Line #18 Recap/LawAndOrderS15E21PublishAndPerish


1	Fontana and his temporary partner Detective Nick Falco investigate the murder of adult film star Samantha Savage. She had recently published a very successful tell-all book, but then she left her publisher for a rival. Just before the murder, her former editor Helen [=DeVries=] had threatened her over this perceived betrayal. Petty crook Walter Parks comes forward requesting a plea for drugs charges, and produces a gun he says he saw Helen throw into the trash after leaving Samantha's house. Sure enough, it's the murder weapon. Helen is charged after Samantha's blood is found in her car.
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3	The [=DA=]s question former police commissioner Arnie [=McLaren=], who's now a candidate to head the Dept. of Homeland Security. He rents an apartment for business and both Helen and Samantha regularly visited the building before the murder. He says that Helen is his editor too and they held meetings at the apartment, but he's only met Samantha once and never saw her there. Helen is released on bail and is then murdered as well. Ballistics evidence leads to cop Pete Milligan - who framed Helen for murder, intimidated Parks into helping him, and then killed Helen.
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5	[=McLaren=] confesses to an affair with Helen but again insists he never saw Samantha at the apartment building. So [=McCoy=] gets sworn affidavits from everyone else in the building that they have never met her. [=McLaren=] withdraws from the race for Director of Homeland Security, ostensibly rather than be publicly humiliated over his affair. When [=McCoy=] discovers that [=McLaren=] saved Pete's career by bribing his wife not to pursue domestic violence charges, the [=DA=]s use this to get Pete to flip on [=McLaren=].
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7	[=McLaren=]'s lawyer discredits Pete to the jury by revealing that [=McLaren=] also had charges dropped against Pete's teenage son for a hit and run. Since Helen was at [=McLaren=]'s building on the night Samantha died, Branch tells Borgia to lean on Helen's lawyer Charlotte Swann. Swann produces a picture of Samantha in bed with [=McLaren=], which Samantha emailed to Helen just before being killed. [=McLaren=] insists the photo doesn't prove anything, and refuses a plea, confident of being acquitted. However, the jury believes [=McCoy=]'s case that Samantha blackmailed [=McLaren=] and he killed her. He is convicted and his political allies try to downplay their past support of him.
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9	!!Tropes present in this episode:
10	* BuxomBeautyStandard: This is the main reason why Samantha was so popular with men.
11	* EmbarrassingCoverUp: [=McLaren=]'s public story as to why he withdrew from the running for Director of Homeland Security is that he was exposed for "forgetting" about payroll taxes for his children's nanny. This is less embarrassing than the real issue (ostensibly his affair with Helen) but does make him look a fraud.
12	* JerkassHasAPoint: Swann is obstructive and confrontational because she doesn't want to harm her career by being seen to work with the [=DA=]'s office, but does make a valid point that [=McCoy=] and Borgia believed Parks' story too readily.
13	* MeanBoss: Helen's threats against Samantha are more understandable when it's discovered they were over [=McLaren=], not Samantha leaving the publisher. But Helen still fits this trope; she harshly berates her assistant in front of the detectives and has a police record for punching another employee. Her assistant outright says almost no one would voluntarily work with Helen.
14	* ThePeepingTom: The victim is found by a pair of young boys with binoculars who were peeking into her window. They claimed they were doing bird-watching before school. Fontana is, "yeah, right."
15	* PornStash: Van Buren's sons have one so she is familiar with Samantha Savage.
16	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The Bernard Kerik Scandal.
17	* SexSells: This was Helen's MO as an editor.

Context Recap / LawAndOrderS15E21PublishAndPerish