Directed by Jace Alexander
Written by Craig Tepper & Rene Balcer
Karen Burdett dies in a fall from her balcony. Briscoe and Curtis initially suspect her husband: he had requested she give their baby up for adoption, but she wanted to contest it and get the baby back. The baby is black, yet Mr. Burdett appears to be white. However, the child has a rare genetic condition that could only be inherited from Burdett; he is the real father and is actually a white-passing African-American. The detectives discover Burdett planned to contest the adoption and come clean about his race, so he has no motive. Evidence now points to his ex-wife Frances Houston, who claims to have killed Karen accidentally.
The case now rests on whether Frances believed her actions were justified to protect her son from racism. Burdett testifies she divorced him because she found out he is black, and insisted the terms of the divorce prohibit him from telling anyone about his race. Ross further learns that if Burdett broke the terms, he'd be forced to take on sole custody of their son. Burdett won't testify to this, so their son doesn't have to know his own mother rejects him for being black. McCoy lies that Burdett would testify; and tricks Frances into a plea deal for manslaughter. He reasons that she probably prefers 8 years in jail over her 20-year marriage to a black man.
This episode contains examples of:
- But Not Too Black: Two different characters.
- Joshua Burdett is able to pass for white because he has "good features", "good" being code for "white". The actor who plays him is a white man with a swarthy complexion, just light enough to not be Ambiguously Brown.
- Counselor Joyner, a black woman, is chosen to represent Frances Houston in a rather transparent attempt to "prove" she isn't racist, but it should be noted that Joyner (though played by an African-American actress) is lightly-complexioned and not much darker than Joshua Burdett.
- Chocolate Baby: Averted with the revelation that Burdett is African-American and the baby's real father.
- Custody Battle: The Victim of the Week is the wife of an African-American executive whose skin is so light he can pass for Caucasian. It's later discovered that the killer was his ex-wife who divorced him when she discovered his true race. After some digging into their pasts, the DA office discovers that when the couple divorced, they had a battle for who would not get custody of their son. The husband didn't think he could raise their son with his schedule, but the wife couldn't provide an excuse and was awarded custody only after the husband increased her alimony. It's implied that her racism was bad enough that she didn't want to raise a half-Black child, but didn't want to admit it.
- Hiding Your Heritage: Burdett, for most of his life.
- Hollywood Genetics: Both detectives are stunned to see the adorable baby that Joshua Burdett forced his wife to give up for adoption is a girl with a dark complexion. Despite the roulette game that is genetics, it's highly unlikely that a white person (the victim) and an African-American so light he could pass for white (and therefore highly likely to have white ancestry himself) could have produced a child with such a dark complexion.
- I Have No Son!: None of the Burdetts in Knoxville will claim Joshua as one of their own, indicating either that they disowned him for passing, or that they are lying to prevent his secret from being revealed.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: The Burdetts' child was born with a chronic genetic disorder.
- Loophole Abuse: What Burdett thought his company was going to do: they couldn't fire him for being black, but could fire him for lying about not being black. Ironically, when Ross speaks to another executive at the company, he says that they'd probably put Burdett on the board; cheaper than Colin Powell.
- May–December Romance: Briscoe comments on the Burdetts being this.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Counselor Joyner, when confronted with the evidence that Frances wanted nothing to do with her own son because he is black, is visibly horrified, but she's a good enough lawyer to brush these personal feelings aside and continue to defend her client effectively. Still, when McCoy corners Frances into accepting a manslaughter plea, the relief is written all over her face.
- Perp Sweating: Van Buren does this with Burdett.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frances.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: How Burdett got rid of a black co-worker who knew his family. He was sent to chilly Duluth, Minnesota and quit after one winter. He is back in NYC and when talking with Ross, reveals he isn't even angry, understanding why Burdett was so worried about his race being revealed and sympathizing with what he went through in the Jim Crow South.
- Ripped from the Headlines:
- May be based on the case of Anatole Broyard, a writer who was found to have concealed his mixed-race background.
- Frances brings up golfers Tiger Woods and Fuzzy Zeller in her testimony. Zeller caused an uproar by joking that the half-black Woods would select fried chicken and collared greens as the Masters pre-meal.
- Values Dissonance: Burdett forced a black co-worker to quit because he knew Burdett's family. The co-worker says that knowing what Burdett must have gone through as a black kid growing up in 1950s Tennessee, it's not fair to hold his actions against him.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: What Frances tries to portray herself as in court.
- Where da White Women At?: Briscoe refers to this stereotype in order to rile Burdett.
- You Are What You Hate: Frances is in complete denial that she was married to a black man and has a black son.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Frances tries this when McCoy threatens her with Burdett's testimony that she refused to accept her own son; Counselor Joyner, who now has evidence that her client is a virulent bigot and that the "I didn't want anyone to know my son is black because of the struggles he would face" defense is a total fabrication, is about to convince her to take the plea, but Frances, who obviously appointed Joyner only to help deflect claims that she is a racist, demands to speak to the other attorneys at the firm. McCoy is having none of it:McCoy: The white attorneys?
