This episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent begins with a retirement party for a Hudson University department chair, Professor Winthrop. Winthrop disparages a fellow professor, Sanders, for being a media hound and even turning his subject matter into a rap video. He is then pestered by a graduate student Mark Bayley, who asks for more time to finish his dissertation. Two female professors, Fellows and Hitchens disparage Bayley. Prof. Sanders is pissed and confronts Winthrop in his office. Sanders then talks to Bayley and promises to grant him more time for his thesis - if he is made the new department chair.
Soon after, the department head and his secretary are found dead in his office.
The detectives investigate the scene and determine that the murder weapon is a gavel - implying that the killer thought he was getting justice by murdering Winthrop. They talk to the secretary’s roommate, who reveals that she was starting and stopping a CD on her Diskman. The detectives don’t find the CD, but they do find the words transcribed. The lyrics of the song point to an older African American man, most likely a professor at Hudson U. Which leads them to Sanders.
Sanders states that he was grading papers all night, but the detectives bust that alibi by noticing one paper with an obvious error that the professor should have caught were he actually grading papers. His assistant though, gives him a stronger alibi. The detectives then look into Mark Bayley, the grader of the paper and notice that his shoes are way too nice compared to the rest of his clothes. They find out from the exclusive store that sells those shoes, that a woman named Hitchens bought them from him.
Goren and Hitchens seem to verbally dance around each other. Hitchens is shown comforting Bayley before going to bed with him. The next day, she gets into a car and kisses Prof. Fellows, who now seems to be a lock for the department chairmanship.
Goren and Eames interrogate Bayley. When confronted with the insults that Hitchens uttered about him to Goren, Bayley appears ready to confess and implicate her too. But he goes into shock and dies.
An autopsy and medical records reveal that Bayley was allergic to peanut products. Medical records also show that he was recently rushed to the ER from a Thai restaurant. When the detectives question the hostess at that restaurant, they find out that he was there with an Australian woman who ordered for him in Thai, so he wouldn’t know the dish had peanuts. Upon further inquiry, the hostess reveals that the Australian woman spoke fluent but low class Thai and claimed to have lived in a town that has a large women’s prison. Detectives find out “Hitchens”’ real name - Nicole Wallace, and find out she had been convicted of aiding a Frenchman who murdered eight tourists to rob them.
The detectives trick Prof. Fellows into firing Hitchens/Wallace, then detain and interrogate her. The professor realizes she’s been played by the cops, re-hires “Hitchens” and sends a lawyer to spring her from detention. The police then discover that the real Prof. Hitchens had embezzled money from a foundation in Sydney. This was why Nicole had fled to the US - because financial crimes aren’t covered in the extradition treaty between the US and Australia.
But the cops discover that Hitchens cleared out her apartment and has fled, leaving a weeping Prof. Fellows.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Nicole tries to rattle Goren by asking when he realized his mother was abnormal. Goren fires back by asking her whether sexual abuse by her father led her to prey on men.
- Artistic License – Law: Getting terminated while on a work visa doesn’t immediately make your presence in the country illegal. You have a 60 day grace period to find a new job. Also, even a visa overstayer or undocumented migrant has the same legal protections that arrested US citizens have - the right to counsel, right to remain silent, right against detention without charges or a trial.
- Citizenship Marriage: Of sorts. Nicole has shacked up with Prof. Christine Fellows so that the latter will sponsor her work visa and eventually an Employment based Green Card.
- Depraved Bisexual: Nicole is involved in at least 9 murders, and sleeps with men and women.
- Failed a Spot Check: A paper that Prof. Sanders supposedly graded during the time of the murder, attributed a quote to T S Elliot when Sanders himself states later that it was Ezra Pound who stated that quote. This tips the detectives off to the fact that Sanders’ teaching assistant was grading those papers instead of him. Later, they use the same mistake to zero in on Mark Bayley.
- Kill and Replace: While it isn’t confirmed for sure, it is heavily implied that Nicole Wallace killed Dr. Elizabeth Hitchens and assumed her identity.
- Malcolm Xerox: Professor Sanders is a textbook example. He takes umbrage at his unorthodox teaching methods being characterized as a “rap video” and even calls the university a “plantation” and the department chair as a “massa”.
- Manipulative Bitch: Nicole Wallace manipulated Mark Bayley into murdering the head of the department. With him gone and the black professor as the prime suspect, her lover Dr. Fellows has a clear path to take over the department.
- Meaningful Appearance: Mark Bayley’s classy shoes don’t match his otherwise slovenly clothes and appearance. This tips the detectives off that someone else is buying him stuff, presumably female.
- Passed-Over Promotion: Sanders was a shoo-in to succeed Winthrop as department chair. Until Winthrop scuttled Sanders’ candidacy as well as his ability to get hired on at any other prestigious university, by raising a stink about the “rap video”.
- Perfect Poison: Nicole uses Mark Bayley’s peanut oil allergy to kill him - by spiking his nicotine gum. That said, an autopsy immediately identifies peanut oil as the method and Goren zeroes in on Nicole as the culprit.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Mark Bayley has been working on his doctoral thesis for ten years. And he is still nowhere close to being done. This is presumed to be the motive for murdering the Department Head - so a different one will give him yet another extension.
- The Sociopath: Nicole. Charming, manipulative and homicidal.
- Spanner in the Works: Nicole had a good thing going, having assumed the identity of Dr. Elizabeth Hitchens from Sydney Australia. Too bad, the real Elizabeth Hitchens had embezzled money and the Sydney police were closing in on her. This forced Nicole to run to the US.
- Secret Relationship: Between Nicole and Prof. Fellows. Also between Nicole and Bayley.
- Weaponized Allergy: "Hitchens" ordered Bayley a dish with peanuts, in order to trigger Bayley's allergy.
