Contract (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)

"Contract" is a seventh season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Plot summary

In this episode, Detectives Logan and Wheeler investigate the case of a television news anchor who is blackmailed by a popular tabloid gossip columnist. When the man goes to the NYPD and wears a wire for detectives, the car blows up and the columnist is killed, while the anchorman is severely injured. The detectives find themselves up to their eyeballs in suspects and motives, where no one theory and suspect can be ruled out as a possibility, because the columnist was extorting money from famous people, ostensibly to open a luxurious restaurant and trying to protect his younger sister. The list of suspects include a mobster whom the victim had some major gambling debts and a physician who has operated on many renowned athletes, as well as an unscrupulous filmmaker and his wife/assistant – a studio executive who is disturbed to hear about any drug involvement in relation to a huge star who recently died on set. As Logan and Wheeler begin to stitch together the pieces, they discover a sordid secret life of sex and deceit that could be a motivating factor in the crime.

Cast

Main

Also Starring

Guest

Fact

• This episode marks the return of Detective Wheeler, after going over to Europe to teach American police procedure to European police officers.

Trivia

• Contains many references to the film The Sweet Smell of Success. Mo Rocca's character, a gossip columnist, is made to resemble Burt Lancaster's character in the film, and Mike Logan even quotes some of the film's lines (such as "I love this dirty town!").
• This episode features a character (US Marshal Mary Shannon) from the American television series In Plain Sight.
• This episode features Emily Kinney, who is notable for starring in the hit AMC horror-drama series The Walking Dead.

External links

• IMDb entry
• Official Website