"Law & Order" Ain't No Love (2005)

Director:

Paris Barclay

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator)
Richard Sweren (writer) ...

TV Series:

"Law & Order" (1990)

Original Air Date:

12 January 2005 (Season 15, Episode 13)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Plot:

A young hip-hop performer is accused of murdering a rap mogul, but his friend testifies during the trial that he is the killer. Serena objects to prosecution tactics, and Branch fires her. |

Plot Keywords:

Attorney | Detective | Police | District Attorney | Evidence

Cast

Dennis Farina	...	Detective Joe Fontana
Jesse L. Martin	...	Detective Ed Green
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Lt. Anita Van Buren
Sam Waterston	...	Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy
Elisabeth Röhm	...	A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn
Fred Dalton Thompson	...	D.A. Arthur Branch
David Chandler
Richard Sheridan Willis
Al Sapienza
Jade Yorker	...	Anthony 'Psycho' Harrison
Leslie Hendrix	...	Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers
Daryl Edwards
Teagle F. Bougere
Sean Nelson	...	Shawn Foreman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Bizik	...	Defense Attorney
John Cariani	...	CSU Julian Beck
Tom Day	...	Detective #1
Ron Domingo	...	Detective Gonzales
Funda Duval	...	Club Manager
Chris Fischer	...	Detective #3
Jeff Woods Garlin	...	Detective #2
Christopher Michael Gerrard	...	Rap Producer
Carla Greene	...	Cece
Sam Kitchin	...	Uniform Cop
Sheree Ladove-Kent	...	Jury Foreperson
Marylou Mellace	...	Judge Antonia Mellon
Sean Phillips	...	Uniform Officer
Keith Powell	...	Mike
Esau Pritchett	...	Parole Officer Leon Mooney
Carey Reilly	...	Detective Jenny Gant
Joanna Rhinehart	...	Nicole Caldwell
Tim Roselle	...	Gus
Lawrence J. Russo	...	Detective
Kenny Shapiro	...	Camara Operator
Sonny Vellozzi	...	Reporter

Company:

Wolf Films

Trivia:

This episode marks Elizabeth Rohm's final appearance on the series as ADA Serena Southerlyn.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While doing a background check on Mooney, the detectives find he is "on the job" (working for the NYPD) in Queens. In a subsequent scene when the detectives are interviewing him, Officer Mooney is shown wearing "27" insignia on his uniform. The 27th Precinct is the one that the detectives work out of in Manhattan.

Quotes:

D.A. Arthur Branch: [to Serena] You're fired.
ADA Serena Southerlyn: [pauses, shocked] Is this because I'm a lesbian?
D.A. Arthur Branch: No, no... of course not.
ADA Serena Southerlyn: Good... that's good...

Serena's Last Stand Could Have Been Better

I loved this episode as I have all other Law and Order episodes over the past seven or eight years.

With this last episode involving Serena prosecuting this specific case, she ran into a very serious ethical dilemma regarding her position as a prosecutor. But I don't understand what the crime is in finding evidence or suspecting that a criminal defendant may not be culpable for the crime he was charged with.

Why couldn't Serena have tried harder to convince Jack and Arthur that she could find the person who really committed the murder through the guy they thought they had pegged as their perp? It's beyond me.

At any rate, Serena ended up getting fired by Branch for essentially doing her job -- zealously representing the State of New York by trying to find the true killer in this specific case.

What I found especially lame was how Serena suddenly suspected that Branch and McCoy discovered she was a lesbian long before she admitted it out of the blue. Whaaaaat the hell was that woman thinking? I can understand where some people come from by becoming briefly irrational and using their emotions over their common sense when faced with a major life change, and there isn't one person out there who hasn't gone through a similar dilemma. Still, I think Serena could have gone out far better than she did.

Who knows? Serena Southerlyn may not have gone as quietly as some people think she has. When Branch lectured her implicitly about being more cut out to be a defense attorney than a prosecutor, she may very well take that to heart and become one.

If Wolf and the other producers of the show were to invite Rohm back as a special guest star, she would make a great foil against McCoy in any event that cases involving her clients are prosecuted by him. As a former ADA and having worked with McCoy, she knows all his strengths and weaknesses. Plus, if she is the type of attorney who will represent a client she KNOWS is absolutely innocent, she will fight tooth and nail to bury her former supervisor in court.

Again, Law and Order can do so much more with characters like the one Rohm portrayed over the past four or five years she co-starred on the show.