Directed by Constantine Makris
Written by Michael S Chernuchin
We open with the body of a female high school teacher being found in the janitor's closet. Along the investigation, Detectives Briscoe and Green discover that she was part of a love triangle: both she and one of her students were dating another teacher, Mr. Bergen. As you might guess, said student is underage. The Detectives go to the other teachers apartment to find him playing around with the aforementioned student, Fiona Reed, with both parties only wearing their undergarments. Both are arrested.
As the trial goes on, it is discovered that Fiona is not who she says she is. She is actually a woman in her twenties instead of a sixteen year old high school student. Jack and Serena discover that every time she turned "eighteen", she would run away from her foster family and to a new town, with a new name and a new sob story to gain sympathy, and started back at sixteen. It turns out that the victim once taught "Fiona" in another town, under a previous identity. "Fiona" killed her so she could keep her secret. Skoda tells Serena that youth is her safety net, so to speak. They bring in Fiona, her lawyer, and her foster mother to talk about a deal. After Fiona confidently lays out her plan to get acquitted, her foster mother offers to testify. She takes the deal.
This episode contains examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: Averted with Fiona's lawyer, Jessica Sheets. She does everything she can to help get the best possible outcome for Fiona, but she never considers lying under oath and she doesn't sanction her client doing so, either.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Fiona's foster mother Margaret gives one after Fiona is so confident that she's gonna get away with murder, even after her lawyer now knows the truth."Fiona": You think I need her to win? The jury already sees me as a poor, abused, abandoned child. All they're concerned about, all they really hope for, is to save my soul.
McCoy: Until Mr. Bergan takes the stand.
"Fiona": Him? As far as they're concerned, he's a child molester. Who's gonna believe him?
Margaret: …What about me, Fiona? They'll believe me. How could you? - Chekhov's Gun: It's mentioned early on that Valerie Keenan previously taught at a private school in Milford, Connecticut. That fact ends up becoming very relevant to the crime later on.
- Continuity Nod: The murder of Briscoe's daughter, Cathy, is acknowledged during a conversation between Briscoe and Green, during which he unthinkingly tells Briscoe that he's lucky his children are grown. He immediately apologizes once he realizes what he said.
- Contrived Coincidence: The plot of the episode only happens because the murder victim, Valerie Keenan, moves to New York City, and of all the schools there she takes a job at the school Fiona is attending.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: A variant - as part of her cover, Fiona claims that she thinks something terrible will happen to her if she ever passes her eighteenth birthday.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Fiona's lies about her age and identity come out, the judge asks Jessica Sheets if she had any knowledge of them; McCoy immediately vouches for her without hesitation.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first part of the episode deals with the murder of a teacher, the second part deals with a 26-year-old woman claiming to be a 16-year-old student.
- Just One Little Mistake: Fiona probably would have gotten away with her crimes if not for one particular slip-up: when she was carded at a bar in Connecticut, she used an old driver's license with one of her previous aliases. McCoy and Serena finding this out is the key to unraveling Fiona's plan.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Fiona realizes that McCoy has her beat, she drops her act and simply says, "You're good."
- Mistaken for Gay: Briscoe asks the deceased's roommate if they were lovers based on the two sharing an apartment with only one visible bed. The roommate then indicates the pull-out couch.
- Oh, Crap!: This is basically Fiona's reaction to her foster mother’s Armor-Piercing Question.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: At one point Briscoe and Green are discussing the case, and Green offhandedly comments that Briscoe is lucky that his kids are grown... and then he immediately remembers that one of Briscoe's daughters was murdered several years ago, and rushes to apologize.
- Pimping the Offspring: Fiona claims that when she was 12, her parents had her hired out for sex in return for money to allow them to buy drugs.
- She Knows Too Much: Fiona murdered Valerie Keenan because Keenan knew she wasn't really 16-year-old Fiona Reed.
- She of Many Names: Fiona has been in at least one other place, and both in New York City and the previous place she took on a new identity, including a new name.
- Smug Snake: "Fiona", in spades!
- Teacher/Student Romance: Fiona and Mr. Bergen, although subverted when it turns out she's not the young teenager he thought she was.
