Continuity points
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Law & Order
dan-brame — 9 years ago(December 05, 2016 04:31 PM)
I recall the line in Harvest about how the doctor who was on trial had among his financial obligations a house he had bought in Sands Point from a judge's widow. I always assumed this was a reference back to Jeopardy, where they found the corrupt judge dead from a suicide in Sands Point. I liked when they'd throw in these small points of continuity that were related to old cases, not necessarily the character's personal lives, which they did more often. Sometimes they'd outright reference an old case, especially in the later seasons. Sometimes they'd miss an obvious one though. I can't watch Invaders for example without thinking of the season 8 episode Shadow. McCoy was there for both and seemingly doesn't remember they pulled a similar ruse (faked trial with the consent of the judge) in Shadow. Does anyone have other examples of connections or missed connections in continuity?
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Dreamsville — 9 years ago(December 05, 2016 05:36 PM)
The season 19 episode "Falling", in which Cutter is trying to prevent a woman from having surgery performed on her handicapped daughter that will stunt her growth, makes a number of references to season 5's "Precious", the episode in which McCoy wanted a woman who kept killing her babies to undergo forced sterilization.
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scrabbler1 — 9 years ago(December 05, 2016 08:03 PM)
I believe you meant "Sands Point," not "Hunts Point" in the continuity reference between those two episodes. Sands Point is a wealthy area on Nassau County's (Long Island) north shore, sometimes called the Gold Coast. Hunts Point is an area in the South Bronx, hardly a wealthy area. But I like those continuity references across episodes, too.
Remember the episode Olivet testified at when she discussed the pros and cons of a shrink having a relationship with a patient? And Cutter crossed her in an embarrassing way about her own relationship with Detective Logan after she got raped by her own doctor (Season 3's "Helpless").
One continuity lapse, ore perhaps it was done purposely, is how ADA Jamie Ross reversed her position on the death penalty from the time she began (she was for it in her first episode, Season 7's "Causa Mortis" when she wanted to have the carjacker-killer executed, even using her federal attorney friend to force a witness to testify against him), to the time she left when she announced in an episode how she was against the death penalty. It was never clear to me when or how she reversed her position.
I recall other references to Season 8's Shadow, which featured the downfall of Ross's ADA friend who took bribes to fix cases. He (the corrupt ADA), referred to "Harvest" in a later episode as payback for letting her take over his case to trick Camacho into turning over his gun he used in the murder.
SVU has used unresolved plot lines from L&O episodes. Remember SVU's "Entitled" which picked up where L&O's "Mayhem" left off with the unsolved murder by the man with thick eyeglasses we saw at the end of "Entitled?" They even had Briscoe appear in "Entitled" to discuss the old case with Cragen (who was also in "Mayhem") to provide background.
How about Detective Green's gambling problems at the end of his run on the show, referring to the death of Briscoe as a reason for his relapse? We never saw Briscoe die but we know Jerry Orbach died in late 2004, just after his last appearance on L&O and near the beginning of the short-lived spinoff "L&O: Trial by Jury) which he was a main character.
There were pairs of episodes, sometimes airing many years apart, which the second episode was a sequel of the first one. Think of Coma and Encore, Conspiracy and Entrapment, Indifference and Fixed. -
Xeliou66 — 9 years ago(December 06, 2016 02:16 AM)
Yeah I liked the continuity references. Another good one is the one from School Daze in season 11, in which the parents of the shooter meet with McCoy and Carmichael and the dad says something like "your the same ones who sent that 18 year old to death row, for killing the deliveryman" a reference to the excellent earlier season 11 episode Teenage Wasteland.
Cutter several times references some of McCoy's old cases, such as the case when ADA Ricci was murdered in Refuge was referenced in the season 19 episode Rumble, and the case about the gun manufacturer and the one with Colonel Pantoya in Vaya Con Dios were referenced by Cutter as well.
Also the Masucci crime family was a recurring Mafia family that was referenced on all of the L&O shows.
Another good reminder of the shows sharing the same universe was in the season 16 episode Red Ball ( which interestingly enough is a term made famous by the related show Homicide : Life on the Street ) when Van Buren arrives at the kidnapping scene and a uniform cop says something like "Captain Cragen called and offered his assistance" a reminder that SVU is in the same universe as the mothership even when not seen.
Also the federal prosecutor who McCoy took the case from in DWB came back in the episode Ambitious and sabotages McCoy's case out of spite and revenge.
There are some more references that I am not thinking of right now I'm sure. -
dan-brame — 9 years ago(December 06, 2016 04:22 AM)
Yes, it might have been Sands Point; I don't have the lines in front of me. I was referring more to the within episode small links, less the direct sequels of episodes. One of my favorites is also the one self-deprecating reference to using the same actors repeatedly from the season 7 three-parter, where the guy who played the aforementioned doctor who raped Olivet is back as the defendant's psychiatrist, and he says to Olivet, "Where on earth is all this hostility coming from?"
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Dreamsville — 9 years ago(December 06, 2016 10:16 AM)
the guy who played the aforementioned doctor who raped Olivet is back as the defendant's psychiatrist, and he says to Olivet, "Where on earth is all this hostility coming from?"
I remember noticing that one too. Very funny little in-joke. -
scrabbler1 — 9 years ago(December 06, 2016 11:21 AM)
Season 8's "Under the Influence" is a huge focal point for many references to past episodes and is referenced in future ones. That was the episode in which a drunk driver killed a few people and Jack goes all-out (and then some) in trying to get a top-count conviction, initially. Jamie points out that he might be trying to avenge Claire's death at the hands of a drunk driver ("Aftershock") and I recall Jack's trying to hide a potential witness (an airline stewardess) whose testimony would help the defense coming back to bite him in later episodes when he faces the ethics committee. Abby reminds of that in Season 9 IIRC when Jack tries to rein in Abby for some borderline unethical tactics.