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Lennie Briscoe Leaves Law & Order
By
Jen Chung
Published May 20, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 20, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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Last night's season finale of Law & Order featured the final appearance of Jerry Orbach as eternally wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe. In a divergence from the usual L&O practice of not dwelling on the police-or-law characters, attention was drawn to how Briscoe was leaving the precinct, Green's reaction, opening the door for working with the D.A.'s office, and Briscoe packing up his desk. As a result, Gothamist feels the cases were a little rushed (a couple loose ends and, Elizabeth Rohm, even though your hair is looking fabulous these days, could you be any more shrill?), if fun for the Strangers on a Train reference. And Lennie's pithy one-liner to the woman having an affair with the delivery guy - "Guess he was delivering more than just packages, huh?" - was a great last shot.
And, yes, Gothamist got a little teary when Lennie packed up his boxes and left the squadroom. It was a nice moment from Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, and S. Epatha Merkerson - not too sappy, but we're sure there were tears when the cameras stopped rolling. We're getting Lennie Briscoe t-shirts in honor of him.
And The Ledger, the Law & Order blog, has a great write-up of the episode, complete with screengrabs and links to posts about the last episodes of other characters. And Gothamist on all things Lennie Briscoe and Jerry Orbach, plus our visit to the set of Law & Order and pictures from filming the season finale at Riverside Park.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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