Jane Doe (JD)

(Not aired yet)

Week starting April 21st, 1996

Michael Sadowski

Nicholas J. Gray

Ron White as Jordan Manning

The episode beings with a dark sedan pulling up to the edge of a woods. The driver gets out of the car and takes a body out of the trunk. He drags it into the woods, strings it up a tree, and shoots it with a shotgun.

Some time later Reese is watching a televised interview of a new author, Jordan Manning, a recently released ex-convict who has written a book, "Killing Mind," which depicts a serial killing spree. Reese gets a call and next he is at the morgue with Nick, Natalie and Tracy. They examine the body that was left in the woods. Because the body had been disfigured by the shotgun blast and was hanging in a tree for several weeks, Natalie can't tell them much about the victim except that she was young and black. Tracy is sick and has to leave the room.

Reese knows who killed the victim. It was Jordan Manning. Back at the precinct Reese tells Nick and Tracy that Manning is a serial killer and also the most evil racist he's ever encountered. Nick recalls another evil racist that he and Lacroix met some years before. Reese tells Nick and Tracy that he believes Manning is responsible for several other unsolved murders of black women going back 20 years.

Reese sends Tracy to work with Natalie in the morgue to get over her squeamishness. While Tracy is helping Natalie, Reese and Nick visit Manning's book-signing. Reese gets rough with Manning and Manning refuses to accompany Nick and Reese to the precinct for questioning. At the morgue, Tracy finds some fibers under the victim's fingernails and Natalie finds some needle-marks. Back at the precinct Reese tells Nick that in his book Manning reveals details about the unsolved murders that only the killer could know. Nick is skeptical � he is not convinced that Manning is the culprit.

Manning has himself beat up and accuses Reese of attacking him. Reese is ordered to stay away from Manning. Back at the morgue, Tracy and Natalie continue to try to identify the victim. Since she was not a drug user or diabetic they speculate that the needle-marks may have been self-administered inoculations for a trip abroad.

Reese tells Nick to keep an eye on Manning for him. Nick follows Manning to a warehouse and listens to a conversation Manning has with Reese, in which Manning explains his motivations for the killings. Apparently it has something to do with the Book of Revelations. (Oh, I get it now, Manning � Manson!) Reese gets physical again, knocks Manning down and vows to send him to prison for his crimes. Reese also manages to get a few hair samples from Mr. Manning.

Tracy determines that the victim was Dr. Miriam Nyanda, a young physician who had just completed her residency and was scheduled to return to her native Kenya to open a clinic. She was not missed because everyone thought she was leaving the country. Natalie reports that the fibers Tracy found under Dr. Nyanda's fingernails match the hair samples Reese got from Manning.

This is the evidence they need to arrest Manning. They converge on him as he is preparing to check out of his hotel. When he sees the police have come for him Manning attempts to flee. Reese pursues him through the corridors in the basement of the hotel. Nick helps Reese by cutting off Manning every time he gets close to eluding Reese. Finally Nick blocks the way completely, allowing Reese to take Manning into custody. Reese gets to expose Manning in a news conference afterwards. In custody, Manning kills himself rather than stand trial for his crimes.

At the epilogue, Nick and Lacroix discuss their acquaintance from long ago. Lacroix burns a momento he had kept of that brief encounter and wonders if he could have changed history had he acted differently.

In the flashbacks we see once again that Nick and Lacroix have an acquaintance with a historical figure from the past. This time it is the evil megalomaniac Adolf Hitler. They come upon Hitler as a young soldier returning home on a train, full of bitterness and hate in the aftermath of WWI. At first Lacroix seems taken with the young Führer-to-be and considers bringing him across. But Lacroix eventually realizes that Herr Hitler is possessed of such an abominably evil soul that in the end he decides he doesn't even want the guy for lunch!

In his CERK monologue Lacroix reads from Manning's book, "Killing Mind." But it's so sick that even Lacroix doesn't care for it.

I doubt that this episode is on anyone's list of favorites. This is the only episode in which Reese is more than a background figure, and unfortunately it's a token episode dealing with the evils of racism. In a plodding way, Reese is passionate in his contempt for Mr. Manning, but all the rest of the characters seem not to really care. Besides Reese, the only one who displays any kind of feeling is Tracy, who becomes ill while examining the victim at the morgue. It seems like the whole cast was weary when they made this one. And it's easy to understand why. The theme of this episode is that savage hatred is a rather commonplace part of the human condition, which is why we have murderous fanatics effecting their destructive havoc all through history. And there is nothing anyone can ever do about it because you never really see it until it's too late. It doesn't get much more depressing than this. And not only is there not anywhere even the faintest glimmer of hope to dispel this gloom, there is hardly any dramatic action or suspense either. Before we are ten minutes into the episode we know Manning did it and we know why he did it. The rest of the episode details the process of finding evidence to prove it � how boring. The actor who played young Hitler did a good job, and there was one very chilling moment when he tells Lacroix that: "The cause consumes me, and I shall make it my struggle." (Mein Kampf) Actually the flashback scenes were not bad. They provide us with a bit of interesting character development as regards Lacroix. We see that although he appears to be coldly detached much of the time, he really is paying attention to what goes on around him, and is not above being affected by it. He seems truly disturbed by his encounter with Herr Hitler. Other than that, the only thing that livens this one up a bit are Lacroix's eyebrows, which in some scenes seem to have been done with such a dark and thick pencil that they almost look like they could get up and crawl off his head under their own power. Now that would have been interesting!

I can't think of any faction that would like this one much, except perhaps fans of Reese, who had to settle for this rather poor showcase of his character. I think I like him better with the water cooler as an adversary. The flashbacks are the only good scenes, and Cousins might find them interesting for the reasons noted above.

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