Cosgrove and Shaw arrest a high school student for brutally beating a man to death, but even though additional evidence indicates that the student was suffering a psychotic break and thus may not have been responsible for his actions, Maroun remains determined to see the student receive the harshest possible sentence.
- Asshole Victim: Erickson's initial defense is to play up Stanton's history as an ex-con and thus portray him as a violent criminal.
- Insanity Defense: Erickson ultimately argues that he wasn't responsible for his actions because he took highly concentrated cannabis which drove him into a psychotic break.
- It's Personal: Price realizes that Maroun is so determined to punish Erickson because she is connecting him to the man that got away with raping/killing her sister and that Erickson is stated to share a physical resemblance to the criminal.
- Red Herring: It's noted that Stanton was an ex-con who just got out of jail, and the detectives pursue several leads related to his criminal past and the people he encountered on the inside, but it turns out he was killed by someone who had no connection to him or his crimes at all.
- Similarly, Price wonders if Erickson's suspicious lack of college plans may imply that he couldn't go to college because he was violent or a bigot (which would give him a real motive to attack Stanton), but it turns out Erickson had just chosen to take a gap year to do charity work.
