Spoilers

“Unlawful Entries”

I remember when this episode first aired… I hated… just hated Danny Shreve, the therapist who had claimed to be in love with his former patient, Maxine. Maxine had him arrested last episode for crossing the line and taking advantage of his position as therapist.

This episode found him doing his best to get Maxine to drop the charges, and he was clearly manipulating her, and I loved Maxine and I hated him for what he was doing.

At the end of the episode with Danny and Maxine in bed together seemed so sinister that I hated him once again.

The rest of the episode was quite disgusting. They had a case where a male was raped by a female and they way he was treated as a victim was just appalling. I know the idea was to highlight how rape victims are treated by the system, but listening to Douglas Wambaugh, one of my favorite characters, spout off the platitudes of the ridiculous statements used in rape cases was sickening. Watching Henry Bone’s reactions were also obscene. Nothing spoke more than to see John Littleton’s eyes being adverted in shame, avoiding the gaze of the victim.

The victim was played by Alan Ruck, the actor from Spin City and Ferris Buhler’s Day Off. He played the anger and embarrassment with such a heart-breaking pain.

This episode also found the debut of a character in Picket Fences called Rachel Harris. Played by Leigh Taylor-Young, this is a character who fumbled into the mayor’s office after Bill Pugen exploded last episode. She has a huge role moving forward.

Overall, this episode was more of a set-up for stories for the future.