Law & Order Season 22 Episode 17 Review: Bias
Jack Ori
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What? How did Price secure a win this time?
Never mind that. How did McCoy miss Price's Mack truck-sized conflict of interest until it was too late?
Law & Order Season 22 Episode 17 offered one of the most unrealistic cases since that time on Law & Order: SVU when Rollins went undercover after getting in over her head with gambling debts. But unrealistic doesn't always mean bad -- the story was entertaining!
However, this story would have been more powerful if it had gone in a different, more realistic direction.
We had a judge who thought he was above the law, influenced his clerk to lie for him, and stalked and got violent with at least two women. Many people are hungry for stories about people who think they are above the law getting their just desserts, but instead, we got Price's refusal to see his own biases!
It seemed like the story was going in that direction for a while. The judge thought he was above getting arrested because of his position, and when that didn't save him, he threatened to ruin the cops' careers.
And when it got to trial, the judge presiding over the case was a personal friend of the defendant's and kept siding with the defense attorney no matter how ridiculous his behavior was. Benning made no attempt to hide his bias or his dislike of Price's insistence he recuse himself.
It got so bad I was shocked he sustained Maroun's objection to the defense attorney's ridiculous line of questioning when Price was on the stand!
Since Benning wouldn't recuse himself, I don't know what the prosecution could have done, but I'd have preferred that battle to this silly attempt to paint Price as the real killer.
It also would have been interesting if Price's biases had caused him to focus on the wrong defendant.
The judge was insufferable, and there was proof he had stalked Rachel, but not that he had killed her. It would have been a compelling twist if it turned out the doorman did it, and the judge had tried to save Rachel!
That would have been a hell of a coincidence, though, since the judge had also stalked and threatened his ex-wife. But it also could have easily been the case that Tyler, the law clerk who seemed half in love with the judge, had killed Rachel if they didn't want to go for the doorman doing it.
Once the cops learned the judge had had an affair with Rachel, why did they stop there? There was no real reason the case had to hinge on Tyler's testimony.
The cops could have looked into whether the judge's relationship with Rachel was consensual in the first place and whether he had stalked other women besides his ex. They also could have investigated if he was involved in improper or illegal activities.
Benning might have thrown some of it out because he didn't like Price, but it was still worth looking into!
Price was right that Benning was biased, but his case was weakened significantly by the fact that he had a similar conflict of interest.
Maroun: Think it might have dawned on you to inform your co-counsel that you had a romantic relationship with the victim?
Price: It was over a decade ago and it was irrelevant.
Maroun: You went after Benning for his bias. You're just as compromised as he is!
The issue of Price's kiss with Rachel ten years ago would have been a non-starter if the judge had been fair. I don't blame him for not mentioning it; it didn't seem relevant, and Maroun could have fixed that during redirect.
Still, Maroun was right to be angry at Price. He found the body and knew the victim; that was more than enough reason to recuse himself.
Although the defense took it to ridiculous extremes, the fact that the cops asked Price for an alibi after he called the body in was a viable point for it to raise; how did Price not see that one coming?
Price: I am the best.
McCoy: What you are is compromised. If I had known you found the body and you had a romantic relationship with the victim, I wouldn't let you within a timezone of this case.
McCoy said he wouldn't have let Price take this case if he'd known about the issues, but how did he not? He had to have seen the case file that indicated that Price had found Rachel's body and had been questioned by the police.
He should have intervened in this much earlier. At the very least, Maroun should have been the first chair on this since she wasn't involved in the case. That would have stopped Price from pulling rank when she disapproved of his decisions.
It's debatable whether Price was wrong about not telling the defense about the doorman and his priors. If they weren't calling him as a witness, it might not have been necessary -- but if they were using the information at all, they still should have turned it over.
The final scene implied that that's how Price won that case. But how did he use that evidence without putting the doorman on the stand?
What did you think, Law & Order fanatics? Did you enjoy Price's dilemma despite how unrealistic it was, or would you have rather the story gone in a different direction?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts. And don't forget you can watch Law & Order online right here on TV Fanatic.
Law & Order airs on NBC on Thursdays at 8 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
