Law & Order (TV Series) Terminal (1997) User Reviews

End of the line

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 2 June 2021]

"Terminal" signals the end of Season 7. Which was a very good season on the whole, with the highest number of outstanding episodes (a vast majority of the season actually) of all the Season 7s of 'Law and Order', 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent' and the fewest disappointments (only two rated below 7 and they were still above average). Easily the best Season 7 of the three and the most consistent, the ones of the other two were very up and down.

What a great way to end Season 7. While not quite one of my favourite episodes of the season, "Terminal" is in the better half. It is an extremely absorbing episode and an immensely powerful one and cannot agree more with the raves about the ending and Steven Hill's performance. Do agree though that "Terminal" is at its weakest with some of the writing for the supporting characters, but luckily the great things are many and brilliantly done.

Really do wish that the supporting characters' writing had a lot more subtlety and was less one-dimensional. The special prosecutor in particular really irritates and is too much of an overdone cartoon.

However, that is overshadowed vastly by the things that are done right and that are so well executed. The production values are solid and the intimacy of the photography doesn't get static or too filmed play-like. The music when used is not too over-emphatic and has a melancholic edge that is quite haunting. The direction is sympathetic enough without being leaden, while having enough momentum to make the drama sing in its atmosphere.

Script is very thoughtful, and despite having a lot of (thankfully still interesting) talk it doesn't ramble. It does a fine job at showing the moral dilemmas that come with such a difficult case with a lot of obstacles to overcome. The exchanges are uncompromisingly gritty, intelligent and snappy. The story pulls no punches, with an emotionally devastating final scene that stayed with me for a long time after, with a compelling case that feels realistic. Of the Season 7 finales of 'Law and Order', 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent', "Terminal" had the most finality and felt the most like a season finale.

Acting is terrific from all, with the best performance coming from a very moving Steven Hill. Who in my mind doesn't get enough credit for his acting on 'Law and Order'. Perhaps because there are not a lot of episodes that have him heavily focused on or where a case or situation is personal to come.

In conclusion, truly great finale to a very good season. 9/10.

All these years later - still profoundly powerful

[butaneggbert · 8/10 · 24 June 2012]

I was well into this episode when I realized it was the one with Steven Hill's amazing closing scene. I'd been doing stuff around the house with it on in the background until then; once I realized, I sat down and gave it my complete attention.

Still as heartrending as ever. What an amazing actor. Neat, clean, pure. I wish I could see more of him.

His incredible performance aside, I slashed off a couple of stars based on how the guest characters were written. For some reason, reliably good crime shows with high scripting standards fall repeatedly into the trap of over-writing the "bad guys". Witness the original "Prime Suspect", where the most powerful officials all but twirled their mustaches and snarled "Yah-hah-hah!" With Helen Mirren at the helm, they *really* felt they needed to give her cartoons to act against? Same thing here. With actors the caliber of Hill and Waterston, surely the scenes would work better with subtler villains. But no. The governor's representatives are unctuous and slimy. The one sitting second chair to Jamie comes complete with grating insincere smile and insults her to boot. I hate being talked down to like this.

Still: Hill makes up for it all. Do watch this one.

Mass Murder, Politics, Sickness.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 24 January 2011]

A man shoots into a crowd, trying to stop a woman from depositing a check he knows will bounce. He needs another few days to cover it. But the victim is only wounded, while two others are killed.

Given some murkiness about intent and circumstances, it's a clear case of second degree murder according to Schiff, McCoy, and Ross in the DA's office. The governor of New York, however, is displeased. (George Pataki was governor at the time but his name is never used.) The governor wants a first-degree murder charge, which carries the death penalty.

Well, the DA's office CAN work out a logical chain in which, yes, maybe one killing was part of the felony larceny involving that rubber check. The problem is that, in order to bring a charge of first degree, you have to connect a multitude of dots so distant from one another that they make the constellation Casseopeia look like a woman. They're reluctant to do it because it might lose them the case. On top of that, Adam Schiff simply refuses to do it, believing naively that politics has no place in law enforcement. He's removed by the governor and replaced by an incompetent toady. Schiff brings a civil suit against the governor.

Schiff loses the suit. He also loses his wife, brought low by a stroke. The governor's Gofer loses the case for first-degree in front of a jury, who convict the murder of second-degree homicide.

It's a believable episode, though I can't help being cynical enough to think that a real-life Schiff would promptly have yielded to the governor's demands. As it is, he realistically loses the civil suit. He gives his usual shrug at the news and remarks gruffly, "At least we made waves," which somebody named Schiff (German: "ship") ought to know about.

I was uneasy about Schiff's wife's stroking out. I always worry that a television series that is cleanly written and logically presented is going to be contaminated with all sorts of back stories that turn it into General Hospital. But, not to worry. The matter is handled concisely and with some delicacy. The series was later to jump the shark but not because it turned mopily sentimental.

Steven Hill's transcendent final scene

[reelwoman · 10/10 · 23 September 2006]

The last few minutes of this episode contain one of the most powerful acting scenes I've ever experienced in television, as Adam Schiff witnesses his wife's death in her hospital room. With no dialog and barest minimum of gesture and expression, Steven Hill (as Adam) conveys profound emotion as he mutely assents to withdrawing life supports from his off-camera wife. In a single camera shot, he registers the visceral reaction to her immediate death, behind nearly impassive expression he conveys transcendent pain and an animal urge to flight, and in an instant his shining eyes transition to resignation and pure grief.... This terminal scene alone makes this episode one of the finest of a series noted for fine productions.

Turf War

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 22 February 2018]

A gunman opens fire on a group of people disembarking from a cruise ship. It happens that it is a cruise for Jewish singles and a telltale message is left about death to Zionists.

But that's a blind and the doer turns out to be a travel agent who was after the cruise director. He was afraid she'd deposit his check which didn't have sufficient funds to cover at that point. We all have cash flow problems at times, but we don't settle them that way as Kent Williams the jerk tried to do.

Then politics intervenes as the Governor who is unnamed but was George Pataki at the time ran on a death penalty platform and he wants blood. He has his Attorney General named Dennis Vacco at the time lift the case from Adam Schiff because the New York County DA only thinks Murder 2 is warranted. He wants Murder 1 and Deputy Attorney General Roy Thinnes takes the case away from Steven Hill and tries it with Carey Lowell's help.

The politics of capital punishment is what this was about. A really stupid and pathetic turf war with the Governor and the DA's office.

But you will best remember Lianni Pai who played Wentworth's girlfriend, a most mercenary woman who turns on him when Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt show her that Wentworth isn't quite the catch she thought was. The look on Orbach's face is priceless as Pai sends Wentworth a come over to my place call.

Wow!

[lor_ · 19 July 2023]

The strengths ol Dick Wolf's durable series are on display in this ingenious episode. Script by series producers Rene Balcer and Ed Zuckerman is a model of misdirection, as the plot twists come a mile a minute, all providing plenty of fun reactions by both regulars and hand-picked guest talent. It definitely keeps you guessing while depicting a topical issue regarding the politics of capital punishment.

Lauded performance by Steven Hill is truly amazing, making what might have been the usual human-interest side plot about a team member becomes instead the most memorable, powerful part of the show. Out of a great ensemble, his craft stands out shining brightly.