Jessica returns to New York to visit her friend Lt. Hanratty, and stumbles on a strange scene of a corpse with only one shoe. Finding something suspicious, Jessica investigates, and tracks the dead man to a high-class hospital. Disguising herself as a wealthy hypochondriac, Jessica finds that the local doctors take more interest in profit than patients, and she suspects that one of them may have covered up the hospital's sordid dealings with murder.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: Jessica finds it odd that a supposed wino with only one shoe would have on a clean sock, as though he hadn't been walking the streets in it. Sure enough, it turns out he was dumped there, with his shoe burgled by a nearby homeless man shortly thereafter.
- Autopsy Snack Time: A coroner offers Jessica and her Friend on the Force a plate of danishes lying on a table in the morgue. He himself eats a hard-boiled egg, which he cracks open with one of the medical instruments.
- Call-Back: Lt. Hanratty appeared previously in "No Accounting for Murder."
- Drunk Rolling: Upon seeing Elliot dumped in the alley, a local homeless man creeps up on him and steals his watch and wallet. He then tries to steal his shoes, but can only get one off due to rigor mortis.
- Legendary Impostor: Lt. Hanratty finds evidence that the Dr. Zachary who works at the clinic actually stole the name from a real, credentialed doctor in Missouri.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Initially, it looks as though Elliot Winston died of alcohol overdose, and the autopsy finds large amounts of alcohol in his system. However, Jessica finds a number of factors suspicious, and she ultimately finds out that the killer intubated Elliot to force the alcohol into his stomach, hoping that no one would look any further at a former alcoholic seemingly falling off the wagon.
- Nephewism: Hanratty talks about how his nephew is the only family in his lifeand they're close but not as close as they could be.
- Orderlies are Creeps: Zigzagged, the clinic orderly is a big, intimidating guy and a bit unscrupulous, but is more conventionally handsome than most examples and helps capture the killer at the end as the man tries to flee (albeit partially to avoid the guy leaving the others behind to take the rap).
- Punch-Clock Hero: Lt. Hanratty's chief initially tries to stop the investigation, not wanting to spend time or money investigating what may or may not be the murder of some unimportant wino. All that interests him is keeping his case-closing record perfect, regardless of whether justice gets served.
- Second Love: Officer Hanratty had a wife named Jenny who predeceased him at some point, and Ms. Fenton had been in love with Elliot Winston before he died. The two of them fall in love with each other over the course of the episode, and it ends with Hanratty taking her to meet one of his sons.
- Spot the Imposter: Although Jessica does initially fool the doctors into believing she's a wealthy hypochondriac, Dr. Latimer recognizes her from a book cover and exposes the ruse.
