Law & Order “Illegal”: Jack’s in the Soup Now

This fantastic episode clearly places Jack “in the soup” of the DA’s office, and defines how he’s going to work it.

The episode begins with an immigration protest getting out of control, protesters being shot, and a woman’s body found in a dumpster. During the investigation, Detectives Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) discover an auxiliary cop’s involvement, and his use of deadly force. We also learn that, while a patrolman, Lupo’s partner got shot while he was getting coffee for Lupo, who fell asleep, hung over, in the car. And later, while working with Cutter (Linus Roache), we find out that Lupo is going to law night school, as Cutter described as having a root canal with a dull drill.

DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) assigns the case to ADA Josh Lethem (guest star John Pankow), whose first involvement is to investigate the riot, but later is assigned to prosecute the case against the auxiliary cop. It doesn’t take long for the political pressure on McCoy to mount, with top police officials putting on the squeeze. During the discussion with the police officials, one of them says to McCoy, “Mr. McCoy, for someone who is a placeholder, you’re not living up to expectations.” To which, McCoy shoots back, “A placeholder. Let me be clear. If anyone gets in the way of this investigation, I’ll have every cop who was in the park before a grand jury, without immunity. Anybody who pleads the fifth, I’ll indict them for obstruction.” Clearly, Jack has no problem with staking out the ground rules.

But it becomes quickly evident that ADA Lethem has already formed an opinion that is not in tandem with Jack’s. In addition, Lethem also lets his negative opinion of Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) show through. After Jack chides Lethem for staking out his position to quickly and gives him direction on how to proceed, Lethem says, “Six weeks on the job, Jack, bet you’re sorry now” and chuckles.

Later, much to Rubirosa’s (Alana De La Garza) dismay, Lethem clearly throws the grand jury case. She is clearly angry, when she sarcastically comments while they wait for the ruling,

Rubirosa: “You were right. You were in an out in an hour.” (the ruling come out)
Lethem: “ Ahhhh, they no billed it.”
Rubirosa: “ No, really?”

Of course, it doesn’t take long for McCoy to bring the hammer down on Lethem, calling him out for his behavior with the case. Lethem tells Jack “So there it is. Some of us were wondering how long it would take for the real Jack McCoy to rear his shaggy, hippy, liberal head.” (Bitter much?) Jack, of course, gives Lethem his walking papers. In my opinion, I think McCoy gave Lethem this case on purpose, knowing Lethem’s previous lack of involvement in prosecuting cop-related cases. Maybe Jack was hoping Lethem would rise to the occasion, but also thought if Lethem didn’t, he’d have a chance to get rid of someone who was clearly not on his team.

Jack brings in Cutter to fix the mess. Cutter steps up to the challenge, and gets evidence to get the grand jury re-opened and the case moves forward. Lethem, however, still bitter, decides to help out the defense. Jack tells Cutter, “Now I know what Adam Schiff was so grumpy.” Cutter later tells Jack, “You’re in the soup now, my friend.”

Cutter hits the defendant hard, making it obvious that he went to that protest with the desire to use his gun at any excuse. But to seal the deal, Jack rises to the occasion with his testimony for the prosecution:

“The bottom line Miss Sanders – where there’s a law, I’ll enforce it. Where there’s a crime, I’ll prosecute it. Where there’s a victim, I’ll speak for that victim. That’s my bottom line.”

Of course, the auxiliary cop is convicted. What else did you expect after Jack took the stand?

What I found particularly charming was in the last segment, when Cutter leaves a gift of an RFK tie pin from RFK's 1968 campaign on Jack’s desk. It was a little bit like leaving an apple on the teacher’s desk, plus an affirmation of Cutter’s respect for Jack. Jack seemed stunned at being “pinned.”

This episode had everything right – a fantastic story that was told with powerful dialog, great chemistry between characters, little personal tidbits about them that weren’t shoved down our throats, conflict in the DA’s office, and the cementing of Jack McCoy as district attorney. It was perfect.

Oh yeah – McCoy and Cutter, BFF.


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