Law & Order

Season 16

Red Ball

1. This is the first episode with Jesse L. Martin after his hiatus to film Rent (2005).
2. At the end, E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) tells D.A. Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson), "Go ahead and fire me if you like, but the only thing that mattered was saving the girl." Arthur tells Jack "...that's the reason you will never be a District Attorney." Jack later becomes the DA in season 18.
3. This episode marks the beginning of S. Epatha Merkerson's thirteenth season as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, making her the longest-running character in the show's history. Jerry Orbach's Detective Lennie Briscoe appeared for twelve years. The longest-running original cast member was Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan, from 1990 through 1995.
4. Actresses Selenis Leyva and Dale Soules also starred together in Orange Is the New Black (2013).

Flaw

1. This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
   • The 1998-2001 Sante and Kenneth Kimes case.
   • The 1996-1998 Amy Grossberg/Brian Peterson case.
2. Yet another instance of an actor, having made an appearance as one character, being brought into the L&O series as a regular cast member. Milena Govich plays "Geneva" and went on to later join the series as Detective Nina Cassady.
3. The ex husband's house is the same one used for Jordan Belfort's home in Wolf of Wall Street.

Ghosts

1. This episode appears to feature some elements inspired by the 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey.
2. Sarah Dolan was murdered on June 8, 1995.

Age of Innocence

1. This episode appears to be based on the 1998-2005 Terri Schiavo case. The central figure in a decade-long legal battle, after a severe 1990 heart attack left her in a permanent vegetative state. Schiavo's husband fought to have her treatment terminated as he contended she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means; her parents strongly opposed his wishes, resulting in a series of cases throughout Florida's court system to determine her fate. The courts ultimately sided with her husband after multiple physicians confirmed that Schiavo's condition was irreversible, and she passed away in March 2005 after her feeding tube was removed.

Life Line

1. This episode appears to be based on the 2003 Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) international gang case.
2. This episode appears to be inspired in part to the 1998 still unsolved murder of Suzanne Jovin. Ms. Jovin was a student at Yale University, and she was from Germany. In this episode, the victim has a German name (but she is born in the U.S.). Furthermore, the murder victim studied at Yale.
3. William Sadler also spent time in prison in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Birthright

House of Cards

1. When the defense attorney informs E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy that her client would be pleading an affirmative defense of Postpartum Psychosis, McCoy scoffs: "It didn't work with Andrea Yates in Texas and she drowned five children." The defense attorney replies: "In case you haven't been keeping up with your law journal, Andrea Yates is getting a new trial." The reason Andrea Yates received a new trial? Dr. Park Dietz, a psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution, erroneously stated that he had worked as a consultant on 'Law & Order' for an episode that bore a striking similarity to the Andrea Yates case. No such episode existed and that got Yates her new trial.
2. This episode appears to be based on the 2004 Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

New York Minute

1. This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
   • The 2003-2006 Tyrone M. Williams case.
   • Inspired by the 2005 Minuteman Project.
2. Dennis Farina and Stephen Lang appeared together in Manhunter (1986).
3. Stephen Lang has been on 3 different versions/episodes of Law & Order (as of 5-14-20), as Michael Baxter on Escape (2003) on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), as Terry Dorn in New York Minute (2005) on Law & Order (1990) and as Axel Kaspers in Revolution (2009) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).

Criminal Law

1. This episode also appears to be partly inspired by the real-life murders of two women, who had the same name. The Law & Order episode features three women who were murdered, and they were all named Sylvia Rossi. The only connection between the victims is that they share the same name. In October of 2000, two women named Mary Morris were murdered in Houston, Texas, just four days apart. The families of the first victim, Mary Lou Morris, firmly believe that their Mary was murdered by accident. Their theory is that the hit man intended to murder the second Mary, Mary McGinnis Morris only, but had killed the first Mary in a case of mistaken identity. Both homicides remain unsolved to this day.
2. This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
   • Partially ripped from the 1989 crime thriller film Hit List (1989).
   • The 1984 Gary Plauché case.
3. Both Sam Waterston and Thomas Sadoski starred in The Newsroom (2012).

Acid

1. This story borrows the plot and elements from the Sherlock Holmes story The Illustrious Client by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, right down to the acid thrower get a taste of his own medicine.
2. This episode appears to be based on the 1996-1997 Kelly Anne Bates case. Bates was an English teenager who was murdered in Manchester, England at the age of 17 by her abuser, James Patterson Smith. She was tortured by him over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, before being drowned in a bathtub. The murder inquiry was headed by Detective Sergeant Joseph Monaghan of Greater Manchester Police, who said: "I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this." William Lawler, the pathologist who examined Bates' body, described her injuries as the worst he had seen on a murder victim. Smith, who had a history of violence and torture against former sexual partners, denied murdering Bates, but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 1997.
3. An actress and a character in this episode have the same last name. Annie Corley portrays Christine Hill, the mother, while Jason Corley, the serial abuser, is played by John Mese.

Bible Story

1. Chumash (alternate spelling Humash) is the bound version of the Torah.
2. This episode appears to be based on the scenario of sacrilege upon religious texts.

Family Friend

1. This episode appears to be based on the 1992-1994 New York State Police Troop C evidence planting scandal.
2. Dennis Farina and Bill Smitrovich starred together in Crime Story (1986).

Heart of Darkness

1. Guest star Corey Stoll went on to appear in the short-lived spinoff Law & Order: LA (2010).

Magnet

1. Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston played a married couple in the movie Serial Mom (1994).
2. This episode appears to be based on the 2004 Tom Cruise anti-psychiatry comments controversy.

Choice of Evils

1. This episode appears to be based on four separate cases/incidents:
   • The 1994-1995 Susan Smith case.
   • The 1976 Gary Gilmore case.
   • The "choice of evils" defense.
   • The controversial debate of nature versus nurture.

Cost of Capital

1. Sarah Steele (Katie White) would go on to be part of the cast of The Good Wife (2009) with Law & Order (1990) alum Chris Noth (Detective Mike Logan), playing Marissa Gold and Peter Florrick respectively.

America, Inc.

1. This episode appears to be based on the 2004 Fallujah ambush and the related Helvenston v. Blackwater Security lawsuit.
2. Actor Pablo Schreiber went on to guest star on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) as the rapist who terrorizes Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay ).

Thinking Makes It So

1. The episode title is from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2: "... there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so ..."
2. When defense attorney "Randy Dworkin" tells "Judge Kurtzman" that he went to Camp Wel-Met with her son, he is referring to an actual overnight camp in Upstate New York. Its full name is Welfare-Metropolitan and it had divisions in Narrowsburg, Barryville and Silver Lake. Famous alumni include Radio Personality Howard Stern.
3. This episode appears to be based on the story of Michelle Ramskill-Estey and the related 2003 Bank of America robbery and hostage situation in Vista, California.
4. Third and final appearance of Peter Jacobson as defense attorney Randolph Dworkin.
5. This episode was directed by Tony Goldwyn, who later played District Attorney Nicholas Baxter in Season Twenty-Three.

Positive

1. This episode appears to be based on a 1997 report by Public Citizen about unethical AIDS research.
2. Jennifer Van Dyck has played five different characters over the course of the series:
   • Episode 1.21 Sonata for Solo Organ (1991) - Joanna Woodleigh.
   • Episode 4.16 Big Bang (1994) - Shelly Conners.
   • Episode 7.6 Double Blind (1996) - Jill Perry.
   • Episode 16.19 Positive (2006) - Dr. Elaine Clemens.
   • Episode 9.21 Ambitious (1999) - Morgana Palmer.
   • Episode 12.14 Missing (2002) - Morgana Palmer.
3. Sekou Laidlow (Emerson Tyler) previously played the role of Prial in episode 14.11, Darwinian (2004).
4. Fred Thompson and Vondie Curtis-Hall were both also in Die Hard 2 (1990).
5. Vondie Curtis-Hall plays a doctor in this episode but he also played a doctor in Chicago Hope (1994); Dr. Dennis Hancock.

Kingmaker

1. The bar used for the Albanian Social Club is the same bar used as a New York mob hangout in The Sopranos (1999).
2. The last line of the episode (by D.A. Arthur Branch) is nearly word-for-word of the famous quote by Winston Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
3. Dylan Baker has portrayed three different characters throughout the series:
   • Episode 2.11 His Hour Upon the Stage (1991) - Sean Hyland.
   • Episode 9.4 Flight (1998) - Aaron Downing.
   • Episode 14.11 Darwinian (2004) - Sanford Rems.
   • Episode 15.10 Enemy (2004) - Sanford Rems.
   • Episode 16.20 Kingmaker (2006) - Sanford Rems.
4. Sam Freed played three different roles over the course of the series:
   • Episode 2.14 Blood Is Thicker... (1992) - Kent Meeker.
   • Episode 9.16 Harm (1999) - Dr. Bill Rudnick.
   • Episode 16.20 Kingmaker (2006) - Tom Baker.
5. This episode appears to be based on the Valerie Plame Wilson (a.k.a. "Plamegate") scandal.

Hindsight

1. This is the only instance where the opening crime implicates a character on the show. During the previous season, Nick Falco (Michael Imperioli) filled-in for Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin). This occurs a year later, after Falco left the 27th Precinct.

Invaders

1. This is Dennis Farina's final episode.
2. This is Annie Parisse's final episode.
3. This is the only episode in the history of the show where McCoy represented the prosecutor's office for an arraignment.
4. The notorious music club "CBGB" can be seen at the end of the block where a dirty DEA agent allegedly lives. This episode was released just months before the club closed.
5. Jon Shaver (Brandon Gregory) previously played the role of Officer Diego in episode 9.23, Refuge: Part 1 (1999).
6. Alexandra Borgia's home address is 305 West 81st Street, Apartment 4D.
7. Shawn Andrew has played three different characters over the course of the series:
   • Episode 16.22 Invaders (2006) - Ricky Robinson.
   • Episode 18.16 Strike (2008) - Courthouse Guard.
   • Episode 20.10 Shotgun (2009) - Sensei Joseph.