After an off-duty police officer is gunned down, the racial dynamics of the case threaten to derail the prosecution's attempt to bring the killer to justice.
- Ambiguous Situation: We never learn if James Doyle was racist, and if that played a part in the confrontation that occurred between him and Kendra Daniels. The two complaints of racist police brutality that were leveled against Doyle never amounted to anything, and the men who filed the complaints were a rapist and a child killer, and thus Unreliable Narrators. He had a Black girlfriend, though the defense posits that there was a condescending slant to a video message that Doyle made for her in which he referred to her as "brown sugar." Kendra makes unsubstantiated claims that Doyle referred to her with slurs and acted abrasive, and the defense insists that Doyle went after her instead of the White man that she was with due to racial bias, though the prosecution counters that Doyle went after Kendra simply because she was brandishing a firearm and was using it to threaten the White man, who was visibly unarmed in comparison. Likewise, Kendra claims to have had her gun in her pocket and only to have fired on Doyle because he was holding her at gunpoint and emotionally unstable, with the defense countering by calling into question the credibility of the notion that she could have reached into her jacket, withdrawn the gun, aimed and fired before being shot by the supposedly murderous Doyle who already had her at gunpoint. In the end, Kendra is found guilty of the lesser charge but not the greater one, which angers everyone and disappoints Price.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Dixon wants Sam to make an immunity deal with Gleacher based on minimal evidence. She tells her to talk to whomever she needs: Price, McCoy or the Pope.
- Bigot with a Badge: The defense's strategy is to portray the victim, Doyle, as a racist who brought his death upon himself by using his position as a cop to exert authority over Black people, which resulted in a deadly confrontation when a terrified Black woman panicked and shot him in self defense.
- Black Gal on White Guy Drama: Doyle's girlfriend is a Black woman, who notes that she received a lot of dirty reactions from Black people for dating a white man, especially a White cop.
- Cop Killer: The defendant of the episode is Kendra, a woman who fatally shot a plain-clothes police officer. The trope is named as Kendra has this shouted at her by cops in the gallery as she is led away in handcuffs.
- Cop Killer Manhunt: With the exception of Bernard and Benson, all of the police are shown to be livid at the death of Doyle, and make no secret they are willing to do anything to get whoever killed him. Dixon even demands Sam grant Gleacher an immunity deal to get him talking despite the fact he was an abuser, Cosgrove tries to tear into Price when Kendra is only being charged with manslaughter, McGrath wanted whoever was responsible to be put away for life to send a message saying that cop killing will not be tolerated, and every officer present for the trial is livid at the Defense for suggesting Doyle was anything but a good cop, and that Kendra ultimately was only convicted of a much lesser charge than they would have liked. Price and Sam admit that the former likely has very little friends among the police anymore after the trial.
- Crossover: Not a full-fledged, but Benson and McGrath from SVU make an appearance.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: No matter what Doyle's personal thoughts on Black people were, his Black girlfriend is adamant that he loved her and was always courteous and respectful to her, and she genuinely mourns his death. Likewise, his ex-wife is deeply distressed by his murder, and is enraged that Kendra's lawyer is allowed to hinge their entire defense case on the idea of Doyle being racist.
- Everything Is Racist:
- The defense's entire case hinges on the argument that Kendra is innocent of murder because she shot Doyle to defend herself from somebody that she believed to be an emotionally disturbed and potentially dangerous racist. The Ambiguous Situation thus leaves viewers to wonder if this is true, or if it's merely a cynical ploy by the defense to exploit racial prejudice and even the fear of seeming racist amongst the jurors to get away with murder.
- The defense plays a video that Doyle sent to his Black girlfriend on her birthday, using his reference to Mick Jagger's now-controversial song "Brown Sugar" as proof that he was racist.
- Knight Templar Big Sister: When she learned that Scott Gleacher was abusing her younger sister, Kendra used a gun to threaten him into leaving her alone. Unfortunately, this incident was witnessed by Detective Doyle who, unaware of the context, went after Kendra while Gleacher fled the scene.
- Innocently Insensitive: If not a full blown racist, James Doyle was likely this. The video the defense shows the court has him quoting the lyrics of Mick Jagger's controversial "Brown Sugar"
in an attempt to be earnest and heartfelt. - One-Steve Limit: The Victim of the Week, James "Jimmy" Doyle had the same full name as James "Jamie" Doyle, the Victim of the Week from the SVU episode Silence.
- Within the entire Dick Wolf universe, this is not the first time an allegedly racist detective surnamed Doyle got shot in the line of duty after racially profiling someone.
- Unreliable Narrator: Invoked. The two complaints against Doyle were made by criminals he had arrested; one guilty of aggravated rape and the other of murdering a child. The prosecution brings this up during the cross-examination of the internal affairs officer to undermine the credibility of the defense using their complaints as evidence to prove Doyle was a racist.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Both Kendra and arguably, Det. Doyle. Kendra going Knight Templar Big Sister on her sister's abusive boyfriend is understandable but threatening him with a gun in public wasn't the best way to go about it. That said, there was no predicting that an allegedly racist cop would be the one to witness the scene and get himself shot after escalating the situation
- Would Hurt a Child: One of the two men who complained of Doyle being racist was the murderer of a seven-year-old girl-child.
