All episodes Season 16 S16E07 2005-11-09 60 min 1990s NBC

Law & Order

House of Cards

TV Flash files “House of Cards” as hour 356 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 16, episode 7, aired 2005-11-09, 60 min.

From the desk

How this hour is filed

This leaf is S16E07: listed hour 356 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 7 of 22 in season 16. It aired 2005-11-09 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Birthright” (S16E06). Next is “New York Minute” (S16E08). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

Law & Order — House of Cards (S16E07)

Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

Fontana and Green investigate when the body of a young mother who had recently cleaned up her life is found in her apartment, with her five-day-old infant son Nicholas missing. Detectives soon track down Arlene Tarrington and ascertain that the infant she is claiming is hers is really baby Nicholas, but after her lawyers make a claim of post-partum psychosis and another man comes forward claiming to be the child's father, McCoy and Borgia are forced to decide which of the two they would rather lock up for the crime.

Viewer FAQ

Where does House of Cards sit in the Law & Order guide?

S16E07 is listed hour 356 of 545 — hour 7 of 22 in season 16, season 16 episode 7.

When did Law & Order S16E07 air?

House of Cards aired 2005-11-09 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…

Open the Law & Order package · Season 16 hub

Filed against

Also in season 16

← Full episode guide · Show package · All shows