Per policy all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned
At the campus of Hudson University, a graduate student named Sarah Kincaid is found murdered. She was pregnant, but the father isn't known. The detectives become suspicious of the victim's professor Dr. Miguel Clemente. He was at risk of losing a $4m research grant because Sarah had found serious errors in a report he'd written. Clemente insists that Sarah was wrong about the report, and he's only being treated as a suspect because of his race. His dismissive attitude does nothing to change Briscoe and Curtis's suspicions.
Clemente is arrested when a witness reports seeing him near the library, where Sarah was killed, on the night of her death. But the librarian soon proves this witness was mistaken and Clemente was there the night before the murder. When a DNA test proves he wasn't the father of Sarah's baby, the charges against him are dropped. The DNA test shows the father is of Greek descent, which leads the detectives to her classmate Dennis Michaels. He admits to a one night stand with Sarah but denies killing her.
Michaels' friend Peter Kelly gives him an alibi that is soon proven to be false. A little more digging reveals Kelly was actually present when Michaels killed Sarah. Michaels helped Kelly cheat to stay in school, and now Kelly is trying to repay the favor by covering for him. Michaels is engaged to Sarah's wealthy and well-to-do roommate, and when he found out Sarah was pregnant, he killed her to prevent his fiancée from calling off the wedding. Kelly won't turn on Michaels so McCoy gets Kelly's father, an influential CEO, involved. Under threat of having his bail withdrawn, Kelly admits he witnessed Michaels killing Sarah. Kelly cannot be charged as an accomplice, but he is subsequently kicked out of school. McCoy states that Kelly has basically got away with everything since his father will just give him a job.
This episode contains examples of:
- Brand X: The fictional "Hudson University" plays a prominent part.
- Continuity Nod: The father of the Victim of the Week asks Briscoe if he has kids, and everyone in the room noticeably pauses before Briscoe responds, "I know what you're going through." Unfortunately he does; one of his daughters was murdered in Season 8.
- Insufferable Genius: Dr. Clemente has a very abrasive personality, and this doesn't help his case when he's suspected of murder.
- Karma Houdini: The prosecutors are not able to charge Kelly with anything, and even when he gets expelled from school, his father (a wealthy CEO) will employ him in the family business.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: The Dr. Clemente B-plot takes up a significant chunk of the episode. He had nothing to do with the victim's death and was only indirectly related to it. The victim had a one night stand with the real killer while distraught over Clemente ending the relationship.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Assuming Michaels is telling the truth, Sarah Kincaid's pregnancy resulted from one.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Very loosely based on the Jeremy Strohmeyer case. note
- Smug Snake: Kelly acts this way around Carmichael and McCoy, smugly saying that they'll never be able to prove he or Michaels was involved in Sarah's death.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Dr. Clemente and the victim. Clemente apparently broke it off because it was against university policy.
