Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, May 11, 2023 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 22 episode 21 “Appraisal,” as per the NBC synopsis, “Cosgrove and Shaw suspect an art dealer was murdered but can’t make an arrest until they locate her body.
Price and Maroun must go to trial with a circumstantial case and a suspect with unlimited resources. The squad celebrates a birthday.”
Tonight’s Law & Order season 22 episode 20 looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it. So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back from 8 PM – 9 PM ET for our Law & Order recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our Law & Order SVU recaps, spoilers, news & more!
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Tonight’s Law & Order episode begins with an art gallery, and artist is having showing of her pieces.
The next day, a man is trying to get through an active crime scene, he lives in the building. Cosgrove is there and stops him, tells him that he can’t tamper with it. The gallery owner, Madison Platt is gone missing, the party had 80 people the night before, there is blood on the walls and shell casings. Homocide was called because of there looks like a piece of someones brain on the wall.
The gun shell casings are all 9 milimeter, no etchings, it was a homemade, unserialized weapon. They are becoming a new normal. The weapon was made of lightweight polymer and came out of a 3D printer. Companies have access to the printers, they are very expensive, can go up to a half million dollars.
It’s Cosgrove’s birthday, his kid sent a cake over at the station for everyone to share. They talk about the case, Madison was alive and well when she left the art gallery, then she vanished. The cameras stopped working at 10:07pm. They do have a last known photo of Madison. Looks like it was planned, someone jammed the system for the cameras to stop. A few hours before the party, Madison got a text from someone named Brett Greyson, “I’ve been patient, but its time to pay, otherwise it is not going to end well.”
The email came from Futuristic Creations. Cosgrove and Shaw head over there and Brett says Madison owes him $500k, she sold him a fake. He says he was at the gallery party and he recorded the conversation just in case he had to sue her. Brett left the gallery when he said he did, but an SUV was parked outside and stayed there for two hours before someone going inside with a dark jacket and a ball cap on. No facial recognition, he had a scarf on as well, covering his face. He came out 7 minutes later, comes out wheeling out a crate.
At the landfill, they find a purse, the one that Madison had at the event, her ID and credit cards are inside. Next, they find a crate, opening it up, it is the artist, Sarah Baker, and the brain matter on the wall is a match. Madison Platt is missing and her blood was on the gallery floor as well.
Next stop is to go see Madison’s brother, they tell him the attack seemed to be premeditated. He says everyone loved her, she had no enemies and she and Sarah were friends. He admits he was there, but he left early, he was tired.
Next, is Sarah’s parents, they flew in for the gallery showing, they were going to have dinner tonight. She talked about her art mostly, she never talked about her personal life. Her mother says that she did have problems with her landlord, and one day he let himself when she was there regarding a clogged drain, but there was nothing wrong with it.
They head to Cloverlane Property Management who says Sarah was a stellar Tennant and he had no issues with her. Cosgrove says that Sarah filed a formal housing complaint against him last week and he says that is new to him. Shaw looks over at some computers, the landlord has cameras inside the units. The landlord won’t answer any more questions, Cosgrove arrests him.
At the station, the landlord is with his lawyer, they want to know about the cameras. Some of the tenants are illegally subletting, not a reason to put a camera inside Sarah’s apartment. On the night of the murder, he was home, but went out for groceries for 30 minutes. But, the team found something else, on the day of the murder a man bang on Sarah’s door, has no response and leaves. He looks pretty angry, and he also owns an SUV, his name is Matthew Nelson. He is a billionaire hedge fund manager.
Cosgrove and Shaw head out and find Matthew’s car, they have a warrant to search it. Matthew shows up, he says he had some things to pick up, going to her house was no big deal. They check the SUV, forensics found nothing. But they found a car wash receipt timestamped 9am the morning after the murders. He claims to be on a Zoom meeting, they check it out and he spliced himself in, he wasn’t live. They have a false alibi, an SUV that matches the car at the murder scene, they go and arrest him.
Price wants more evidence, Cosgrove is furious, he feels that Matthew did it.
In court, Matthew’s lawyer says this is a rush to judgement, her client has no criminal lawyer. The judge sets bail at 20 million and he has to wear an ankle monitor.
McCoy tells Price and Maroun he just got off the phone with the Attorney General, Matthew is the subject of a grand jury probe, fraud, like another Bernie Madoff. Sarah was the government’s star witness, she is the only person that can attest to Matthew transferring the funds into a cold crypto wallet. It gives Price the motive.
Judges chambers, Matthew’s lawyer does’t want the fraud mentioned because he didn’t know that Sarah was going to testify against him, then there was no motive. The judge agrees.
Going of Mathew’s search history, looks like he was hacking into Madison’s brother’s emails. They head back to speak to her brother, he says Madison has been emailing him, from a new email address and she begged him not to say anything to anyone. She said she was in the other room, she heard the gun shot, she saw Matthew over Sarah’s body, he shot at her too and grazed her arm, she ran out of the door. He finally gives up her location.
At Ellannika Studious, Cosgrove and Shaw are outside, they head in guns aimed and find an area where there is bedding, looks like someone was sleeping there. Cosgrove finds Madison she is crying and says he is there, meaning Mathew, and he is trying to kill her too. Matthew shows up, he shoots Cosgrove and takes Madison hostage, but Shaw is quick, he has a gun to Matthew’s head. Cosgrove passes out from his gun shot wound. Shaw has Matthew handcuffed and Madison is ok.
In court, Madison is on the witness stand Matthew threatens Madison from the other side of the court with various hand gestures and she panics. They call for a recess and Madison doesn’t want to go back in, she says he is rich and will hire someone to kill her. Matthew’s lawyer tries to make a plea deal where he will also return the money in the fraud case. McCoy tells Price that if he rejects the deal he better find a way to send the guy to jail for life.
Price goes to see Cosgrove in the hospital who is angry, he almost made his wife a widow and this guy is going to walk. Cosgrove has an idea.
Back at court, Cosgrove goes in the witness stand, he overheard Madison say that Matthew killed Sarah.
The Jury finds Matthew guilty of murder in he second degree.
THE END!