"The Judge" is a rare episode that mentions the departed Jack Soo's Nick Yemana, his desk being hauled away from the squad room. The unstated inference is that the characters here acknowledge that Nick, like the actor who played him, has died, each with his own thoughts on what was missing (Harris: "of course, it's just a desk I guess" Dietrich: "although it does leave sort of a void" Wojo: "gonna kind of miss it being there" Barney: "gonna miss a lot of things"). Dietrich is working on making coffee, "not as bad as Nick's but I'm working on it!" (Barney: "you're getting there!"). Dietrich decides it would please Harris if he moved his own desk over to where Nick's used to be (Barney: "all the way over there?" Dietrich: "why, am I too close to you now?"). The missing desk doesn't sit well with Levitt, who takes it as an affront to his joining the upstairs detectives, threatening to ask for a transfer. Wojo's day in court ends with him bringing back the belligerent Judge, Philip Paul Gibson (Philip Sterling, fourth of six), who insists that Wojo is the one under arrest! ("I'm holding you all in contempt!"). He resorted to beating up an attorney for wearing a turtleneck ("we are NOT Studio 54!"), while making out his own arrest report on Wojo, who gives his badge number as 549321, and his full name as 'Stanley Thaddeus Wojciehowicz' (Gibson: "that doesn't scare me!"). Wojo insists that he's just doing his job (Wojo: "who you are is irrelevant!" Gibson: "I'll be the judge of that!"). Meanwhile, Lois Marcum (Peggy Pope, fourth of six) bursts in to report "a disturbance, a rape, and a shooting! Should I have called first?" Upon checking out her detailed story about the apartment across from her window, Harris determines that she got everything right...from Soap Opera Monthly, page 27! (Harris: "want me to call General Hospital?").
