Line #13 Recap/LawAndOrderS6E22Homesick


1	Directed by Creator/MatthewPenn
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3	Written by Creator/BarryMSchkolnick, Creator/ElaineLoeser, & Creator/MichaelSChernuchin
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5	Five-month-old Evan Karmel is poisoned with pesticide and dies suddenly. Suspicion falls on his au pair Lila Crenshaw. She is arrested when Briscoe and Curtis find evidence of her buying pesticide the day before Evan's death, and that she wrote personal diary entries expressing frustration with him. The case against Lila rests on the idea that she was unhappy with the Karmels and wanted to return to her home country, but she couldn't afford the airfare. However, the prosecutors know a jury may not be convinced this was enough to drive Lila to kill; and the defense has already had her diary excluded as evidence.
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7	At trial, more damning evidence comes out about Lila, including the fact that she was previously fired from another childcare job and that Evan had other "accidents" whilst in her care. The defence, in turn, suggests Evan's mother is to blame; she has a demanding career and is rarely ever home, so she hired Lila, an inexperienced teenager, to care for the baby. The case returns a hung jury, and now the prosecutors have another trial to prepare for.
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9	Things change when Kincaid and [=McCoy=] catch Evan's teenage brother Ben in a lie about seeing the pesticide in Lila's room. They initially think he's trying to get revenge on his brother's killer – until they discover he knew she'd bought pesticide for her plants, and that he skipped school on the day of Evan's death. Ben turns out to have killed Evan because he believed his parents were unfairly neglecting him in favour of the baby. The prosecutors allow the defence to lure Ben into confessing on the stand, and he is charged with his brother's murder.
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11	!!!This episode contains examples of:
12	* BigotryException: A one-time suspect was fired as a deliveryman for slipping in a racist note into the groceries of one of his clients, a Black family. While he does defend himself citing free speech, he admits regret at pissing off that particular family, saying that they were his favorite customers and would tip well.
13	* CareerVersusFamily: The prosecutors do not want to call Evan's mother as a witness because she'll look extremely unsympathetic - they are more than aware that the jury will take a far dimmer view of a woman putting her career above her child than they would with a man.
14	* ConvictionByContradiction: What originally suggested to [=McCoy=] that Ban was the killer is that he claimed to have seen the pesticide in Lila's room, despite the fact that he had also claimed not to have been in the house for a week before the murder and that the pesticide was only bought the day before the murder.
15	* CultureJustifiesAnything: Averted. Briscoe and Curtis first suspect Lila as the killer upon learning that Evan was previously hospitalized with alcohol poisoning because she gave him brandy to help him sleep. They don't respond positively when Lila says it's normal to do this in her culture.
16	* DeadpanSnarker: The defense attorney when interviewing Ben:
17	-->'''Ruth Miller:''' You went to the game [with friends]? So did I, with my son.\
18	'''Ben:''' Yeah.\
19	'''Ruth Miller:''' What are their names?\
20	'''Ben:''' ''(stammers)'' I-I don't know.\
21	'''Ruth Miller:''' You must be close.
22	* DeathOfAChild: Evan Karmel (5 months). An other case, which turns out to be unrelated, is a baby named Matthew Davis.
23	* DisappearedDad: Mr. Karmel is this to his oldest son, having abandoned him and his mother for a newer, younger trophy family.
24	* EvilIsPetty: Ben's ultimate decision to kill his brother was because their father was taking care of Evan and forgot to take Ben to a baseball game.
25	* FrameUp: Ben almost succeeds in getting Lila jailed for killing Evan.
26	* KidsAreCruel: Ben is a teenager who has no problem with murdering his baby brother and framing the baby's nanny.
27	* MayDecemberRomance: Between Warren and Wendy Karmel; while he is in his late-forties, she is in her mid-twenties.
28	* NationalStereotypes: When Kincaid says that the British consulate has paid for Lila's defence, Schiff jokingly suggests they offer her lawyer tea and crumpets.
29	* NoSympathy: Lila's {{Jerkass}} boyfriend, an ivy-league college student, is unsympathetic to her homesickness and other worries and aspirations and is more concerned with having sex with a British women, even treating it as a trophy.
30	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Both Evan Karmel and Matthew Davis were outlived by both parents.
31	* PapaWolf: Subverted. Warren Karmel is clearly incensed that Ben killed Evan, but doesn't realize that Ben is also his son.
32	-->'''Warren:''' I'll break your neck!!!\
33	'''Ben:''' Go ahead, Dad.
34	* ParentalNeglect: Mrs. Karmel has little to no interest in Evan and even says she didn't want another child, only her husband did. She's never around for her baby and, rather than hire a professional nanny for Evan, she chose an inexperienced and underpaid 18-year-old.
35	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Inspired by the case of Olivia Riner, an au pair accused and ultimately acquitted of killing a child.
36	* SiblingMurder: Evan was murdered by his half brother, Ben.
37	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Ben poisoned Evan by adding pesticide from Lila's room to the plums that he knew the baby would eat later.
38	* ThePerryMasonMethod: The prosecutors ultimately have to allow the defence to do this because they know Lila isn't guilty.
39	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Ben is a young teenager who callously murders his baby brother and tries to get someone else sent to jail for it.
40	* TwistEnding: The episode is clearly trying to show that Lila is guilty, until a statement by Ben suddenly changes th entire direction and shows that he's the murderer.
41	* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Mrs. Karmel is such a parent.

Context Recap / LawAndOrderS6E22Homesick