The murder of Dr. Jenny Gorham appears to be a mugging, but Briscoe and Logan are convinced it was staged. They think that the killer was in a relationship with the victim - placing her boyfriend Dan Garrett under suspicion. Dan has recently been admitted to hospital for his mental health, and he and Jenny were both seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Diane Mead. The detectives question Dan, who eventually admits that he was cheating on Jenny with Dr. Mead. Mead told Dan that she'd have to end the relationship if anyone else found out, so when Jenny learned the truth from reading his journal, Dan killed her to keep her quiet.
Olivet examines Dan and concludes that Mead deliberately took advantage of his vulnerability to make him dependent on her. It was almost inevitable that Jenny would be harmed at some point, and Mead had to have known Dan was a danger to Jenny. Against Schiff's advice, Stone decides to charge Mead with homicide on the grounds of indifference. He agrees a plea deal with Dan's lawyer and then allows Mead to visit Dan in jail. The conversation demonstrates how manipulative Mead is, and she is arrested. But the judge excludes the tape recording of Mead's visit to Dan as evidence.
In court, Olivet testifies that Dan became so dependent on Mead that he genuinely believed he would die without her. Dan says Jenny threatened to hand his journal over to the hospital, so Mead demanded he get it back. He accidentally killed Jenny in a struggle over the journal. Stone produces the journal as evidence, showing that Dan wrote that Mead promised him they could be together if he "got rid" of Jenny. Faced with losing her licence for having sex with a patient, Mead takes a plea deal for criminally negligent homicide. The judge sentences Dan to a minimum four years in prison, while Mead receives only probation.
This episode contains examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: As Mead points out, she is old enough to be Dan's mother.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: A variation:Briscoe: This girl was killed by a junkie - and I believe Elvis is at Radio City tonight.
- Downer Ending: Jenny is dead, and Dan receives a lengthy prison sentence even though he belongs in hospital. Although Mead lost her licence, Stone is convinced that she'll continue to see patients illegally.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Briscoe and Logan pull this routine on Dan to try to get him to talk.
- Love Makes You Crazy: This is apparently the case with Dan Gorman.
- Manipulative Bastard: Mead convinced Dan that Jenny was this, though the trope is much more applicable to Mead herself.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Mead comes across as this, although her concern about "patient confidentiality" is a front for covering her tracks.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Jenny's parents are alive during this episode.
