A career criminal is murdered, and the investigation leads detectives to a manipulative widow who may have hired the victim to murder her husband.A career criminal is murdered, and the investigation leads detectives to a manipulative widow who may have hired the victim to murder her husband.A career criminal is murdered, and the investigation leads detectives to a manipulative widow who may have hired the victim to murder her husband.
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- Lorraine Cobin
- (as Cathy Moriarty-Gentile)
- Melissa Cobin
- (as Katherine Moennig)
- Tom
- (as Joseph LaRocca)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on the Debra Hartmann case.
- GoofsWhile reading the verdict the jury foreman says that the charge is "homicide in the first degree", it should have been "murder in the first degree." Homicide and murder are not the same thing, murder is a type of criminal charge resulting from one person intentionally causing the death of another person, whereas homicide is just a manner of death. Whenever a person dies as a result of the actions of another person, whether it be from a negligent or reckless action that unintentionally causes a death or from an action that was intended to cause death, that person's death is ruled to be a homicide. The criminal charges for a homicide include (from least severe to worst): criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter in the second degree (involuntary), vehicular manslaughter in the first degree, aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter in the first degree (voluntary), aggravated manslaughter in the first degree, murder in the second degree, aggravated murder and murder in the first degree.
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: Your Honor can't seriously entertain the notion that a defendant can benefit in one murder by killing the witness by committing another.
Judge Donald Karan: I didn't draft the Constitution, Mr. McCoy.
Jack McCoy: No, but you can interpret it. These two cases are inextricably linked. What's the good of proving that the defendant had an opportunity to kill Buck if I can't show the jury why?
Judge Donald Karan: You raise a good point.
Mr. Axtell: Your Honor, any mention of the Colbin murder would prejudice the jury irreparably.
Judge Donald Karan: Which is why I won't allow these two homicides to be tried together.
Jack McCoy: Your Honor...
Judge Donald Karan: However, what I will do is allow the People to present evidence of Alan Colbin's murder, only insofar as it pertains to motive in the murder of Ronald Buck.
[seeing McCoy and Axtell both don't like his decision]
Judge Donald Karan: Ooh, I always know I'm right when neither party's happy.
- ConnectionsReferences The Sopranos (1999)
"For Love or Money" is a great episode. While not quite a 'Law and Order' high point, it is one of the best episodes of Season 12 and one of the conceptually not so novel stories feel fresh. Also benefitting from a great guest star. Nearly everything works in "For Love or Money" and hardly anything disappoints, there are not many outings in Season 12 that would be recommended without hesitation personally but this is one of them.
The one drawback is Southerlyn continuing to be too much of a cold fish and Elisabeth Rohm is still too robotic. Things that were never solved when on the show.
Cannot fault the rest of the cast. Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin are such a well matched pair, Orbach does relish his one liners, and Sam Waterston is both ruthless and authoritative. His way of thinking when getting to the truth is a big part of the tension. As is the chillingly malevolent guest performance of Cathy Moriarty, her character is on the obvious side but Moriarty's acting is so unsettling that that doesn't matter.
Production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud, and the direction gives the drama urgency and breathing space. The script is thoughtful and intriguing with a lot of tautness in the legal scenes, can't get enough of Briscoe's one liners too.
While the story is very compelling in both halves, the second half is better than the first in many episodes or in a good number of them even better and "For Love or Money" is an example of the latter. The tension is high and it is very easy to root for a conviction with a perpetrator so detestable.
Summing up, great. 9/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- May 23, 2022