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Friday's extravaganza made up for Wednesday's poor showing. The chip on McCoy's shoulder looks more like a block when his workingman's ambition runs head-on into old money and even older political connections.

Law and Order picks up where SVU left off. Playboy Dean Woodruff has been shot point blank in the back of the head with a .44 caliber pistol, apparently while "getting busy" in a parked car with Stephanie Mulroney, the scion of a powerful family with political roots and a tragic history reminiscent of the Kennedys'. The police arrest Stephanie for the murder. However, the cops dismiss the charges against her when a second man, Seth Brecker, is killed with the same modus operandi.

The cops link serial killer Arthur Pruitt to the murders, and he confesses to killing Woodruff - but not Brecker. In a twist, Brecker may have been in some trouble with the mob. Briscoe and SVU's Munch track down a mob informant who suggests that Brecker may be the victim of mob boss Gus Iacone's recent efforts to collect protection money.

Then the only witness to the Brecker murder turns up dead, and all fingers point to Cesar Ordonez, a career criminal who knew Pruitt from when Pruitt served time. The cops find Ordonez in the middle of a little arm twisting, and take him in for questioning. Ordonez doesn't bother with a lawyer even though he's surrounded by cops in a small interrogation room. (You get the sense he's done this before.)

In exchange for a deal that keeps him out of the electric chair, Ordonez explains that Stephanie Mulroney actually did kill Dean Woodruff (as the cops thought from the beginning). Woodruff's murder looked like one of Pruitt's old serial killings only because Iacone called in Ordonez to make it look that way. Brecker's murder happened to continue the series and strengthen the serial killer theory - so that the police would release Stephanie after her arrest. Brecker was the unlucky guy Iacone picked to die because the mob wanted him dead for other reasons - making for an apt, albeit twisted, use of the expression "killing two birds with one stone."

In the aftermath of Ordonez' confession, A.D.A.s Jack McCoy and Abbie Carmichael invite Stephanie back for questioning. Stephanie agrees, but she never goes anywhere without matriarch Regina Mulroney and the family's attorney-friend Patrick Rumsey. Rumsey explains that Woodruff tried to rape Stephanie, who then - in self-defense - hit him with an ashtray and accidentally killed him. The cover-up was arranged out of fear that the authorities wouldn't believe Stephanie's story.

McCoy wants to know who made the call to mobster Gus Iacone, but Rumsey refuses to answer. McCoy perceptively asks whether Rumsey is "taking the Fifth" - that is, refusing to answer on the grounds that the answer may incriminate him - since if Rumsey arranged the crime, he too could go to jail as an accomplice. Rumsey responds, however, by claiming only to be asserting attorney-client privilege. Nevertheless, Rumsey looks like the Mulroneys' equivalent of Godfather consigliere Tom Hagen, and there's a strong suggestion that Regina Mulroney and mob boss Gus Iacone are two sides of the same coin.

McCoy wants to go after Stephanie, even though she was arrested once before. As a matter of law, he can. The prohibition against "double jeopardy" means that a defendant may not be prosecuted twice for the same offense, but "prosecution" for this purpose does not occur until a jury is selected at trial. Since Stephanie's initial arrest never resulted in a trial, Jack can bring charges again. Factually, however, he may have a hard time: Stephanie's self-defense claim is corroborated twice - when Woodruff's ex-wife tells A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael that Woodruff was violent, and when one of Woodruff's former co-workers tells Carmichael that Woodruff raped her.

Another brief foray in court shows that McCoy is in for a bad week all around. In addition to going after Stephanie, he's trying to convict Iacone for Iacone's role in the Brecker murder. (This is a good strategy, because Iacone may decide to take a deal and rat out the Mulroneys.) McCoy suffers a setback, though, when the court prohibits Cesar Ordonez, the shooter, from testifying. Ordonez was once convicted of perjury, and the judge is unwilling to turn Iacone's trial into an "homage to dishonesty." This ruling is a bit anachronistic. While convicted perjurers were once declared "incompetent" to testify, that absolute prohibition generally has been abandoned. As McCoy argues, Ordonez should be allowed to testify; the perjury conviction is just a factor relevant to his credibility. McCoy loses anyway.

With the Iacone case going south, pressure on the Mulroneys becomes even more important. Abbie discovers that Woodruff's ex-wife and former co-worker were both bribed to say that he had previously exhibited violent behavior. McCoy dispatches the detectives to arrest Regina Mulroney and Patrick Rumsey for bribery and murder. No more hiding behind the attorney-client privilege! The privilege disappears when an attorney has assisted in a crime or fraud, and there's no doubt that's what happened here.

After an unsuccessful attempt to get Regina Mulroney to admit she knew what was going on, McCoy decides that it's a better bet that Rumsey will crack. He's right. (Rumsey, by the way, is a lawyer and therefore knows that he should have a lawyer present when he's talking to the D.A.'s office. Unlike everyone else, lawyers generally believe that there never can be too many lawyers at a meeting.) In exchange for a plea to reduced charges, Rumsey turns on his long-time employer.

Cut to trial, where we get Rumsey's story: Stephanie called him after she hit Woodruff with the ashtray. He called Regina, and she told him to call mob boss Gus Iacone. When Stephanie was first arrested, Regina again told Rumsey to call Iacone. On cross-examination, Regina's lawyer really only needs one question: other than Rumsey's testimony, is there any evidence linking Regina to the murders and cover-up? The answer is no.

The stage is set for Regina Mulroney to testify, and Schiff warns McCoy that she is "shanty Irish" (the explanation is not family fare) and will be tough to cross-examine. McCoy knows her story and demeanor, but he still gets completely beaten up. Regina spends most of her time on the stand reminding the jury of the Mulroneys' contributions to the city and of the various tragedies they have suffered. McCoy tries all the right techniques to rein her in - insisting that she answer the question, moving to strike superfluous testimony - but the judge, apparently sympathetic to the Mulroney dynasty, lets Regina have her say. The jury convicts Stephanie of witness tampering, can't reach a verdict on Stephanie's murder charge, and acquits Regina of everything.

McCoy goes home complaining that Regina Mulroney is above the law because she's rich and powerful. (Indeed, he won't even bother to retry Stephanie on the murder charge.) McCoy's case against Regina Mulroney just was not very strong. Patrick Rumsey's testimony is the only evidence to link Regina to murder and witness tampering, and he was testifying to save his own skin. In the thrill of trying to bring down a famous family, McCoy may well have gone after the wrong person. Rumsey made the phone calls to Iacone, so he probably should not have been let off the hook with a plea. The jury may have acquitted Regina because of her wealth and power, but an equally plausible explanation for the verdict is that the jurors believed Regina was ignorant of what Rumsey did to get Stephanie out of trouble. Maybe she was. As with the legendary mobsters of old New York, Regina Mulroney's power is that she did not have to know. This episode is thoughtful and complicated because it suggests that Regina Mulroney is untouchable precisely because she can avoid the details.

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