Law & Order Review: Legacy (Season 21 Episode 7)

The murders presented on Law & Order are usually sad enough, but sometimes they manage to be even more so because of the innocence of the victim.

On Law & Order Season 21 Episode 7, “Legacy,” the victim ends up being an innocent bystander in a dispute between two students. It’s a case that is complicated enough, but you add in Price and Maroun’s vastly different opinions on the subject and you get even more drama.

Adult or Child?

One of the biggest debates of this episode is whether or not the actual shooter is culpable. At first it’s because we are left wondering if he should be tried as an adult or a child. 

It truly is the question for the ages whenever a teen commits a heinous crime such as this. Do we try them as an adult because they’ve done an adult action or do we try them as a child because they are under the age limit of being considered an adult?

This is where we first see the difference in opinion between Price and Maroun regarding this young man. Price and McCoy both want to see him punished as an adult because he is as they say, 6 months from turning 18. 

However, Maroun doesn’t think he should be because while he did make an adult decision he is also mentally troubled and can’t be held accountable as an adult.  While in this instance she is shot down, the seeds of doubt definitely start to plant themselves inside Price’s mind.

Charging the Parents?

The great thing about Law & Order is that dynamic between Price and Maroun. These two characters play off each other so well because they always land on a case so differently. 

Having that back and forth between them helps move along the story and also make it seem like the DA’s office is filled with complex people. If Maroun wasn’t such a bleeding heart about every single case, we would be left feeling like everyone is of the same mind.

That’s never a good feeling to have on a regular drama, let alone a courtroom procedural. Maroun helps Price to see that maybe just maybe, this kid isn’t to blame for his actions — after all, he didn’t buy the gun himself.

Shifting Price and McCoy’s focus to the parents of the young man is definitely no easy feet for Maroun, but she doesn’t back down from her assertion. It ends up paying off because we get to see that the teen never would have brought a gun to school if it hadn’t been for his father.

Who is Really Guilty?

This begs to question, who should be charged with the unintentional death of Mr. Gleason? The moment the show starts to focus on the father instead of the teen, it becomes very reminiscent to a real life school shooting case, which of course Law & Order is notorious for.

From the moment we meet the father we are made to not trust or even like him. He’s a bully to everyone, not just his mentally vulnerable son so it’s not a stretch to believe he is truly behind the teen’s actions.

The more surprising aspect of this whole case is the mother’s behavior. She knows exactly what happened regarding her husband’s stake in the case and yet she remains vehemently against the DA’s Office. 

It’s as if she doesn’t even care that a man has died at the hands of her son because her husband gave him a gun. It really pulled me out of having any sympathy for this well-off family. 

And maybe that is the point this episode is trying to make. Sometimes terrible things happen because those with more money than the rest of us are so far removed from reality they feel their actions don’t have consequences. 

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Law & Order airs Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.

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