Dissonance (Season 11, Episode 3)
Premise: The murder of the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra’s star young violinist exposes her affair with the married conductor, and his trial ends with a confession nobody can disprove.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 11, Episode 3
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), DA Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest)
- Guest stars
- Ronald Guttman as Carl Reger, Jan Maxwell as Marian Reger, George Grizzard as defense attorney Arthur Gold, Ron McLarty as Judge William Wright, Terry Serpico as Jay Brannigan
- Director
- Lewis H. Gould
- Writers
- Wendy Battles
Summary
The Investigation
“Dissonance” opens with the murder of violinist Natalie Dreisner, 24, shot in the head at close range and left in a dressing-room shower at the concert hall. Conductor Carl Reger says the orchestra resented her quick rise to second chair and points the detectives to Jay Brannigan, a stagehand who doted on her. Her million-dollar del Gesù violin turns out to be missing, and a Brighton Beach fence leads police to Brannigan, who admits stealing it after she rejected his gift of a bracelet. His friends and a bartender place him at a bar when she died.
A sushi restaurant owner recalls Natalie dining that night with Jorgan Stern, an agent who says she had agreed to go solo, was having an affair with Reger and planned to tell him she was leaving. Reger and his wife, Marian, a harpist in the orchestra, say he drove home to Chappaqua that night, but toll records show he skipped the E-Z Pass lane he uses every other day. A SIG-Sauer pistol of the type used is registered to Marian, who says she threw it away, and a bloodstained shirt button turns up in Reger’s car. Reger is arrested.
The Trial
Judge William Wright warns Lewin over drinks that he sees the case as McCoy chasing a trophy, and after a sharp exchange he suppresses the button because the warrant did not cover the car, though DNA ties it to the victim. Stern testifies that Reger vowed never to let her go, and Reger denies she ever said she was leaving. McCoy and Carmichael learn from Reger’s accountant that he has been secretly moving about $2 million to Switzerland, and they show Marian the records.
Over defense lawyer Arthur Gold’s spousal privilege objections, Marian testifies that she waited outside while Reger met Natalie after the concert. Then she says she killed Natalie herself, claiming the couple had swapped cars that night and that the button came from her own white performance shirt.
Spoiler, the ending: Gold demands that the charges against Reger be dropped, and Marian asks to begin serving her sentence while someone watches over her husband. McCoy suspects her confession is a ploy to save Reger, but with no way to prove which of them pulled the trigger, the office closes the case.
Why it stands out
- In her early days as DA, Lewin trades threats with a judge who privately warns her that McCoy is grandstanding.
- The defendant’s wife agrees to testify against him over a spousal privilege fight, then confesses to the murder herself on the stand.
- The episode ends without certainty about which spouse is the killer.