Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, April 23, 2026 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 26 episode 18 “Ride Or Die,” as per the NBC synopsis,
“A talented local news reporter is brutally murdered. Maroun’s mentor takes the case for the defense, pitting Maroun against the woman who shaped her career. ”
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In tonight’s Law & Order episode, the judge of the Miss NY Metro competition was found murdered the morning after. Her name was Katie Harrington. She was found dead in her dressing room and she was still wearing her gown. Odds were that the crime happened right after the competition named a winner.
Katie was once Miss. NY Metro herself. It helped launch a public career for her. It even paid for school. She was now a tv anchorwoman. She was successful. She was happy. Her father was worried that she could be lonely and he encouraged her to date, but a persistent guy kind of put her off the idea of dating for a while.
Katie was close to her father. After her mother passed away, she wanted to stay to look after him in Alabama. Her father refused the offer. He didn’t want her giving up her dreams over him. He helped her move to New York. He was super proud of her and she was mostly happy.
There weren’t a lot of people in the pageant world that can claim the same. There was one young woman who actually asked Katie to vote against her. Kailani wanted someone else to win. The pageant world was big to her mother and, while it could admittedly pay for grad school, Kailani was miserable.
Kailani celebrated that night with pizza. It was the first time she had it in a year trying to fit in her dress. She was surrounded by friends from school and so she didn’t kill Katie because she lost. She actually invited Katie to come with her to the pizzeria. Katie turned down the offer because she had something to do.
The cops then checked out the persistent guy with a crush. Katie’s father said he was a hockey player and that they met at a cancer fundraiser. Katie only went to one of those in the past six months. And she took photos with a hockey player by the name of Alexander Hayes.
This was the same guy that got five game suspension after battering someone with his hockey stick. He was aggressive on the ice and a little aggressive off it. He kept sending Katie flowers. Even after she turned him down. He thought he was being romantic. Lt. Brady assured him that it was only romantic the first time.
The continue onslaught of flowers was giving stalker behavior. It should’ve stopped after she said no. Alexander was two blocks away from the pageant on the night Katie died only they couldn’t place him in the actual location.
The security cameras were all turned off that night. They didn’t want young women to potentially get recorded in various states of undress. They did have a security guard posted and he was so busy facetiming his girlfriend that he didn’t notice much. There was one security photo of someone in a beanie hat.
The hat was special. They weren’t being sold anywhere. The person seen wearing it was leaving after the competition was long over. They didn’t get a picture of a face. Nor could they identify if the person was a man or a woman. It was cold that night. The killer was wrapped up.
Alexander also mentioned that Katie took big risks on her job. The police thought she got two deadbolts on her door because of him and it was because of her job. Katie wanted to prove herself as a serious journalist.
Her desk at work was full of burner phones she used to talk to witnesses and informants. One of them even sent her a threatening text. Jazmin Hernandez helped Katie with a story about a gangs recruiting young people. She sent that text because Katie and her mentor accidentally labeled the wrong man as a gang member.
It had people coming after Jazmin like it was her fault. Katie’s mentor even caught flak because of the misidentification. Merrick’s contract with the studio wasn’t renewed because of it and she’s the one that bought up the custom made beanie hats for everyone at the studio. She gave one of them to Jazmin.
It’s how the cops made their connection to the actual killer. They later arrested Ann Merrick. It was her DNA found on the murder weapon. She had also lied about an alibi. She first claimed she was home all night until they found footage of her leaving out from the back of her building.
ADA Price was out. ADA Maroun took over the case as first chair, but Merrick hired Abigail Donahue. Abby as Maroun called her. Abby was Maroun’s mentor back in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. It was tough facing her in court. Especially once Abby blindsided the DA’s office with crucial information.
They had Katie’s emails in which she states that she made the mistake. It hadn’t been Merrick who incorrectly labeled an innocent man as a gang member. It had been Katie. Katie then lied to their bosses about it. And it resulted in Merrick getting fired.
Katie was going to get Merrick’s job. Merrick killed her out of vengeance. Not that she claimed that in court. She instead claimed that was it was Extreme Emotional Disturbance.
Which seemed to be working on the jury. Katie did betray her mentor. Merrick helped launch her career and that was how she was repaid. The strangest thing though was that neither Merrick nor her lawyer brought up any other of her mentees. They painted Merrick of a champion of women so what happened with the others?
Maroun had that idea. She followed it up. She found out that Merrick burned her relationship with the others. She threatened to kill one when they got hired over her at MSN. The mentee’s name is Sarah Chase.
She later agreed to testify against Merrick. It would sink Merrick’s case and that’s why Abby went over to Maroun’s apartment to complain. She called in a favor. She said Maroun owed her. Maroun had to deicide if her case against Merrick warranted losing her relationship with her own mentor. She ultimately felt that Katie deserved justice no matter what Abby said.
And Sarah Chase helped her get a guilty plea on Murder Two against Merrick.
THE END!