Last year's most psychologically disturbing scene for me was on an early episode of Without a Trace. Jack Malone (played by Golden Globe winner Anthony LaPaglia) is forced to empathize with a skeevy child-molester in order to get a confession out of him. How convincingly Malone (and LaPaglia) played that gambit was frightening, and even though the character vomited after they did find the missing boy, I was still creeped out by the whole display. This year, the show strikes again. This time, the disturbing scene is of a 12-year-old boy attempting suicide (even worse, by hanging) in the backyard of a girl he has a crush on.

What can we take away from this, besides the fact that Hank Steinberg really knows how to get to me? Well, in both episodes, kids were victimized in their schools. In the former episode, the molester in question was also the headmaster of a private school; in Thursday's episode, Eric (the missing boy) was thoroughly humiliated by a group of girls in his class over what was ultimately a simple misunderstanding. Eric was trying to be cool, it backfired, and the girls decided to take vengeance, even though the girl he inadvertently insulted was far from the popular set.

Therefore, I think the message of Thursday's episode was more than "junior high kids are shits" (although that's certainly a valid interpretation). In the context of what we've seen on this show--and not just in the two episodes mentioned--I believe the overall message is that if kids don't talk frankly about their problems, they will continue to deteriorate until something extreme happens. The FBI was able to prevent Eric's suicide attempt from succeeding, but they can't stop them all. And even if the child isn't driven to suicide, there will still be lasting psychological damage, which can have untold effects on the rest of that person's life.

So the message, which bears repeating, is talk to your kids, be involved in their lives, and don't take "meh" for an answer. They may think you're prying and being a pain in the ass now, but they will thank you for it when they're older.

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