Law & Order: CI (though it stands for “Criminal Intent,” it was the appropriate L&O series since episode was about cochlear implants) “Silencer” revolved around the death of an ear surgeon who testified against another surgeon for doing cochlear implant on a baby that should not have received one. Candidates for cochlear implants undergo testing and evaluation to determine whether they qualify. Unfortunately, some doctors will implant anyone.
A deaf girl discovered the body and called 911. Though she couldn’t hear, she waited just enough time that an operator answer and repeated that she needed help. I’ve done that before when I got stuck somewhere without my hearing aid. Like when I went swimming at the community center, I called my mom and just kept repeating what I needed long enough that she’d get the message.
I still do that on occasion when someone in my family calls me and I recognize the phone number on caller ID. I just repeat that Paul isn’t available and to reach him on his cell or something along those lines.
Like the CSI: NY episode, some parts of the beginning of the show had no sound. Gunshots hit the dean’s office while she was was on a videoconference call and she didn’t react — but she noticed strange vibrations after the second gunshot and stood up when she a bullet grazed her.
The dean’s husband believed the resident playwright was responsible because she was not deaf enough — being married to a hearing man. Also liked the cop (who was the child of deaf adults and an interpreter) who would not translate private ASL conversations for the cops especially when the lawyer and client talked.
Turns out the boyfriend of the girl considering the implant accidentally killed the doctor because he didn’t want to lose her to the hearing world like he lost his hearing sister. The show didn’t clarify the dean’s shooting — but we assume that he was trying to frame the director of the play for the doctor’s death by shooting the dean.
We met the boyfriend’s cousin because she was his alibi. Apparently, the community was celebrating the arrival of her perfect deaf child. The writers captured the emotions and beliefs surrounding the deaf community and the hearing world.