Law & Order
A Death in the Family
TV Flash files “A Death in the Family” as hour 13 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 1, episode 13, aired 1991-01-15, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E13: listed hour 13 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 13 of 22 in season 1. It aired 1991-01-15 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Life Choice” (S01E12). Next is “The Violence of Summer” (S01E14). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
NYPD officer Pete Rennick is shot to death on a rooftop in the dark; Logan and Greevey believe that a crook known as Brutus Walker is responsible for it, and the NYPD initiates a citywide manhunt for him. However, it later turns out that Walker was not the one who shot Rennick; it was his partner, Nicki Sandoval. Investigation reveals that, after displaying many blatant examples of his corruption to his partner, he was afraid that she would report him. So he lured her to the rooftop and tried to kill her, but she killed him first in self-defense. She is cleared of the shooting, but since policy dictates that she should have reported him, she will lose her job.
Viewer FAQ
Where does A Death in the Family sit in the Law & Order guide?
S01E13 is listed hour 13 of 545 — hour 13 of 22 in season 1, season 1 episode 13.
When did Law & Order S01E13 air?
A Death in the Family aired 1991-01-15 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I watch in order, or is it modular?
Modular is the point. Cases close. Casts change. Start anywhere in the original 1990–2010 run and you will understand the clang within twenty minutes. Order matters only if you care which partner is standing next to whom.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the walnut that became a city: street then courtroom, a clang as civic punctuation, and two decades of interchangeable parts that taught TV how to clone a night. Comfort is the feature. The original 1990–2010 cathedral still teaches the form; the revival is the machine refusing to clock out.
Picture a Tuesday when the nation still had a cop show that split like a walnut: first the street, then the courtroom, a clang on the soundtrack that became civic punctuation. Law & Order premiered September 13, 1990, on NBC, created by Dick Wolf, and it did not invent the procedural so much as industrialize it. Prescription for Death is the template in miniature — a hospital night, a dead patient, cops then lawyers, no hug required. On the palate: newsprint, a New York that looks like a location budget with a…
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