"Steel-Eyed Death" is the thirteenth episode of the twentieth season of NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's long-running legal drama

Legal drama

A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...

 Law & Order

Law & Order

Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

.

Plot

A family of four is found murdered in their home by a boy experiencing symptoms of a type of post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...

In this episode, Detective Lupo

Cyrus Lupo

Det. Cyrus "Lupes" Lupo is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order, played by Jeremy Sisto. He replaced Nina Cassady, who was written out of the show due to Milena Govich's departure from the cast.-Character development:...

 admits he had PTSD and a drinking problem after seeing a horrible crime scene on a past Christmas.

Cast

Actor	Role
Jeremy Sisto Jeremy Sisto Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...	Det. Cyrus Lupo Cyrus Lupo Det. Cyrus "Lupes" Lupo is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order, played by Jeremy Sisto. He replaced Nina Cassady, who was written out of the show due to Milena Govich's departure from the cast.-Character development:...
Anthony Anderson Anthony Anderson Anthony Anderson is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He has starred in his own sitcom All About the Andersons, as well as the Fox sitcom The Bernie Mac Show during the fifth and final season of the show. He is also known for his leading roles in television dramas such as K-Ville, The...	Det. Kevin Bernard Kevin Bernard Kevin Bernard is a fictional character on the TV crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Anthony Anderson.- Character overview :Detective Bernard first appears in the episode "Burn Card" as an Internal Affairs detective, investigating a shooting in which Detective Ed Green is involved...
S. Epatha Merkerson S. Epatha Merkerson S. Epatha Merkerson is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations...	Lt. Anita Van Buren Anita Van Buren Lt. Anita Van Buren is a fictional character on NBC's long running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order, portrayed by S. Epatha Merkerson. By episode count, she is the longest-running character on the show...
Linus Roache Linus Roache Linus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...	EADA Michael Cutter Michael Cutter Michael "Mike" Cutter is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit played by Linus Roache. The character debuted in L&O's eighteenth season premiere, broadcast January 2, 2008, and remained through its series finale on May...
Alana de la Garza Alana de la Garza Alana de la Garza is an American actress. She is most famous for her role as A.D.A. Connie Rubirosa on the television series Law & Order and its short-lived spin-off, Law & Order: LA.-Biography:...	ADA Connie Rubirosa Connie Rubirosa Assistant District Attorney / Deputy District Attorney Consuela "Connie" Rubirosa is a fictional character, portrayed by Alana de la Garza, who joined the cast of long-running NBC drama series Law & Order during the 17th season premiere episode "Fame". She is the only second-chair ADA of Law &...
Sam Waterston Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...	DA Jack McCoy Jack McCoy John James "Jack" McCoy is a fictional character in the television drama Law & Order, created by Michael S. Chernuchin and played by Sam Waterston since 1994. He is the second-longest tenured character on the show, after Lt. Anita Van Buren . On January 28, 2009, McCoy's character ended the longest...

J.K. Simmons guest stars in this episode in his previous role of Dr. Emil Skoda

Emil Skoda (Law & Order)

Emil Skoda, M.D. is a fictional character on the TV crime dramas Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He also appeared once each in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and New York Undercover. He is portrayed by J. K. Simmons....

.

Production

"Steel-Eyed Death" was directed by Michael Pressman

Michael Pressman

Michael Pressman is an American director and producer of film and television.Some of the films he has directed are The Great Texas Dynamite Chase , Doctor Detroit , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze , To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday .For television, he has directed episodes of...

 and written by Christopher Ambrose, Julie Martin and Richard Sweren.

Cultural references

Music by the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Horrorcore

Horrorcore

Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based in horror-themed lyrical content and imagery. While the style is rarely popular, some performers have sold well in the mainstream scene.-Origins:...

 band KidCrusher are featured in the episode, including the songs "Killin' Shit" and "A Dirty Fuckin' Murder". The lead singer of the band, who also goes by the name KidCrusher, said he was told the episode was based on a Horrorcore Festival when he allowed his music to be featured in "Steel-Eyed Death". Upon learning it was about a murder, he later claimed to be angry that his music was used. He said, "I am pretty pissed off to hear they based the episode on Juggalo

Juggalo

Juggalo or Juggalette is a name given to fans of Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records hip hop group. Juggalos have developed their own idioms, slang, and characteristics.-History:...

s and try to make us all look like criminals and real serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

s, and that we would kill kids."

This episode is partially inspired by the Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III case. McCroskey, an amateur horrorcore rapper who also went by the name "Syko Sam," is accused of murdering four people in Farmville, Virginia

Farmville, Virginia

Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 6,845 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County....

. The victims were a Presbyterian pastor, his estranged wife, their teenage daughter (who had been dating McCroskey), and one of their daughter's friends.

Reception

"Steel-Eyed Death" drew criticism from Juggalos and fans of horrorcore hip hop music, who felt the episode unfairly equated the music genre and its fans with violent crime and murder.

In its original American broadcast on March 1, 2010, "Steel-Eyed Death" was watched by 7.58 million average households over the hour, and received 1.9/5 aged between 18 and 49, according to Nielsen ratings

Nielsen Ratings

Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

. The episode had outperformed Life Unexpected

Life Unexpected

Life Unexpected is an American television series that ran for two seasons, from 2010 to 2011.The show premiered on The CW on Monday, January 18, 2010. The 13-episode first season run ended on April 12, 2010...

on The CW, which drew only 1.88 million households. "Steel-Eyed Death" had 0.98 million viewers less than the episode of 24

24 (TV series)

24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...

that aired on Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

that night which drew 8.56 million viewers.