist. Goren contradicts Eames, and tells Maggie that Eames shot and killed one of the kidnappers. He produces a dossier on Matic, and the history of rape in Bosnia by Serbian soldiers such as Matic. Maggie opens up to Goren, revealing her hatred of her own weakness, and the weakness of all victims.

Goren and Eames return to the police station, and, under the guise of confirming Matic's identity, Goren goads him about his war record. Matic displays a scar on his abdomen, incidentally revealing his tattoo. The tattoo is a match for a sketch by Maggie Colter, a positive identification, concluding the interview and guaranteeing a successful arraignment. Detective Eames and Captain Deakins conclude that Matic's victimizing days are over, a mere 10 years too late.

Cast

The Title's Meaning

Presumably the episode's title is a misquotation of Thomas Hobbes's famous "Homo Homini Lupus Est," Latin for: "man is a wolf to [his fellow] man." Hobbes's observation in turn echoes a line from Plautus claiming that men are inherently selfish.

As it stands, the title is awkward and ambiguous and could be translated as: "man is with wolves as man sees it," "man is for man as far as wolves are concerned," or even "a man sees something human in wolves."

External links

* [http://former.imdb.com/title/tt0275140/episodes#season-1 IMDb entry]
* [http://www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order:_Criminal_Intent/ Official Website]