Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, May 2, 2025 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 24 episode 20 “Sins Of The Father,” as per the NBC synopsis,
“When a car mechanic is murdered execution-style, Shaw and Riley suspect his job was a cover for more sinister talents. As the trail gets underway for the arrested suspect, Baxter, Price and Maroun are faced with who should answer for the crime.”
Tonight’s Law & Order season 24 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!
Tonight’s Law & Order recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
In tonight’s Law & Order episode, Sun Zhen was found murdered at his workplace. He goes by Sunny. He was a cleaner/mechanic. He worked at an autobody shop in the city. He’s taken on some extra shifts lately because he has money problems. His boss thought Sunny might have a sister in the hospital.
It’s why he was willing to take whatever job that came his way at work and so his boss liked him. The guy was out in front talking to a client when he heard gunshots. He knew Sunny was still inside. He ran into the shop to check on him and that’s when he found Sunny dead. He was shot point blank in the head.
There was no way someone got the drop on him. He was young. He was fit. The killer also didn’t shot him from a distance because again it was proven he was shot point blank.
Sunny was killed by someone he knew and so they dug into him. Sunny’s father took part in an immigrant money club for Chinese people doing their best to make a living in NYC. The money club helped give people interest-free loans. It made sure to take care of those in the community and Sunny’s father betrayed that principle when he stole everything from the money club.
The old man went back to China with forty grand of other people’s money. The cops thought he might have been killed in revenge, but they had been wrong. There was no one that hated Sunny in the community.
Sunny took his father’s actions the hardest. He was so full of shame that he gave every cent he could back to the money club. He wanted to pay back what his father stole. He was doing good at it too until he got fired. Sunny didn’t always work at the autobody shop. He used to be a chemist. He was a graduate student at Hudson University.
Sunny was fired because he was accused of being a Chinese spy. He wasn’t actually a spy. He has no contact with anyone in China. This included his own father. Sunny was doing good work at Hudson.
He was finding antidotes for chemical warfare. He wanted to save American lives. It just didn’t matter because an accusation was enough to get him fired. The university didn’t want to risk federal funding by sticking by Sunny and they cut him loose to look good. He had no other choice than to take a low paying job.
The cops went back to looking at why Sunny was killed. They thought they might have been right about revenge if not the person behind it. Sunny got someone fired from the university lab. He reported Eli Randall for falsifying his reports. Randall was a chemist himself. He didn’t take well to being fired.
He couldn’t get work at another lab. He had to move back in with his parents. His father owns several guns. He looked good for this and the cops brought him for interrogation. Randall heard about Sunny being strapped for money. And he felt bad for causing it.
Randall contact mutual friends to get Sunny’s address.. He was going to give Sunny some money to get back on his feet and it never happened because when he went to do it – Sunny wasn’t alone.
He was speaking to another guy in the front of the building. This other guy tried to wave Randall off. He also flashed a gun at Randall who got angry at being dismissed. There was security footage that backed it up. The guy that silently threatened Randall was Ernesto Ruiz. He was the son of a notorious drug dealer called Antonio Ruiz.
The cops have been looking into his father for years. They never had enough to take him down. He was also known for making his own fentanyl. Sunny was strapped for cash and a chemist. The cops were worried he might have been cooking fentanyl for Antonio Ruiz. They got a warrant for Ernesto’s home and his car.
They found Sunny’s blood in the car. There was also blood from Ernesto’s cousin, Omar Nunez. He ran in Antonio’s crew. He was seen with the same sweatshirt that a witness saw fleeing the murder scene. He was banishing the murder weapon in a video on social media.
The cops had enough evidence to arrest Omar. They were willing to make a deal with him. He was a mere foot soldier after all. They actually wanted Antonio. Omar might have talked, but that’s when his lawyer showed. He never got a chance to say anything. Omar was taken to prison and he was later killed.
He was killed by someone he had never met before. The guy was serving a lifetime sentence. He had no history of mental illness. He did have a daughter that hadn’t visited for a year until suddenly she showed up the day before the murder.
The daughter was paid off. She was told to give her father Omar’s name. She did and she took part in a murder for hire. She was pregnant. She talked the moment she was threatened with her baby being born in prison. She said the man that approached her with the offer was Alfred Arroyo.
He also worked for Antonio. Antonio’s son was never involved in his business. Omar implicated him when he called his son for a ride that night. Ernesto never knew about the murder. Omar also knew literally everything about the business. He had enough to take Antonio down.
Omar was too much of a threat to let live. The case thankfully didn’t die with him. The cops were hoping for another shot at Antonio when they went looking for Alfred.
They found him near the shore and he shot at them. They were forced to return fire. Alfred was killed. He died trying to protect what was also at the shoreside. Antonio’s fentanyl lab was found along with a whole bunch of a ready supply of the drug. The cops might have collected millions dollar worth of the stuff. Which surprisingly got buried in the media after they realized that the lab wasn’t the worst part.
The shore was being used as a dump site. The cops found thirteen bodies. They were junkies, sex workers, and undocumented immigrants. They were considered disposable by society because of what they were. Antonio felt the same. These people died from overdoses.
They were used as test subjects. Antonio was testing his drug supply on these people. He didn’t want to kill clientele or risk losing business. He tested it on these people. Those that survived were kept alive longer for the next batch. And those that didn’t were dumped in the water.
Omar ran that testing part with Alfred. Antonio would have killed Alfred too if he had lived. There was one person that could get close enough to Antonio. It wasn’t his men. It was his son. Ernesto was the good one. He went to college. He became a schoolteacher. He was his father’s pride and joy.
Ernesto also gave Omar a ride after the murder. The cops threatened to go after Ernesto if he didn’t help him. He was still going to refuse until they showed that his father had Omar killed. Ernesto hadn’t known that his father was a killer.
He knew he was a drug dealer. He killed people because the business was dangerous, but using people at test subjects was a step too far. Omar was also family. Ernesto went to his parents’ house.
He found evidence to take down his dad. His dad found him looking through his stuff. He attacked Ernesto. He would have killed him. The only reason he didn’t was because the cops moved in. They have the entire assault on video thanks to Ernesto wearing a camera. Ernesto took down the mighty Antonio Ruiz.
Antonio was facing life in prison. Ernesto was going into witness protection and the one thing he asked for before he left was to see his mother. Only she refused to see him or talk to him now that he betrayed the family.
THE END!
