Written By Judith McCreary
Directed By Elodie Keene
When a mentally ill man forgoes his medication and winds up the primary suspect in a murder case, the question of patients' rights is raised among the detectives in the squad room. Further complicating matters are the prosecutions efforts to get him medicated enough to make a statement as to what he witnessed the night of the murder.
Tropes
- Downer Ending: Paranoid schizophrenic Mark Nash witnesses a rape and murder, and attacks the perp, severely wounding him. Mark is then given a choice: Take his medication to make a lucid statement and return home to supervised treatment, or refuse his medication, unable to deliver his testimony, and stay in prison, with the prisoners abusing him. He consents to the medication - but shortly after being medicated and providing the testimony that helps the squad nail the rapist/murderer, Mark commits suicide by strangling himself, unable to deal with the side effects of his medication and the loneliness of his lucid reality. Olivia quietly apologizes to Mark's mother, who coldly tells them to go to hell as she brushes past them to identify the body.
- Driven to Suicide: Mark, whom Olivia and the prosecution browbeats and pressures into temporarily modifying his medical routine, so he can testify in an especially difficult case. We later find Mark's lifeless body, as he has hung himself due to the side effects of said med changes, specifically wherein while the "evil" voices in his head are now quiet, so too were the "friendly" ones, and he felt alone and unable to cope with reality.
- Rejected Apology: Feeling guilty about inadvertently causing Mark to commit suicide, Olivia apologizes to his mother, only for Mrs. Nash to tell her to go to hell.
