Couples (Season 13, Episode 23)
Premise: In a single day Briscoe and Green catch three murders and a kidnapping, led by the shooting of a woman who proves to be the wife a paroled man was convicted of killing ten years earlier.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 23
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Carlos Leon as Rafael Celaya, Otto Sanchez as Reynaldo Celaya, Michael Louis Wells as defense attorney Matthew “Kevin” Clemens, Judith Blazer as Carla Perazzo, Fran Lebowitz as Judge Janice Goldberg
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Lorenzo Carcaterra
Summary
The Investigation
“Couples” starts with a jogger, Andy Corvo, collapsing on a run with his partner, Jerry, in what looks like a heart attack. Nearby, a patrol officer finds Anna Briseno, a jewelry factory worker from Washington Heights, shot once in the head at close range with her cash and ID untouched. Her husband, Rafael, a night security guard, says he was on shift. Her last meal leads to an uptown barbecue spot, where the host recalls a jittery man waiting for his wife, and her Social Security number belongs to Marcela Celaya, supposedly dead for ten years.
Between leads, the detectives stop Carla Perazzo, who has just run over her husband, Dominick, with the Cadillac he leased for her. Rafael’s fingerprints show he is really Rafael Celaya, once jailed for beating a girlfriend, and a coworker admits clocking him out early. Arrested drunk, he gets sick at a gas station, where the detectives find a kidnapping plea on the restroom mirror beside the business card of Hannah, the pregnant wife of accountant Simon Mayer. Her father accuses the unfaithful Simon. Sober, Rafael blames his brother, Reynaldo, freed days earlier after ten years for killing his wife, Marcela, whose body was never found.
The Trial
Reynaldo is arraigned for first-degree murder and trades shouts with Rafael in court, and Carla Perazzo insists on confessing at her own arraignment, saying Dominick wanted her to have plastic surgery. Reynaldo and his lawyer, Kevin Clemens, argue that double jeopardy bars a second trial for killing the same wife and that a retrial would let him sue for false imprisonment. Branch tells McCoy to defuse that threat by showing the first case was brought in good faith.
The prosecutor who won that case without a body recalls that Marcela’s sister reported her missing and said Marcela had a lover. Patricia Botten, a defense witness who never testified, says she was Reynaldo’s girlfriend and that he did not care about Marcela’s affair. The host’s description of the waiting man then fits Rafael, who admits he was Marcela’s lover, that Reynaldo spared him for the sake of family, and that he shot her for his brother.
Spoiler, the ending: No trial or verdict is shown in any of the cases. A remark from Rafael about New Jersey leads the detectives to the kidnapper, a woman unable to have children, and they deliver Hannah’s baby girl. Andy Corvo’s autopsy then shows nicotine poisoning, and Jerry, a chemical company employee, admits killing him, complaining that New York will not recognize their marriage. The day ends with a call about a jumper.
Why it stands out
- Just five minutes are set in the District Attorney’s office; the rest follows Briscoe and Green through four unrelated cases in a single day.
- A man already convicted of killing a wife whose body was never found claims double jeopardy shields him when she later turns up murdered.
- It aired on May 21, 2003, the same night as “Smoke,” which opens with the jumper call that ends this episode.