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Major Case Squad
Detective Robert Goren
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Vincent D'Onofrio
Robert "Bobby" Goren is a quirky, extraordinarily intelligent investigator and criminal profiler, known as much for his instinct and insight as for his odd mannerisms. His partner, best friend, and Most Important Person is Alexandra Eames.
- The Ace: Each of the detectives are supposed to be some of the best in the Major Case Squad that they've got for this series' cases. None of them compare to Goren's penchant for Spotting the Thread with even the slightest tics or abnormalities of a suspect, or the sheer psychological manipulation he's willing to legally pull off to get a perp to tip their hand. It helps that being so off-kilter himself and having been taught by Declan Gage in criminal profiling, he simply has a leg up in both experience and talent for the job compared to most of the other protagonists.
- Affectionate Nickname: He's known as "Bobby" to those he gets close to (and kids).
- Badass Pacifist: Goren almost always manages to get a criminal arrested simply by getting them emotionally riled up to confess their crime(s) or having their accomplice and/or alibi do that.
- Goren managed to stop a homicidal father from killing his children by giving him a Breaking Speech.
- In one episode, he and Logan are trapped unarmed in a locked-down prison with the corrupt guards they were investigating. Knowing the leader is beyond reasoning with, Goren singles out each of the subordinates in turn, convincing two of them to stand down and the third to actually escort them out. In the end, the leader is left standing alone in an empty hallway, knowing he's lost everything and unable to do anything about it.
- Beard of Sorrow: Goren sports a few throughout season seven, as a symbol of his growing despair and decreasing sanity at the time. Interestingly, while he still did wear beards past that season, they took on a completely different meaning.
- Berserk Button: Goren is usually unflappable, but one surefire way to get his dander up is elder abuse. He takes care of his mom, who is constantly in and out of the hospital, and when a corrupt judge tries to intimidate him by having her visited, Goren storms into his chambers, yells at him, and proceeds to take him apart psychologically. Another time, a wealthy matriarch was being kept sedated and half-dead by her greedy son who was carving up the family fortune, and when Goren and Eames saw the state of her, Goren about took the son’s head off.
- In addition, hurting or threatening those he cares about, such as Alex or his mother, is a good way to shorten your life expectancy dramatically.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a friendly, charming and well-meaning guy most of the time but Goren has a lot of anger just beneath the surface and when it comes out, it's truly terrifying to witness.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Of the family members we see, Goren is the most well-adjusted. That should tell you a lot.
- Broken Ace: An amazing detective with an impressive case success rate. He also grew up in a dysfunctional family, many of his peers (sans Eames) think of him as crazy, and he has a hard time functioning without his partner.
- Character Tic:
- He will cock his head to the left if something catches his attention, usually with his hands crossed behind his back. If something's really interesting, he'll tilt his entire body to the left until his torso is practically parallel to the floor. He eventually passes this on to Eames, as she is seen doing the same thing when she appears in SVU.
- At least early series his fingers and hands tend to fumble and just have a messy, almost erratic grip over anything he picks up or moves around. He occasionally does this around even his co-workers, but most often did it around a perp to make himself seem more bumbling than he really was. It becomes less pronounced as he undergoes Sanity Slippage, ironically enough.
- The Charmer: Whenever dealing with a suspect or witness with a particular fantasy or belief, he's usually able to get them to talk by convincing them that he believes as they do.
- Cloudcuckoolander: While Goren mostly uses this trope as a form of Obfuscating Stupidity to mess with suspects, he displays plenty of these moments without any justification to qualify, especially considering his mother has been confined in an asylum for the past 20 years. (He visits her weekly; nobody is sure if, any given week, he will come back.)
- Creepy Good: His disturbing mannerisms really offset his legitimately noble intentions.
- Deadpan Snarker: His very dry sense of humor often provides some levity in serious situations.
- Defective Detective: During the series, Goren's history, coupled with his unorthodox style, became a source of trouble within the NYPD, spawning rumors and accusations that he was mentally unstable.
- Disappeared Dad: His father walked out on the family when he was unable to take his wife's mental illness any longer. His biological father, Mark Ford Brady, was briefly in his life when he was a child and was known to him as "Uncle Mark," but disappeared as well once things went sour with his mother (to put it lightly).
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible (a decorated cop with a good case close record) to his older brother, Frank's Foolish (a drug addict with a gambling problem).
- Freudian Excuse: Practically every member of his family has a disorder of some kind.
- Friend to All Children: He's consistently depicted as being pretty good with kids, as seen when he does a magic trick with a crayon for a little girl in "Crazy".
- Genius Bruiser: His primary modus operandi is to break suspects with mental gymnastics but he's shown several times that he is a formidable fighter as well and he isn't above reminding anyone who's feeling brave of his size and using it to get them to reconsider. Only Elliot Stabler is more likely than Goren to rough up a suspect.
- Gentle Giant: He's really a very kind person and tries to avoid physical confrontation as much as possible — until he loses his temper.
- Guile Hero: He's an expert at getting under people's skin and using his knowledge and understanding of them to his advantag.
- Heroic Bastard: He was born out of wedlock but is a Creepy Good detective.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The 6'4" Goren is best friends with the 5'2" Eames.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Downplayed. Goren has a rather manly chin, but unlike Stabler, he rarely waggles it around.
- Manchild: Until Sanity Slippage started to set in, at any rate.[Goren is thoroughly enjoying his time behind the wheel of a suspect's cherry red 1962 Ferrari GTO]Eames: [amused] You have to come out now.
- Nerves of Steel: Goren's managed to stare down the barrel of a shotgun in the first season alone, and he has a habit of throwing himself into hostage situations or direct threats trying to psychoanalyze the perp and get them to hold off the aggression with barely a sweat. Though it's downplayed in that most of the time he gets very emotional in the aftermath, bottling it all up until he can let the pressure back out.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He generally comes off as an unassuming Cloudcuckoolander, which makes him even more terrifying to the perps — most of whom begin spilling their guts just to get the mind games and terrifyingly accurate psychological profiling to stop.
- Papa Wolf: To his nephew, Donnie — The whole reason the plot of "Untethered" kick-started was because Donnie revealed there being abuse in the mental ward he was staying in.
- Permastubble: Often has it if he isn't sporting a full beard.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Eames; in his own words, they are Like Brother and Sister, not that this deters the shippers at all.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: "Mad Hops" showed him to be surprisingly adept at Basketball court Trash Talk, cuing a jokey Mass "Oh, Crap!" from the kids on the court and one of them throwing him the ball."Nice kicks, where'd you get the laces, from a telephone pole?"
- The Profiler: His main skill as a detective is his incredible ability to get inside the heads of killers.
- Sanity Slippage: Starting around the end of Season Six, he starts getting every known misery in the universe piled on him. His mother dies. His partner is kidnapped. His nephew goes insane and then goes missing. His brother screws him over repeatedly, and just when they've reconciled, he turns up murdered. His mentor reveals himself to have been the one who murdered his brother, as well as his arch-enemy, as a way to "help" Goren be free. His captain is murdered. He gets fired from Major Case. Finally, in Season Ten, he starts seeing a therapist and there seems to be some hope that he can get a break from the world constantly being unkind to him.
- Undying Loyalty: To Eames. He's noticeably off balance when she isn't around. And if someone decides to harm so much as a hair on her head, God help them. The episode "Blind Spot" in particular shows just how far Goren will go to save his partner.
- The Unfavorite: Despite being a highly decorated detective, Goren was always in the shadow of his dysfunctional older brother whom his mother always treated better. This is because Goren is the product of his mother's affair with a man who turned out to be a serial killer/rapist.
Detective Alexandra Eames
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Kathryn Erbe
Alexandra "Alex" Eames is Goren's quiet, snarky, practical partner, who generally seems to mesh well with him despite the noticeable personality differences between the two.
- Action Girl: Despite her small stature, Eames is more than capable of holding her own in physical combat.
- Badass Adorable: Alexandra Eames is five-foot-two, adorable, and blonde. And she is just as terrifying as Goren when she gets going, if not more so.
- Best Friend Manual: To Robert Goren.
- Broken Bird: Her husband was a cop who was killed in the line of duty.
- The Cameo: Has made two guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, with more possibly to come.
- Character Catchphrase: "No, see..." How she starts a sentence when she's about to demolish a suspect's lie with evidence. She not only says it at least once an episode, but says it more times than any other character in the L&O universe.
- Character Tic: By the time she appears on SVU, she has picked up Goren's habit of tilting his head when speaking to suspects.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Deconstructed; while she and Goren make a fantastic team, their partnership is implied multiple times to limit Eames' potential for upward career movement (although she isn't actually bothered by it and, in fact, refuses to keep a promotion that comes with the condition of firing Goren), and if Eames is away from Goren, he goes downhill fast. It's most notably seen in the episodes in Season Three in which Eames is absent and Goren is temporarily paired with Detective Bishop; he and Bishop get along very poorly because she isn't used to his antics and he can't stop comparing her to Eames. In addition, some of the later seasons show that despite her deep affection for and loyalty to Goren, on some level, Eames is resentful of being considered nothing more than the sidekick to her brilliant partner.
- Damsel out of Distress: In "Blind Spot", Eames is kidnapped by a copycat of the serial killer, Sebastian, but the killer is called away before they can start in on Eames, leaving Eames alone in the basement With a combination of strength, scientific knowledge, and remaining level-headed, she is able to work her way free of her bindings and get to a window, where she's able to attract attention in order to get help.
- Deadpan Snarker: In so, so many spades. If there is a snarky comment to be made about a situation, Eames will make it. Interestingly, her snark is frequently much more cutting than her partner's.
- Fair Cop: Kathryn Erbe is the epitome of the no-fuss, practical beauty, and her big brown eyes only help matters.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The 5'2" Tiny Girl to Goren's 6'4" Huge Guy.
- It Runs in the Family: Comes from a family of cops.
- Living Emotional Crutch: If Eames isn't with Goren, he doesn't function properly. Perhaps best illustrated in the episode which ends with her giving birth; while ruminating on the motive of the killer, Goren looks at her empty desk and immediately understands what's in the guy's mind: "He misses his partner."
- The Maiden Name Debate: She kept her maiden name, Eames, after she married Joe. She uses this to her advantage in "Amends" by pointing out to Ross that no one will immediately connect her to Joe when his murder has to be reopened.
- Missing Mom: In ten seasons, Eames mentions her mother maybe once or twice; the only thing we ever learn about her is that she had a stroke at some point. In an episode where she and Goren visit Eames senior, her mother is neither seen nor mentioned.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Eames is extremely intelligent and one of the very best detectives in the entire NYPD — but her partner happens to be the downright brilliant Robert Goren. Watching Goren work, it's easy to forget just how good Alexandra Eames is at her job... which she naturally uses for her own and her partner's benefit at every opportunity. Frequently she will deliberately let suspects think she isn't a threat until, quite suddenly, she is.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She is five feet and two inches of concentrated asskicking.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Goren; in Goren's own words, they are Like Brother and Sister, not that this deters the shippers at all.
- Rank Up: Zig-Zagged. She accepts a promotion to Captain in Season 9 just long enough to fire Goren, immediately quits the NYPD, and returns in Season 10 at her old rank of Detective. By the time of her first guest appearance on SVU, she's made Lieutenant and been put on a Homeland Security task force.
- Transplant: She has started making occasional guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- Undying Loyalty: To Goren. In Season Nine, she is offered the position of captain of Major Case on the condition that she fire Goren; she takes the position long enough to fire him so that no one else will do so, and then quits herself, unwilling to continue without him.
- Waif-Fu: Eames is five feet and two inches of pure badass. And she's the senior detective in her partnership with Goren.
- The Watson: To Goren. Much like the good doctor, she provides an interface between her partner and the rest of the world.
- Written-In Absence: In Season 3, due to Kathryn Erbe's pregnancy; Eames was said to be acting as a surrogate for her sister.
Captain James Deakins
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Jamey Sheridan
The captain of the Major Case Squad in Seasons One through Five.
- Deadpan Snarker: He probably picks it up from his detectives.Eames: She also tested positive for lithium.Goren: Might have been for depression.Capt. Deakins: What's so depressing about being a crack whore?
- Know When to Fold 'Em: His career ended when a former friend of his framed him for corruption charges; he resigned rather than tarnish his reputation further or bring danger to the detectives trying to help him.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: His actor had Bell's Palsy during the filming of Season Four, so the illness was written in for Deakins.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Has been working with Goren long enough to know that his tactics, while unusual, get the job done, and is willing to give him and Eames a lot more latitude than most. That said, he also knows when to draw the line.
- Resigned in Disgrace: Implicated in a corruption scandal, and while he is innocent, an investigation threatens to wreck the careers of the detectives serving under him. He uses his medical problems as an excuse to take early retirement.
- Team Dad: Is more than willing to go to bat for his detectives, and gets Logan reinstated as a detective.
Detective Mike Logan
Appearances: Law & Order | Exiled: A Law & Order Movie | Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Other Appearances: Homicide: Life on the Street
Played By: Chris Noth
Logan is a troubled detective who formerly worked in the detective squad of Manhattan's 27th precinct.
For tropes relating to Logan's character in the original series, please see the Law & Order character sheet.
- Character Development: Subtle, but Mike has better control over his temper than he did back in Law and Order. It makes for interesting contrast when he's temporarily paired with Nola Falacci, whose own temper control is...shall we say, not as refined.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Logan's mother was physically abusive to him; this was established as far back as season one of the original series, but Criminal Intent elaborates on it further than the original show did.Barek: [Logan's] mother used to send him out to buy booze for her. (to Logan) Tell Johnny how she used to thank you. He needs to hear it.
Logan: After the first drink, it was all hugs and kisses. Then a few drinks later, she'd grab whatever she could and start hitting me. And when she got tired of holding whatever it was she was hitting me with she'd just go at me with her fists. And the next day, she'd send me back to the liquor store. - Deadpan Snarker: A trait he retains from the original series.
- Hot-Blooded: Still shows signs of this from time to time, but it's way toned down from the original series. His temporary partner in Season 7, Nola Falacci, comments on this, saying that she'd heard he was a hothead; Logan responds to this by handing her a newspaper article about the incident in the original Law & Order in which he punched a homophobic councilman.
- Not Me This Time: When a judge whose wife was murdered calls Captain Ross to complain about the way a detective treated him, Captain Ross assumes he meant Logan. It was actually Logan's new partner who got in the judge's face.
- Only Sane Man: In his temporary partnership with Falacci, something he finds amusing.
- Put on a Bus: Leaves the force at the end of Season 7 after a particularly difficult case sours him on police work.
- Transplant: From Law & Order to Criminal Intent.
- Two First Names: Either "Mike" or "Logan" can be used as a first name.
Detective Carolyn Barek
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Annabella Sciorra
Logan's first partner in the Major Case Squad.
In 2021 it was announced that she would be returning as a guest star on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, having since become a lieutenant in the Bronx SVU.
- The Bus Came Back: Sixteen years after her last appearance on CI, she reappears in an episode of the 22nd season of SVU, now a lieutenant and the commanding officer of the Bronx SVU.
- Gets Put on a Bus again at the end of the episode, losing her SVU command (because one of her own detectives has turned out to be a rapist) and being transferred into a homicide unit within the NYPD.
- Distaff Counterpart: She is essentially a female version of Goren.
- Hidden Depths: Well...Eames: The girls don't remember anything about the place except that it's down a flight of stairs and it has a red bar.Barek: Oh. Ah...The Shock and Awe club. It's on Harrison between Greenwich and Hudson.Goren, Eames, and Logan all stare at her.Barek: There's this DJ there that I know.
- I Work Alone: Frequently worked without a partner before joining Major Case, hence her own idiosyncrasies, such as a habit of talking to herself. Very reluctant to bring Benson's squad in on the Bronx/Manhattan serial rapist case, and blames her later involuntary transfer out of SVU on her decision to do so, at least in part.
- Omniglot: To quote her, she speaks "Spanish, Yiddish, Italian, Polish, some Creole, some Russian, some Cantonese from working in Chinatown".
- Transplant: In Season 22 of SVU, she makes a guest appearance as a lieutenant and the commanding officer of the Bronx SVU.
- Turn in Your Badge: She's ready to do this after one of her SVU detectives is arrested for multiple rapes. The deputy chief lets her stay on the job, but transfers her out of SVU and into Homicide and warns her to keep a low profile.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears after Season Five; no reason was ever given.
- Made a guest appearance on SVU as noted above.
Detective Megan Wheeler
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Julianne Nicholson
Megan A. Wheeler is Mike Logan's second partner in the Major Case Squad, and subsequently becomes Zach Nichols's first partner in Season 8.
- Boyish Short Hair: One of her defining characteristics.
- Broken Bird: Her fiancé's lies about his criminal activities are revealed when he gets arrested by the FBI right in front of her. And then, once he's locked up in federal prison for twelve years, she finds out she's pregnant with his child. There's also a subplot in a later episode involving the disappearance of her father, who was implied to be involved in mob activity; the episode ends with her at a mass gravesite waiting to see if they've uncovered his body.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not quite to Eames' level, but she gets plenty of moments.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father disappeared when she was younger; it's implied that he was up to some kind of criminal or mob activity. A later episode has her investigating, which ends with his body possibly being uncovered in a mass gravesite, though it isn't confirmed.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Downplayed; she gets engaged during a six-month special assignment in Europe, and they never make it to the actual marriage part due to her fiance's arrest.
- Older Than They Look: Is noted by a number of characters to look very young. Logan, upon meeting her, makes a snarky comment about her freckles. Ross counters this by complimenting her time working undercover, saying that no one ever made her as an officer.
- Put on a Bus: After her character gives birth at the end of Season Eight. An episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit establishes that she then retired.
- Written-In Absence: In the seventh season, she goes on a special assignment in Europe for six months due to Julianne Nicholson's pregnancy.
Detective Nola Falacci
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Alicia Witt
Megan Wheeler's temporary replacement while she was on a special assignment in Europe.
- Character Development: She does learn to keep her temper in check better thanks to Logan, albeit slowly. In her last episode, she's actually the one to get Logan and Ross to stop fighting.
- Fair Cop: She's a good looking woman in good shape who constantly wears sleeveless shirts with low necklines.
- Fiery Redhead: Noted in-universe to be more hot-headed than Logan; if you know anything about Logan's time on the original show, you'll know that this is quite impressive. It's discussed in one episode when Falacci asks Logan why he's so level-headed when she'd previously heard that he was a hot-head himself; Logan responds by handing her a copy of the newspaper article telling the story of how he got demoted. Over time she seems to absorb his advice; in her last episode, she's the one to intervene in a fight between Logan and Ross and tell them to calm down.
- Hot-Blooded: To the point that she makes Logan the Only Sane Man in their partnership, amazingly enough. She does gradually start mellowing out, though.
- Human Shield: In "Senseless", a perp grabs her and holds her at knifepoint; while she comes out of it with a cut arm, it thankfully isn't too serious.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a Fair Cop who constantly wears sleeveless shirts with low necklines.
- Put on a Bus: Once Wheeler comes back, Falacci is mentioned to have gone to Quantico for FBI training.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Despite having a reputation for being stubborn and hot-headed, it's limited to the job. At home, she's a Happily Married wife and mother.
- Temporary Substitute: In the first half of Season 7 while Wheeler's actress was on maternity leave.
Captain Danny Ross
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Eric Bogosian
The captain of the Major Case Squad in Seasons Six through Eight.
- Amicable Exes: Downplayed; he shares parenting duties with his ex-wife and they're on good enough terms to have a family dinner together, but he doesn't seem to think much of her new partner.
- Character Death: Is murdered in the Season Nine premiere.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: A meta version. In advertisements for Law & Order: LA promoting the upcoming murder of Rex Winters, it was described as "an event not seen on Law & Order in twenty years" referencing the murder of Max Greevey. Apparently Alex Borgia and Danny Ross didn't count.
- Informed Judaism: Ross is all but outright stated to be Jewish in "30", during his first season on the show. Three seasons later, we see his sons wearing yarmulkes at his funeral.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg:Ross: I know some of you have two Thanksgiving dinners today, so I want to thank everyone for being here. My children, the mother of my children... [glances sourly at ex-wife's boyfriend] ...Todd.
- Papa Wolf: Has two sons with his ex-wife and would break anyone in two for threatening them.
- Ship Tease: With Rodgers; they're seen dressed for a theater date in one episode, and in "Frame" Goren angrily confronts Ross about asking Rodgers for information on him by saying, "Did your girlfriend tell you that?" Rodgers is also uncharacteristically emotional at the scene of Ross's murder, and while attending his funeral, she stands on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.
Detective Zachary Nichols
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Jeff Goldblum
Logan's replacement and an old acquaintance of Captain Ross just returned to the force after seven years, Zach is a pretty quirky detective with a dry, witty sense of humor.
- Broken Hero: A downplayed example. He lugs around some emotional baggage from his unhappy relationship with his parents (primarily his father, or so it seems at least) and "Palimpsest" involves him coming to the aid of an ex-lover who was too psychologically unstable for their relationship to work. His attitude is generally positive, however.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His loopy, often dark sense of humor and seemingly nonchalant attitude conceal a sharp intellect with a particularly keen understanding of psychology.
- Creepy Good: Sure, on the whole he's a rather positive character and not prone to violent outbursts the way Goren is. But when it comes time to turn the screws on a suspect he has no sympathy for, his warm, even soothing voice takes on a low, ruthless cadence, and his wit can become a blade aimed straight at their ego.
- Establishing Character Moment: The audience and Wheeler first encounter him as he arrives at the scene of the crime in "Rock Star" with his arms full of takeaway from various ethnic/specialty eateries of the neighborhood, cheerfully marveling over the variety and quality of the goodies.
- Hidden Depths: He is a brilliant pianist, and using that talent to get under the skin of a musician/suspect in "Rock Star" is the moment that Wheeler realizes the "brilliance" Ross told her about earlier is not just an Informed Attribute. This skill ends up serving as Book Ends for his tenure on the show, as it prominently appears in his final episode, "Three-In-One", as well.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The 6'5" Nichols is paired up with the 5'2" Eames for two episodes at the end of Season 8.
- Irony: His decision not to pursue psychology as a career after growing up in a household drenched in it from the breakfast table onwards drove a wedge between him and his parents, yet that upbringing is responsible for an understanding of psychology being one of his great strengths in the line of work he chose.
- Mysterious Past: Captain Ross admits to Wheeler that during the seven years Nichols was off the force (by choice, possibly the result of post-9/11 burnout), the only clue to his whereabouts was a postcard from Cleveland.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Nichols appears to be a polite, curious observer to those he's investigating, always ready with a witty remark to the point that he's more annoying than anything. But then he starts pulling at strings and asking questions/making comments that really get under their skin.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: As to be expected by someone played by Jeff Goldblum.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He came from a family of psychiatrists, and his father was very disappointed that he did not follow in his footsteps, causing a lot of strife between the two. (Amusingly, he did not hurt for praise as a child; in fact, he grew tired of it, and this was a factor in his eventual rebellion.) In "Three-In-One", he is forced to enlist his father's help to capture a murderer and possibly save one of their intended victims. The collaboration works despite much stress for both men, and they reconcile at last.
Detective Serena Stevens
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Saffron Burrows
Megan Wheeler's replacement and Zach Nichols' partner.
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode "Disciple" focuses heavily on her and her personal involvement in the case.
- Deadpan Snarker: She's quick to reply to Nichols' snark with her own.
- First-Name Basis: She and Nichols are notably the only two who consistently use first names... when they actually call each other by name.
- Hidden Depths: Nichols sees something in her, and that's why he trusts her so quickly.
- Military Brat: Stevens' father was a Marine.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Every so often, Saffron Burrows' British accent slips out.
- Omniglot: She can speak English and Spanish, and knows how to read Urdu and Arabic.
- Statuesque Stunner: At 5'11"-6', she's almost as tall as Nichols.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She left after a season.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears after a season with no explanation (although it's never explicitly stated that she left, so she could still be there and just not appearing).
Captain Zoe Callas
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Danny Ross' successor as Captain of the Major Case Squad. She formerly worked in Internal Affairs before moving to Major Case.
- Deadpan Snarker: She had a sharp wit, and easily kept up with Nichols and Stevens.
- Named After Someone Famous: She shares the last name and nationality with Greek opera singer Maria Callas.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She had a strong head on her shoulders.
- Team Mom: She's more than willing to go to bat for Nichols and Stevens.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She left after a season.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her reason for leaving MCS was never explained.
Captain Joseph Hannah
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Jay O. Sanders
Callas's replacement as head of the Major Case Squad, Hannah is a Reasonable Authority Figure with a prior friendship with Goren.
- And Starring: Jay O. Sanders and Julia Ormond are credited with "And Starring." Neither of them are in the title sequence, however.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's the one who pulled strings to get Goren back on the force, and he recognizes Goren's capabilities. It's implied they were friends prior to Hannah taking the job.
Detective G. Lynn Bishop
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Samantha Buck
Eames's temporary replacement during her maternity leave, who lacks the same chemistry and effective partnership with Goren that Eames has.
- Always Someone Better: Goren repeatedly makes it abundantly clear that he prefers Eames over her.
Other Police Officers and Police Technicians
Detective Louise Campesi
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Caris Vujcec
A recurring detective who runs across the Major Case Squad on occasion, and aids them in their investigations. She later shows up in SVU, playing the same role.
Chief of Detectives Frank Adair
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Michael Rispoli
A cop turned politician and an old friend of Deakins.
Captain Al Petrosino
Medical
M.E. Elizabeth Rodgers
Appearances: Law & Order | Exiled: A Law & Order Movie | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Leslie Hendrix
The wise-cracking medical examiner. Also appears in the original series; for tropes relating to her character there, please see the Law & Order character sheet.
- Berserk Button: Disrepect of the dead or sloppy work by her employees. She is livid when one of her assistants rushes through an autopsy in "Blasters".Rodgers: Natural causes?!? What did you do, a drive-by intake?Assistant: He was outdoors three or four weeks, exposed to the elements...Rodgers: He was hanged. After his ribs were broken. How do you miss that? Did you even look at him?
- Deadpan Snarker: A trait carried over from the original series.
- Progressively Prettier: She was originally seen with short red hair and hidden in lab coats. Over time, her hair was dyed blonde and grown out and she was seen more outside work in more feminine clothing. "Untethered" even had her wearing a beautiful, sparkly dress as she was about to head to the opera with Ross.
- Ship Tease: With Captain Ross; it's never officially mentioned on screen, but they're seen dressed for a theater date in one episode, and in "Frame" Goren angrily confronts Ross about asking Rodgers for information on him by saying, "Did your girlfriend tell you that?" Rodgers is also uncharacteristically emotional at the scene of Ross's murder, and while attending his funeral, she stands on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.
- There's also a retroactive bit with Briscoe from the original series; she mentions that he took her out to the opera once.
- Transplant: From the original series.
Dr. Paula Gyson
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Julia Ormond
Goren's psychologist and friend of the new captain of MCS, Joseph Hannah. Goren was required to see her as a condition of his return to MCS.
- And Starring: Jay O. Sanders and Julia Ormond are credited with "And Starring." Neither of them are in the title sequence, however.
Lawyers
ADA Ron Carver
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Courtney B. Vance
The Assistant District Attorney that works with the Major Case Squad from Season One to Season Five.
- By-the-Book Cop: Or attorney, rather. Rarely there is a time where he isn't clashing with the detectives, especially Goren.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He was written out at the end of season five without a given reason.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not as severe as the others, but it's still seen. I.e., in "The Unblinking Eye" after the suspect is arrested for the crime and bemoans a failed audition he had and said his "mind went blank", he then quips, "Too bad his mind didn't go blank on that street corner" (where he shot the victim).
- Hello, Attorney!: He is a very attractive man who is also an ADA.
- Out of Focus: Even though the District Attorney's office didn't play as large as a part in the series compared to the other series in the franchise, beginning with the latter half of season four, he started to be used less and less. He initially was seen as someone who worked with the detectives and told them what they were allowed to do in the scope of the law, but eventually became someone who showed up once and episode just to block their efforts with little to no compromise.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: As an attorney, he was always seen wearing a collection of nice suits and ties.
- Token Minority: He is the only main or recurring black character in the show's history.
ADA Terri Driver
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Leslie Hope
A Queens ADA.
- Amoral Attorney: She's extremely reluctant to revisit a case where a man may have been falsely convicted, because she doesn't want to tarnish her conviction rate.
Recurring Characters
Nicole Wallace
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Olivia D Abo
Robert Goren's Arch-Enemy and Worthy Opponent.
- Affably Evil: A villain yes, but she's a polite one.
- Big Bad: The closest thing the show has to this.
- The Chessmaster: A criminal mastermind, she is one of the few people Goren encounters throughout the series who can get the better of him, particularly by confronting him about his unhappy childhood.
- Dark and Troubled Past: According to Goren, her father sexually abused her in her childhood.
- Deadpan Snarker: As part of her being Goren's Evil Counterpart.
- Depraved Bisexual: Downplayed. She's bisexual and a villain, but her villainy is not correlated to her sexuality.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Gwen Chapel, the ill daughter of her ex-fiancé, is about the only person for whom she shows any genuine affection. In "Frame" it's implied that Gwen being close to death from cancer is what has driven Nicole to kill again.
- She also claims that Goren is the only man she's ever loved, although the sincerity of this claim is questionable.
- Evil Counterpart: To Goren — Both are brilliant, use a façade to trick others, had a troubling childhood that involved an abusive father (emotional/psychological for Goren, sexual for Nicole), are not easily fooled by other Manipulative Bastards, have a sole loved one who acts as a form of emotional support (Eames is Goren's Living Emotional Crutch, Gwen is Nicole's Morality Pet and Morality Chain), and they both have unspecified mental issues. The key difference is that while Goren uses his talents to solve crimes and prevent future ones, Nicole uses hers to commit them.
- Eviler than Thou: She's this to Bernard Fremont. Declan Gage is this to her.
- Foil: To Goren, in the way they manipulate others — Goren is a large man who pretends to be a Cloudcuckoolander and having others thinks of him as an idiot; Nicole is a petite woman who uses her superficial charm to let others believe she's a caring and warm person.
- Freudian Excuse: Goren theorizes that she was molested by her father as a child and that the trauma bred in her a pathological drive to use and destroy anyone who gets close to her; this is frequently implied to be true.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Her abuse at the hands of her father, and her mother's indifference to it led her to hating them both, and by extension, all men and all women.
- Hot Teacher: In her first appearance.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: If you give credence to her claim that Goren is the only man she's ever loved, it's implied to be this trope; in particular, she apparently is drawn to him because she can't seduce him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: She's murdered by Declan Gage as an unsolicited favor for Goren. Played with in that they never found the body, and someone with a lot of similarities to her pops up in another show by Rene Balcer five years later, though it isn't confirmed to be her.
- Morality Pet: Gwen is one for her.
- Never Found the Body: The only part of her ever found is her heart; while the DNA test says it's hers, Goren refuses to believe it actually is.
- Interestingly enough... A murder suspect, Madelyn Haynes, played by the same actress appears in a 2013 episode of Jo, a show also created by Rene Balcer. Said suspect's fingerprints match those on record for Nicole Wallace, but her DNA does not.
Word of God and Word of Saint Paul is that they are indeed one and the same and that Nicole resorted to forensic trickery to escape yet again.
- Interestingly enough... A murder suspect, Madelyn Haynes, played by the same actress appears in a 2013 episode of Jo, a show also created by Rene Balcer. Said suspect's fingerprints match those on record for Nicole Wallace, but her DNA does not.
- Offing the Offspring: Killed her three-year-old daughter before the series began.
- Parental Incest: She never admits to it, but Goren becomes certain she was molested by her father as a child. One scene between her and Gwen suggests this is true, with Nicole telling Gwen that "sometimes daddies can love too much".
- Pet the Dog: The one act of kindness she does for anyone in the show's run is to leave Gwen with her aunt in Arizona to ensure her safety, instead of running away with her or leaving her with the relative who was trying to murder her.
- Two First Names: Either "Nicole" or "Wallace" can be used as a first name.
- Would Hurt a Child: She murdered her three-year-old daughter.
- Defied with her Morality Pet Gwen, who she gives up specifically to ensure this trope will never come to pass.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: She murdered her three-year-old daughter, but she has this in spades with her Morality Pet Gwen. She runs away with Gwen to protect her from her father's attempts to murder her and really wants to be a mother to her, but is forced to admit that Gwen would never be safe with her, and leaves her in the care of her aunt.
Declan Gage
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: John Glover
Robert Goren's former mentor, and one of the first criminal profilers. He was once a respected member of the FBI, but had a mental breakdown during the pursuit of a serial killer and subsequently became a laughingstock.
- Abusive Parents: At best he barely acknowledges his daughter Jo's existence; their interactions generally consist of him cutting her down, or of awkward silence. Goren and Jo both admit that Declan was far more of a father to the former than he was to the latter. It was bad enough that Jo ended up committing multiple murders and kidnapping Eames just to get her father's attention, and eventually he manipulates Jo into biting out her own tongue so that she can't give out any information on him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When he talks about getting rid of Frank and Nicole to give Goren a fresh, clean slate, Declan also makes a point to include himself in the bunch for the jail time he'll have to face. He knows he's insane or at least not long for rational thought, and knows he's damaging to Goren in his own way with full knowledge he'd have to write himself out of his student's life.
- Eviler than Thou: To Nicole Wallace.
- Graceful Loser: He knew he was going to lose in the first place, and is damn proud Goren figured it out.
- Jerkass: He's rude, abrasive, eccentric in a rather blunt matter without caring what others think, and even mean to Goren to a degree even if soft in comparison to others. Whenever he's in a room, odds are he's going to piss off almost everyone in it besides the student used to him. This causes everyone, even Goren himself to a degree, to readily and violently believe he was the killer in "Blind Spot" when he ends up with Eames' phone after she was kidnapped.
- Kick the Dog: What he does when he kills Goren's addict brother Frank, not to mention mailing Nicole's heart in a box to him, but on top of that he forces Jo to bite her own tongue out just so that she doesn't potentially sell him out before Goren solves the mystery personally.
- Like a Son to Me: All but admits this to Goren in "Framed" compared to Jo. This is in the middle of the dress-down about how Frank and Nicole are dead by his work, making Goren horrified.
- No-Sell: Nicole Wallace tried to seduce him. He and Goren are the only two men who ever said no to her.
- Parental Neglect: To Jo, who openly says that he was more of a father to Goren than he ever was to her.
- So Proud of You: When Goren realizes that Declan is the one framing him for the murders of Frank and Nicole, the guy is proud that his student was able to piece it all together in his traditional analytical fashion, that his "puzzle" was solved.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His refusal to even really acknowledge his daughter Jo caused a number of problems, chief of which was her being the killer in "Blind Spot", even nearly murdering Eames solely to frame Declan or at least get his attention.
- Villain in a White Suit: His white seersucker suit, bowtie, and fedora give him a dapper yet eccentric appearance that may put you at ease, although you really shouldn't be.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He knows that Goren has gotten dealt a pretty crappy hand in life and really wants to help make things better for him. So he murders Goren's brother Frank and nemesis Nicole Wallace in order to free Goren from their toxic influence, and goes to jail for his crimes to free Goren from his own.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Part of why he treats Goren so much better than Jo is his longing for a son.
Frank Goren
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Tony Goldwyn
Goren's drug-and-gambling addicted brother.
- Jerkass: He doesn't care about his brother, his mother, his son, or anyone else in the world who isn't him.
- Killed Off for Real: Murdered by Nicole Wallace at the behest of Declan Gage.
