Burn Card
| "Burn Card" |
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"Burn Card" is an eighteenth season episode of the long-running legal drama Law & Order.
Plot
The murder 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 shot to death, 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.
Green is indicted, and his partner is forced to deliver testimony unfavorable to the defense. However, most of Green's colleagues are unwillingly to give up on him, and they use their skills to dig deeper. By the end of the episode, all charges against Green are dropped. Lieutenant Van Buren assures him that he is welcome back on the force, but 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 - who had earlier shared with Van Buren his desire to transfer to Homicide - 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).
- The storyline partially inspired by the Tim Donaghy scandal.[citation needed]
- 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. [1]
- This episode pulled 12.63 million viewers in the Nielsen ratings.[citation needed]