The BEST episodes of Law & Order season 5
Every episode of Law & Order season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Law & Order season 5!
A blended police procedural and courtroom drama which employs a two-part approach: The first half of each episode focuses on NYPD homicide detectives investigating a crime—often derived from a real-life headline—and apprehending a suspect. The second half takes place in the courtroom, with the district attorney prosecuting the defendant.
#1 - Rage
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/1/1995
A Wall Street broker accused of murdering his mentor uses the defense of "black rage" in court.
#2 - Seed
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/15/1995
A routine investigation into a woman's death leads Briscoe and Logan to a fertility doctor guilty of unethical practices, but who cannot apparently be touched because of confidentiality rules, and patient reluctance to talk.
#3 - Guardian
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/11/1995
After the body of a young female junkie is identified as the daughter of a wealthy family, Briscoe and Logan try to find out who left her to die in the yard of a day-care center.
#4 - Progeny
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/25/1995
The investigation into the killing of an abortion clinic doctor leads to an activist group led by a former priest.
#5 - House Counsel
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/4/1995
The killing of a man who had served as a juror in a mob trial leads to a battle of wills between McCoy and his long-time friend, the suspect's attorney.
#6 - Bad Faith
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/26/1995
Logan relives unhappy childhood memories when a friend is found dead, a presumed suicide, until the investigation reveals recent contact with a former priest, with a history of pedophilia.
#7 - White Rabbit
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1994
A routine investigation uncovers evidence that leads Briscoe and Logan to a long-time fugitive, a radical Vietnam War opponent on the run since a 1971 burglary that left a policeman dead.
#8 - Competence
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/2/1994
When Lt. Van Buren is the victim of an attempted holdup by two teens, she fires her gun and kills one of them, and the detectives are faced with the fact that she shot an unarmed child in the back.
#9 - Privileged
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/5/1995
The investigation into a double murder leads to a young alcoholic whose family once lived in the victims' house and who had admitted to his AA group that he's had nightmares about killings.
#10 - Cruel and Unusual
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/19/1995
The death of an autistic youth in custody reveals a multitude of unusual and possibly illegal therapies being used, but also parents reluctant to pursue a prosecution.
#11 - Pride
Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/24/1995
A gay city councilman is murdered and the trail leads to a bigoted rival politician and a male prostitute.
#12 - Act of God
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/22/1995
A bomb at a construction site kills a 12-year-old boy, and the suspects include the bankrupt contractor and a jealous husband.
#13 - Precious
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/9/1994
When Briscoe and Logan suspect that a missing infant may have been murdered by her parents rather than kidnapped, they uncover a terrible family secret which hides a mentally ill serial killer.
#14 - Second Opinion
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/21/1994
A woman's death exposes an unorthodox method of treating cancer that Executive Assistant DA McCoy intends to prove is negligent homicide.
#15 - Purple Heart
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/3/1995
The investigation into a taxi driver's murder involves a loan shark, a forged check, a missing plumber and the victim's wife.
#16 - Coma
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/28/1994
A comedy-club owner comes under suspicion for having shot his wife, now comatose with a bullet in her head, after it's discovered he was abusive and she was about to divorce him.
#17 - Virtue
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/23/1994
McCoy uses a charge of "larceny by extortion" against a councilman, whose former colleague claims he demanded sex in exchange for a law-firm partnership.
#18 - Wannabe
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/15/1995
The shooting of a board member of an exclusive private school leads to a blue-collar family and a classist system.
#19 - Switch
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/17/1995
Suspects in a psychiatrist's murder include the victim's ex-husband, a patient suffering from multiple-personality disorder and her obstructive father.
#20 - Performance
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/8/1995
Briscoe and Logan set out to identify the apparent victim in a snuff film, but find her alive and really the victim of a points-for-sex club at her prestigious high school.
#21 - Scoundrels
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/30/1994
Among the suspects in a lawyer's murder are a swindler, who conned a woman out of her family fortune, and the woman's once-wealthy son.
#22 - Family Values
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/1994
After it's determined that a wealthy woman did not commit suicide but was murdered, the detectives question both her first and second husbands and her teenage daughter.
#23 - Blue Bamboo
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/5/1994
The killing of a Japanese nightclub owner who was visiting New York leads to the arrest of a singer who once worked for the deceased, and whose lawyer uses the "battered-woman syndrome" as a defense.