Directed by Paul Holahan
Written by Janet Tamaro & Michael Mc Grale
A high school driver's ed/science teacher is killed in a hit-and-run involving a car from his own class. When one of his chemistry students attempts suicide shortly before his death, detectives learn that the deceased was exchanging grades for sex and blackmailing his students into not reporting. Meanwhile, although Jane remains in contact with Casey, she gets asked out on a date by Detective Martinez (Amaury Nolasco). Maura calls it "chemistry", but Jane says it can never happen.
Tropes
- Asshole Victim: The victim was a teacher who sexually abused his female students. When one of them tried to report him, he posted a picture of her flashing her bra on social media and she overdosed on drugs after the following slut-shaming comments. As revenge, her three friends ran him over with a car. Adding insult to fatal injury, the detectives solve his murder but can only charge the driver, which all three girls admit to being, so they ultimately let the girls walk on a technicality and aren't too broken up over it besides some brief questioning.
- Karma Houdini The three girls. Because of Massachusetts state law, they get away with running down their teacher when they all say that they were all the driver.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: The episode involves three suspects involved in a hit-and-run of a teacher at their high school. The three girls were all best friends along with another girl whom had attempted suicide after the teacher had pressured her into sex and then tried to get her expelled, leaving her in a coma. Since Massachusetts law only allows for the prosecution of the driver, the three suspects are interrogated separately to admit who was driving the car. Despite knowing they faced prison for murder, all three suspects claimed to be the driver to protect the other two when interrogated. This left the detectives unable to identify the driver and forced to let the girls go free, resulting in the three of them beating the Dilemma.
- Sexiness Score: While Jane and Maura are discussing the case in a bar, Maura notices some guys in another table are rating the girls in there, by holding up napkins with numbers from 1 to 10. To mess with them, Jane and Maura also give them scores in the same fashion.
- True Companions: Three friends each give the exact same account for confronting their pedophile teacher, from how they set their phone to record, his actions, to deleting it later. They even each confess to be the one behind the wheel when the car struck him and killed him and the others were passengers. Because of this refusal to name anyone else behind the wheel besides the confessor, and Massachusetts State Law says only the driver can be prosecuted, there is no way to move beyond reasonable doubt. So the girls get away with it... although considering the nature of the victim, the team aren't exactly broken up about the inability to convict.
