Law & Order just did a Luigi Mangione episode, and people have… oh, just a few thoughts.
On March 20, Law & Order aired Folk Hero, where Lt. Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney) teams up with a former colleague to track down the assassin behind the murder of fictional health insurer OptiShield’s CEO. As public scrutiny grows, Brady’s team faces a huge obstacle—the killer is always one step ahead, forcing them to race against time to stop the next strike.
The episode closely mirrors the real-life events surrounding Mangione’s alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. As the investigation unfolds, Ethan (the show’s Mangione, played by Ty Molbak) becomes a folk hero, captivating a public enraged by a broken healthcare system that kills thousands every year through arbitrary claim denials.
Unlike Mangione, who has yet to face trial in real life, viewers get a glimpse of how Law & Order imagines his trial might unfold. Ethan takes the stand to tell his story, revealing that OptiShield denied coverage for a drug that could have treated his mother’s terminal cancer, leading to her death. Realizing his mother’s case is just one of many where OptiShield’s greed has cost people their lives, Ethan takes matters into his own hands, hoping to prevent more families from suffering the same fate.
Of course, no Law & Order episode featuring a Luigi Mangione knockoff would be complete without some heated debates and a whole lot of thirsting (over Mangione himself, duh).
Some fans were thrilled with the episode, hailing it as a masterpiece.
“Law & Order finally dropped a Luigi Mangione episode, and it does not disappoint. He’s basically Jason Bourne. The whole city is complicit in thwarting the manhunt. Dan from Veep is SO mad that no one cares,” one viewer proclaimed on X, clearly happy with how it turned out.
Others, however, were less impressed, mainly because they believe the actor playing Ethan doesn’t come close to Mangione’s level of devastatingly good looks.
“This Law & Order episode is clearly based on Luigi. But this guy isn’t hot at all,” another person wrote.
To be fair, Mangione is so ridiculously handsome that a picture of him in loafers with no socks and his feet shackled caused the internet to implode in a collective thirst frenzy. So yeah, the bar is HIGH.
Meanwhile, many fans felt like it was a little too soon for a Mangione episode, especially considering how it could influence jurors’ impartiality in a future trial.
Instead of giving a clear-cut conclusion, Law & Order leaves the episode open-ended, cutting before viewers get to hear the verdict.
Looks like Law & Order left us all hung jury-ed.
