After scaring off a couple of hooligans who had been bullying an old homeless man, Lt. Dixon gets a call on her cell about a body being found. She sends Bernard and Cosgrove, who find a young African-American male nude, stuffed into a luxe suitcase.
The ME finds no evidence of sexual activity, but the body does have injection marks from being shot up with meth. Bernard takes a picture of an abstract tattoo on his arm. The tattoo matches the logo of a dance school he attended. One of the instructors identify him as Darien Wilson.
Wilson had been cut off from his family for being gay, but it turns out that his younger brother was in touch with him covertly. The brother puts the detectives on the trail of a party that Darien had attended, a fundraiser thrown by power broker Kyle Swanson for Senator Jack Nathan. Nathan, a bisexual still closeted from his wife, doesn’t want to be involved but does inform them that Darien was at the late night afterparty at Swanson’s house, and knew Swanson personally, giving the lie to an earlier statement from Swanson.
The case, a young black man found drugged to death and abandoned in a public place, reminds Dixon of an unsolved case from two years previous, convincing her that this is a pattern of behavior on Swanson’s part. The police turn up a witness, Andre Walker, who gives a harrowing statement on being drugged to the point of death by Swanson. A second survivor, Jasin Brooks, also comes forward. But Jasin ghosts the prosecution when it comes time to testify. Andre is also reluctant to testify because his testimony would reveal he was in violation of his parole. Dixon tries to convince Price to let Andre off the hook, but because she had insisted that he go for a murder charge, he is similarly adamant that Andre testify.
Andre takes the stand, helping to establish Swanson’s pattern of behavior. Swanson’s lawyer Brian Harris aggressively cross-examines him, using Andre’s acceptance of money for sex and drug use in an attempt to damage his credibility. The jury still returns with a guilty verdict, to Swanson’s fury. Price offers to buy Dixon a drink, but she begs off to testify at Andre’s parole hearing.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Body in a Breadbox: Darien’s body is found stuffed into a suitcase. The particular high-end brand matches a number of suitcases in Swanson’s home, providing a piece of evidence against him.
- A Day in the Limelight: Dixon is more central to this episode than any in the season to date. In fact the first scene in The Teaser focuses on her rather than the crime.
- Depraved Homosexual: The gay Swanson is predatory, homicidal, and apparently quite racist.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Based on the case of Democratic party donor Ed Buck
. - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jasin Brooks flees the city before he can testify, and due to his having no digital footprint the authorities can’t track him.
