Burn Card

"Burn Card"

"Burn Card" is an eighteenth season episode of the long-running legal drama Law & Order.

Plot

The death of an avid gambler puts Detective Ed Green's badge in jeopardy forcing him to reveal his troubled past. Internal Affairs Detective Kevin Bernard (special guest star Anthony Anderson) is assigned to the case.

A part-time referee is found murdered, and Detectives Green and Lupo investigate the victim's gambling habits. The detectives are led to notorious hustler, "Bunny" (Bobby Jones), a familiar face from Green's past. When "Bunny" is found dead, Lupo is called to the scene and discovers his partner, Green, is the shooter, causing confusion in the department and disbelief in the DA's office. The case is turned over to internal affairs Detective Kevin Bernard and Sergeant Gregory Cole (Peter Bradbury), leaving Green in danger of losing his badge.

By the end of the episode, all charges were subsequently dropped against Green. Even though Van Buren assures him that he is welcome back on the force, Green, unhappy with having "broken every rule in the book," decides to leave the squad. Lupo is given Green's position of senior partner, and Bernard becomes Lupo's new partner.

Trivia

• This was Jesse L. Martin's (Ed Green's) last episode; he was replaced by guest star Anthony Anderson (Kevin Bernard).

• Partially inspired by the Tim Donaghy scandal.

• The opening sequence inspired by an incident in Hell's Kitchen in January 2008, when two men tried to cash their dead friend's check by wheeling him into a store.

• This episode pulled 12.63 million viewers in the Nielsen ratings.

External links

• IMDb.com