The episode begins with a crowded commuter train colliding with a parked SUV, causing 12 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Because the driver of the SUV went to extensive lengths to cover their tracks and bypass security, the case is treated as a mass homicide. The vehicle's owner, Lenny Thorne, is about to face a re-trial for rape; the DA leading the case regularly took the commuter train. Thorne denies any knowledge and says his SUV was stolen from a parking lot.
A closer look into the injured from the crash shows that one of them, Davey Buckley, has wounds that look suspiciously self-inflicted. Sure enough, Buckley confesses to stealing the SUV. His extensive family and financial troubles drove him to commit suicide, so he parked on the tracks, intending to be hit by the train and killed; but miraculously, he survived. He then deliberately cut himself with a knife and claimed to be a survivor of the crash.
Rodney Fallon takes Buckley's case and goes for an insanity defence. He argues at trial that Buckley is a victim of systemic discrimination that left him suicidal and unable to get help. But, when it dawns on Buckley that if this defence works he'll spend the rest of his life in a mental facility, he fires Fallon. Buckley insists on representing himself, and the judge rules he's competent to do it.
Buckley tells the jury that he intended to kill himself, not realizing the train would derail. He now claims he tried to back out at the last minute - which is likely to get a jury's sympathy. So McCoy calls Buckley's brother Jimmy, the only one of his family who wasn't prepared to testify for the defence. Jimmy says that Buckley is insincere, manipulative, and has repeatedly threatened suicide just for attention. Buckley is ultimately found guilty and given 12 consecutive life sentences, one for each victim of the crash.
Tropes contained here are
- Attention Whore: The murderer only threatened suicide to get attention and sympathy from his family, particularly his estranged wife.
- A Fool for a Client: The murderer abruptly scuttles the effective “mental defect” defense his lawyer is arguing, fires his attorney and pleads “not guilty”. With no strategy for proving his innocence.
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode opens focusing on several passengers on a train. One notes that someone has been in the bathroom almost the entire ride and it smells like something died in there...and then the train gets derailed.
- Bungled Suicide: What led to the train crash.
- Chick Magnet: Thorne sees himself as this and says he wouldn't have bothered trying to harm ADA Neskoff, because all the female jurors at his re-trial will be sympathetic.
- Loophole Abuse: When the detectives believe Thorne could be the killer, Falco justifies using the Patriot Act to get a search warrant because technically it's still a potential act of terrorism (even though Thorne's apparent motive was clearly a personal one.)
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The murderer’s brother testifies for the prosecutor. He gets on the stand and excoriates the murderer as a loser who only pleads for sympathy, is all talk and never finishes anything he started.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Based on the 2005 Glendale train crash in similar circumstances.
- Self-Harm: The murderer tried to pass off a wrist slashing attempt as an injury sustained in the crash. The detectives don’t buy it one bit and zero in on him.
