Directed by Fred Gerber
Written by Michael S Chernuchin
The episode begins with Briscoe and Curtis investigating the murder of a university student named Alison Reich. The most obvious suspect is a classmate who had posted graphic fantasies online about murdering Alison; but Briscoe and Green cannot find any concrete evidence against him. When they work out that Alison's roommate, Megan Maslin, has lied in her account of the evening of the murder, they go to question her but find Megan has taken an overdose of pills. She admits in her semi-conscious state that she killed Alison, and the detectives find the murder weapon in her room. She is rushed to hospital and will be charged with murder. Megan's lawyer is the infamously tenacious Shelley Cates, who's come up against McCoy several times. Cates quickly gets the murder weapon excluded as evidence.
The DAs discover that Megan was orphaned in very tragic circumstances as a child, and also killed her older sister while still underage. Olivet interviews Megan, concluding that Megan is paranoid as a result of the trauma she suffered in her childhood - a possible drive for her to lash out at someone close to her. However, Cates refuses to plead not guilty by reason of mental defect. Schiff decides to first charge Megan with fraud as leverage - she had lied on her college application so she could win a scholarship. In this case, the judge allows the murder weapon as evidence. Megan breaks down on the stand, screaming that Alison was plotting to kill her so she had to defend herself. The judge grants McCoy's motion to amend the charges to murder and Cates reluctantly agrees to an insanity defence.
This episode contains examples of:
- Driven to Suicide: Megan attempts suicide but is rescued in time by the detectives.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the episode is about the investigation into Alison's murder and the detectives gathering evidence against Merrill Grupp. The second half is about the case against Megan.
- Insanity Defence: Cates repeatedly rejects McCoy's suggestion to do this; confident that a jury will acquit Megan. Ultimately, they have to go through with it after Megan admits to the murder during her trial for fraud.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Allison's parents come to identify the body.
- The Paranoiac: Megan Maslin is one. She goes into a rant about all the things Alison was doing to her, like poison her toothpaste. Of course, they are outrageous and untrue.
- Patched Together from the Headlines: Based on the cases of Sinedu Tadesse (a student who killed her college roommate), and Gina Grant (who was found to have lied on college applications about her murder conviction.)
- Potty Emergency: Briscoe and Curtis deliberately leave Grupp on his own for a long time and wait for him to need the bathroom so that it will be easier to get him to co-operate.
- Title Drop: Used at least twice.
