Line #8 Recap/LawAndOrderS5E4FamilyValues


1	Laura Madsen, a successful editor of a publishing company, goes missing. Her car and personal effects are found before her body turns up in a river. The M.E. determines Laura was dead before she hit the water. After her ex-husband is discarded as a suspect, Logan and Briscoe look at her new spouse, the philandering Steve Martell. However, the victim's teenaged daughter, Maggie (Creator/SarahPaulson), gives her stepfather an alibi by telling the detectives that they were having an affair, which Martell denies. Christine Whitburn, his new fiancée, backs him up, saying she was with him.
2
3	Maggie is arrested and put on trial, with Martell testifying that she killed Laura by accident and blackmailed him into helping him cover up her death. Maggie eventually confesses to [=McCoy=] to telling her mother about the affair after Laura caught her coming back from seeing Martel. Laura got into a screaming match with Martell, threatening to leave him with nothing. Things got physical and Martell pushed Laura, who fell into a table. Then he told Maggie that the police were going to think they both did it, so she helped him move her mother's body. The police have Maggie describe the first time she and Martell had sex, which is similar to how he seduced Christine. Christine is so disgusted that she admits to lying on Martell's behalf. Eventually, Martell, who had made a deal to do probation for charges of obstruction, has to accept a new deal to serve those charges concurrently to manslaughter one. Maggie ends up with probation charges as an accessory.
4	----
5	!!This episode provides examples of:
6	* AccidentalMurder: Laura Madsen and Steve Martell get into a fight that turns physical, and he eventually pushes her, causing her to hit her head and killing her.
7	* BrokenPedestal: Steve lying through his teeth while testifying that he never slept with Maggie, that she was obsessed with him, and that ''she'' killed her mother in order to have him is what finally makes her realize that he never cared about her and was only using her.
8	* {{Ephebophile}}: Steve seduced the 17-year-old Maggie.
9	* ManipulativeBastard: Steve Martell manages to seduce his stepdaughter into helping cover up her mother's death, then manipulate another woman into creating a false alibi for him.
10	* MyBelovedSmother: Laura is said to have been very controlling and stifling towards Maggie, which explains how Steve got his hooks into her.
11	* ParentalIncest: The audience is lead to believe, via Steve's lies, that Maggie was in love with him - primarily due to [[MyBelovedSmother her mother preventing her from having a relationship with anyone else]] - and it was all one-way. It turns out that Steve was actually active in and even initiated this relationship.
12	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Jack and Claire begin to suspect that Maggie's telling the truth so they call a meeting with her and Christine, and gently ask Maggie to describe what Steve did when making advances to her. Christine's horrified reaction to what Maggie's saying confirms her story.
13	--> '''Christine:''' That's enough.\

Context Recap / LawAndOrderS5E4FamilyValues