This episode begins with a teenager waking up and getting dressed, listening to a rap song on the radio. His dad disapproves, and admonishes the boy to meet him at his “job” after school. Turns out, daddy is a judge and he is sentencing that rapper to 5-15 years for “waving guns around”. Later, the judge leaves for the weekend, upon which the teenager gets into dad’s silver SUV with his three friends. A pair of African-American street hoods look on.
At night, that SUV drives by, stops, dumps the kid’s body out, leaves a “calling card” and drives off. The judge, and his friend, federal prosecutor Thomas Grady, identity the body as his younger son Jacob Flenner.
After ruling out a deejay who threatened the judge during Apocalypto’s sentencing, but admitted it was just an act to sell records, the detectives trace the gun to a bailiff with an erratic record. He claims to have fired the gun in self defense when somebody drove up to him in a silver SUV and attempted to hold him up. The silver SUV was seen at the scene of a few robberies in the area. Later, the owner of a chop shop turns over the silver SUV when he finds Judge Flenner’s ID in it. He puts them on to a pair of carjackers, who serendipitously get caught trying to steal another car.
After the carjackers alibi out, the detectives pursue one last lead - the playing card left as a calling card. Turns out, the card was a vintage, last made in The '50s. And cards like it were left at the scene by a hold up crew called the “Gunhill Roadboys”. Led by Thomas Grady’s father.
After perusing Sing-Sing prison’s visitor logs, the detectives focus on Jacob’s friends Riordan, Daphne and Colin. Reardon seems to have a thing for “the gangsta life”, including a preference for ski-masks.
After Detective Wheeler sweats Daphne and the detectives sweat Colin, they go to the Grady household to question Riordan.
Tropes found here are
- Berserk Button: Thomas Grady gets pissed when his son complains about being charged with “a littering offense”. He stops protecting his boy and instructs the detectives to arrest Riordan.
- Cop/Criminal Family: Grandpa Grady was the leader of a notorious gang of armed robbers. His son Thomas works for the US DOJ, while his own son Riordan is charged with murder.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Two carjackers go clubbing and are either too drunk, stoned or moronic to notice that the “women” they were dancing with were men.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A chop shop finds Judge Flenner’s ID in an SUV that is brought in, freak and inform the police.
- Gangsta Rap: The victim was a fan of this genre. His dad, who is a judge, disapproved and even sentenced his son’s favorite rapper “Apocalypto” to 5-15 years.
- Kayfabe: A deejay who mouthed off to the judge admits during questioning that he did all that just for “street cred” in order to sell his mixes.
- My God, You Are Serious!: The deejay admits that Apocalypto, the rapper who got sent to prison, was actually a little too violent and too criminal for his tastes.
- Jack the Ripoff: Riordan leaves an Ace of Hearts calling card on a body, just like his grandfather did.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Played with. Riordan, the killer’s dad did his best to be the exact opposite of his own dad, who is doing life for armed robbery and homicide. The killer unfortunately, took after his grandfather instead of his dad.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Grady’s father had tried to pressure Judge Flenner on the basis of his friendship with his son, to let him out on parole. But neither Grady nor Flenner took the deal.
