No More Novak
Monday, June 16th, 2008NBC aired its final episode of Season 9 on May 13, signaling the departure of both Adam Beach (my heart will go on . . .) and . . . *sigh* . . . Diane Neal, who spent the last five years tantalizing me with her beauty and spunk while portraying ADA Casey Novak. Her final episode was the culmination of a delicate balancing act that ended the way it should have, the way Law & Order die-hards had always suspected yet dared never hope–true justice.
Casey’s been playing the system, flawed though it is, for a chump over the course of four seasons, and this time the system called her on it. A delicate case involving Beach’s Chester Lake (a guy I never grew attached to and therefore will not sorely miss) as the potential suspect in a convoluted series of events saw Novak delay the results of evidence analysis longer than the law specified, and for that she was brought to account. Judge Who’s-the-Boss, portrayed by Judith Light, ever-so-delicately revealed that Novak would have her legal ass punished for the sin of premeditated omission, and shame on Light for making my Novak cry. Her next-to-final words were delivered with a vulnerability I’ve not encountered with any of the other SVU legion: “What’ll I do?!”, to which Light answered bluntly: “Something else.”
Anything else, Diane, as long as I can see you on my screen. Anything.
