Law & Order
Captive
TV Flash files “Captive” as hour 391 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 17, episode 20, aired 2007-05-04, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S17E20: listed hour 391 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 20 of 22 in season 17. It aired 2007-05-04 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Fallout” (S17E19). Next is “Over Here” (S17E21). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When a young boy is found murdered, Green and Cassady follow the leads to a suspected serial pedophile/murderer.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Captive sit in the Law & Order guide?
S17E20 is listed hour 391 of 545 — hour 20 of 22 in season 17, season 17 episode 20.
When did Law & Order S17E20 air?
Captive aired 2007-05-04 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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