"Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
Faith (2002)

Director:

Edwin Sherin

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator)
Rene Balcer (developer)

TV Series:

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2001)

Original Air Date:

28 April 2002 (Season 1, Episode 21)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Goren and Eames investigate the death of a magazine publisher and a brilliant scam involving a sick child no one has seen. |

Plot Keywords:

Prosecution | Trial | Prosecutor | Gun | Handcuffs

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 27	12:00 PM	USA	Faith	#1.21
Mon. July 28	2:00 AM	USA	Faith	#1.21

Cast

Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Detective Robert Goren
Kathryn Erbe	...	Detective Alexandra Eames
Jamey Sheridan	...	Captain James Deakins
Courtney B. Vance	...	A.D.A. Ron Carver
Mia Dillon	...	Barb Windemere
Remak Ramsay	...	Doug Lafferty
Matthew Sussman	...	David Cantler
Adam LeFevre	...	Toby Windemere
Bill Raymond	...	Mr. Green
Polly Draper	...	Christine Wilkes
Philip LeStrange	...	Detective Abramson
Christopher Durham	...	Jerry Lafferty
Marianne Tatum	...	Carol Lafferty
Guiesseppe Jones	...	Len Jenkins
Victor Truro	...	Murray

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | New Zealand:M (DVD rating)

Really interesting episode!

I watched this episode because I heard it was based on the Night Listener/Anthony Godby Johnson story, about a sick teen who overcame a childhood of abuse and wrote a memoir based on this, becoming very popular yet never meeting anybody. As it was adapted to fit the "Criminal Intent" story lines, a murder was added to the story - a donor to the fund of the sick child who had been hoping to finally meet with the child (who in this story was a girl named Erika). It doesn't take the team long to ask the question - does Erika actually exist? People become polarised into "believers" and "non-believers", hence the concept of "faith". And how far do people go to defend their faith?

This is one awesome idea for a story, and it was pretty cool how everything played out. To add to the amazing story and the show brought in a lot of interesting characters. And, the detectives and the regular cast are very good too. A slight twist was able to be introduced towards the end. It was all very clever and really gripping viewing. I highly recommend this episode particularly if you enjoyed the "Night Listener" book (or recent film).