Fracture

Ted Crawford shoots his wife. He knows she is cheating on him and she knows with whom. So, yes, it is pre-meditated. There is never any doubt that he did it. There are, however, several problems, not the least of them the fact that the arresting officer is Lt. Nunally, the guy the wife was having an affair with.

When Nunally comes to the scene he does not know who Crawford is, as he has only been meeting with his lover under the names 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'. Crawford lets him into the house under the condition that both men put their guns down. He confesses to Nunally then and there. When the policeman sees the victim, he goes off on Crawford (not proper conduct for a police officer). Crawford later repeats his confession and signs it at the police station - with Nunally in presence during interrogation.

The prosecutor of the case, Willy Beachum, does not know the connection between the victim (who is still alive, but in a coma that she has very little chance of ever coming out of) and the arresting officer. Beachum is very ambitious and has secured a new job at a prestigious law firm ('it's all about the money, money, money') and this is to be his very last case. Unfortunately, he grossly underestimates Crawford and isn't paying as much attention to the task at hand as he should be.

Crawford chooses to defend himself, offers to start trial right away, recants his confession and pleads not guilty. Beachum's underestimating him is not the biggest problem with the case. The gun they find at the Crawford house - the only gun they find, no matter how many times they turn the house upside down - is not the murder weapon. And then, when Beachum learns that Nunally was having an affair with the victim right when he is on the witness stand, the case falls apart.

Thanks to his failure, Beachum loses the new job he has not started yet and - despite his (old) boss having his back - he is done with being a prosecutor. But when he realizes that Crawford is about to pull the plug on his wife's life support, he begs for any help he can get to stop it. He does get the paperwork legally required but does not make it on time.

And then all the pieces fall into place and Beachum goes to see Crawford at his house. He explains his theory of where the murder weapon is - Nunally's gun that Crawford replaced while the officer attended to the victim. Crawford, thinking himself in the safe haven of 'double jeopardy', is as condescending as can be, owning up to everything because he is convinced nobody can touch him now. But the big mistake he made was taking his wife off life support. He beat the trial for attempted murder due to lack of physical evidence but will now be retried for murder in the first degree - with the murder weapon in evidence.

Justice is served.

A brilliant group of actors make this much more exciting than I made it sound.

7/10

The X Files: Ice

I once read that David Duchovny said that it was with this episode that he realized that they were involved in creating something special. The agents see a video of a man, visibly in distress, recording the final message from the crew of the Arctic Ice Core Project. A group of scientists has been sent to Alaska and celebrate having drilled deeper into the ice than anyone ever before (also documented on video). The final message sent is, "We are not who we are. We are not who we are. It goes no further than this. It stops right here right now." Right after he and a fellow scientist first points handguns at each other before pointing the guns each at himself and committing suicide.

The agents, together with a trio of specialists in different fields, are taken to the station by one Bear, apparently the only pilot willing to take them in unsure weather condition. It is the weather, as well, that will have the group confined to the station for longer than they like.

The group finds bodies of the entire Core Project team and some samples of the ice they brought up. The start putting the pieces together but only get ahead when Bear and Mulder are attacked by the station's pet dog. Bear gets bitten and infected with what it was that initiated the team's downfall. From way down in they ice they brought up something looking like a worm that uses a warm blooded body as a host, making the person or animal very aggressive towards their fellow creatures.

The weather, the situation, the desolation winds the group up in ways that could be a symptom of the virus or bacteria or whatever that worm thing is. By accident (one of the scientist infects an already infected sample) they realize that two worms inside the same host will fight and kill each other - thereby saving the host.

When one of the scientists is killed and everyone gets defensive, the group agrees that it must be Mulder who is infected. He was, after all, attacked by the dog. With only one live worm left, they want to insert it in the agent to 'save' him, but when Scully checks him for sign of infection she realizes it cannot be him. The agents, however, are unable to convince the rest of the group of this fact. In the physical alteration that ensues, they find clear signs that it is actually one of the scientists that is infected and she gets saved in the nick of time.

8/10

Hey, isn't that...?

Two of the scientist with Mulder and Scully are played by Xander Berkley (Red John himself) and Felicity Huffman (of Desperate Housewives fame).