Vaya Con Dios

"Vaya Con Dios"
←	L&O, Episode 10.24	→
Production number: E1108 First aired: 24 May 2000
	{{{nNthProducedInSeries}}}th of 456 produced in L&O
←	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries}}}th of 456 released in L&O	→
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Written By René Balcer & Richard Sweren Directed By Christopher Misiano

Plot

After the death of a man who tried to find who was responsible for the torture-killing of his son in Chile many years ago, McCoy goes after a colonel.

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
• Angie Harmon as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael
• Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff

Recurring cast

• Joe Morton as Defense Attorney Leon Chiles
• Brian Davies as Judge Warren Busey
• Larry Clarke as Detective Morris LaMotte

Guest cast

• Tomas Milian as Colonel/Senator Emilio Pantoya
• Rebecca Schull as Mrs. Whitman
• George Morfogen as Mr. Reyes
• Armand Schultz as Kevin Morse
• Michael David Lally as Paul Wheeler
• Alicia Washington as State Department Attorney
• Julián Rebolledo as Lieutenant Orra
• Mary Shultz as Carrie Benson
• Olga Merediz as Elena Calderon
• Ellen Lancaster as Rana Whitman
• Patricia Mauceri as Belinda Rojas
• Edwin Sherin as Chief Justice
• Nancy Franklin as Female Justice
• Michael Marcus as Male Justice
• David Wolos-Fonteno as John Groban
• William Jay Marshall as Don Fredricks
• Yusef Bulos as Van Dam
• Michael Ealy as Private Nelson
• David Derek Rogers as Ibrahim
• Thomas O'Connor as Roger Thorne
• Marcus Ho as Chris
• Elaina Erika Davis as Claudia
• Amy Bouril as Clerk
• Al Sutton as Manager
• Robert Jason Jackson as Sergeant Scott
• Don Stephenson as CSU Technician
• Paul Molnar as Assistant Medical Examiner
• Bill Fairbairn as Jury Foreperson

References

• Edwin Albrecht
• Arizona
• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Cambodia
• Chile
  • Salvador Allende
  • Augusto Pinochet
• China
• CIA
• Connecticut
• Cuba
  • Fidel Castro
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Che Guevera
• Iraq
• Jorge Rafael Videla
• Kosovo
• Libya
• Bela Lugosi
• Panama
• Persian Gulf War
• Rwanda
• Serbia
• Soviet Union
• United States Army
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Navy
• Vietnam War
• Washington DC
• West Germany
• Jason Whitman

Quotes

Officer: Figure him for a vagrant, looking for a warm place to sleep.

Lennie Briscoe: Well, he found it.

Lennie Briscoe: Whoo, this is nice. Hey, how much is this?

Store owner: $5,000.

Lennie Briscoe: For a suit?

Store owner: For a jacket.

“	If he had anything to do with killing this man's kid, he better run. 27 years ago or not.	”
–Lennie Briscoe about Captain Albrecht

“	Let me guess. Voice mail-hell in Spanish?	”
–Lennie Briscoe

Lennie Briscoe: Our suspect's an American, but uh, who did the call go to?

Belinda Rojas: To Colonel Emilio Pantoya.

Lennie Briscoe: Director of Intelligence for Pinochet? From what I've read, Pantoya's practically a war criminal.

Belinda Rojas: Old history. Chile's a democracy now. Colonel Pantoya's a senator.

Paul Wheeler: It's not an American problem.

Jack McCoy: A dead American is not your problem?

Paul Wheeler: It's over and done with, Mr. McCoy.

Lennie Briscoe: You're under arrest, Colonel.

Emilio Pantoya: Arrest? What for?

Ed Green: Conspiracy to commit murder.

Emilio Pantoya: I'm sorry, my friend, but I have immunity. Blanket immunity.

Lennie Briscoe: The same blanket you put over Jason Whitman's corpse?

Mr. Reyes: They hung me upside down by my ankles and burned me with cigarettes. They put electrodes on my tongue and my eyelids. They would not let me sleep. They tried to drown me. Three times they put a gun to my head and pretended to shoot me. They did this to me for two months.

Jack McCoy: And you're positive that the people who tortured you were under the command of Colonel Pantoya?

Mr. Reyes: Yes. He visited the prison many times. The man you laughed at, the man hanging like a pig, it was me. Through my blood and my tears, I saw you, Colonel.

“	There was war and anarchy in my country. Allende and his pack of communists were stealing private property bankrupting the country with their irresponsible ideas. Then we acted to save the republic and we acted with support of the American government.	”
–Emilio Pantoya

“	A man has only the rights he can defend. Our most basic right is life. It's enshrined not only in our Constitution but in the charter of the United Nations. The prohibition against taking a life is found in our most ancient texts and in the statutes of every nation. Every murder, whether in Brooklyn, Santiago, Rwanda or Kosovo, demands punishment by whatever legal means possible. Otherwise, the right to life is just an empty promise.	”
–Jack McCoy

Background information and notes

• The episode title is Spanish for "go with God".
  • It is also the name of a Belgian band, most famous for the song What's a Woman.
• This was the final appearance of Steven Hill as Adam Schiff in the franchise. In the next episode, "Endurance", it is said that he is in Vienna, Austria, working on Holocaust reparations.

Episode scene cards

1	2	3
Apartment of Kevin Morse 129 East 63rd Street Friday, February 26	Landis Hill Hospital 1285 First Avenue Friday, March 5	Office of Executive Assistant D.A. Jack McCoy Thursday, March 11

4	5
Supreme Court Trial Part 75 Tuesday, May 18	Supreme Court Trial Part 75 Friday, May 21

Previous episode: "Stiff"

"Vaya Con Dios" Law & Order Season 10

Next episode: "Endurance"