Directed by Constantine Makris
Written by Rob Wright
The murder of a young man named Andrew Hatcher appears to be drug-related until it emerges that the victim, a student activist, was researching local meat-packing plant Elite Meats. Elite had sold infected meat to a fast food chain, causing the deaths of five children from E-Coli. Agristar Enterprises, the owners of the chain, reached an out-of-court settlement with the families of the deceased in order to keep the whole thing quiet. An appalled Lewin orders McCoy to proceed with a case against Agristar.
Elite's owner Arthur King accepts a plea deal to testify against Bill Talbot, the CEO of Agristar. Talbot ordered King to cut safety standards at the plant in order to meet productivity quotas, and then told him to keep Hatcher quiet; King claims to have killed Hatcher accidentally during a confrontation with him. In court, Talbot and his lawyers argue that King could have met quotas without compromising safety standards, and that there was simply no cost-effective way to mitigate for risk. But McCoy threatens to call all the parents of the victims as witnesses, and Talbot reluctantly accepts a guilty plea for two years per victim.
This episode contains examples of:
- Brand X: Agristar and Big Bill's are thinly-veiled copies of the AFG and McDonald's, respectively.
- Call-Back: Elite Meats was referenced in at least two previous episodes of the show.
- Death of a Child: Five young children died as a result of improper meat-handling at Elite.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the story focuses on the investigation into Hatcher's murder; the second half involves the DAs bringing a homicide case against Talbot.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The USDA official who tells Southerlyn that they're powerless to try to shut down Elite or inform the public of its standards violations.
- Outliving One's Offspring:
- Hatcher's parents have a meeting with the police after his murder.
- Talbot is threatened that the parents of the dead children would testify in court. One of them is brought into the room to prove that McCoy is serious about this.
- Smug Snake: Talbot.
- The Stoner: The victim was one, initially leading to one of his dealers becoming a suspect.
- Villain-by-Proxy Fallacy
