Directed by Peter Markle
Written by Tyler Bensinger
Stillman is inspired by his daughter's pregnancy to finally solve the death of Tim Barnes, a little boy who was found dead in the snow.
Tropes for the episode:
- Bait-and-Switch: To coax the killer into spilling what he told the priest in confession, the detectives bring the priest in to discuss how to organize a police baseball team. The killer only sees the priest in the station talking, and the detectives manage to convince the killer that the priest actually told them what happened.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Overwhelmed with her two bratty kids and newborn, Nicole prayed to God to relieve her burdens. That night, Tim was murdered. Nicole feels responsible for his death, believing that this was God's twisted way of answering her prayer.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Nicole, a housewife overwhelmed with her three children, sneaks out for cigarettes.
- Confessional: The killer confessed to the murder in a confessional, so the priest cannot divulge the important information, even when he's retired.
- Dirty Coward: The killer, Sean Murphy, is racist towards blacks but when it was time to confront them, he went after a little white boy instead.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The murder's motive is this. It's one thing when a kid shoplifts, that normally calls for calling their parents or a talking to about why stealing is wrong. But when he learned the victim shoplifted glue from his store for the gangsters who pressured him into stealing it for them, the murderer takes it too far. First, he takes it out on the boy (rather than the gang who bullied him to do it in the first place) because in his own bigoted way, he sees the boy's act as "betrayal". Second, he knocks the boy out and leaves him in the cold to die from hypothermia, leading to a race riot. All because of prejudice and a stolen glue stick.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After 24 years, the real killer is caught, Latrell is reunited with his mother after being on the run ever since, Nicole is relieved that she didn't cause Tim's death, and Stillman can finally put That One Case behind him.
- The Ghost: Tim's younger siblings are only shown in the flashbacks. They are living in opposite coasts in the present day.
- Mistaken for Murderer: As Latrell was last seen interacting with Tim and he wasn't exactly an upstanding citizen, he knew he'd be blamed for Tim's murder sooner or later, so to save his mom from further burdens, Latrell went on the run. By the time the detectives found him, Latrell is living in a drug house under an assumed name.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: When Scotty finds out that Father Declan left the parish shortly after Tim's death, he accuses the priest of being one, but in reality he left due to pressure from the race riots that followed.
- Rags to Riches: Sean, the former manager of a discount store, is now the owner of a real estate company.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Latrell accuses Sean Murphy of murdering Tim so the ensuing race riots would lead to a black exodus and drive the housing prices up. Turns out Sean did kill Tim, but out of something more petty.
- Smug Snake: Sean Murphy was low-key bragging about killing Tim probably for years.Vera: Heard that you were the last to see him.
Murphy: Me and whoever killed him. - That One Case: For Stillman, who missed the birth of his own daughter to work on the case.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Latrell left Tim alone that night instead of forcing him to steal glue, the murder and everything that followed would have been avoided.
