Law & Order: Season 5

1994 · 23 episodes · ★ 7.7

What Season 5 of Law & Order

The fifth season of Law & Order keeps the series' formula in New York. Homicide detectives, such as Sergeant Greevey, Logan and Briscoe, follow the clues in each crime until they arrest a suspect. Then, Manhattan prosecutors, with executive assistant district attorney McCoy leading several cases, prepare the charges and bring them before the court. Each episode solves its own case, and the season moves from one to the next: a cancer treatment method, a comedy club, a missing baby, or an attempted robbery of Lieutenant Van Buren. There is also a defense based on battered woman syndrome and a sex-for-points club at a high school. The protagonists' personal lives barely take up any screen time.

23episodes

Sep 21, 1994premiered

May 24, 1995latest episode

18.1 hrtotal runtime

Season 5 Episodes

5x01
5x01 Second Opinion
Sep 21, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.9
A woman's death exposes an unorthodox method of treating cancer that Executive Assistant DA McCoy intends to prove is negligent homicide.
Directing: Edwin Sherin · Writing: Jeremy R. Littman, Michael S. Chernuchin · Starring: Jan Maxwell, Elizabeth Ashley, Tony Roberts, Jan Maxwell
5x02
5x02 Coma
Sep 28, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directing: Jace Alexander · Writing: Ed Zuckerman · Starring: Larry Miller, Debra Monk, John Cunningham, Heather Gottlieb
5x03
5x03 Blue Bamboo
Oct 5, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.8
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.
Directed by: René Balcer, Don Scardino · Written by: René Balcer, Morgan Gendel · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Ilene Kristen, Vanessa Marshall, Laura Linney
5x04
5x04 Family Values
Oct 12, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.6
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.
Directing: Constantine Makris · Writing: René Balcer, William N. Fordes · Starring: Stephen Shellen, Sarah Paulson, Thomas Kopache, Victor Raider-Wexler
5x05
5x05 White Rabbit
Oct 19, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.0
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.
Directed by: Steven Robman · Written by: Morgan Gendel, Ed Zuckerman · Starring: Peter Friedman, Mary-Joan Negro, Peggy Roeder, Dick Anthony Williams
5x06
5x06 Competence
Nov 2, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.7
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.
Directed by: Fred Gerber · Written by: Mark B. Perry, Michael S. Chernuchin · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Rochelle Oliver, Samuel E. Wright, Jude Ciccolella
5x07
5x07 Precious
Nov 9, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directing: Constantine Makris · Writing: René Balcer, I.C. Rapoport · Starring: Maria Tucci, Sam Gray, Kevin O'Rourke, Julie Boyd
5x08
5x08 Virtue
Nov 23, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directed by: Martha Mitchell · Written by: Mark B. Perry, Jeremy R. Littman · Starring: Nancy Addison, Deirdre Lovejoy, Regina Taylor, Christopher Cousins
5x09
5x09 Scoundrels
Nov 30, 1994 · 47 min · ★ 7.4
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.
Directed by: Marc Laub · Written by: Ed Zuckerman, Charles C. Mann · Starring: Edie Falco, Michael Zaslow, Jonathan Hogan, Lisa Emery
5x10
5x10 House Counsel
Jan 4, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directed by: James Quinn · Written by: Michael S. Chernuchin, Barry M. Schkolnick · Starring: Fred J. Scollay, Mark Hammer, Ron Leibman, Vincent Pastore
5x11
5x11 Guardian
Jan 11, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 7.4
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.
Directed by: Christopher Misiano · Written by: René Balcer, William N. Fordes · Starring: Jon Cypher, C. Arthur Smith, Gerry Bamman, Joan MacIntosh
5x12 Progeny
Jan 25, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 7.9
The investigation into the killing of an abortion clinic doctor leads to an activist group led by a former priest.
Directed by: Don Scardino · Written by: Ed Zuckerman, Morgan Gendel · Starring: George T. Odom, Edward Herrmann, Jack Gilpin, Anne Bobby
5x13 Rage
Feb 1, 1995 · 48 min · ★ 8.3
A Wall Street broker accused of murdering his mentor uses the defense of ""black rage"" in court.
Directed by: Arthur W. Forney · Written by: Michael S. Chernuchin · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Richard Libertini, Wendell Pierce, Keith Charles
5x14
5x14 Performance
Feb 8, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 8.2
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.
Directed by: Martha Mitchell · Written by: Ed Zuckerman, Jeremy R. Littman · Starring: Yvette Hawkins, Chester A. Sims II, Monica Keena, Peter Facinelli
5x15
5x15 Seed
Feb 15, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 6.7
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.
Directing: Don Scardino · Writing: Michael S. Chernuchin, Janis Diamond · Starring: Joan Copeland, Stephen Henderson, Mark Blum, David Margulies
5x16
5x16 Wannabe
Mar 15, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 7.8
The shooting of a board member of an exclusive private school leads to a blue-collar family and a classist system.
Directed by: Lewis Gould · Written by: René Balcer, I.C. Rapoport · Starring: Doris Belack, Harry Groener, Boyd Gaines, Bruce Kirkpatrick
5x17 Act of God
Mar 22, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 6.6
A bomb at a construction site kills a 12-year-old boy, and the suspects include the bankrupt contractor and a jealous husband.
Directing: Constantine Makris · Writing: Ed Zuckerman, Walter Dallenbach · Starring: John Newton, Robert John Burke, Melinda Mullins, Skipp Sudduth
5x18
5x18 Privileged
Apr 5, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directing: Vincent Misiano · Writing: Jeremy R. Littman, Suzanne O'Malley · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Charles Blackwell, David Leary, Eddie Malavarca
5x19
5x19 Cruel and Unusual
Apr 19, 1995 · 48 min · ★ 8.3
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.
Directing: Matthew Penn · Writing: René Balcer, Michael S. Chernuchin · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Jeffrey DeMunn, Lawrence Pressman, Lenore Harris
5x20 Bad Faith
Apr 26, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 8.6
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.
Directing: Dann Florek · Writing: René Balcer · Starring: Dann Florek, Carolyn McCormick, Christine Farrell, Kit Flanagan
5x21 Purple Heart
May 3, 1995 · 48 min · ★ 7.8
The investigation into a taxi driver's murder involves a loan shark, a forged check, a missing plumber and the victim's wife.
Directing: Arthur W. Forney · Writing: Morgan Gendel, William N. Fordes · Starring: Michael Beach, Mike Starr, Frank Pellegrino, LisaGay Hamilton
5x22
5x22 Switch
May 17, 1995 · 48 min · ★ 7.6
Suspects in a psychiatrist's murder include the victim's ex-husband, a patient suffering from multiple-personality disorder and her obstructive father.
Directing: Christopher Misiano · Writing: Jeremy R. Littman, Sibyl Gardner · Starring: Carolyn McCormick, Lynne Thigpen, Roberta Wallach, Francie Swift
5x23
5x23 Pride Season Finale
May 24, 1995 · 47 min · ★ 6.3
A gay city councilman is murdered and the trail leads to a bigoted rival politician and a male prostitute.
Directing: Edwin Sherin · Writing: Ed Zuckerman, Gene Ritchings · Starring: Daniel Hugh Kelly, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Tim Hopper, Daniel Oreskes