Christie Garrison, the teenage daughter of a very wealthy businessman, is found murdered outside her home. After a little investigation, Briscoe and Green find out that on the night of Christie's death she had slept with both Ethan and Nick Vance, the sons of a family who are close friends with her parents. Nick is engaged to Christie's older sister Mercedes. The brothers are held on statutory rape charges until McCoy and Carmichael can find enough evidence to charge them with murder. A judge declines Carmichael's request for a $1m bail that the Vances, who are assets-rich cash-poor and heavily in debt, can't afford.
Mercedes has many psychological disorders and takes a huge amount of medication. There is evidence of her and Christie getting into a fight before the murder, so Mercedes is the obvious suspect. The family's lawyer tries to negotiate for her to take a manslaughter plea and be committed to hospital. But their housekeeper gives Mercedes an alibi, which checks out. When McCoy interviews the Garrisons, Mercedes reveals that she is really Christie's mother. They fought after Mercedes told her the truth; Mercedes now accuses her parents of killing Christie.
McCoy realizes that Mercedes' marriage to Nick was planned for the mutual benefit of their families, and Christie was killed to protect both families' good names. The Garrisons let Mercedes take the blame, intending to have her released from hospital a few months later so she could marry Nick. With the Vances prepared to testify that they witnessed Mrs. Garrison killing Christie in self-defence, the DA's office drops the case. Mercedes isn't a reliable witness, and the Vances' name carries too much weight. Some time later, McCoy and Carmichael learn from the newspapers that the wedding went ahead and the Garrisons' money has saved the Vances' previously failing company.
This episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology: It's determined that someone who shares mitochondrial DNA with Nick had sex with Christie just before her death. They then exclude his father due to his medical condition. However, there was no need to check him - mitochondrial DNA is 100% maternal.
- Broken Bird: Mercedes Garrison fits this description.
- Downer Ending: The Vance and Garrison families get away with everything. Mercedes has lost her daughter and is stuck in a loveless marriage to Nick, who constantly cheats on her.
- Drugs Are Bad: Christie was a drug addict. Mercedes is revealed to be on a lot of prescription medication.
- Ethnic Menial Labor: Most of the Garrisons' and Vances' domestic staff.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Christie was actually Mercedes' daughter.
- Nobility Marries Money: By the end, Abby and Jack realize the engagement was a merger between impoverished patricians on the one hand and nouveau riche on the other.
- Old Money: The Garrison family.
- Raised by Grandparents: Since it turns out Christie's mother is actually Mercedes, this means that Mercedes's parents, who raised her, are actually her grandparents.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: The Garrisons sent their housekeeper abroad to manage one of their second homes, in order to keep her from talking to the police.
- Stigmatic Pregnancy Euphemism: What the Garrisons did with Mercedes when she became pregnant as a teen. They pass off Mercedes's daughter as their daughter and Mercedes's little sister.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: In the final lines.Abby: The laws for the rich are different.
Jack: What laws for the rich? - Teen Pregnancy: Mercedes was just 13 when she had Christie.
- Title Drop: McCoy gets one in at the end.
- Uptown Girl: Nick Vance has a penchant for working-class girlfriends.
- Wham Line: "You did it, didn't you? You killed my daughter."
