Ever since Law & Order first went to air in 1990, the crime drama has been a revolving door of zealous cops and overworked prosecutors. Amid them all, Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy has been the undeniable backbone, face, heart, eyebrows, voice, and every other embodiment of the franchise since his arrival in season five. Executive producer Dick Wolf (of L&O title sequence fame) said as much in 2022 when he ordained Jack McCoy as “the ultimate conscience of the show.â€
Now, Jack McCoy is finally hanging up his tie. NBC announced on February 2 that Sam Waterston is leaving Law & Order and will be succeeded by actor Tony Goldwyn as the show’s Manhattan district attorney. Waterston’s final episode, “The Last Dance,†airs tonight, February 22. Though NBC is keeping the contents of Waterston’s 405th L&O episode under wraps until it airs, the promo teases the possibility of McCoy prosecuting one final case. (Though, of course, there is always the possibility that Waterston as McCoy could return as a guest star down the road.) “As district attorney, I’ve tried to act fairly and ethically,†McCoy remarks in the trailer. “It’s been a helluva ride.â€
In honor of that ride, here are the episodes that represent the best of Jack McCoy’s time as executive assistant district attorney and district attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office.
Law & Order (seasons 12–23) is streaming on Peacock.
“Second Opinion†(Season 5, Episode 1)
First impressions are everything. While it might be easy to forget that “Hang ’Em High†Jack McCoy hasn’t been a part of Law & Order since the beginning, his introductory scene is absolutely one to remember.
McCoy’s first case on the job is prosecuting Dr. Haas, a holistic medicine practitioner who may be responsible for the deaths of patients to whom she fraudulently promised a cancer cure. The viewer meets Jack McCoy as Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) does, and clearly, the ADA isn’t impressed. Kincaid tells McCoy that she’s heard he has a reputation for sleeping with his assistants. Jack clarifies that it was only three relationships, they were all mutual, and that he won’t apologize for having a good time with his coworkers. Woof. Still, Claire, ever the staunch feminist, insists that their relationship will be strictly professional. (Despite having slept with a colleague herself in the past.) We’ll check in on how that goes later …
“Corpus Delicti†(Season 6, Episode 11)
To be successful in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office of Law & Order, ADA’s have to be quick on their feet. “Corpus Delicti†epitomizes Jack McCoy’s ability to re-strategize and play the long game. The mysterious death of a horse named Mr. Wickets lead the police to Lyle Christopher, a con man who likely murdered a wealthy widow. The only problem? The police have no body, and what little evidence they do have doesn’t hit “without a shadow of a doubt†levels of convincing. So McCoy gets tricky. A hot-headed Jack brings up his fraud schemes again and again during cross-examination, resulting in a mistrial. (The judge had previously ruled Christopher’s previous crimes as inadmissible.)
A month later, McCoy is in DA Adam Schiff’s (Steven Hill) office when they learn that the widow’s body has been found. In that moment, Schiff realizes that McCoy’s case mistrial was deliberately, giving himself more time for the body to be found and allowing him to build a stronger case. He tells McCoy that the defense lawyer and the judge will see right through his plan and dismiss the case. But Jack disagrees. “You know how emotional I get,†McCoy says slyly to his boss.
Is it totally ethical? No. Does it get the job done? Absolutely. Another one in the win column for McCoy.
“Aftershock†(Season 6, Episode 23)
“Aftershock†is a masterpiece of television and the best episode Law & Order has or will ever produce. The narrative follows McCoy, Kincaid, and detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) as they all spectacularly self-destruct after witnessing an execution. “Aftershock†itself has no central investigation or trial — the only such episode of its kind in L&O history — which allows for the characters’ inner emotional worlds and backstories to shine through.
For Jack McCoy, his spiral goes something like this: On the way back into Manhattan following the execution, he and Claire bicker over the legal and ethical implications of the death penalty. She’s against it, he’s for it; they’ve clearly argued about this before and they’re even more clearly sleeping together. Jack suggests that Claire take a sick day and she does. They will never see each other again. After work, Jack ends up drinking at a blue-collar bar, chatting up the regulars who remind him of his working-class roots. They reminisce about their old men. “Boy, I wanted to wear the blues, walk a beat, carry a gun, be the toughest guy on the block with his big, thick hands. But no, he said. ‘You, Jack, you are going to law school,’†he drunkenly recounts to his new buddies. “You should’ve seen him the day I graduated, chest was out to here. He hung my diploma in his den, right above his bowling trophy.â€
The night goes on and the beer keeps flowing. Soon it’s just McCoy and a construction worker named Mike to whom Jack admits that his father was also abusive, beating his mother so hard she would have to lock herself in the basement. For a character who is always so confident and so work focused, it’s a deeply humanizing moment.
Soon after, McCoy leaves the bar. We never see his reaction to learning that Claire Kincaid was hit by a drunk driver that same night.
“Under the Influence†(Season 8, Episode 11)
Claire Kincaid’s death isn’t confirmed on Law & Order until season nine, but “Under the Influence†showcases how the resonances of her accident still deeply affect Jack. When drunk driver Bernard Dressler kills three people in a hit-and-run, McCoy becomes obsessed with penalizing him beyond the extent of the law. “Has [McCoy] said, ‘This one’s for Claire Kincaid’? No.†Briscoe tells ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell), adding that the drunk driver who killed Claire only received a 12-month prison sentence. But McCoy’s actions are crystal clear. He charges Dressler with murder — not vehicular manslaughter — and argues that he was on a homicidal rampage. McCoy then hides witnesses and evidence that prove the defendant was too drunk to form intent to kill. With the help of a biased judge, it looks like McCoy’s plan to get Dressler the death penalty will be successful. But the EADA’s moral compass won’t let him go through with it. McCoy torpedoes his own murder case by revealing the evidence he hid, despite threats of misconduct from the judge. Dressler takes a fair deal of five to 15 years, and McCoy, on the precipice of going too far, does the right thing.
“Sideshow†(Season 9, Episode 14)
Law & Order partnered with Homicide: Life on the Street for three, two-parter crossovers before the latter was canceled in 1999. The L&O half of the third crossover is an episode overflowing with complicated intrigue. A murdered employee of the federal government and her married lesbian lover, a hit woman, an assassination, and a bothersome independent counsel from D.C. all play a role in the investigation. The most gripping part of McCoy’s story line is when he gets into a standoff with the independent counsel, William Dell. Dell tries to compel McCoy to reveal information that could compromise the case, including the name of the victim’s lover. McCoy refuses to give him any answers but is particularly staunch in not revealing his witness’s name. If she’s outed, it could ruin her career. McCoy holds strong even when he’s subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury, resulting in his arrest and brief detention for contempt of court. (If you’re keeping score, McCoy is found in contempt of court 80 times throughout his career.)
“Gun Show†(Season 10, Episode 1)
Despite airing in 1999, “Gun Show†is an episode that still hits far too close to home. After a gunman kills 15 people in Central Park, McCoy needs the cooperation of the gun manufacturer to make his case, which refuses and he is forced to make a deal with the gunman. “[The victim’s families are] entitled to an eye for an eye,†McCoy tells DA Schiff and ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon). “We couldn’t deliver because Rolf Firearms got in the way. The least we can do now is give them the sense that their kids didn’t die for no purpose.â€
What results is a legal battle fueled by McCoy’s own righteousness. Jack argues in court that Rolf Firearms is liable for the gunman’s rampage because they knew their product was easily modified into an automatic weapon. He cross-examines the CEO of the company with ire and slowly pours out a container of bullets to represent the exact number shot by the gunman. It’s a compelling, emotional case and the jury finds Rolf Firearm’s CEO guilty. In a deeply frustrating move, the judge throws out the verdict, claiming it wouldn’t stand up on appeal. Still, it makes you wish there were more real-life prosecutors like McCoy.
“Blood Money†(Season 10, Episode 8)
The murder of an elderly Italian immigrant unfurls a decades-old insurance scam that defrauded Holocaust victims of millions of dollars. Instead of just prosecuting the murderer, however, Jack McCoy takes on yet another righteous mission: going after an insurance company’s executive for grand larceny. McCoy’s fury is palpable in his questioning of defendant Hamilton Stewart. When Stewart tries to claim he didn’t know his company’s agents were selling thousands of life insurance policies to European Jews with the knowledge that they would soon be murdered, McCoy is incensed. “Didn’t know! You were All-Atlantic’s director for Eastern European operations in 1938, weren’t you?!†He spits. “The numbers don’t lie, Mr. Stewart. Are you telling us that you suspected nothing?!†In the end, Stewart agrees to a plea deal that gives the DA’s office documentation of all the policies. He’ll spend four to 12 years in prison, and descendants of the defrauded Holocaust survivors will be able to receive reparations.
“Open Season†(Season 13, Episode 7)
Jack McCoy strongly believes that the law should apply to everyone. “Open Season†tests that resolve. After defense attorney Danielle Melnick (Tovah Feldshuh) is caught couriering messages out of prison for a dangerous client, whom a judge disallowed from communicating with the outside world, and a lawyer is murdered, McCoy must decide whether to prosecute his longtime friend. He doesn’t flinch. He tells Danielle to surrender herself to the police and she does. The attorney is arraigned on charges of conspiracy and manslaughter. Holding to her own principles, Melnick refuses to break attorney-client privilege and help the DA convict her client for reduced charges. McCoy doesn’t let her client, a white supremacist named Proust, know that, though. Sympathetic to the fact that Danielle had no intent to commit a crime and was sticking to her own principles in neglecting a gag order she found unconstitutional, McCoy lies to Proust. He tells the white supremacist that Danielle gave him up. In exchange for a slightly better deal, McCoy asks that Proust testify that Melnick had no criminal intent. He does, and the DA’s office offers her a deal that includes no jail time.
“Absentia†(Season 13, Episode 13)
When a key witness and victim in a jewelry-store armed robbery goes missing, McCoy realizes that it’s none other than Levi March (Mandy Patinkin). Twenty years earlier, March, a political activist nicknamed “The Griffin†was the prime suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, Abby. March skipped out on bail, but McCoy was able to try him and find him guilty in absentia — a legal rarity wherein a trial takes place without the presence of the accused. If you’re thinking “that sounds constitutionally dubious,†the appellate court in the episode agrees. Once March is found and taken into custody, his previous conviction is almost immediately thrown out.
“We convicted him once, I’m confident we’ll convict him again,†McCoy tells Abby’s sister after the hearing. “You that sanguine?,†DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson) asks him later. McCoy’s response is immediate. “Of course not. Twenty-year-old case, evidence goes astray, witnesses die …â€As McCoy predicts, the trial is an uphill battle. But half the fun of the episode is watching McCoy exude confidence, while he and ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm) struggle behind the scenes to get the conviction.
The other half of the fun is a master class of a scene between Mandy Patinkin and Sam Waterston. During McCoy’s cross-examination, the narcissistic Griffin spins a wild yarn that the U.S. government murdered Abby and framed him. Waterston’s growing incredulity pairs beautifully with Patinkin’s matter-of-fact demeanor as he alleges crazier and crazier conspiracy theories.
“Criminal Law†(Season 16, Episode 9)
Jack McCoy’s commitment to the cause of justice is clear throughout his time on on L&O. But is he willing to put his life on the line for it? This episode says yes. Despite finding his name on a hit list and a chilling veiled threat from death-row convict Leland Barnes — “It’s a terrible feeling waiting to die. Don’t you think, Jack?†is definitely up there in terms of the show’s most haunting lines — McCoy absolutely refuses to step down from a case. “I’m not going to be intimidated, Arthur. If he’s coming for me, I’m going after him,†Jack tells his boss when Branch suggests he do just that. Later, ADA Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse) and McCoy disagree over whether intimidation from criminals should affect their work. “I’m not talking about intimidation. I’m talking about getting killed,†Borgia argues. “Doesn’t make a difference,†McCoy responds, not letting on his fear. “It’s about the law. Doesn’t work if we don’t make it work.â€
“Invaders†(Season 16, Episode 22)
McCoy partnered with six different ADAs during his time as EADA: Claire Kincaid (killed), Jamie Ross (resigned), Abbie Carmichael (resigned), Serena Southerlyn (fired), Alexandra Borgia (murdered), and Connie Rubirosa (resigned). As we’ve already established, Claire’s death devastated McCoy and impaired his ability to prosecute at least one case. The murder of Alex Borgia has a similar effect. In “Invaders,†McCoy goes to frankly ridiculous lengths to find the two men who abducted and tortured Borgia, leaving her to choke on her own vomit in the trunk of a car. When he doesn’t have enough leverage to get an accomplice to name and locate the murderers, McCoy sets up a sham prosecution to get him to talk. The operation itself is legally and ethically questionable, and shows that McCoy is once again willing to jeopardize the integrity of the justice system when he decides the cause is just.
“Rubber Room†(Season 20, Episode 23)
Pre-reboot Law & Order didn’t get the satisfying, loose-ends-tying, tear-inducing farewell typical of franchise series finales. Had the writers known it was the last episode of the show (at least until 2022), McCoy probably would’ve played a larger role in “Rubber Room.†Instead he gets less than three minutes of airtime. He makes them count.
When an anonymous blogger threatens to commit a Columbine-esque school massacre, it’s all hands on deck. Cutter (Linus Roache), Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza), Lupo (Jeremy Sisto), and Bernard (Anthony Anderson) work around the clock and finally meet a teacher who can point them to the culprit. But when she and her union lawyer remain tight-lipped, McCoy swoops in. “Just how far up your ass is your head? A member of your union is threatening to shoot up a school,†he yells, as feisty as ever.
Kralick, the union lawyer, bites back, responding by listing all the ways public-school teachers could be sent over the edge.
“You get no argument from me there. But if your obstruction allows a massacre to happen I will crucify you, Mr. Kralick,†McCoy goes off. “I will charge you with negligent homicide and after I convict you, I will resign my job and represent the families of the victims in a wrongful death suit against you and the union. By the time I’m done, you’ll be finished. So my advice to you is get out of my way!â€
Ultimately, the teacher tells Bernard and Lupo about a colleague whose career was ruined by a student and the police manage to arrest him at a Queens high school before anyone gets seriously hurt.
“Open Wounds†(Season 22, Episode 22)
Viewers learn that McCoy has a daughter in the premiere of season 17 when a case inspires Jack to reach out to Rebecca for the first time since 1997. It’s not until “Open Wounds†that we get to witness Jack interact with Rebecca in a meaningful way. What happens is bittersweet and adds a dimension to his character we’ve never seen before.
After a survivor of a deadly school shooting goes on to murder a senator who voted against a gun-control reform bill, defense attorney Rebecca McCoy (played by Sam Waterston’s daughter, Elisabeth) takes up his case. In the courtroom, Rebecca is much more even-keeled than her father and better at playing to the jury’s emotions. But even she can’t overcome the classic McCoy passion. In a scene in her father’s office, Rebecca asks Jack to be lenient on her client, who is suffering from PTSD. When he tells her that it’s inappropriate for them to discuss the case, she throws their tumultuous relationship in his face before storming out.
Ultimately, her client is convicted. Outside the courthouse Rebecca rebuffs her father’s attempts to reconcile the moment. Jack McCoy, the once young, hotshot EADA, suddenly seems so much older and more fragile than he ever has been on the show, realizing the full effect of what years of overtime in the DA’s office has wrought on his child. As Rebecca gets into a cab, she offers a bright spot: McCoy’s grandson Linc was accepted to law school at Columbia.
“Last Dance†(Season 23, Episode 5)
After serving the people of New York for over two decades, it’s only right that Jack McCoy leaves the DA’s office and Law & Order on his own terms. When a woman is murdered by a tech billionaire who happens to be friends with the mayor, things get sticky for EADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy). (No, unfortunately for us all, Eric Adams does not play the mayor. Instead, it’s Bruce Altman.) The only evidence they have against billionaire Scott Kelton is circumstantial, and the mayor’s son — who knows that Kelton sexually assaulted the victim years prior — refuses to testify to motive. Worse, the mayor calls Price into his office and threatens to pull his support for McCoy’s reelection campaign if they don’t leave his son alone. But Jack McCoy would never allow himself to be the reason a murderer walks. In a shocking move, he pulls Nolan from the case, deciding to prosecute it himself, and calls the mayor’s son to the stand anyway. The ploy works. McCoy makes quick work of Mayor Jr. and gives a simple yet authoritative closing argument, and Kelton is found guilty. Case closed.
Later, McCoy and Price share a glass of Scotch and the DA drops another bombshell: He’s resigning. “It’s time; it just is,†he says with finality. Mayor Payne is “going to bury everyone who wronged him, including you — especially you,†McCoy goes on. “If I step aside now, the governor will be able to appoint someone — someone with integrity.†McCoy raises his glass to his own career and to Price, the next generation. In the final moments of the episode, McCoy walks in front of the courthouse, staring up at its columns and perhaps the words etched into the frieze above them: “The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government.†He smiles and walks away.