NYPD Blue, Season 2, Episode 21, "The Bank Dick" Written by Victor Bumbalo Directed by Michael M. Robin PLOT ONE: MOTHER AND FATHER OF THE YEAR Simone, Sipowicz, and Russell are investigating a particularly perverse serial rapist. His MO consists of holding up women at gunpoint at ATM vestibules, driving them off in their own cars, having his way with them repeatedly, then driving off with an accomplice who tails the victim's car. The fifth victim manages to provide a partial license plate on the getaway car, and Andy and Bobby lean hard on the two men caught driving it - Andy in particular is incensed, alluding to Sylvia's rape in law school (he never mentions her name, and when Bobby asks him after the interrogation about it, Andy claims he made the story up to scare one of the perps). It turns out that neither of the skells is the rapist; one owns the car, and rents it out to the other, who in turn drives the rapist, one Johnny Duffy, around to look for victims. A visit to Duffy's apartment isn't especially helpful - his brother says that Johnny hasn't been around in weeks - but Andy leaves his name with Duffy's niece, a frightened-looking teenager who seems to know more than she lets on. Andy's hunch proves right - the niece stops by the precinct later on and tells Andy all about her Uncle Johnny, including the fact that he used to molest her. After informing Andy that Johnny and his wife have a sick baby at Bellevue Children's Hospital whose heart condition has made all the newspapers, she heads off to catch a bus out of town to start a new life - but not before Andy gives her some money out of his own pocket to help pay for meals. A nurse at Bellevue informs Andy and Bobby that Johnny and his wife stopped coming to see their baby once they realized that all the donations the media attention were creating went to pay for the baby's care and not to them. Bobby convinces the nurse to lie to the parents and tell them that Andy and Bobby represent a drug company that will pay the Duffy's money if they allow an experimental drug to be used on their son. The next morning, the baby's mother shows up, but not Johnny. While Andy traces the phone call, Bobby convinces the mother that he can't give them any money unless they're both present. The phone tap does the trick, and Bobby and Andy arrest Duffy at a strip club in midtown - one that Andy apparently used to frequent, judging by the warm reception he gets from one of the strippers. Duffy caves in quickly and signs a statement, but Bobby decides he doesn't want to charge the mother with anything - he'd rather use a potential jail sentence as leverage to get her to see her kid more. PLOT TWO: "HELLO, MY NAME IS DIANE RUSSELL, AND I'M..." While she and Andy interview one of Duffy's rape victims, the woman asks Diane why she has liquor on her breath. Diane denies it, and the victim backs down (attributing the smell to her hysteria), but Andy's not convinced. When Bobby asks Andy how Russell handled the interview, Andy clams up and Bobby inquires repeatedly until Andy admits his suspicion that Diane is a drunk. Bobby confronts Diane, who claims that "those AA people think everyone is a drunk." Bobby acts like he believes her, and even tells Andy that he believes her, but doubt creeps up on him more and more, though Diane repeatedly insists that she doesn't have a drinking problem. Andy, speaking from experience, tells Bobby that Diane is the one who has to decide she has a problem and get help - not Bobby. Bobby agrees, but there's a lot of tension between him and Diane as they sit down to type up their reports on the Duffy case. PLOT THREE: CLOSET-LAND John Irvin, the gay temp who filled in for Donna before transferring upstairs to work the desk at Anti-Crime, shows up to work with a nasty shiner. He tells Bobby that he's been dating a cop from the 27th Precinct named Paul Caputo, and that two of Paul's fellow patrolmen paid a couple of kids to beat up John and Paul. The problem is, Paul's still in the closet and won't let John file charges, preferring to deal with things "his way." John's scared that something bad is going to happen and asks Bobby to intervene in some way. Bobby has coffee with Paul and suggests that he not do anything rash. He also mentions that he has a friend at the 27 and asks Paul if either of the two cops involved is him. Paul says no. Bobby gets the names of the two patrolmen from his friend and brings them in to the 15 for a chat. One of the cops is indignant, saying that in the old days, "we used to lock up queers." The other one is afraid that the incident will ruin his career if it gets out. Finally, both of them agree to back off of Caputo, but not before the first one makes insinuations about Simone's sexuality. Paul shows up at the 15, furious - one of the cops has spent the last few hours of the shift apologizing left and right to him, and Paul knows that Bobby talked to him. Bobby suggests to Paul that he either come out of the closet so he can bring charges the next time someone tries this, or else stop holding his boyfriend's hand in public. A reluctant Paul agrees to think about it. At the end of the shift, John thanks Bobby for all his efforts. PLOT FOUR: THE WEDDING CHAPEL TILT Andy and Sylvia are each having their own problems as their nuptials near. Making all the arrangements is driving Sylvia nuts. Meanwhile, Andy's becoming worried that nobody will be on his side of the church. First, John Kelly (remember him?) calls to say that the man he's bodyguarding will be in India for another few weeks, which means he's out as best man. And Andy Jr. can't come, either - his basic training is over and his unit is shipping out. Andy decides to ask Bobby to be his best man - since Bobby saved his life, Andy's finally decided that the guy is "okay." All the events of the day keep an opportunity to ask him from presenting itself, but Andy manages to make his request, and Bobby says he'd be glad to do it. PLOT FIVE: IT'S FOR THE BEST, REALLY Medavoy has lunch with his ex-wife to sign some papers to pay for one of their daughters' orthidonture. Marie takes the opportunity to suggest that they get back together - she feels her outlook on their marriage has changed, and that the kids need their father at home. Greg seems reluctant, but agrees to think about it. Later on, he tells Donna about his lunch and tells her that any reconciliation with his wife would depend on whether there was a chance that he and Donna would get back together. Donna politely but firmly tells him not to get his hopes up, and Greg resigns himself to going back to his passionless marriage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NYPD Blue's late-season roll continues with an exceptionally strong outing. With the season finale only a week away, "The Bank Dick" managed to keep the two primary storylines (Andy and Sylvia's wedding and Bobby and Diane's relationship) building to a head, while at the same time giving some gravity to the character of John Irvin, generating some pathos from Medavoy, and telling an extremely compelling crime story. Yessiree, there was a lot of stuff going on tonight (five different stories as compared to the usual three), and I loved all of it. Let's start first with the rape investiagtion, which featured one of the most interesting plots in quite a while - this was the first "A" crime story that they've told in quite some time that didn't feature the same regurgitated plot elements over and over. Sure, we had Andy's righteous anger build to the point where he threatened to beat a suspect - but that came at the *start* of the investigation, and was only the first link in the chain to nailing Duffy. (That scene, btw, was a very strong indicator of Andy's true feelings about Sylvia's rape.) And as the investigation wore on, we were treated to some small gems. Andy's three-minute conversation with Duffy's niece was densely packed (the character truly seemed to have a life of her own, which is more than you can say about most of the people involved in the show's criminal investigations) and moving - the hurt look in Andy's eyes when the girl asked what she had to do for him to get the money he was offering spoke volumes. In addition, the first conversation with the nurse at Bellevue - particularly, the speed with which she agreed to help Bobby and Andy once she found out that Duffy was suspected of rape - was one of those real-life moments that keeps the show grounded. And Andy's grumbled response to the stripper's greeting had me laughing out loud. The investigation also opened up a lot of doors with regards to Russell's drinking. The look on Andy's face when the rape victim asked about the liqor on Diane's breath said to me that he already suspected as much, and his reluctance to tell Bobby was vintage Andy - as a recovering drunk himself, he probably remembers how afraid he was of being ratted out. Diane seems to think she can smoothtalk her way out of this with Bobby, but that strategy doesn't seem to be working very well - I'm sure she was surprised as hell when he didn't return her playfully tossed ball of paper at the end of the show. Smits was terrific again tonight - both in his wariness in dealing with Diane and in dealing with John's problem. I know some people may think that Bobby's speech to Paul about coming out of the closet was a bit PC, but it reflected reality - Paul's a fool if he thinks he can stay in the closet on the job and still go out in public with John. I especially liked Bobby's astonished "He's not out?" comment in his first conversation with John. Well, if I was still playing the Drinking Game (remember that?), I would've had to drink a lot of tequila after Andy's conversation with Sylvia about The Other Guy and his "dothead" boss. It's nice to see that they finally broke down and mentioned Kelly by name - though in that situation, I don't think they could've avoided it. It's a shame, though, that the actors who play two of the three most important people in Andy's life (John and Andy Jr.) aren't going to be able to make return appearances next week (I can understand the reluctance on both sides to bring back Caruso for a cameo, but I had hoped that Michael DeLuise would be able to spare a few hours to make an appearance). Greg's dilemma got a fair bit of sympathy from me - in part, I think, because it's finally been established that the Greg/Donna romance is over for good, which will allow (I hope) the writers to explore new avenues for both characters. And the look on Gordon Clapp's face as he prepared to make the phone call to his wife at the end was really touching. In all, "The Bank Dick" (love that title, btw) is one of my favorite episodes of the season. I can't wait till next week! Shorter takes: -Hey, did I hear James (in his only appearance of the episode) mention someone named "Adrianne" as his date to Andy's wedding? That wouldn't be Lesniak, would it? I think I remember someone named Adrianne on the show once, but that was a long, long time ago... Seriously, will next week be Justine Miceli's swan song or are they going to carry this stupid "James has a crush" storyline into the next season? -My one real gripe with the episode: the minimal screentime given to Donna on her first real day back at work. O'Grady might as well have stayed on vacation, for all the dialogue she was given - though her one scene in the coffee room with Greg was very well done. -Since we know that neither John Kelly nor Andy Jr. are coming, the person currently at the top of my wedding attendance wish list is.......Vinnie Greco. -Alan Sepinwall -sepinwal@mail.sas.upenn.edu -http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/ RANDOM QUOTE: "I know that I'm not smarter than you." "Then how did you catch me?" "You had disadvantages." "What disadvantages?" "You're insane." -William Petersen & Brian Cox, "Manhunter"