Law & Order
Four Cops Shot
TV Flash files “Four Cops Shot” as hour 450 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 20, episode 17, aired 2010-03-22, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S20E17: listed hour 450 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 17 of 23 in season 20. It aired 2010-03-22 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Innocence” (S20E16). Next is “Brazil” (S20E18). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Lieutenant Anita Van Buren is told by her doctor Valerie Knight (Deirdre O'Connell) that she came off her radiation just fine and her hemoglobin levels are up. She's set to go back to her doctor in three months to see if the tumor has shrunk. Meanwhile, Detectives Lupo and Bernard are called to a scene where four police officers were shot and killed, at a local pizzeria. With a room full of witnesses, they have a small description of the culprit but that's all. The case becomes even more confusing when they discover that the police officers may have known the shooter. The investigation quickly leads them to a drug cartel, a jealous husband, and a penitent judge who are all linked together. Tensions rise from both the homicide units, the DA's office, and even to the U.S. Attorney.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Four Cops Shot sit in the Law & Order guide?
S20E17 is listed hour 450 of 545 — hour 17 of 23 in season 20, season 20 episode 17.
When did Law & Order S20E17 air?
Four Cops Shot aired 2010-03-22 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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