McCoy testifies at a parole hearing that Lewis Darnell, a convicted serial rapist, should remain in jail. Nevertheless, Darnell is released with 12 years of his sentence to go. He moves in with his daughter Janeane. Shortly afterwards, a teenager named Teresa Perez is found raped and murdered with no murder weapon or eyewitnesses. Initially the MO looks different from Darnell's, but then it's discovered that Teresa was suffocated with a garbage bag - Darnell is known to enjoy asphyxiating his victims. Furthermore, he lived in the house next door when he was a child, and knew how to get into her apartment building via the basement.
Evidence mounts that Darnell was planning to rape again, including shaving all his body hair. But nothing conclusive links him to Teresa's murder. The detectives arrest him for parole violation, but a judge releases him on habeas corpus grounds. So McCoy tries to have him detained under mental health laws. When that fails, McCoy subpoenas anyone who has been around Darnell in the six weeks since his release. He also has Darnell put under constant surveillance, and his neighbors informed (under Megan's Law) that he is a convicted rapist. Janeane is furious and refuses to believe her father did anything wrong.
Darnell cannot find anyone willing to hire him or let him rent a home. He goes to the ACLU and even applies for an injunction against McCoy, but is denied. When Darnell's neighbors make an obviously false claim that he preyed on their daughter, Schiff orders McCoy to drop the case. But then they receive a call from the detectives that Janeane killed Darnell after she walked in on him raping her friend. As they leave the scene, McCoy tells Ross he's sorry it had to come to this, to which Ross notes he's not all that sorry.
Tropes present in this work
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether Darnell actually killed Teresa, and whether he would've reoffended had he not been relentlessly harassed by McCoy, is never resolved.
- As You Know: Justified example as Briscoe walks McCoy and Ross through the crime scene where Darnell was killed by his daughter after she caught him raping a friend of hers.
- Bittersweet Ending: Darnell's daughter will be severely affected by what happened, and Darnell has claimed another victim - likely driven to it by McCoy's actions. On the other hand, the DA's office will not prosecute Janeane, and at least Darnell can't hurt anyone else.
- Broken Pedestal: Darnell's daughter believes in his innocence, despite all the evidence to the contrary. In the end, she ends up having to kill her father when she finds him attacking her friend.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a Serial Rapist, and being watched to the point he could only get someone in his own building, Darnell wasn't tempted to attack his own daughter.
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Serial Rapist Lewis Darnell was already a crook, but he "evolves" to murder in top of rape after he is paroled. He has learned not to leave evidence (the reason why he shaves his body hair) or witnesses.
- Irony: Darnell's daughter Janeane, his staunchest defender who believes her father was falsely convicted and forced to confess to get parole, is the one who ends up killing him.
- Never Trust a Title: The episode is about a human criminal, not a dog.
- Outliving One's Offspring: After Darnell is released, the next thing which happens in the plot is a mother calling the police over the rape and murder of her daughter.
- Patricide: Darnell was ultimately killed by his own daughter.
- Porn Stash: Darnell has a stash of extreme porn, which McCoy produces as evidence.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Dr. Olivet testifies that there is no long-lasting, effective treatment for Serial Rapists.
- Serial Rapist: Darnell was sent to prison for 6 rapes, and is believed to have committed 7 others.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After Darnell is released, he finds a regular job and checks in with his PO officer as he is supposed to. By the end, he has lost his job thanks to the harassment he receives from the DA's office. He ends up attacking another young woman and his daughter is forced to kill him. Zig-zagged as there's evidence that he may have already been planning to reoffend by this point and he even might have already attacked another victim and ended up killing her; which one is the truth is never revealed.
