Ludicrous? Perhaps. Sometimes you have to remember that the writers of this show aren't lawyers, neither are the vast majority of viewers. All they want is an interesting story to entertain them for an hour, and by that standard "Scoundrels" succeeds.
All crime dramas, and L&O is no exception, demand compelling criminals. This episode offers three. First there's the homicide victim, Kopinsky, a sleazy lawyer who was retained by the second criminal, John Curran, to investigate where a third criminal, Willard Tappan, hid the money he swindled from him. Along the way we meet a variety of colorful characters: Carl Piselli, an erstwhile inventor who hired Kopinsky to sue Alice Huntley over pig dishwasher magnets; a nursing-home resident who has a talent for eavesdropping; a female defense attorney who just happens to have worked with McCoy (and Kincaid already knows that that means).
As Tappan, Michael Zaslow makes an excellent bad guy in an episode full of them. Sure, McCoy's case against him was full of holes, and surely would've failed on appeal. But as dramas the episode holds up very well.
All crime dramas, and L&O is no exception, demand compelling criminals. This episode offers three. First there's the homicide victim, Kopinsky, a sleazy lawyer who was retained by the second criminal, John Curran, to investigate where a third criminal, Willard Tappan, hid the money he swindled from him. Along the way we meet a variety of colorful characters: Carl Piselli, an erstwhile inventor who hired Kopinsky to sue Alice Huntley over pig dishwasher magnets; a nursing-home resident who has a talent for eavesdropping; a female defense attorney who just happens to have worked with McCoy (and Kincaid already knows that that means).
As Tappan, Michael Zaslow makes an excellent bad guy in an episode full of them. Sure, McCoy's case against him was full of holes, and surely would've failed on appeal. But as dramas the episode holds up very well.