Body of Proof is another post-CSI investigative procedural, this time focused on the life and work of medical examiner Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delaney). The season 2 debut “Love Thy Neighbor” (aired September 20, 2011) bears a strong resemblance to the CSI episode “Swap Meet“.
An apparently accidental death in a suburban cul-de-sac turns out to be not-so accidental; the deceased has ligature marks on his wrists. “I used to live on a cul-de-sac like this. Nothing is ever what it seems,” says Megan (a metatextual joke as Dana Delaney also starred on Desperate Housewives). The clues suggest infidelity and one of the detectives searches a house and finds a locked cabinet. It opens with the mysterious key found on the victim, to reveal padded handcuffs, floggers and leather hoods. “Guess we know who tied him up now,” says the other detective. The couple who own the house look embarrassed.
In separate interrogations, the wife denies having an affair with the deceased, but says she did restrain him with the furry handcuffs. The husband says he knows full well his wife was sleeping with the deceased, and he set them up. She says she was bored with just one man, and her husband says he threw a block party. Turns out the block is full of swingers, or “play couples” as the wife clarifies. “And it has made my marriage stronger than ever,” says the wife. “Monogamy is dead, detective.”
Much like in “Swap Meet”, this revelation is set to light comedy background music.
The wife says the deceased, Daniel, was with her the previous night, and she tied him up, but he wasn’t into it. Daniel told the wife he wasn’t into the lifestyle anymore and “it had consequences.”
Megan jokingly calls it “a wife-swapping cul-de-sac.” Both she and the detective laugh about the situation.
Again like “Swap Meet”, the husband says there are explicit rules to prevent and manage jealousy, which he enumerates. Though he also admits that one wife left with her kids, as she couldn’t handle it. Megan tells him that Daniel was immune compromised, possibly with HIV. The husband says that is one of the rules, that everyone gets tested frequently, and insists that Daniel was “clean”.
The other medical examiners goof around a bit with the BDSM gear that was confiscated. The older ME confirms that the cuffs match the marks on Daniel’s wrists, though it was already known he likes to be bound. The younger swings a studded paddle around, and almost non-consensually whacks the older ME with it, before the older stops him. This is the usual combination of humor and disgust seen in such episodes.
They learn that Daniel didn’t have HIV or any other disease, making the cause of his immune suppression a mystery.
On the way to meet Kevin, the guy whose wife left him over the non-monogamy, Megan speculates about the math of the situation, while the detective, Peter, tells her that such questions would be insensitive. Kevin says he was having feelings for another wife, Andrea, and his wife picked up on that.
The story takes a sharp turn when they find out the women of the neighborhood where also involved in a marketing scam to sell sketchy time shares, and everybody in the neighborhood has been slowly poisoned by the byproducts of Kevin cooking meth in his backyard shed.
Back at the lab, there’s a comedic epilogue about returning the BDSM toys to the police, plus a “desperate housewife” joke.
This episode is really more about swinging and non-monogamy than BDSM, which loosely ties into the B-plot about Megan adjusting to her ex-husband living with his girlfriend who is also Megan’s ex-boss. Kink gear becomes the metonymy for sexual deviance in general. However, it comes off poorly compared to “Swap Meet” in which the murder is thematically linked to the hook of swinging. This story keeps hitting the trope of corruption beneath idyllic suburbia, if you consider consensual non-monogamy as a “corruption”. If you don’t, the episode is thematically divided.
Lead actress Dana Delaney is no stranger to kink, having played the leads in Exit to Eden and Live Nude Girls. She also wears high heels with platforms in long shots, presumably so she doesn’t look tiny next to the rest of the cast.
