"Brazil" is the eighteenth 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

An environmental scientist, Dr. Oscar Silva (Elliot Villar), is poisoned during a global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

 symposium, Detectives 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:...

 and 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...

 initially suspect blackmail

Blackmail

In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

 or payback from competitors from Silva's field of study. It is soon discovered that Silva is involved in a messy custody battle with his wife's (Tammy Blanchard

Tammy Blanchard

Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...

) ex-husband, Phillip Shoemaker (Tony Hale

Tony Hale

Tony Hale is an American actor, best known for his role in the Fox comedy series Arrested Development as the neurotic Byron "Buster" Bluth.-Early life:...

) and the focus of the investigation quickly shifts from Silva to the victim's family. Meanwhile, the case becomes personal for 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...

, as it stirs up unpleasant memories about dealing with his own divorced parents.

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...

Trivia

• This episode was inspired by the following:
  • The Climatic Research Unit email controversy.
  • The Goldman child custody case
    Goldman child custody case
    The Goldman child abduction case refers to the international child abduction of Sean Goldman and the international petition for his repatriation by his father, David Goldman, over the objections of the family of his mother, Bruna Bianchi, and her widower, João Paulo Lins e Silva.-The child...
    
    .
  • The Balloon Boy hoax.

Production

"Brazil" was directed by Jean de Segonzac

Jean de Segonzac

Jean R. B. de Segonzac is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer who has worked in documentaries and television programs...

 and written by René Balcer

René Balcer

René Balcer is a Canadian television writer, director and producer.-Early life:He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and attended Lower Canada College in Montreal. He earned his B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Communication Studies from Concordia University in 1978. He began his career as a journalist,...

 and Keith Eisner.

Reception

In its original American broadcast on March 29, 2010, "Brazil" was watched by 6.01 million average households over the hour, among viewers 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 ratings for Law & Order have decreased since the timeslot change; the episode was beaten by a rerun of the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

.