Long-time NBC legal drama Law & Order sparked outrage Wednesday after portraying a character obviously based on accused murderer Luigi Mangione as a folk hero.
Mangione was arrested last year in connection with the December murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot and killed in a sneak attack outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
The March 20 episode, oh-so-subtly titled “Folk Hero,” starts off with the murder of a prominent CEO who is gunned down on the street by a man in a hoodie wearing a mask — just as Mangione is accused of wearing during the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Newsbusters reported.
In the episode, Ethan Weller (Ty Molbak) is arrested for the murder of the show’s fictional CEO even as he plans the murder of a second CEO. But soon enough, New Yorkers in the show elevate the accused killer to the status of a local hero.
The accused killer’s lawyer offers the novel defense that Weller’s crime is justified because he felt he was “saving lives” by killing the insurance company CEO.
“There is no question Ethan Weller shot and killed Logan Andrews,” the lawyer states. “But there’s a reason he did it, a legal reason. He was trying to save lives. Logan Andrews caused the death of thousands of innocent people. By denying their legitimate insurance claims. Thousands more were about to die, are about to die, because of Mr. Andrews’ callous disregard for human life. So Ethan Weller killed Logan Andrews before Mr. Andrews could kill again. And his actions are completely and unequivocally legal under the laws of New York.”
Later in the episode, several CEOs come together and point out that the judge who allowed the absurd defense of the killer has a history of donating to extreme left-wing causes and is attempting to paint all CEOs as mass murderers. Another of the CEOs is outraged, saying, “So now we’re all on trial for this?”
“Yeah, and for what? Because we had the audacity to make money for our shareholders? This judge and this defense lawyer are basically telling the world that it is okay to just hunt us down like–like we’re a bunch of pheasants,” a CEO in the meeting says.
The show ended on an activist note, as well. Instead of revealing a guilty verdict, the show ended with no verdict at all, leaving the audience the room to decide that murdering a CEO is justified simply because they are rich men who run big companies.
Indeed, Jesse Metcalfe, the actor who portrayed a police officer in the episode, thought the ending was great.
“I feel like this open-ended episode played incredibly well,” Metcalfe told TVInsider. “It really works for this episode. We don’t really take a stand on what the verdict should be. We allow the audience to have their own opinion. I think a lot of times when a storyline isn’t resolved, it can cause the audience a little bit of frustration. I think in this particular episode, I think it’s still incredibly satisfying, which is important.”
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