So taking a break from recapping Grey's Anatomy has left me decidedly without close-ups of medical procedures to watch until now, where a lecture is going on to show just where one should make an incision for some kind of surgery. I don't know; I turned away as I saw a blade go into skin. We follow a rather pasty-looking doctor from the lecture to his hotel room, where he's clearly getting ready for a hot date -- shaving, chilling champagne. Just when he's about to do a preparatory shot from the hotel mini bar, the phone rings. Guess who? Lupo and Green and their team, investigating the room now that our pasty doctor is lying on the floor, having had his head bashed in by his chilled champagne bottle. The doctor's name is Burns -- his wallet is gone, but his nametag is there. Green has a guy go get his browsing history on the hotel's internet while Lupo admires the fantastic quantity of blood and hair on the bottle. It looks like Burns died between midnight and 3 AM. They find an ATM receipt that says he withdrew $800 at 11 PM the night before, and as Lupo wonders ominously why someone would need that much money that late at night, we go to credits.
Dr. Burns had been at the hotel for an orthopedic surgeons' conference. Security video shows him leaving the hotel with a guy and girl, and then coming back seven minutes after the time he withdrew the money, alone. They then get his browsing history, which shows that he looked up local internet cafés. Lupo, not getting a whole lot to do this week, asks why he'd be going to an internet café when he could use the internet in his room. Well, now, I don't know -- why don't we go find out? Lupo's a little more useful in charming the girl at said internet café with pictures of his dog so that she'll tell them what computer Burns used the day before. He'd been browsing Craigslist personals, specifically a "casual encounters" posting for a "bored housewife" looking for a hookup that night. Green's phone rings to let them know that Burns's wife just arrived at the morgue. Awkward!
She cries as she tells them about how they had a great 16-year marriage and two daughters. She'd spoken to him just the night before when he called to tell her he'd been mugged and lost his wallet, and if they ever admit to her that he was clearly lying about that, we don't get to see it. At their desks, Lupo and Green muse about things at their desk, wondering why Burns would lie to his wife and say his wallet was stolen at 8 PM when he used it at 11. The ATM video doesn't show the mystery couple with him. Lupo decides to make conversation and asks Green if he's ever hooked up with anyone online. Green dismisses it with all the "weirdos" there -- seriously, who meets people and then has functional relationships from the internet these days? He guesses from Lupo's giggle that he has a story about internet dating, but Lupo only tells him he met a girl in a chat room in college, and that Green will have to get a couple of beers in him to hear the rest. Dude, the guy knows that you like to have sex in your socks because your feet get cold, but this is where you draw a line?
Anita shows up for one of her glorious scenes this week to ask them if they figured out where Burns spent $800 dollars in the hour he had between withdrawing the money and getting whacked. Green explains that he met scam artists who took his wallet and all the money he could get, and then guesses that they went back and killed him trying to get a PIN for another card they found. Anita pointedly asks if the "bored housewife" is still looking for company, so...BUM BUM! Green's picking her up in a bar. Lupo watches as Green meets Linda. She wants to go to his room, but he cuts to the chase and asks her about Burns. Lupo catches her when she tries to run, and they pull out their badges and open up her purse to find a video camera. They tell her to call her partner or take the fall all alone, and a hot second later they have the guy in an interview room.
Her partner looks like he picked up hairstyling ideas from Christian on Project Runway, but he wasn't actually fierce enough to really commit to the look, and instead landed on looking like he just rolled out of bed and into some gel before getting hauled in. He acts dumb and cocky until they mention the murder, and he seems genuinely terrified and confused. In another room, Linda talks about the rush of ripping guys off. Green doesn't get as turned on by this as she seems to think he should. But they ripped off another guy that night, crossing toll bridges in her car with an EZ Pass, so they're able to track it and confirm that the two were not around to actually kill Burns. After the interviews, Lupo and Green settle in with Anita to watch the secret blackmail video that Linda took of Burns. It shows him chickening out of actually sleeping with her, and then a man pounds on the door, yelling. Anita has them rewind and remarks that the guy banging on the door has a Southern accent. Green adds that whoever it is really wants to talk to Dr. Garrison -- and never once does anyone sound surprised, or enlightened, or anything about the fact that a Dr. Garrison has not yet to this point been mentioned. Anita supposes that maybe the killer killed the wrong doctor, but it feels like she decided that by the accent and not the name he was yelling. It's kind of a nothing point, but it's annoying nonetheless.
They go to visit Dr. Garrison, who was an instructor at the conference. He knew Dr. Burns -- there was a mix-up and Burns didn't have a hotel room, so Garrison gave him his, and in turn stayed at his house since it was so close. He sounds appropriately confused and baffled at the idea that someone might have been after him, telling the boys that he no longer performs surgery, just does consults and research and is about to retire. He also plays a lot of golf, including at Myrtle Beach. At the office, they look him up and find no complaints against him, but they do find that six years previously he bailed his meth-dealing daughter out of jail in South Carolina. She's at a halfway house in White Plains, so they go to pay her a visit.
Don't do meth! The makeup artists certainly did a good job making that point -- this girl is HAGGARD. She tells them she did her five years in New York, since her dad arranged to have her transferred there from South Carolina to look the hero. They don't get along, as evidenced by the fact that he didn't attend her sobriety ceremony on August 9 since he was playing golf in South Carolina. She admits that she got caught when someone called in an anonymous tip, and that some of her friends thought it was her dad. Back they go to Garrison's house to question him again, and he claims he didn't tell them about her because he thought it would upset her. He tells the sad tale of her descent into drugs and says that after his wife's death, he had her transferred to be close to him -- a golfing buddy of his was a warden who was able to pull some strings. He then claims he missed her sobriety ceremony because she never actually invited him; she only thinks she did because of her poor, faulty, drug-addled brain. He also denies that her meth friends could be going after him since they're still in jail, and tries to point the detectives back to Burns being the target.
Green and Lupo just go back to Anita, more suspicious that the attempt on Garrison's life has to do with something in South Carolina, so she sends them on a field trip. Because for one thing, it's actually really hard to get a prisoner (Maggie) moved to another state, but for another thing, that angry guy had a Southern accent. I'd take a moment to point out that there's probably more than one person at a time in New York with a Southern accent and that the emphasis still seems like it should be placed on other evidence, but I'm really too tired by it all.
Green's talking to a cop at the Hilton Head police station (he has a Southern accent! Maybe he did it!), who gives him the rundown on Maggie and expresses doubt that low-grade meth addicts would have the wherewithal to go all the way to New York to kill someone. Lupo, meanwhile, is staring at a bulletin board with a calendar on it, where certain dates have big gold stars. It looks very much like the bulletin board up in the office at my elementary school that was customized for each different month. However, at my school the gold stars didn't mean execution dates, like they do here. Lupo sees an article tacked up and asks about one in particular -- Lionel Hardigan, who had killed a father and his two kids. His lethal injection went wrong and he didn't actually die; instead he is now a vegetable living in the prison hospital. I love the Sheriff's comment: "That one oughta get half a star." Coincidentally, the date of the execution is the same date that Garrison was "golfing" in South Carolina. They go and speak to the warden (accent!) who tells them that South Carolina law protects the anonymity of anyone who participates in an execution, so he can't tell them who it was that helped out. When they pry a bit and Green finally asks if he can tell them that they're on the wrong track, he says everyone is mad about the botched execution; some were mad that Hardigan suffered too much, and others were mad that it wasn't enough. Afterward, there was also a fight between Hardigan's brother Shane and Jamie Yost, whose son and grandchildren Hardigan killed. Yost had been there to watch Hardigan die.
Yost has an accent too -- maybe it was him! Okay, well, so this time it might actually mean something. He tells Lupo and Green about the fight, but brushes it off, saying Shane couldn't do anything worse than what had already happened. So they toddle off to visit Shane, a thin, mousy, creepy guy who has spent his time trying to make a case against South Carolina for torturing his brother. He tells them that he's sure a doctor didn't administer the injection, because if they saw his brother now, they'd know that no doctor could do that to another human being. He claims to have never been to New York. After talking to him, Lupo and Green go back to the hotel, where Lupo's unshaven half-smile charms yet another young female, this time the receptionist. She happily gives them all sorts of information, namely that Garrison was in town on a number of various dates which they know happen to be the same dates as all the executions. If that weren't enough, Garrison's room was booked by the Warden. She also offers that they aren't the first to ask about Garrison, and that another man was there to get his info to "write a thank-you note." Apparently wanting us to think that Southerners are dumb, she offered Garrison's name right up, though not his address, but that's only because she didn't have it. When they show her a picture from the paper, she fingers Yost as the guy who asked. They go back to Yost's house; he acts dumb until they explain that Garrison is still alive and Burns was killed instead. They ask him if he did it, but he finally clams up and requests a lawyer.
Someone at Law & Order casting must like Mad Men because this week another one of their lovely actresses makes an appearance: Maggie Siff is playing Yost's lawyer. She sings his sad song to the judge, who perks up when he hears that it revolves around an execution. Connie explains it all and requests no bail, which he grants, explaining that they're going to trial immediately and that he'll be taking the case. (Something about convenient plot devices, er, I mean, "rotations.") In the office, Jack explains to Connie and Cutter that he did that because he's strongly opposed to the death penalty, and asks how it would affect the case. They don't know, but Cutter's confident that his evidence places Garrison as the doctor at the execution. Jack sends them on their own Southern field trip to get info on Yost's psyche to present to the jury.
Their first stop is to the Warden, who can't believe Yost would do that, but does admit he was asking around about who was at the execution. He reiterates that everyone's identity who participated is protected, and tells "Miss Ruby-Rosa" that she won't get him to break their laws to build her case. She reviews this with Cutter but he doesn't seem too concerned, since he's sure Garrison will admit to it himself if he thinks he's still a target. (I just capitalized "Target." What does that say about my regular shopping habits and my love for a certain store?) They underestimate Garrison, though, and he plays coy when they question him. He essentially admits it by telling them that he'd never go on record given what has happened to people and their families in the past, but won't agree to go on the stand.
Connie and Cutter then go to the jail to try to make a deal with Maggie and Yost. She won't do it, and realizes that the reason they're asking is because they don't have Garrison helping them by admitting his link to Yost. Cutter won't bite, and bluffs that he has everything he needs, adding that he won't let South Carolina's laws keep him from naming people. It sounds all good and confident, but she knows he's got no proof. In Jack's office, Cutter then tries to convince Jack that he wasn't bluffing. He repeats everything he said, but Jack says fighting the SC laws will take years. He thinks to look up a note on death-penalty appeals with the Supreme Court and goes for a book, but Cutter tells him about this newfangled thingy called the "Internet" and shows him a machine known as a "computer." Lo and behold, this magic contraption pulls up just what fuddy-duddy Jack needs to make his point! He tells them to arrest Garrison for murder, based on a loophole -- the Supreme Court needs four votes to grant an appeal but five to stay an execution. Two of the prisoners executed were in the middle of appealing their cases when South Carolina executed them anyway, and Garrison administered the lethal injections. Oh, our laws at work -- aren't they glorious. Even Cutter has his limits and says he can't defend against that, so Jack says he'll do it instead. Lupo and Green get to go back to Garrison's house to arrest him, cuffs and all, as he tells the press assembled outside that he did nothing wrong.
In with the judge, Garrison's lawyer argues that the executions were carried out legally, but Jack reiterates that they were done while the appeals were pending. The lawyer tells Jack to go after the governor or the judges that wouldn’t grant stays, then, and Jack ominously tells them he would if he could. The judge points out that the executions were in another state and asks how he has jurisdiction, and Jack explains that Garrison practiced medicine in New York City with a state medical license. He says they imported a doctor since no one from their own state would do it, and New York has an interest in making sure its doctors "don't participate in these barbarities." The judge admits it's a slim case, but he'll take it, and when Garrison's lawyer protests that it's because of his personal view of the death penalty, the judge basically says, "Yeah, so what of it?" Jack walks out and plays his hand -- if Garrison will testify in Yost's trial that he took part in the executions, he'll make this case "go away." Cutter congratulates Jack on his awesome moves and anticipates that now the defense will try to put lethal injections on trial to sway the jury. Cutter bitches about that, but Jack's too classy to smack him and tell him to appreciate the gift he just got.
Garrison testifies that he met the warden on the golf course and was asked to help out with an execution, and that he agreed to because he thought it was more humane than having someone give the injection who isn't trained. He admits that he administered Hardigan's injection and that it went wrong, and that Yost was there to see it. Maggie gets up to do her questioning and tries to get Garrison to admit that he enjoyed all the respect and adulation, plus "playing God," which is met with a hearty objection from Cutter. She then has him explain what went wrong, which is that the injection went into Hardigan's tissue rather than his bloodstream, which caused convulsing, stopped his breathing for a few moments, and rendered him brain-dead. Apparently the needle also sprang out of Hardigan's arm and sprayed around. Garrison then told the warden that to continue they'd have to go to an OR, the warden stopped the execution, and to her question Garrison admits that of course he was disturbed by what happened, since "it's not supposed to go wrong like that." Cutter sees this as all he needs and rests his case, but Maggie's not done and requests an approach. Her witness request is so out there, the judge pulls them into chambers.
She wants to bring in Hardigan's doctor to testify to the state he's in since the botched execution, and bring in Hardigan himself as an exhibit. That just sounds wrong on so many levels, which Cutter argues. Maggie claims that this will show the jury what Yost experienced, leading to him murdering the doctor because of PTSD. Cutter argues against all of it, deeming it a "freak show," which isn't wrong, but the judge allows it. Cutter asks if that's because he thinks it's right or because of his stance on the death penalty, but the judge rightly points out that they won one round because of his stance on the issue, so they'll have to deal with this too.
Freak show it certainly is. While the doctor explains how painful the experience would have been, Hardigan is strapped upright to a bed and convulses slightly as the doctor speaks. Cutter and Connie relay this to Jack, and Cutter says it didn't bother him since Hardigan is a child murderer. Connie is appalled, saying she was disturbed and she's sure the jury was too. She's devil's advocating, but Cutter just keeps asserting that Yost is a murderer and he'll get him. Jack observes, "No shades of grey in this for you, is there." When Cutter tells him no, Jack likes that. (Wow, that sounds a lot dirtier than what actually happened.)
Yost and his Southern accent are up on the stand describing what happened to his son and grandkids, which is predictably awful. Yost fell apart afterward, but then after the execution went bad, he flipped out completely and became a drunk. Once he sobered up, he tried to talk to the doctor who did the procedure, hoping to get some peace. The road to peace was paved with stalking -- er, "research" -- and he found out about the New York conference and went up there. He admits that when Garrison wouldn't talk to him, he flipped out. He then confronted and killed Burns (after Burns didn't know what Yost was talking about, which enraged him), and that he didn't know it was the wrong guy until Lupo and Green came around and told him. He states that if he'd known the doctor at the hotel wasn't Garrison, none of this would have happened. Um, that's all well and good, sir, but it doesn't actually excuse the fact that you bashed another man's head in with a champagne bottle. The one part of his testimony that gets to Connie and Cutter, though, is that Yost left a note at the hotel for Garrison.
Back at the office, they discuss how they missed that completely since everyone was only looking for info about Burns. Their options are re-calling Garrison to ask if he ever got the note -- which Cutter doesn't want to do, in case that pushes the jury into pitying Yost -- or offering Yost first-degree manslaughter, which Cutter also doesn't want to do. Exasperated, Connie tells him he has to pick one since they can't keep it a secret, so he picks Garrison, who admits he got the note. Garrison admits that he gave the room to Burns and didn't tell the hotel to try to keep his identity a secret. He claims he had no idea his life was in danger. (Except I could swear that at the beginning of the episode, they said the room was registered to Burns. My head hurts.) Maggie points out that Burns died, then, because Garrison wouldn't speak to Yost. Well, yes. That, and the fact that your client was capable of murder. Her closing argument is that the horror of what happened and the snub from Garrison was reason for Yost to snap, and that it was Garrison's fault that Burns was in harm's way. She sets up Cutter perfectly to argue that of all people, Yost should know that he has to pay for the pain inflicted on Burns's family.
Clearly he finally strikes a chord, because at the jail, Maggie asks him to make a deal. Cutter blusters that he won't, but Connie starts to bargain. Appalled, Cutter pulls her aside. He says he's willing to risk losing, so she points out that even if they win, the judge wouldn't max out Yost's sentence. She asks if this is really about winning or if it's about Cutter's own stance on the death penalty. He stares holes into her face for a moment, then turns and offers Murder Two (instead of One) for fifteen to life, and Yost takes it immediately, on one condition -- that they stop Garrison so that no one else has to go through all this. Cutter agrees, we cut to black, and Dick Wolf rubs some lotion made from gold flecks and liquefied hundred-dollar bills into his skin.