et No Man Tear Asunder

Plot Summary

An autopsy reveals a murdered woman's heart has been surgically removed, prompting Nick and Tracy to investigate the black market for human organs. Working undercover, Tracy visits a suspected dealer at the local hospital, unaware that Natalie Lambert is scheduled for a routine knee operation at the same facility. Upon learning Natalie has been chosen as the next "donor", Tracy is overcome by the dealer and prepped for the operation instead.

Critique

Most of these third season episodes had titles that had simple correlations with events in the episode. This title seems to be a reference to a biblical quote about marriages ("let no man tear asunder what God has joined") -- so there's no obvious connection. But maybe the writers are just trying to put on a mysterious air.

Then there were a few scenes that didn't quite ring true in my mind. Like how Nick is the first to notice that the victim's heart had been removed very carefully (almost surgically)... when Natalie must have noticed, since she'd said the victim's heart had been "extracted", rather than simply "removed". And when Tracy mentioned that she knew a lot about tattoos, Nick and Nat were smirking at her for far too long. Considering the other strange and bizarre things Tracy seems to know about (tattoos? come on... didn't she lead a very protected life up until this point? doesn't she still?), they should be more used to it.

And I can almost, but not quite, buy the idea that Natalie's doctor would want to perform a very routine bit of surgery in the wee hours of the morning, rather than during the day, when there would be more help. It just doesn't seem probable that she would have gotten a doctor who works nights since they're scarce, Natalie herself works during that time, and, unless she's always worked nights, it's more likely that she would have already had a doctor who worked days. And let's not discuss how Natalie has never exhibited (or talked about) any sort of knee problems before, or ever will again.

But this episode wasn't all bad. There was some good, subtle foreshadowing. Natalie describes the first victim's blood as "AB negative, same as mine" -- and she turns out to be the next victim. And when Tracy and Nick are talking in the car, she comments on how she it's "almost understandable, stealing a heart for a loved one". Considering what she was trying to do later on, it's more than just a random comment.

And just what was she doing? She tells Vachon that she's not just asking about the organ theifs as a police matter, but that she's asking because her uncle needs a new heart. She uses the same story at the clinic, and seems like she's really interested. Both Vachon and the doctor try to dissuade her by hinting that such a speedy procurement of an organ would clearly involve murder -- but she doesn't seem to get it.

Tracy could have been faking it all, trying to get into the clinic for a look around. She did, in fact, find both Natalie and her doctor. But then why did she lie to Vachon, rather than telling him the truth? Does she distrust him that much? Her little "I know what it's like" speech to Sage and her mother at the end sound more like she had just recently come to the conclusion that saving her uncle at any cost was wrong. If she had decided that before going to the clinic, she wouldn't have known.

The flashback had a nice sort of Frankensteinian feeling to it. I could tell Nick was going to regret asking Hans "is there anything I can do?". It makes Nat's "yeah, find the people responsible" response (to the same question) seem almost pathetic. I didn't understand why he refused to bring Veronica across, considering how many others (both before and after) he has. But Nick does seem to swing back and forth on the issue, depending on circumstance.

Hans' smooth manipulation of Nick into killing for him reminded me a lot of some of LaCroix's more subtle lectures, only more painful. With Hans, it was a more innocent friend telling him how much pain and suffering he has caused. LaCroix couldn't do that as effectively, since LaCroix has done the same himself.

So I think the good scenes and the small threads hold this episode together, but there are still enough problems that this wasn't a great episode. I do feel sorry for the actor who plays the captain, though. It seems like his big scene in almost every single episode is where he walks over to the water cooler, gets a cup, tries to get water, fails, and crumples the cup in frustration, all while ranting about how he just can't understand these "sick-os" and how they could do such things. Very humorous, but it's starting to get a little bit old.

Episode rating (0 to 10): 5

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