This episode begins with a woman, Brenda Sawyer in an SUV with her kids and nieces driving erratically, then recklessly, and then veers onto oncoming traffic, causing a pileup. Detectives Lupo and Bernard find grain alcohol in the SUV. It looks like an open and shut DWI, but the woman’s husband insists she didn’t have a drinking problem. Lupo seems to believe him.
After Rodgers confirms Lupo’s suspicion that Brenda was slipped a Mickey, detectives find a plot involving a pharmaceutical company’s expensive life extending drug, whistleblowers and her boss.
Tropes found here are
- Artistic License – Law: It's never made clear how Brenda could designate all the whistleblower money to charity. Normally, they would each get a reward, or split it, yet Zach acts likes they both had to agree with what to do with the money. The closest explanation is that Zach would feel shame over taking the money when Brenda didn't, but it isn't made clear.
- Disconnected by Death: Brenda's brother-in-law says that one of his daughters (who doesn't survive) was calling him out of concern about Brenda's driving and he was asking her to get Brenda to pull over when he heard a scream and a crash.
- Driven to Suicide: Zachary Marshall attempts suicide, when confronted with evidence of his actions.
- Frame-Up: Zach was trying to frame Brenda for a DWI. Unfortunately it worked a little too well.
- Gone Horribly Right: The intent of the drink and spray spiking was to get Brenda arrested for DWI, ruining her credibility as a whistleblower. Unfortunately, she got so drunk, she lost control of her car and caused a fatal crash.
- Greed: Zach Marshall, when confronted with evidence of his company’s shady marketing of a cancer drug, doesn’t blow the whistle because it was the right thing to do. He does so, solely for reward money. But when a co-whistleblower indicates her desire to donate away all the reward money to various charities, Zach resolves to get rid of her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Zach is horrified when he realizes that his scheme to discredit Brenda has put children in danger, he not only tried to warn her, but even called the police to try and get her pulled over for "suspected DUI"… but it was already too late. He's so disgusted with what he's done that he attempts suicide when confronted.
- No Name Given: Brenda's daughter and the victims in the other car (an engaged couple and the woman's mother) are unnamed.
- The Pen Is Mightier: Zach asks to go to the bathroom while in custody and attempts suicide with a pen to the neck.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Based on the case of Diane Schuler
, who caused an eight person, two car DWI fatality in the July before this episode aired. The family of two of the men killed when Schuler hit their vehicle were not happy with the episode. - Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When a pharmaceutical executive tries to influence Jack during the investigation, Jack refuses and returns the money the guy contributed to his campaign before threatening to indict the executive as a an accomplice.
- Slipping a Mickey: Brenda's smoothie was spiked with grain alcohol and her nasal spray was also spiked with an anesthetic, causing her BAC to spike.
- Sole Survivor: Brenda's son Nicky is the only one to make it out of the car accident alive, albeit with a broken arm and leg. He also helps supply evidence for what really caused the accident.
- Spoiler Title: It initially seems like Brenda caused the crash due to drunk driving, but with an episode title like "Doped", the reveal that she was drugged isn't exactly a Wham Line.
- The Stool Pigeon: Brenda was a Whistleblower Wilma, looking to spill the beans on her company’s shady dealings on a terminal cancer treatment drug. Her boss Zach though, was looking to become The Informant for a monetary reward. And he didn’t want to share.
- Sympathetic Murderer: As reprehensible as Zach's role in the deadly car crash (which is motivated by Greed) is, he's less villainous than usual for this show. He drugs Brenda due to thinking that it will only cause a minor crash downtown, tries to warn Brenda when he learns kids are in the car and they might get killed or worse, later tries to kill himself out of guilt, and does show some genuine disgust for the pharma company marketing a bad drug in addition to his desire to profit from being The Informant. He also claims he only wants the whistleblower money to support his family.
