When a wealthy man and his young daughter are found murdered in their home, suspicion soon falls onto his widow, whose own wild lifestyle and past gives way to plenty of motives.
Related Tropes:
- Awful Wedded Life: When Ron Harker's lawyer lists the multitude of reasons he wanted a divorce, citing Stephanie's drug use, excessive spending, affairs, and being a lousy stepmother to his daughter.
- Asshole Victim: Stephanie kills Doris Nichols to frame her for the murders and act as if it was self-defense, but given that she murdered an innocent man and his daughter, one doesn't feel an ounce of sympathy for her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Stephanie, who in spite of her soft-spoken voice and good looks is as evil as they come. She even insists that she and her husband were working out their marital issues despite evidence that he was seeking a divorce.
- Black Widow: Stephanie murdered her husband's wife in order to have him for herself, then killed him after a few years of a miserable marriage.
- Book Dumb: Stephanie, literally. She angrily and defensively answers "Yes!" when Jack asks her if she considers herself to be intelligent, but when Jack counters that by the fact that she couldn't read the books chosen by her book group, she just as defensively mutters "So I had better things to do." While it's clear that she was more interested in partying than participating in something cultural, there's a hint of genuine embarrassment at how poorly educated she is.
- Does Not Like Men: As indicated by the derogatory term that she used to describe men—"Penises With Wallets", Stephanie clearly only thought about or cared about men in terms of what they could provide for her as far as sex and money, with occasional extras such as drugs or cars. Schiff notes to Jack before he cross-examines her, "You're going to be the first man to get the better of her".
- Drugs Are Bad: Stephanie's drug use is one of the reasons her husband wanted to divorce her and one of her lovers testifies that he was also her dealer. She herself claims that her friend Doris was an addict and killed her husband and stepdaughter in a drug-fueled rage.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As rightfully vilified as Stephanie is by most of the people in the episode, her father and her childhood friend Wendy still love and genuinely care about her.
- Evil Stepmother: Stephanie is this to Caitlin, who even before having her murdered, killed her mother, and was a terrible stepmother to as she was more interested in her drug habit and her partying lifestyle.
- Frame-Up: Pitifully attempted by Stephanie, who claims to have killed Doris partly in anger at her actions and also in self-defense when Doris supposedly attacked her. Within a day, her story has fallen apart and the detectives realize she set everything up.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. Stephanie is revealed to have had one after a high school boyfriend refused to marry her. And aside from that, she's clearly not a good person.
- Gold Digger: Stephanie Harker, and it's not just her husband's money she was after; her past relationships with a wealthy classmate in high school who dumped her and a married car dealer also were monetary-related. She even at one point had called men "penises with wallets" according to best friend Wendy, prompting some genuinely disgusted looks from some of the male jurors.
- Hate Sink: Stephanie is clearly not meant to be liked by, due to her gold digging, drugs and numerous affairs and that she is willing to hire a junkie to kill her husband and stepdaughter just so she can stay rich. She is very selfish and not very bright since she has left out evidence like traces of $50,000 from the Canadian bank account.
- Honor Before Reason: The Canadian government is willing to let the murders Stephanie committed go unpunished because the United States wanted to execute her. The prosecutor's office is left dumbfounded by their noncompliance. In the end, they did extradite her after the promise to take the death penalty off the table only for Schiff to change his mind and revoke the notion.
- Out-of-Character Alert: The detectives first get suspicious of Stephanie when one of the members of her book group tells them that she arrived on time when she was usually late and was the last person to leave when she was usually the first, along with only having coffee instead of several cocktails as she typically did.
- Run for the Border: Stephanie hauls ass to Canada, where she's originally from, upon realizing that the cops are closing in on her. Although Canada actually does have an extradition policy with the US, she probably assumed they wouldn't enforce it, as she could face death penalty, which Canada is opposed to. Indeed, it takes the prosecutors promising not to seek the death penalty for them to consent to extradition.
- Self-Defense Ruse: Stephanie kills Doris Nichols to frame her for the murders and act as if it was self-defense.
- Serial Killer: Aside from killing her husband, stepdaughter and the friend who committed the murders for her, Stephanie also killed the first Mrs. Harker through an unsolved hit-and-run car accident five years earlier.
- Villainous Breakdown: Stephanie starts her testimony all meek and mild, insisting that she loved her husband and stepdaughter and is heartbroken by their deaths. But when Jack starts needling her, she gets more and more angry until the jury has no illusions about what a despicable person she is.
- With Friends Like These...: Stephanie entices Doris into killing her husband with an initial payment of $50,000 and the likely promise of them spending even more of his money once he's dead, only to kill her once the job is done so as to frame her for it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Caitlin Harker, just eight-years-old, was also killed alongside her father.
