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 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) 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.