Law & Order Season 4 Episode Guide
Plot summaries for the fourth season of Law & Order, which aired on NBC from September 1993 to May 1994, featuring Det. Lennie Briscoe, Det. Mike Logan, Lt. Anita Van Buren, Executive ADA Ben Stone, ADA Claire Kincaid and DA Adam Schiff.
- 1
Sweeps
A molestation victim’s father shoots the abuser on a live talk show, and the detectives suspect the host steered him there for ratings.
- 2
Volunteers
A violent, mentally ill homeless man is beaten nearly to death in an alley, and the trail leads to the Bedford Street neighbors he had tormented for years.
- 3
Discord
A college junior says a heavy-metal star raped her in his hotel suite, but her credibility unravels on the stand and strains Stone’s trust in his new partner.
- 4
Profile
A gunman with a sawed-off shotgun kills dark-skinned residents of the Upper West Side, and the white supremacist charged with the murders hires a prominent Black defense lawyer.
- 5
Black Tie
An anonymous caller says a Manhattan millionaire was murdered, and a hard-won exhumation points to his wife, until a ruling on a private investigator’s search undoes the case.
- 6
Pride and Joy
A Manhattan building superintendent seems to die stopping a burglary, until the evidence points to his gifted teenage son, who says he was defending himself from an abusive father.
- 7
Apocrypha
A car bomb in a Wall Street-area parking garage kills the young woman who planted it, and the prosecutors set out to prove that the leader of her apocalyptic church is responsible.
- 8
American Dream
Remains found on Roosevelt Island contradict the testimony that sent a Wall Street swindler to prison for murder years earlier, and he uses the discovery to win a new trial, representing himself against Stone.
- 9
Born Bad
A 13-year-old foster child is kicked to death on a Manhattan street, and the 14-year-old charged with killing him mounts a defense claiming he was genetically born to be violent.
- 10
The Pursuit of Happiness
A meat wholesaler is shot in his own office, and the detectives look hard at his young Russian wife, who came to New York through a mail-order marriage broker.
- 11
Golden Years
An elderly woman is found dead after a break-in, but the autopsy shows she starved, and suspicion moves from her fired maid to her granddaughter.
- 12
Snatched
A real estate magnate caught carrying millions in cash says his son has been kidnapped, but the case turns back on the son himself.
- 13
Breeder
A young woman who gave birth alone says her newborn has vanished, and the search for the baby uncovers several couples who each paid her expecting to adopt it.
- 14
Censure
Threats against a wealthy couple’s young daughter lead to a respected appellate judge, and the case exposes Kincaid’s own past affair with him.
- 15
Kids
A stray bullet kills a promising 14-year-old student, and the shooter turns out to be the teenage son of a retired detective who is an old friend of Briscoe’s.
- 16
Big Bang
A mail bomb kills a physicist’s estranged wife, and the trail leads through a particle accelerator to a jobless scientist with a grudge against her husband.
- 17
Mayhem
In a single shift, Briscoe and Logan catch several unrelated killings, and the one that looks solved may have the wrong man in custody.
- 18
Wager
A rising baseball star’s father is killed over huge gambling debts, and the bookie charged with the murder may not be the one who struck the fatal blow.
- 19
Sanctuary
After a Jewish driver avoids charges for killing a Black boy in Harlem, a riot leaves an innocent man dead, and his young killer takes refuge in a church.
- 20
Nurture
A missing foster child turns up hidden in a basement room, and the woman who took her insists she was rescuing the girl.
- 21
Doubles
When a world-ranked teenage tennis player is attacked before a tournament, the case moves from an obsessed fan to her rival and finally to the player herself.
- 22
Old Friends
A baby food executive’s death on a busy street is revealed as a mob hit, and Stone’s case depends on a terrified witness.