Law & Order Season 20 Episode 7

Unlike Stones2009D, this show brought me back to the first few seasons of "Law & Order". A lot of the best episodes the show produced left on a cliffhanger, making the audience assume what the outcome was going to be. This episode was well written and I think Alana de la Garza should receive an Emmy nomination for her efforts in this episode. After Annie Parisse was killed a few seasons ago, I was worried about de la Garza's safety in the episode.





At 20 years, this show does not seem like it is slowing down. It is constantly getting 7-8 million viewers per week, which is in the top 5 for NBC (which is sad), and it is only usually .5 million behind SVU for the week. I think it warrants another year (or 20). Based off this episode, I believe L&O is here to stay.

I expected that the second episode would have been the conclusion of the first since the first was a cliffhanger. What happened with Connie? What happened to the family? It just "ended". Pretty disappointed. The second ep had nothing to do with the previous episode! I stayed up special to watch this and NBC decided to give us an episode unrelated to the previous. I would have expected that from CI or SVU, but not from the mothershow. I hope that someday NBC will make the second half to the episode that they cut off. It would have made sense if it were a cross-over show to SVU, since the defendants were kids!

This has to be one of the best episodes Law and Order has ever done. The plot was brilliant. An intriguing, unexpected look into the horrors of the Mexican cartel. The acting was superb. Despite what another review says, even the children. No they weren't perfect, but in particular Mario Quinonez Jr. playing Rafa was great. The ending, although bound to not be liked or understood by everyone, was pure Law and Order genius. What this show gets that so few others do is that you don't have to completely rap up all of the loose straws. We knew/know what is going to happen next. And the way it ended, with the shot of Rafa totally closed up playing ball, was beyond powerful. Okay, so they haven't followed up on the storyline especially Connie's bit, but there really wasn't a need to. You knew they weren't going to kill her off, so why go any further? Basically she'll have to have protection every where she goes for a while. Okay, we got that. There's nothing to see there. I don't see what the big deal is.





Overall I am very impressed with NBC. They mustered a lot of guts throwing in plot lines like a very pro-medical marijuana plot line with Anita. A great episode, highly recommendable.

I hate child actors. I have said this in the past, and I hate to sound like an ageist (?) but they just butcher the true meaning of their lines so often that I think such a stereotype is warranted. Most kids just cannot act.





And it ruined a strong episode of Law and Order. This was a good story with a scary concept, if you think about it. Imagine kids tricking people, killing them, living on their own as criminals? It is a scary thing to think about.





It was good to see Michael Cutter really get pushed for the first time as well in two years, struggling to put together a case that should have been a lock. Good to see his continued development in the Law and Order ranks. I won't put Linus Roache among the top ADAs in show history, but he is up there.

The Law half was a little bit underwhelming but the Order portion finished things right. Spoilers to follow: Their attempt to deprogram a boy who had been brainwashed by a drug cartel really distinguished this episode. I am so used to the over-used law and order ending where the last few seconds of the episode are them receiving a phone call telling them that their witness has been murdered or is 'missing' i.e. murdered. It was much more clever the way they handled it: intimidating the witness by means of his friend's surprising jailhouse assassination, and leaving us wondering what the chances are of the boy having a change of heart and testifying before the judge throws out the case. It works because the boy is in a difficult position- either choice puts him and his family in harm's way.





Other than the awkward handing of Connie's cultural heritage and hispanic culture in general, I enjoyed the plot- the scenes with the boy humming the ominous tune to Connie in the empty court room and her breaking down on the street when the boys passed by with the basketball really created a sense of foreboding at the end.