Ain't No Love

I'm the first to admit that Serena's frank question at her exit interview (in the initial airing) was a big "Whaaaaat?" moment, and all the TV reviewers shared my puzzlement at the seemingly out-of-context question. HOWEVER, watching episodes in reruns, the question is NOT out of left field. Serena played her sexuality close to the vest, but her apparent discomfort as a prosecutor in civil rights (and more notably in cases regarding gay rights cases) is very apparent in many episodes leading up to her final episode. I agree that maybe the question she posed to DA Branch could have been hinted at with more clarity, BUT the dramatic reality was that her firing had less to do with her sexuality, than her core belief system. As the modern adage says; Hindsight is 20/20.

"Ain't No Love" was very memorable on first watch, but not always in a good way. It is most notable for being the last appearance of Serena Southerlyn (a maligned character for good reason), who never did anything for me as a character and neither did Elisabeth Rohm playing her. It is also notable for having what came over on first watch one of the worst exits of any 'Law and Order' franchise lead character, one that is going leave one cringing in their seats with embarrassment.

My generally quite positive but not loved it feelings for "Ain't No Love" still stand up today for pretty much the same reasons on both good and not so good. Actually thought that much of "Ain't No Love" was great with many note-worthy things, despite a couple of big hiccups, but Southerlyn's character writing and the ending are so bad (and notoriously so within the fandom just to say) that they drag the episode down significantly.

Beginning with the good, the production values are typically slick with the right amount of grit, nothing is too fancy or too gimmicky. Nor is anything too static, drab or garish. The music is not too constant or emotionally manipulative, meanig not over-emphasising the emotion to make one think that's how we should be feeling. The direction is accommodating but also has pulse. The acting on the whole is fine, especially from Sam Waterston and the supporting cast. Jade Yorker's bone chilling performance is one that is difficult to forget.

The writing is intelligent and lean on the whole, apart from one cringe worthy line, and the story when it picks up is absorbing and not too simple or too complicated. It doesn't sugar coat the subject without being heavy handed. The moral dilemmas of the case are handled well.

Southerlyn comes over as inept here though, almost as if the writers also hated Southerlyn and had given up on her, and Elisabeth Rohm's acting has no life to it. Her delivery at the end has absolutely nothing to it, have never heard asking for a reason for a firing being said so flatly.

It is most let down by the abrupt and out of nowhere ending and the single worst line of the show (the thing that Southerlyn is most remembered for by a lot of fans), one that is facepalm worthy. Will admit though that there were hints of her sexuality in previous episodes but there was something about the way the exit was written that felt very indifferent and abrupt.

Overall, great for most of it but let down by the ending primarily. 7/10.

A renowned DJ didn't show up at an award ceremony. His limo driver went to his studio only to find he was shot dead. The victim was killed by a bullet in the chest and police found an empty soda bottle by the crime scene, used by the shooter as a silencer. Forensics pointed out there must have been two people at the crime scene, the killer and another man who tried to revive the victim. Detective at first chased his bodyguard (Al Sapienza), a former undercover cop, whose wife had an affair with the DJ. Even if his alibi was not so strong, they led the investigation inside the hip-hop world: the victim was about to produce a new single together with a young rapper. Fontana and Green, after listening to some rhymes in a CD, realized the rapper had to know something: they obtained a warrant and they found gunpowder on his shoes. During trial, another rapper with several priors took the fall and all the prosecution became more and more complicated...

This is the last episode of Serena Southerlyn; she is fired by Branch for being too symphatetic towards defendants. She admitted to be a lesbian much to the audience disapproval.

I loved this episode as I have all other Law and Order episodes over the past seven or eight years.

With this last episode involving Serena prosecuting this specific case, she ran into a very serious ethical dilemma regarding her position as a prosecutor. But I don't understand what the crime is in finding evidence or suspecting that a criminal defendant may not be culpable for the crime he was charged with.

Why couldn't Serena have tried harder to convince Jack and Arthur that she could find the person who really committed the murder through the guy they thought they had pegged as their perp? It's beyond me.

At any rate, Serena ended up getting fired by Branch for essentially doing her job -- zealously representing the State of New York by trying to find the true killer in this specific case.

What I found especially lame was how Serena suddenly suspected that Branch and McCoy discovered she was a lesbian long before she admitted it out of the blue. Whaaaaat the hell was that woman thinking? I can understand where some people come from by becoming briefly irrational and using their emotions over their common sense when faced with a major life change, and there isn't one person out there who hasn't gone through a similar dilemma. Still, I think Serena could have gone out far better than she did.

Who knows? Serena Southerlyn may not have gone as quietly as some people think she has. When Branch lectured her implicitly about being more cut out to be a defense attorney than a prosecutor, she may very well take that to heart and become one.

If Wolf and the other producers of the show were to invite Rohm back as a special guest star, she would make a great foil against McCoy in any event that cases involving her clients are prosecuted by him. As a former ADA and having worked with McCoy, she knows all his strengths and weaknesses. Plus, if she is the type of attorney who will represent a client she KNOWS is absolutely innocent, she will fight tooth and nail to bury her former supervisor in court.

Again, Law and Order can do so much more with characters like the one Rohm portrayed over the past four or five years she co-starred on the show.