In a new episode which aired Thursday night, NBC’s Law & Order attempted to evoke sympathy for a murderer modeled after Luigi Mangione, the real-life assassin who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood in 2024.
Thursday’s episode, entitled “Folk Hero,” began with fictional healthcare CEO Logan Andrews, the head of a company called OptiShield, walking down the street and talking on his cell phone about “healthy margins, healthy profit, healthy stock price.” A man wearing a mask and hoodie similar to the one worn by Mangione then shoots him in cold blood on the sidewalk.
With breakneck speed, the killer, named Ethan Weller (Ty Molbak), becomes a hero in the city. Young people cheer him and wear his jacket in solidarity. Weller is tracked down and caught moments before he is about to kill a second healthcare CEO.
During…
