The inaugural episode of the 24th season of Law & Order came as a major surprise to many, especially those who have followed the entire series through its run.
The award-winning action drama debuted on NBC in September 1990, and originally aired its first 20 seasons up till May 2010. It began its 21st season twelve years later, in February of 2022, after the COVID pandemic had subsided.
For starters, the new lieutenant character Jessica Brady (played by Maura Tierney) was introduced. Unlike her predecessors Anita Van Buren (S Epatha Merkerson) and Kate Dixon (Camryn Manheim), Lt Brady seemed to be a very old-fashioned prima-donna kind of lieutenant – walking unannounced in plain clothes onto a crime scene, and getting into a scuffle with the investigating officers Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) and Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), the latter of whom seemed to be having all kinds of friction with her throughout the episode.
On the legal side things hadn’t changed very much, apart from the new DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) getting used to his position. We learn also from this episode that DA Baxter is a staunch liberal, just like his predecessor Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston – who left the cast in the middle of the previous season due to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Syndrome). And we also find out that ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi) seems to be willing to risk getting disbarred all on account of her own emotions to her late sister, who had been raped and murdered eleven years previously.
The villains were even worse than ever before. This is where the nitty-gritty of this episode comes into play. Our prime suspect in this episode was rich media magnate Dylan Phipps (Bill Barrett), who convincingly pretended to be upset over his wife’s death (his wife was the victim in this episode; she was apparently strangled to death). But after a few red herrings we learn that Phipps was a wife-beater, forcing Mrs Phipps to take leave from work and go to a women-only home for wives who had been abused. Phipps is arrested by Shaw and Riley, and arraigned; but while out on bail, he hangs himself. His body is found by the police – and also by Maroun, who is determined to prosecute somebody regardless dead or alive.
Maroun convinces her bosses Baxter and Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy) to arrest Kenneth Lane (Michael Esper), Phipps’s best friend, who had been with him while he had committed that murder. Just as they are about to convince the only key witness, driver Jimmy Boyd (Charles Grey), to come forth, a lawyer steps in and tells Grey to not talk – possibly on Lane’s payroll. This proves to be the last straw for Baxter and Price, who decide that there is no other alternative except to drop the case. On hearing these words, Maroun storms out of the DA’s office in a huff.
When Price finds Maroun, it is night, and she is marching to Boyd’s house with something in her hand – possibly a sharp object of some sort. Price grabs her and tells her that she will be “permanently disbarred” if she so much as walks another step towards Boyd’s house. The episode ends with Maroun crying on Price’s shoulders.
A downer ending? Possibly, given that Lane is going to be inevitably exonerated, even though we don’t see that on screen. The actual murderer, Phipps, killed himself. But ultimately, the lesson we learn here is that a lot of these downer endings happen when one of the key players is too eager. In this case, it was Maroun, who just had to prosecute someone, even if that person – in this case Lane – had very little to do with the murder of Mrs Phipps. We find that Maroun was emotionally acting up due to what had happened to her sister, making her overzealous and likely to bite off more than she could chew. Thankfully, Price was there to stop her.
Law & Order airs daily at 8pm on 666 Network.