OK, the legend of The Shoe has to wait a day. I have to talk about last night's Law & Order.

For those not in the know, last night's show was the much disliked Elizabeth Rohm's final show as Serena Sutherland (I knew she was leaving, I did not know this was in fact her last episode). It was a pretty good ep, based around the murder of Jam Master Jay of Run DMC fame, as an old school rapper named RC was gunned down, with all signs pointing to his protege 4-Strike. I won't get into the whole rigamarole, but throughout the episode Serena protested that she felt 4-Strike was innocent and merely covering up forhis friend Psycho (gotta love the subtlety).

Anyway, the show ends with Serena in Arthur Branch's office. He goes through a whole spiel about how she's a superb attourney, but gets too passionate about her cases to work as a prosecutor (similiar to a speech Christine Sullivan once made on Night Court, which is probably not a comparison they were shooting for). I'll paraphrase the last few lines:

Serena: Does Jack feel as strongly about this as you do?
Branch: No, but this is my office and he respects my decision.
Serena: Decision?
Branch: Yes Serena. You're fired.

So far so good. Then we get this whammy...

Serena: Is this because I'm a lesbian?

When I heard that, I started literally laughing out loud. Excuse me? It was like someone wrote a computer program to spit out a random line of dialogue. That's how bizarre this was.

Now, I'm sorry, but I cannot see the point of this. As long as Serena has been on the show, they've never dropped any hints or alluded to it in any way. Yeah, wenever saw her dating guys, but we never saw any female ADA dating anyone (unless you count Jamie and her ex-husband).

In fact, the whole point of Law & Order is that it's about the cases, not the people. Sure, we get little tidbits now and then about the characters lives (McCoy has a daughter, Lennie had a drinking problem), but it's never the crux of the show. It really came across as a way to get some attention for the show, like at the last minute someone said "Hey, let's make Serena a lesbian! That'll draw some buzz."

If so, it certainly worked. People around the office are talking about it, getting that vaunted "water cooler" talk. Sure they're all talkingabout how goofy if was, but points for effort, I guess.

And man, if I ever get fired, I know just what to say now...