Sixteen people die from influenza after they received counterfeit flu vaccine shots. New A.D.A. Alexandra Borgia helps Jack McCoy prosecute the responsible party for manslaughter.Sixteen people die from influenza after they received counterfeit flu vaccine shots. New A.D.A. Alexandra Borgia helps Jack McCoy prosecute the responsible party for manslaughter.Sixteen people die from influenza after they received counterfeit flu vaccine shots. New A.D.A. Alexandra Borgia helps Jack McCoy prosecute the responsible party for manslaughter.
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- DA Arthur Branch
- (as Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Elliot Peters
- (as Rob Sedgwick)
- Sklar
- (as Michael Marisi Ornstein)
- Director
- Writers
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIt's a fairly common misconception that getting the influenza vaccine can give you the flu. The vaccine contains dead viral organisms, so it is impossible for them to cause an actual infection. However, the immune system recognizes the dead virus as being alive and a threat to the body so it responds accordingly, meaning it attacks them and creates antibodies to prevent future infection by the same strain. This process can cause a person to experience some of the symptoms of influenza infection, since some of the symptoms (symptoms such as fever, swelling, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) a person experiences while sick are caused by the immune system fighting the infection and trying to expel the pathogen from the body. Only a few of the symptoms are caused by the pathogen itself. The symptoms caused by the immune system's reaction to the vaccine are often mild and last for less than 24 hours.
- GoofsWhile looking for the five men named on the mailing list, Fontana and Green complain about having to drive to New Jersey for the final two suspects. But on the computer screen we saw earlier, all five men had New York addresses.
- Quotes
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: Cause of death, acute pulmonary edema. A direct result of the flu.
Detective Ed Green: So why'd you call us here?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: His parents said he got a flu shot about a month ago, so I pulled his pediatrician's chart. According to the records, he was vaccinated, but when I ran blood titers, he had no antibodies.
Detective Joe Fontana: And he should have had?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: If he'd been immunized, absolutely.
Detective Ed Green: I still don't get why we're here.
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: Well, there have been a lot of flu-related deaths in the past few weeks. I went through the autopsy records and found half a dozen other victims who had also supposedly been vaccinated but had no antibodies.
Detective Joe Fontana: Supposedly?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: These people were not injected with the flu vaccine. They couldn't have been.
Detective Ed Green: It wasn't just a bad batch of the vaccine?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: Even with an expired or a contaminated vaccine, there'd still be antibodies.
Detective Ed Green: So if it wasn't the vaccine, what were they injected with?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: Good question. Now, there's no sign of anything toxic, so it has to be something neutral. Sterile saline solution, maybe.
Detective Joe Fontana: So these people all thought they were getting vaccinated. They weren't, and get the flu anyway and it killed 'em?
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: Exactly.
Detective Joe Fontana: [to Green] We could be looking at a whole bunch of homicides here.
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers: That's why I called you.
- ConnectionsReferences The Third Man (1949)
"Fluency" was a promising introduction to Borgia and is a solid episode overall. Solid enough to get rid of enough of the bad taste the ending of the previous episode "Ain't No Love" gave. It isn't great, with it being at its weakest in the final third, or one of the best episodes of an up and down Season 15. It is also not one of the worst. Somewhere around solid middle, and that it even addressed this touchy subject is worth applauding in itself.
So much is good. As always, it's a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid with each episode up to this stage). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole.
The script pulls no punches yet is also careful to not be on too much of one side. The story is a little ordinary to begin with but it quickly becomes eventful and twisty without feeling rushed or muddled. Some nice tension here too and the moral dilemmas of the case are intriguingly and honestly handled. The performances are all fine, Sam Waterston is the regular standout but Annie Parrisse makes a charming first impression and personally liked it that she wasn't stubborn (which sometimes went too far with Southerlyn). Robert Sedgwick unsettles. The interaction is natural and has the right amount of tension.
It is a shame though that the final third brings things down. Do agree that it was too heavy handed, over spelled out and obvious and also that the cross examination was clumsily done and improbable. Just found it hard to buy that someone so cunning would act the way they did just like that.
Did think that it was on the ordinary side to begin, but that was not as big an issue. Also found the ending on the rushed side when trying to have too much information in too little time.
Concluding, solid episode and was actually to me very good indeed until it lost its way in the final third. 7/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jul 27, 2022