Detectives discover that a murdered assistant district attorney had an assumed identity, and that he never graduated from law school. They also discover that he made a mob-related murder cas... Read allDetectives discover that a murdered assistant district attorney had an assumed identity, and that he never graduated from law school. They also discover that he made a mob-related murder case in his files disappear.Detectives discover that a murdered assistant district attorney had an assumed identity, and that he never graduated from law school. They also discover that he made a mob-related murder case in his files disappear.
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- DA Arthur Branch
- (as Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Frederico 'Books' Libretti
- (as Steven R. Schirripa)
- Marge Hollenbach
- (as Julia K. Murney)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe title of this episode is Nowhere Man. A John Lennon song. He was killed in the Strawberry Fields next to the John Lennon Imagine memorial in New York Cities' Central Park.
- GoofsThe real Daniel Tenofski (Tenofsky) says he did a stint as a CPA. Apparently the screenwriters think that a CPA is the same as a bookkeeper. The character got his accounting education from a correspondence school. In order to become a CPA, he would have needed either 128 credit hours or the current 150 credit hours from an ACCREDITED college or university, not a "Sally-Struthers-endorsed-matchbook-cover" correspondence school. He would have had to take a 2 1/2 day test. He would have had to take an open-book ethics exam. He would have had to have 1.5 years junior accounting experience (excused, if degree from MAJOR institution) plus 1.5 years senior accounting experience...even longer if not earned in working for a practicing CPA. After passing the (medical) boards and the bar exam, a CPA is the toughest professional credit to earn.
- Quotes
Jack McCoy: Tenofskie loved what he did. He loved the D.A.'s office, loved trial work. He even loved the appeals bureau.
Serena Southerlyn: The only thing that could have stopped him from going after your clients was the fear of losing all of that.
Jack McCoy: Back in 1978, you were a night student at Brooklyn Law, but you took one day class. Corporations, with Professor Hoffman.
William Wachtler: I barely remember it.
Serena Southerlyn: You had a classmate, the real Daniel Tenofsky; the one who dropped out.
Jack McCoy: You sat across the aisle from him for six months. So when Libretti and Biscotti and you had your first sit-down with our Dan Tenofskie, whose real name was Jacob Dieter, you knew he was a fake.
William Wachtler: You'll never prove that.
Jack McCoy: Your clients did not bribe Tenofskie. They blackmailed him, with your help. They threatened to expose him, threatened to take away his identity, take away the life he'd built for himself.
William Wachtler: You want me testify against these guys?
Jack McCoy: Libretti, Biscotti, and Tortomassi.
William Wachtler: I'll need to go into witness protection.
Jack McCoy: You'll testify and go to jail. And if I'm in a good mood, I'll consider arranging segregation from the general population.
- ConnectionsReferences The Wild Bunch (1969)
Which is another one of the best episodes of a season with quite a lot of extremely impressive episodes and what is overall one of the better and more consistent latter seasons. ". It is another episode to be consistently attention grabbing and high quality throughout the entire duration but be even more special in the second half. Am saying that after seeing some 'Law and Order' episodes lately where the second halves were better than the first, a few quite a bit so.
"Nowhere Man" is superb in all senses. The production values are still fully professional, the slickness and subtly gritty style still remaining. The music is sparingly used and is haunting and thankfully non-overwrought. The direction shows some nice tension in the legal scenes. The script is well balanced, taut and intelligent, and handles complex themes tactfully yet with unyielding grit.
Moreover, "Nowhere Man" has a compelling and clever story that delivers on plenty of unexpected and plausible twists and turns as well as some dark suspense. It is a very complex plot, nothing predictable at all, but it does so without being too hasty or confusing. Helped by that the perpetrator is so amoral and really makes the skin crawl. The police portion is engrossing, benefitting from the chemistry between Briscoe and Green, but the legal scenes are absolutely riveting.
The acting is never less than very good, there were a small group of episodes where Elisabeth Rohm actually wasn't an issue and this was one of them.
In short, outstanding. 10/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jul 7, 2022