Law & Order
Terminal
TV Flash files “Terminal” as the last listed hour of season 7 — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 7, episode 23, aired 1997-05-21, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E23: listed hour 157 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, last listed hour of season 7. It aired 1997-05-21 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Past Imperfect” (S07E22). Next is “Thrill” (S08E01). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The cops uncover a man with a secret second life as they try to learn who opened fire on a group of people disembarking from a party cruise, but his guilt or innocence becomes almost a second thought as Adam Schiff goes toe-to-toe with the governor and the state's Attorney General over the decision to seek the death penalty. Meanwhile Schiff learns his wife has been rushed to Cedar's Hospital after suffering a severe stroke rendering her unconscious.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Terminal sit in the Law & Order guide?
S07E23 is listed hour 157 of 545 — last listed hour of season 7, season 7 episode 23.
When did Law & Order S07E23 air?
Terminal aired 1997-05-21 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…
Filed against
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