As they try to work together as a team in the aftermath of Lt. Stillman's suspension, the detectives take a second look at the unsolved 1982 homicide of a popular jock (played by Justin Hartley) whose grave had been recently defaced with the word "Rapist".
Examples:
- Asshole Victim: Mike was a Serial Rapist who received no punishment or backlash for his crimes in life, while his victims were denied help and even slut-shamed for it. He even taunted the younger brother of one victim about how much he enjoyed ravaging his big sister. Mike is such a scumbag, the detectives actually bend the rules (via a shoehorned self-defense) just to let his killer off scot-free.
- Break the Cutie: Mike does this to all his victims, who start out as trusting and confident, until he takes advantage of them. His youngest victim is the most severe example—she was only 18, and even her father slut-shamed her for what Mike did, driving her to commit suicide in her dorm room.
- Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The cops find out the girls wrote what Mike did to them on the college bathroom stall, and that was how they found each other. Through the graffiti, they came to an agreement — Mike had to pay.
- Big Brother Instinct: Inverted. Jimmy, Tessie's younger brother (and 12 at the time of the event), is the one who blows away the rapist creep his sister could not bring herself to shoot.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Lilly isn’t wrong to point out how unprofessional it would be of them to let the perpetrator walk just because the victim was a terrible person. On the other hand, Vera is also correct when he points out that moral responsibility aside, by having the team investigate a decades-old case that has very few leads, isn’t connected to any other investigations, and in which the suspects and other interested parties would be slow to cooperate, Lilly is wasting both their time and resources.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Mike wets himself as one of his rape victims pulls a gun on him.
- Broken Bird: All of Mike’s surviving victims are shown to become this, as they were all trusting and self-secure Nice Girls, but being raped and slut-shamed while he got off unscathed turned them bitter and scared.
- Bullying the Dragon: Despite knowing that a 12-year-old boy has him at gunpoint, Mike does the stupid thing and antagonizes him by saying how the kid's older sister was "hell of a lay". Naturally, it doesn't end well for him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Policewoman Maggie gave Tessie a gun to protect herself from future rape attempts. Tessie uses it to confront Mike but is unable to pull the trigger and tosses it. Then her brother Jimmy finds the same gun and confronts Mike again, only for the latter to be shot dead.
- Child by Rape: Regie Kunze got pregnant from Mike's rape, though he was unaware of this because she "took care of it."
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Given how it was the early '80s, every single one of the named date rape victims are slut-shamed by various people throughout the episode, from law enforcement to roommates to even their own parents. This explains why Mike got away with his crimes for so long.
- Dirty Coward: Mike wets himself when confronted by a group of women he knows really want to kill him and brought a gun for the deed which, combined with the typical reflexive begging for his life, is enough for said women to decide he is Not Worth Killing and let him go. The reason he stands defiant against Jimmy (who points a gun at him a couple of minutes later) is that he seriously thought Jimmy didn't have the guts.
- Disapproving Look: Mike's ghost gives this to Vera in the ending when the detective is putting Mike's evidence box in the closed case vault. Vera just sneers at him in response.
- Driven to Suicide: One of Mike's victims wasn't believed even by her own father and ended up killing herself with his gun. The other victims decided this was the
last straw since she was a teenager. - Everyone Has Standards: Mike is such an Asshole Victim that the team manipulates the investigation to let his killer walk free. This is the only time in the series they willingly let the murderer escape punishment.
- Foreshadowing: Officer Maggie informs Tessie that if she's in "imminent danger" and kills someone in self-defense, she won't go to jail. Later, Rush and the others use this as an alibi for Tessie's brother so he won't go to jail for killing Mike.
- Future Loser: A tragic example. Karin Hensley said she was on top of the world in college, as she was head of her sorority and a Dude Magnet. In the present, she is fatter, less attractive, and much less glamorous than the flashbacks show her. But hey, that’s what happens when you’re date-raped and your best friend says you were asking for it.
- Gratuitous Rape: Karin insists that Mike's act was this, as she did have a crush on him and would have willingly slept with him under non-coerced circumstances.
- Hate Sink: Mike is this both to the audience and In-Universe. He raped several girls, never got arrested for it, and showed zero remorse while his victims suffered. The detectives themselves are so disgusted by his actions that they even manipulate things and misuse their power to make sure Mike’s killer walks free with no repercussions of his own.
- I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Tessie's reaction when she was first approached by Mike, which was probably the reaction of all of his other victims.
- Irony: Mike giving a valedictorian speech quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. Aside from the fact that he's not worthy to quote his words, he tells the students to "be brave, be fearless, and most importantly, be compassionate". Not only does he cower when his victims have him at gunpoint, but Tessie (the one holding the gun) is the one who opts against killing him and shows compassion, as opposed to how he mercilessly treated his victims.
- I Surrender, Suckers: When the girls are ready to give Mike a Vigilante Execution for what he did to them, he literally pisses himself in fear and begs for forgiveness, which makes them decide he is Not Worth Killing and let him go. About two minutes later, he has composed himself and is laughing off the tension, and makes clear to Tessie's brother that he is unapologetic and willing to continue his raping spree. That gloat was the last thing he ever did.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted with Mike but played straight with his killer, Jimmy Bartram. Legally speaking he still committed murder but the victim was so vile, the detectives couldn't bring themselves to arrest him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Mike Delaney got away with his crimes...for a while. Eventually he was gunned down, not by one of his victims, but by a victim's 12-year-old brother.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Mike thought he'd gotten off scot-free (yet again) when Tessie refused to murder him. Then Tessie's little brother shows up and isn't nearly as compassionate. He doesn’t even get the posthumous avenging that most Cold Case victims get, as the detectives are so disgusted by this guy that they twist things to let his killer walk free.
- Let Off by the Detective: Everyone questions why they're even trying to solve the murder of a serial rapist at least once, and sure enough, they coach the Sympathetic Murderer into claiming it was self-defense.
- My God, What Have I Done?: One of Mike's rape victims commits suicide after her father dismissed her when she told him what happened to her. A quarter of a century after the fact, he is still in deep mourning and guilt over his actions.
- "No" Means "Yes": Mike is incapable of believing anything else. When held at gunpoint by Jimmy, he insists all girls are like this.
- Police Are Useless: Officer Maggie Lafferty wanted to stop Mike but as she grimly notes, the sex crimes department she worked in back in the '80s was a "joke" that nobody took seriously. Even after a victim of Mike's killed herself, Maggie was still unable to open an investigation or get the DA to prosecute him due to insufficient evidence. That's why Maggie decided to give a gun to Tessie and inform her that justifiable homicide existed, since the system wasn't going to protect her or anyone from Mike.Maggie: My lieutenant said rape victims were "gals that just regretted it the next morning". My hands were tied.
- Post-Rape Taunt: In a flashback, Tessie soberly shares with Officer Maggie Lafferty how Mike had the gall to kick her while she was down with a cruel "You're prettier when you smile". The fact she's remembered for 20 years speaks volumes of how badly his nasty remark left an impression on her.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
- Maggie, the policewoman who was unable to take action through the department due to date rape not being considered a serious crime, decides to give Tessie a gun taken from the evidence room to protect herself. When Kat and Lily confront her about giving the murder weapon to Tessie, Maggie pretends that she doesn't remember that period of her life well and bluntly informs the two that she isn't going to testify against Tessie or whoever killed Mike.
- Jeffries, currently in charge due to Stillman's suspension, decides to let Tessie's kid brother off scot-free and actively stops listening to his confession, believing that the then-12-year-old boy shot the 6'3" athletic rapist in a justifiable homicide.note
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Mike tries to antagonize his rape victim's younger brother by mentioning how much fun he had ravaging his older sister, the brother cuts him off with a livid "SHUT UP!"
- Done wordlessly when Mike's ghost appears to Vera with a look on his face that says What the Hell, Hero? Vera just sneers at him as if to say I Regret Nothing, and Mike's ghost fades away.
- Sisterhood Eliminates Creep: Subverted. Tessie, Karin, Regie, and Melinda wanted to blow away Mike, but he played the coward card so well when Tessie was pointing a gun at him that they decided he was Not Worth Killing and let him go.
- Slut-Shaming: Many of Mike’s victims went through this after he raped them, even though they were clear and said no. One convinced herself it was her fault for bringing him to her room, and another was a sorority party girl who knew people wouldn’t take her seriously with her reputation.
- That One Case: Mike's series of date rapes and her inability to do anything to stop it clearly marked Maggie for life. Decades later, she still bitterly remembers how she was unable to help Tessie through legal means.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mike decides that a small boy pointing a gun at him was the perfect time to brag about how great his sister was in bed.
- Tragic Dropout: Tessie Bartram, despite being a promising scholarship student, dropped out of college after failing to press charges against Mike, unable to cope with her fear of him assaulting her again.
- Villain with Good Publicity: When he was alive, Mike was so well-liked by everyone (other than his victims) that the university was planning to do a memorial for him on the 25th anniversary of his death.
