All episodes Season 16 S16E20 2006-05-03 60 min 1990s NBC

Law & Order

Kingmaker

TV Flash files “Kingmaker” as hour 369 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 16, episode 20, aired 2006-05-03, 60 min.

From the desk

How this hour is filed

This leaf is S16E20: listed hour 369 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 20 of 22 in season 16. It aired 2006-05-03 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Positive” (S16E19). Next is “Hindsight” (S16E21). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

Law & Order — Kingmaker (S16E20)

Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

After undercover cop Dana Baker is murdered, Fontana and Green learn that the man who killed her had discovered her identity after seeing a photograph of her in the paper revealing her as an undercover police officer, not the heroin dealer she was posing as. Investigating the story leads detectives to Eric Lund, one of the workers in Congressman Prescott's office, but Lund seems to have an ironclad alibi after an e-mail he sent comes to light.

Viewer FAQ

Where does Kingmaker sit in the Law & Order guide?

S16E20 is listed hour 369 of 545 — hour 20 of 22 in season 16, season 16 episode 20.

When did Law & Order S16E20 air?

Kingmaker aired 2006-05-03 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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Also in season 16

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