Law and Order
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"In the Wee Small Hours (Part I)"
CI, Episode 5.06
Production number: 05006
First aired: 6 November 2005
  th of 195 produced in CI  
th of 195 released in CI
  th of 1271 released in all  
Logan Goren Eames Barek Wee Small Hours
Teleplay By
Stephanie Sengupta

Story By
Stephanie Sengupta & René Balcer

Directed By
Jean de Segonzac

Plot[]

The disappearance of a teenage girl, publicized in the media, brings the entire Major Case Squad out to investigate.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Ron Carver: Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves. We're flying into the eye of the hurricane.

Faith Yancy: I'm Faith Yancy.
Eunice Peterson: I know who you are.

Eunice Peterson: I know who you are because five weeks ago, I sent you a letter asking you to do a report on Tiana's disappearance. Never got a response.
Faith Yancy: I'm sure it was a mix-up.
Eunice Peterson: I know how it is with you people. If she's white, put her in the spotlight. If she's black, put her in the back. I'll take your interest now, any way it comes, but do not confuse my desperation with gratitude.

Connie Smith: I get mail privileges if I agree to this new transfer?
Alexandra Eames: We expect you to be extra friendly to your new cellie.

Connie Smith: Don't tell them you gave her the X.
Ethan Garrett: I won't, but dude, you should've seen her. Her head bounced off the guardrail like a beach ball.

(on Connie and Ethan's recorded conversation)
Robert Goren: I'm going to listen to this some more.
Ron Carver: Six hours of psychopathic venting.

Background information and notes[]

  • This two-part episode was originally aired as a single two-hour episode, and was split for future airings.
  • This episode and the second part combines the two detective teams of the major case squad together. The opening credits features both sets of detectives in them along with all of the new main cast walking out of One Police Plaza.
  • The episodes are loosely based on the Natalee Holloway case.
    • The episode makes a critique of how minority women going missing tends to be dismissed by police and the media by contrasting the disappearance of a white girl, Bethany Lunden, with a black girl named Tiana Peterson. Peterson disappeared in the same club a few months before and the cops dismissed her as a teenage runaway and the media pays no attention to her disappearance, whereas Lunden gets all of the Major Case squad investigating and major media attention from TV hosts like Faith Yancy. Holloway was also a white girl like Lunden who captured numerous media cycles (namely from TV host Nancy Grace) at what many thought was at the expense of other folks who also went missing. This has been dubbed missing white woman syndrome by media critics and social scientists.
  • Judge Harold Garrett mentions a case a few years back involving a doctor where the police could not find the body, saying "no body, no case". He is likely referring to the case in the episode "The Good Doctor", where the body of the victim is not found but still Carver attempts to prosecute Dr. Peter Kelmer for the crime.
  • Conroy "Connie" Smith, from the episode "Sound Bodies", returns and is used by Eames and Goren as a way of getting Ethan Garrett to incriminate himself.
Previous episode:
"Acts of Contrition"
"In the Wee Small Hours (Part I)"
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Season 5
Next episode:
"In the Wee Small Hours (Part II)"
Seasons 12345678910
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