Briscoe and Curtis investigate the murder of Donny Gibson, who was found dead in a parking lot. The leads take them to Sean Russo, the son of an imprisoned crime boss. His bail is paid off by in part by Tom Wilder and Jeff Stahl, who own a strip club. Gibson had installed a sound system in the club but had not been paid for his services. He was pressing for payment and threatened to go to the FBI and rat that Russo was part owner of the club. Things get complicated when a federal prosecutor wants to go after Russo.
Tropes present in this episode
- Jurisdiction Friction: It's feds vs. the Manhattan D.A., as they both want to prosecute Sean Russo: McCoy for the murder of Donny Gibson and the feds for racketeering.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: McCoy, from Gervits's perspective. Gervits was angry over McCoy pulling an immunity deal from a suspect in "DWB" and tanking a federal case, so he does a similar thing here: he builds a federal case which uses Russo's testimony to destroy Russo's other mob associates, then exploits that to both give Russo a reduced sentence and to pull the witness protection of Wilder and Stahl, who had been slated to testify against Russo. McCoy thus is not only unable to get a significant sentence against Russo, but it's heavily implied the mob will murder his witnesses Wilder and Stahl.
