A corporate executive is found dead in Central Park. Kyle Morrison was the COO of Hythena, a biomedical engineering startup run by Nina Ellis, a charismatic CEO. Upon further investigation, the detectives discover that the company was selling cancer screening tests that do not work.
Ellis is arrested for fraud and murder. The prosecutor assembles a jury of middle and lower income people who’d be much less inclined to fall for a rich person’s sales pitch. Unfortunately, the CEO outmaneuvers them by claiming battered woman syndrome. And she is selling it well, seeing as how quite a few jurors were, or have closely known abuse victims. Against Maroun's advice, Price questions the defendant's story of abuse - making him look bad to the jury, and risking the case.
When Ellis attributes a broken arm she suffered a few months ago to the abuse, the prosecutors question why she hasn't presented evidence of this in her defense. They cross check her story, and then call her polo coach as a witness - who testifies the defendant actually broke her arm falling off her horse. This leaves her with no leg to stand on, and she is eventually convicted. Price is relieved that she's been proven a liar and won't harm the cause of real victims of abuse.
Tropes found here are:
- The Alibi: Mr. Morley, whose wife was given a false negative test thanks to the company's negligence, left several hostile messages to the deceased. Bernard and Cosgrove rule him out when the hospital confirms his presence there taking care of his terminal wife.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As pointed out by Price, Nina Ellis will assume any role that will make her look sympathetic, whether it is battered fiancée or feminist CEO.
- Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: The broken arm the CEO claims was due to abuse by her fiancé is attributed to her falling off a horse.
- Coordinated Clothes: DA Jack McCoy wears a raincoat and hat similar to what DA Adam Schiff often wore during the first ten seasons of the show.
- Frame-Up: Upon realizing that the prosecution has irrefutable evidence she killed Kyle, her COO and fiancé, Nina Ellis accuses Kyle of physical, verbal and sexual abuse that escalated to the point she snapped and killed him for fear of her life. This is similar to Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes accusing her partner Sunny Balwani of physical and sexual abuse.
- Girlboss Feminist: Nina Ellis uses her "strong-willed, wealthy, successful businesswoman" status like a bludgeon as part of marketing herself to investors and customers, but is ultimately shown to simply being a murderous, cold-blooded narcissist who simply uses feminism as yet another tool to achieve wealth and fame. The instant she realizes the prosecutors have sufficient evidence to prove she was Kyle's murderer, she claims she killed Kyle in response to years of physical, verbal and sexual abuse, aka "battered woman syndrome", to try and get herself off by playing on the jury's sympathy. Price scornfully lampshades the hypocrisy, but Maroun is troubled; not only does she believe Nina's ploy has a good chance of winning, she's worried about how the #metoo movement might be negatively affected by successfully prosecuting a legitimately fraudulent claim of a woman being abused, to the point of her pushing Price to offer Nina a plea deal to avoid the publicity.
- Good Old Ways: Cosgrove laments about the days before "electric cars and artificial intelligence", which Bernard lampshades as Cosgrove's "crochety-ass way of saying [Frank] miss[es] the way things were."
- Hard Truth Aesop: Just because abuse of women by men is a real, ongoing and terrible thing... does not mean that there aren't women cold-blooded enough to falsely claim to have been abused for their own personal gain, even in the era of #metoo.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The CEO is based on Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mr. Morrison's only child was the Victim of the Week.
- Quip to Black: When the detectives find a company pen on Morrison's body.Bernard: (Reading) Hythena: Working hard to keep you alive.
Cosgrove: Not hard enough. - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Price gives Maroun a short but poignant chewing out that the job of prosecutors is to punish the guilty and earn justice for the victims, not worry about bad optics for a political movement.
- Ripped from the Headlines: From the Theranos finger prick comprehensive blood tests scam.
