Stephen Colbert Had a Truly Chilling Role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent
The iconic comedic played a dark role when he guest starred as a criminal mastermind on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
The Law & Order franchise has long been hailed as being a magnet for dynamite guest stars; you never know who the elite squad will face next. Dozens of iconic stars have raised the stakes on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, but few could forget Stephen Colbert's haunting Season 3 guest appearance.
Known far and wide as one of the funniest faces on late-night television, Colbert has built a prolific career across primetime, and while he's usually making audiences cackle, that doesn't mean he hasn't dabbled in the dramatic from time to time. Colbert's performance on Criminal Intent is a glimmering example as he showed a much darker side, giving Detectives Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) a run for their money during a mystifying murder investigation.
Colbert opened up about his Law & Order debut during a 2016 episode of The Late Show when an audience member asked about the Dick Wolf credit ahead of the show. Colbert remembered the episode as if it was filmed yesterday, partially because he later learned it was written with him in mind.
"I did do one Law & Order: Criminal Intent [episode]. I killed a woman. I was a forger who lived with his mom, and I killed a woman who I was defrauding by sending her a lye bomb through the mail," Colbert rattled on, getting a laugh from the audience. “When it was over, I met the writer, and I said, ‘Oh, thanks so much!’ Because they cast me without an audition. And she goes, ‘Oh, I wrote it thinking of you.'"
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Colbert's episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is a must-watch for anyone wanting to be impressed by the comedy icon's chameleonic range, which was firing on all cylinders as he stepped into the wild shoes of James Bennett.
When was Stephen Colbert on Law & Order: Criminal Intent?
Before his many Emmy Awards and national acclaim as a late-night talk show host, Colbert guest-starred in Season 3, Episode 16 ("Saint") of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in 2004 as James Bennett, a nefarious foe for the Major Case Squad.
James was a skilled con artist and counterfeiter who got into the trade as a child in an effort to replace the items his mother compulsively donated to a Catholic charity, the Brother Jerome Foundation.
After watching his mentally ill mother be continually exploited by the Jerome Foundation, James grew resentful and eventually concocted an elaborate scheme to discredit the Catholic charity in an effort to see it dismantled entirely. Leveraging his experience with forgery and document authentication, James began working for the Jerome Foundation as a consultant to enact his nefarious plan.
Stephen Colbert played a vengeful terrorist on Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Colbert's Criminal Intent episode kicks off with Detectives Goren and Eames called to investigate the murder of an elderly woman, Louise Politano, who died after opening up a mysterious package mailed to her with a lye explosive inside. The murder occurred just before Louise's longtime church, the Brother Jerome foundation, was about to be proclaimed into sainthood, boosting the foundation's renown.
Louise was a bit of a celebrity around the church after claiming that a 19th-century healer named Brother Jerome visited her as a child in a dream. After being miraculously cured of her polio afterward, Louise helped the foundation grow into what it would later become. Aside from murdering the poor woman, James also concocted a lie that Louise had a romantic entanglement with a priest in an effort to create a realistic motive for the foundation to retaliate against her.
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James pulled these strings while working within the Brother Jerome foundation, with his expertise paramount to the charity to verify documents validating the sainthood of Brother Jerome. After Detectives Goren and Eames started sniffing around the Brother Jerome Foundation, they noted the many patrons being exploited by the foundation's cult-like culture and its eagerness to profit off its congregation. Eventually, their trail led to forged documents, bringing them to the Bennett household.
With James out of the house, the detectives spoke with James's mother, Lois Bennett, soon catching wind of how badly she'd fallen victim to the Brother Jerome foundation's tactics. After touching base about their shared suspicions, Goren and Eames visited the Bennetts again, this time confronting James directly about his extensive counterfeiting and fraudulent activities, eventually getting to his involvement in Louise Politano's murder.
After correctly deducing that James had orchestrated the entire scheme to see the Brother Jerome foundation discredited, Goren accused James of using Louise as a "martyr" in the process. James' elderly mother was devastated by what she was hearing, but James finally came clean, snapping that Lois had been taken advantage of, taking away everything he loved as a kid in the process.
After successfully coaxing this confession from James, the detectives were able to close the heartbreaking case once and for all.
RELATED: Relive Every Gripping Investigation from Law & Order: Criminal Intent Here
How can you watch Stephen Colbert's episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent?
You can watch every episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, including Stephen Colbert's gripping chapter, on Peacock right now.
