Alicia mistakenly advises a Muslim student charged with vandalism to use a red light photo of his car as an alibi. This places him at a murder site where the victim was Jewish and a reverse swastika was drawn on the victim's neck. He claims it could have been Amir or Tariq, his Muslim roommates. Grace gets an eccentric tutor who makes videos of herself dancing on the subway.
Tropes
- Crime of Passion: The entire hate crime angle turns out to be a Red Herring: Tariq and the victim Simon Greenberg were Closet Gay boyfriends and Tariq killed Simon over suspicion he was cheating on him, then drew a swastika on him to confuse the police. The absurdity gets lampshaded by Eli to one of his lobbying clients afterwards:"'Is it good for the Jewish League Fund?' I don't know. A Muslim was the killer, but he was also gay and sleeping with our guy so... I would call that a classic 'mixed message'. If it helps our cause, I can find out if he's a top?"
- Good Is Not Nice: A witness accuses Alicia of being rude. She tells him she is just getting started.
- Lying to the Perp: And his attorney, for that matter. Cary tricks Kalinda into taking red light camera photo of the client's car to Alicia, and the client lies under oath that it's him, thinking to get out of the assault charge for a brawl between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students. Then Cary reveals that he just placed himself near the scene of Simon Greenberg's murder and charges him.
- Murder Simulators: Cary attempts to use the fact Alicia's client plays an online multiplayer shooter simulating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as evidence he committed the crime. Alicia deflects that with a discovery that several of Cary's own coworkers play the same video game.
- This Is Reality: Alicia argues that just because he plays video games where your player character is a guerilla soldier and you blow up schools, that doesn't mean her client would do that in real life.
- Title Drop: Kalinda asks if it's a new Cary. Cary replies that it's just a new day.
- You Just Told Me: When confronting Tariq, Kalinda asks him why he drew the swastika backwards. Tariq gets confused and says he thought that was how they were drawn. (The Nazi swastika is the reverse Hindu sun symbol, so it makes sense that he's seen that before.)
