Aftershock (Law & Order)
| "Aftershock" | |
|---|---|
| Law & Order episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 23 |
| Directed by | Martha Mitchell |
| Written by | Michael Chernuchin Janis Diamond |
| Original air date | May 22, 1996 |
| Episode chronology | |
"Aftershock" is the 134th episode of NBC's legal drama Law & Order, and the season finale of the sixth season. It originally aired on 22 May 1996.
"Aftershock" is notable because it abandons the typical Law & Order story structure of the police-procedural followed by legal proceedings. Rather than chronicling an investigation, the episode accompanies each of the characters in the aftermath of an execution by lethal injection.
Jack McCoy, Claire Kincaid, Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis attend the execution of a man each had a part in helping to convict who, in front of a crowd of bystanders, openly raped and killed a woman who rear ended his car. Kincaid and McCoy argue briefly about the death penalty while driving back to the city. Kincaid says that she feels sick, and agreeing that she must feel ill because she is coming down with the flu, decides to take McCoy's offer of a sick day, while McCoy returns to the office. Briscoe and Curtis have the day off and Briscoe invites Curtis to join him for lunch, but Curtis decides to finish up some paperwork.
Curtis has a scuffle with a disrespectful man in a holding cell and is ordered by Lieutenant Anita Van Buren to take the day off. He proceeds to meet a graduate student (Jennifer Garner) downtown and spends the day flirting with her while ignoring his wife's phone calls. He eventually spends the night with her.
Briscoe visits an off track betting facility and meets some acquaintances with "inside information." After losing some money, Briscoe is surprised there by his estranged daughter and they go to lunch.
Kincaid, obviously not ill with the flu, visits her former law school professor (who is later revealed to be her stepfather) to discuss her concerns about capital punishment, and more broadly, her feelings about the legal profession and her role in it. She then has a late lunch with Van Buren and discusses the morality of capital punishment.
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