Directed by Martha Mitchell
Written by Wendy Battles & Noah Baylin
Green and Briscoe face a media circus when rock singer Patty Voytek is found murdered. She was the widow of Shane Mallory, the frontman of a band called Crisis, who died in suspicious circumstances several years ago. Journalist Mike Foster, an ex-detective who led the investigation into Mallory's death, believes Mallory was murdered and is writing a book about the case. Foster hands over a gun he found when he broke into the home of Travis Jones - Crisis' ex-drummer. Jones used to date Voytek, but she left him for Mallory, who then kicked Jones out of the band. This gives him a strong motive for murder.
Forensics prove the gun to be the murder weapon, but at an evidentiary hearing, Jones' lawyer claims the police used Foster to set up Jones. The judge rules all evidence inadmissible and the case collapses. The prosecutors are forced to start over, and subsequently find proof that Voytek went to Jones' apartment on the night she died. Jones says she asked him for drugs and he gave them to her, but denies killing her. He openly says he hated her, and that he and Mallory were childhood friends before she came along. When Mallory died, he even left his famous guitar to Jones.
Foster admits to lying during the hearing, and McCoy and Southerlyn become suspicious of him. They force him to hand over his research notes, which show Foster has committed illegal wiretapping and many other felonies. The notes contain a written death threat Jones had sent Voytek and with this, the judge admits the gun as evidence. McCoy realizes that it's unlikely Jones would be given Mallory's guitar after his death, since at that time they hadn't spoken in five years. Jones killed Mallory, and now Voytek. He begins to rant about how both victims betrayed him, and his lawyer is unable to do anything. Branch congratulates McCoy on winning a difficult case but McCoy says that somehow he does not feel reassured.
This episode contains examples of:
- Cain and Abel: Referenced by Jones, who feels that Mallory betrayed him in similar fashion.
- First Day from Hell: Downplayed, but Voytek's body was found by a trash technician's first day on the job, barely getting done with his orientation alongside his supervisor. He also gets an offscreen reaming out for contaminating the crime scene by pulling Voytek's body out from where it was found.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: The prosecutors initially think Jones hated Voytek because she cost him his shot at fame. Subverted when he says he doesn't care about that - he was more angry at what he saw as her and Mallory personally betraying him.
- Never Suicide: Mallory's death was officially ruled a suicide but was in fact murder.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: To force Foster to hand over his notes, McCoy suggests to the press that Foster may have been involved in Voytek's death. Foster later says this line to Briscoe and that he'll find a way to turn it around.
- Oh, Crap!: Jones' defense attorney immediately starts calling for a break at the end when McCoy comes upon the breakthrough of Mallory's guitar somehow being implausibly in Jones' possession. When Jones simply won't shut his mouth and shouts his motive for killing both victims, the attorney makes it clear he's forcing the break.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Based on legal disputes between Courtney Love and the surviving members of Nirvana after Kurt Cobain's death; and the murder of Nancy Spungen.
- Smug Snake: Mike Foster
- True Art Is Angsty: This was apparently Mallory's attitude, and Crisis' first songs were angsty poetry he wrote as a teenager.
- Woman Scorned: Jones is a male version.
- Yoko Oh No: How the public saw Voytek.
