Whether it was careless and sloppy writing or editing or both, omissions didn’t help to improve her standing, only make it worse. However emotionally she should and would be impacted, there should have been an official finding, which she as a physician and department employee would grasp that was beyond Mario being infected and included that 1) he was trying to kill her when he was shot 2) he had killed at least 5 people brutally and he wasn’t a strong, powerful person, but he imagined killing Jim and crushed their skulls, or strangled the one. The last 2 he killed were known to be his victims and there had to be witnesses at the bar. Whatever the denial would be nothing compared to that. Why not have a scene or scenes with the actual evidence and findings of Mario’s crimes and then his death, connecting the dots? Why not, instead of Lee barging in so openly, at least add a more professional, behind-closed-doors with her, Jim, Harvey, Lucius instead of her hysterics or at least afterwards, however successful? Finally, the thought of her going to Falcone, who did see Jim as his son in many ways, someone who had saved Falcone’s life already and who Falcone had helped (when Lee ran and didn’t look back) Jim in prison, to encourage, urge and agree to having Jim murdered is unforgivable. It’s not that she was passive and undecided, she was the instigator and as criminally culpable in a conspiracy to commit murder. Jim has always done what he had to do to protect and keep her safe. He knew that he’d be signing a death warrant by sacrificing Mario for her as Mario lunged at her, not that he had the luxury of time. He knew when he went to find her that he might find her dead or in immediate danger. For her part, she wanted Jim dead and wanted him dead for days, not a passing, fleeting thought as a failure to accept legal and medical findings.

I liked the idea of Jim having a stable relationship with someone who could be family and liked the idea of a RL family portraying one on the show, but I don’t even want her to be redeemed at this point because I wouldn’t buy it. Sometimes, there’s no going back. There’s no scenario where Jim would want to be with someone who essentially ordered his death, something Falcone was all too happy to fulfill and agree with as a partner and the one pulling the strings. She knew exactly what she was doing and there’s nothing noble at all about reconsidering. She chose freely to have her child’s father targeted and killed. I also wasn’t sold by the performance, which made it all more confusing, but kudos to Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue, and to a lesser degree John Doman who did sell their characters and for the non-verbal gravitas from Ben McKenzie to seal the deal even if he wasn’t given the opportunity with dialogue or longer and more substantive scenes that would have shed much more light emotionally.

It’s disappointing to wish for the Lee character to be gone now, but there you have it. She hasn’t been easy to like for some time or even empathize with. Now she’s pretty contemptible and it seems like anything invested in some relationship for Jim has been a lot of wasted time.