M.E. Rogers calls Fontana and Green after a boy dies from the flu. His records show he had had a flu shot but his body did not have the antibodies he would have had. She has linked this to other six flu deaths where the deceased got a shot of something other than the influenza vaccine. To cope with the demand for flu shots, doctors have had to resort to unreliable sources. The detectives eventually find Elliot Peters, who sold vials of saline solution as the shot. McCoy prosecutes Peters on 16 manslaughter charges, to be served consecutively with the judge's approval.
D.A. Alexandra Borgia is introduced.
Tropes present in this episode
- Death of a Child: The episode starts with the death of a 10-year-old boy.
- Longer-Than-Life Sentence: Peters is sentenced to 240 years in prison.
- Off on a Technicality: At first, Elliot Peters' lawyer gets the evidence from the warehouse excluded due to the warrant being technically incorrect; without this evidence, the prosecution has no case. However, this decision is ultimately subverted when McCoy shows that Elliot had no expectation of privacy in the warehouse.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The 2002 Robert Case, where a pharmacist intentionally diluted chemo drugs.
- Shout-Out: McCoy brings up The Third Man while questioning the defendant in court. In the film, a conman steals and dilutes penicillin, with similar consequences. He even mentions the scene where that conman is on a Ferris wheel and points points out the faceless dots below and asks someone if they would care if one stopped moving.
