The Worst Plot Holes From Law & Order According To Fans

Of all the long-running crime procedural dramas, "Law & Order" is one of the most popular and arguably laid the groundwork for the genre. The Dick Wolf franchise began in September 1990 and has since aired more than 1,000 episodes between the original series and its six spin-offs: "Special Victims Unit," "Criminal Intent," "Trial by Jury," "LA," "True Crime," and "Organized Crime."

The still-growing franchise follows various departments of the criminal justice system in New York City as detectives and attorneys work to investigate and prosecute new cases in nearly every episode. Given the show's fast-pacing and often revolving casts, it's not surprising for fans to notice generally harmless continuity errors.

While it's easy to overlook these minor mistakes, fans have a more difficult time accepting plot holes connected to single-episode cases. On the "Law & Order" subreddit, fans determined that these are some of the most egregious plot holes in the franchise.

A Reddit thread started by u/cfinboston brought attention to what they called the "biggest/dumbest plot holes" on "Law & Order." In the post, they focus on the "Criminal Intent" episode "Identity Crisis," which follows a wealthy con artist using the identities of dead Princeton University alumni.

The OP explains that this plot doesn't make sense because the alumni are commemorated on a visible plaque, and the man is targeting women who attended Princeton. "However none of them questions why they didn't already know him. None of their friends knew him. Despite the fact that he uses the names of dead men, nobody ever recognized the names he uses, despite their being on the wall of the dining club," they wrote.

They also mentioned the "SVU" episode "911," where a tech-savvy perpetrator seemingly forgets that he left his phone with the child he had kidnapped. Others chimed in to add glaring "Law & Order" plot holes, with u/gnorrn linking to a lengthy thread breaking down the infamously confusing episode "Empire." On this thread, they said that it "must have the most plot holes of any L&O episode I can think of."

Another Redditor admitted that, while they "still watch and enjoy" the series, binge-watching the franchise makes the plot holes all the more obvious.