Recap / Law And Order Criminal Intent S 1 E 1 One

Season One, Episode One: One

Written by Dick Wolf and Rene Balcer
Directed by Jean de Segonzac
Airdate: September 30, 2001

After a jewelry heist ends in two young witnesses and one of the perpetrators dead, Detectives Robert Goren and Alex Eames from the Major Case Squad are brought on the case to find the remaining perps before they manage to successfully fence over 300 million dollars worth of diamonds and flee the country.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Right from the start, Goren shows himself to be one of these, with quite a few odd tics, behavior mannerisms, and problem-solving skills to his name. His method of tracking down a perp's criminal history? By finding a CI with a wide variety of prison tattoos and bringing him down to the station so that Goren can cross-reference.
• Character Tics: This episode introduces us to one of Goren's major ones; his odd habit of tilting his entire body almost parallel to the ground to look at a number a perp is writing a notepad, as opposed to just his head. The perp, Jake, is, understandably enough, rather bewildered.
• Depraved Bisexual: The head of the diamond heist gang, Karl Atwood, very quickly establishes himself to be one of these once he viciously kills his male partner at the end of the heist, apparently having decided he'd outlived his usefulness. He treats his main partner, a woman named Gina, like utter garbage, repeatedly cheating on her and assaulting her throughout the episode.
• Lying to the Perp: Goren manages to get the main perpetrator's girlfriend, Gia, to go along with a sting operation on him by telling her that her boyfriend's affair with a man he met in prison likely left him with AIDS, and that she likely won't receive good treatment for it if she goes to prison without making a deal first. He even admits to it once it's all over, leaving Gia horrified.
  Goren: Sorry. I lied.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Karl does this repeatedly throughout the course of the episode, but a particular standout is at the end of the heist, where he blows his accomplices brains out just because he's done his job and he doesn't want to deal with Gia's obvious dislike of his latest fling.