Detective Jalen Shaw, portrayed by Mehcad Brooks in the long-running legal drama series Law & Order, had to make a tough call in the show’s latest season, in which he also opens up about his past. Brooks joined Law & Order in 2022, replacing Anthony Anderson, who departed the revived show after his one-year contract expired. Fans will recall that the series was revived for Season 21 after an 11-year break and premiered on February 24, 2022.
The recent “Report Card” episode of Law & Ordersaw Shaw and Detective Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) look into the murder of a teacher with a student, Anthony (Colton Osorio), classified as a suspect. Amid the investigation, Shaw becomes candid with Riley about being in foster care with his brother while his mother struggled with drugs. Unfortunately, the family he’d been with made him leave one day, hugely affecting him. Speaking about Shaw’s trauma to TV Insider, Brooks opened up about being able to heal through his character as a person, saying:
“Opportunities in life are rare to heal through your employment, and I would say that Shaw and I have a lot of the same traumas, and Shaw and I have some of the same backstory that triggers us into places of dissecting what we need to heal, and so I’m able to heal myself through Jalen Shaw. There’s a severe and deep abandonment wound there from family. And so I didn’t need to look any further than some parts of my own life.”
Mehcad Brooks Heals "In Some Ways" in 'Law & Order' Season 24
Image via NBC
Elaborating on the subject of trauma and healing, Brooks added:
“Now he and I would express them differently. He and I have gone about healing them differently. I think I’m a lot more healed than he is. But in this character and playing that backstory, I was able to dissect some of the things that were still haunting me and cathartically have this experience through Shaw. … I think in that scene, you’re watching Mehcad Brooks heal in some ways.”
In Episode 5 of Law & Order Season 24, all the evidence points to Anthony as the murderer, but he claims he didn’t know the gun was loaded, and ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy) wants to try him as an adult, which Shaw is against. However, when the teen’s prints are found on the bullets, Shaw realizes he’s been lying and tells Price, who withdraws the plea deal offered to Anthony. While Shaw had mixed feelings about telling Price, he also knew that he couldn’t live with himself if he weren’t leading with “truth and justice and morality” as well as “human equity consciousness where he’s treating every single person the same way.”
Law & Order Season 24 airs on Thursdays on NBC. Stay with Collider for the latest updates. You can catch up on Law & Order now on Peacock.
New York's finest police detectives and prosecutors fight to make the city a safer place. With integrity as the guiding force from investigation to verdict, the teams weigh every perspective in their commitment to finding justice.
Image via NBC
Image via NBC 
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