| "Smoke" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | L&O, Episode 13.24 | → |
| Production number: E3322 First aired: 21 May 2003 | ||
| Teleplay By Michael S. Chernuchin Story By Dick Wolf Directed By Constantine Makris | ||
Plot[]
Briscoe and Green are assigned to a case involving an eccentric comedian who may have killed his young son by dangling him off a ledge. It is later discovered that the comedian, Monty Bender, is a sexual predator. An attempt to charge him fails when his one known victim refuses to testify. The parents, who took a settlement rather than file charges, are arrested for conspiracy to commit sexual abuse in the first degree and explain that they took the money because they needed it to save the life of their younger son due to his deformed heart. On the stand, the victim, Sammy, testifies that he lied to his parents about the sexual abuse so that they could get the money they needed to save his brother's life, but McCoy discovers a check from Monty to Sammy's parents the week before the abuse happened for a million dollars. McCoy reveals to Sammy that his parents were actually paid by Monty to allow him to abuse Sammy. This changes Sammy's mind and horrified by what his parents did, he testifies against them and reveals the details of his sexual abuse. Sammy's parents are found guilty by the jury while Monty Bender is arrested for sexual abuse in front of a "phalanx and a half" of paparazzi and denied bail. With Sammy now willing to testify, Monty is expected to be convicted and sent to prison. Serena Southerlyn, the only one in the DA's office without children, is left conflicted about what Sammy's parents did, their reasons behind it and what happened to them as a result while McCoy and Arthur Branch are less conflicted.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe
- Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green
- S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
- Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy
- Elisabeth Röhm as A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn
- Fred Dalton Thompson as D.A. Arthur Branch
Recurring cast[]
- Ned Eisenberg as Defense Attorney James Granick
- Leslie Hendrix as M.E. Elizabeth Rodgers
- David Lipman as Arraignment Judge Morris Torledsky
- Janet Sarno as Judge Monica Ferrante
Guest cast[]
- Adam Ferrara as Monty Bender
- Jon Budinoff as Sammy Dominguez
- David Zayas as John Mireles
- James Villemaire as Harvey
- Larry Miller as Himself
- Lisa Velez as Lucy Mireles
- Mark H. Dold as Fred
- Kirsty Hinchcliffe as Birgit
- Malachy Cleary as Skinner
- Robert McKay as Ames
- Allen Fitzpatrick as Judge Darren Berman
- Lee Cobb as Officer Morgan
- Ron McClary as Spears
- George Kmeck as Captain
- Sasha Eden as Witness #1
- Kevin Henderson as Gault
- Terrence Laron Burke as Dunne
- Gregory Weinberg as Court Clerk
- Gaetano Lisi as Foreman
References[]
Quotes[]
"America's a wonderful place, isn't it? We love the underdog, we cheer him on all the way up the mountain. Then as soon as he gets to the top, we enjoy nothing more than kicking the son-of-a-bitch off and stomping him into the ground." - Larry Miller (as himself)
"No John!. Do You wanna know why we took his money? (speaking to A.D.A. Jack McCoy). Our youngest son is sick. He was born with a deformed heart. We didn't have insurance. We couldn't pay the doctor's bill. We had to take the money! David would have died if we didn't. What would any parent have done?" - Lisa "Lisa Lisa" Velez (Lucy Miriles)
"You know, good comics look at the world and see a funny place. Great comics look at the world and don't." - Larry Miller (as himself)
- Lennie Briscoe: You like prison movies?
- John Mireles: I love em.
- Lennie Briscoe: Write about what you know.
- Sammy Dominguez: You sold me?!
- Lucy Mireles: It wasn't like that!
- Sammy Dominguez: What was it like?
- Lucy Mireles: It was only one time, Sammy. We did it for Davey.
- Sammy Dominguez: What about me?! I was eleven years old! You... you knew what he was gonna do to me?!
- John Mireles: You weren't gonna die.
- Sammy Dominguez: What do you call this?
- John Mireles: We'll talk about this later.
- Sammy Dominguez: Like hell! (to McCoy) Can... can I testify again? (McCoy nods)
- Serena Southerlyn: Monty was arrested, charged with sexual abuse and denied bail.
- Arthur Branch: All in front of a phalanx of paparazzi I hope.
- Serena Southerlyn: Phalanx and a half.
- Jack McCoy: At last we have someone to testify against him.
- Arthur Branch: Looks like being rich and famous doesn't get you as far as it used to.
- Jack McCoy: The Mireles' knew that it might come to this when they made their choice.
- Serena Southerlyn: No, Jack, I don't think that they thought that they were gonna go to jail. The one thing I can't get out of my head is that they did this to keep their kid alive. And now he's gonna have to grow up without them.
- Jack McCoy: He's better off.
Background information and notes[]
- By advertising this episode as the 300th episode of Law & Order, NBC network executives did not include the CBS pilot in their calculations.
- It is possible that, because the pilot aired again as the sixth episode of Season 1, they only counted it once.
- Larry Miller appears as himself in this episode. Previously, he guest-starred in two episodes as Michael Dobson.
- Miller and Fred Dalton Thompson appeared in the 1991 film Necessary Roughness as Dean Phillip Elias and President Carver Purcell, respectively.
- This is one of the few Law & Order episodes that picks up directly after the previous episode (in this case, the previous episode was "Couples", which ended with Green saying, "We got a jumper.") While these two episodes have independent storylines, the beginning of this episode has Briscoe sarcastically saying, "A beautiful end to a beautiful day" and Green saying, "We were told there was a jumper." Both episodes aired together on the same night as a two-hour season finale.
- Goof: This episode aired on May 21, 2003. However, the episode scene cards days and dates correspond to a 2002 calendar.
- Jack tells Sammy that his parents were given $1 million the week before they went to Monty's house. The date on the check was Wednesday, August 27, 1997, and Labor Day that year was the next Monday. The check was, at most, three days before Sammy and his mother left the city for a long weekend at Monty's house.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Mercy General Hospital |
Camberwell Hotel |
30 Rockefeller Center |
Apartment of |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Hudson University |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
| Previous episode: "Couples" |
"Smoke" Law & Order Season 13 |
Next episode: "Bodies" |