Bernard and Cosgrove's investigation into the murder of controversial Family Court Judge Keating leads to the famous tennis player Lucy McDaniel. She is charged with murder, and her defence pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. But it emerges that Lucy is under the legal conservatorship of her father. He bribed Keating to sign off on the conservatorship so that Mr McDaniel could take total control of Lucy's money, career, and even her personal life.
Mr McDaniel and his lawyer won't let Lucy accept a plea for manslaughter, and Price says there's no choice but to proceed with the case. Maroun insists this is wrong. She has Bernard confront Lucy with court transcripts and other evidence of how Mr McDaniel has been taking advantage of her. The following day in court, Lucy confesses to manslaughter. She says she killed Keating after he refused to lift the conservatorship order so she could marry her boyfriend. Lucy is allowed to take a plea without her father's approval. Price threatens to fire Maroun if she goes behind his back again.
- Abusive Parents: Lucy's father is extremely manipulative and wanted the conservatorship so he had total control over her.
- Asshole Victim: Keating accepted bribes from Mr McDaniel to grant and maintain conservatorship over Lucy - meaning all Lucy's money went to her father, and she could not make any decisions for herself.
- Insanity Defence: Lucy's defense attempts this.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Lucy lost control and killed Keating because he wouldn't lift the conservatorship order so that she could get married.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lucy has many similarities to Britney Spears (conservatorship situation), the Williams sisters (a female African-American world champion tennis player coached and managed by her father), and Naomi Osaka (a black female athlete who had to drop out of tournaments for mental health reasons).
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: A non-verbal one. The bookie was texting the judge "Give. Me. My. Money." as seen in the TARU interface.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Inspired by Britney Spears' conservatorship case and the Free Britney movement.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The victim was, leading to the discovery he took a bribe from Lucy's father to grant the conservatorship order.
