Bum bum! Two really drunk girls are stumbling around an impound lot trying to get their car back. The officer working, Sonny, won't give it to them, and he's thanked by one of them puking against his booth and then passing out. He tells another guy to call 911, but the other, still-conscious girl begs him not to since they'll get in trouble. She then asks to use his phone since she can't get a signal on her cell, but he won't let her, so she stumbles off outside. Ever the gentleman, he watches her as she walks around the corner and down the highway out of sight, with a glare on his face that made me first think that he would be the murderer du jour. But then again, maybe he just thought her chartreuse tights really were ugly.
Then we're in the emergency room lobby with Pukey, Lupo, Green, and the parents of the one who stumbled off, named Anne-Marie, who is now missing. Pukey seems to be more worried about them getting busted than about her missing friend, whom she says tried to call a college guy they met that night to come pick them up. Green assures the parents that the cops will find their daughter, and Lupo then adds under his breath, "Yeah, we find 'em." So if there was any shred of doubt about what state she'll be in when she's found, it's gone now.
The first person they talk to is the college guy that the girls met, Brendan. He's a real gem, but that was probably obvious to you already by his taste in high school girls. He admits that Anne-Marie called him for a ride, saying she was lost, and that he responded by hanging up. Rather than seem ashamed when Lupo questions this with judgment heavy in his voice, Brendan knowingly tells them that he'd met other girls later. Maybe it was the tights that turned him off?
they interview Sonny, who tells them he did everything "by the book" and says that the girl just took off after he called the ambulance. Lupo and Green seem to already be tired of dealing with guys that don't care at all for the welfare of young girls, but they're not really going to have any sort of reprieve later. Green incredulously asks if he just watched the drunk girl stumble away onto the highway, and defensively Sonny replies only, "What am I, Super Nanny?" Well, duh, no; you don't have a British accent.
Anita's duty this week is to play Exposition Fairy. Anne-Marie's parents called the press so the PD's been getting tons of calls, but two were from people who saw her on the highway; one saw her getting into a cab. Lupo asks if they have a license plate, which he seems to think might actually be likely. Of course no one thought to write down the plate number of a cab picking up a drunk girl in New York. Strange. Green says the witness says there were flowers on the taxi, and Anita gets to explain some more: that they're celebrating 100 years of New York taxis, so kids are painting flowers on all of them. (Well, sorta.) Conveniently, the taxi that picked her up only had flowers on the trunk, so they can narrow it down. This leads them right to the driver that picked her up, of course. But it wasn't a new fare -- rather, the guy who was already in the cab told him that he knew the girl, and to pull over and pick her up. He did, and then dropped them off at what the driver calls "very bad hotel."
"Very bad" means many things, but first off it means that only one security camera was working. On the tape they can see two people getting out of the cab, one of whom was probably Anne-Marie, but neither face is visible. Then a different girl runs out and pays the driver, and the manager identifies her as a semi-regular tenant named Sugar. "Nice girl! Methhead hooker, but nice girl." Good cop that he is, Green figures that the guy is Sugar's pimp, and the manager is able to tell them that they all went to Sugar's room. Another helpful citizen, this one. The guys go up to the room and do a search, where they find blood on the carpet, and Anne-Marie's phone is under the bed. They declare it a crime scene and before they can say more, the manager resignedly says he knows the drill and he'll show the CSU guys up when they arrive. Lupo checks out the phone and sees that someone called a number in Suffolk County that morning.
So away we go! The number called was that of Sugar's parents, perfect WASPs, who explain that her name is actually Melinda, she's been thrown out of rehab, and they don't send her money because they don't want to enable her. Green gets the name of her most recent rehab, and they go visit the place her mother called their "last hope." Clearly, she added the last bit to prepare them, though I'm not sure anything is really going to suggest that it's the kind of facility where the patients wear signs around their necks to state what they've done. "I'm a thief" and "I'm a racist" walk past as Lupo and Green talk to the director, who lets them in to talk to Melinda's closest friend when she was a patient. Lupo buys "Nelson"'s compliance with a pack of cigarettes and judicious use of "bro" after each sentence. It just doesn't really sound authentic from Green while he's wearing an expensive coat and leather gloves, but it (and some mild threats) get them the name of a meth dealer that Sugar knew.
I swear, this show really feels like a strange game of virtual follow-the-leader sometimes. Follow me, kids; now we're going to go talk to a meth dealer! There's a brief chase, where Green looks like he's about to bend over and declare that he's too old for this shit, but they catch the guy. They then use him as a trap to get to Sugar. It works like clockwork. Back at the station, she twitches her way through some bad lies as they question her. But she doesn't give anything away, seemingly to protect the guy in the video, and they're interrupted by an officer who comes in to say they've found something.
I hate to say it, but Anne-Marie almost looks better in death -- with copious amounts of blood running down her head -- than she did alive, because she was just that wasted. Lupo declares, "See? We find 'em," as we're treated to a view of his chins from the perspective of the dumpster. People, it's not arty, it's just unattractive. I have a very similar picture of myself taken at the Eiffel Tower, where the photographer crouched down to try and get our faces as well as a lot of the tower itself. What happened is that the picture isn't so much a good souvenir as it is a lesson that I should have been listening much more to Miss Tyra when she talked about angling your face to the camera to look its best rather than like a descendent of the Michelin Man. One might also suggest that it's a cautionary tale about eating multiple croissants with Nutella for breakfast every day, but I refuse to accept that.
Anne-Marie has been autopsied, and the assessment is about as horrible as it gets -- various penetrations, fluids found, death by strangulation, and then blunt-force head trauma for good measure. Green then gets a message that Sugar's parents have decided to stop the tough love and get her a lawyer. Said lawyer is in a meeting with Anita trying his best to have Sugar released, but Anita and the boys aren't biting and won't admit that Sugar is just an innocent victim. Sugar just scratches at the open sores on her face while the lawyer tells them they won't take a deal. Outside, they run through the options and decide the best one is to let her go, follow her closely, and see if she leads them to the guy.
thing we see is them in the car, bitching, so that we know it's been hours that they've been watching Sugar smoke. Lupo gets an idea and has a kid passing by deliver her a note that eloquently states, "Think a bitch can rat me out and run away?" He's not being very secretive about it, just walking around casually outside the car just after he's been talking to her, so I guess maybe he assumes that, as a junkie, she won't really notice him? Let's just call it that; I'm too tired to come up with a better reason. Green chuckles delightedly when he hears what Lupo wrote. It works; Sugar runs to a pay phone and calls someone. Shortly thereafter, a guy shows up and she throws herself at him, swearing she'd never give him up. It's bad luck for her that just then the boys show up and arrest the guy, Tito, who is taken away screaming at her for being a lying bitch.
Tito is Mr. Smooth in the interview room, and he first points out that he can't be ID'd by the video since you can't see his face, and then admits to taking Anne-Marie to the hotel but insists that she wanted everything she got. He's one of those really special guys who refers to himself in the third person, in this case to tell the cops that he's not a "one-woman man." He insists that Sugar was just jealous, and he had her in the room to watch to put her in her place. He also then totally pins the murder on Sugar, saying she must have done it out of jealousy. It's revolting and gross, and I want a shower after watching him. Clearly, so do Lupo and Green. Anita knocks on the window to tell them Sugar followed them to the station, so they go to talk to her. She says she does not want to call her lawyer, natch, and insists that Tito wouldn't say she was a murderer. So, given what they have, Lupo arrests her for murder, and they proceed to tell her all sorts of nasty things that Tito said and did, some true and some, er, embellished -- things like her prowess in bed. At this, she breaks down and tells them that he's lying and he killed Anne-Marie after he made Sugar watch while he raped her. They then get to bust back into Tito's room and arrest him. As they take him to lockup, he screams at Sugar for being a junkie whore, lying bitch, blah blah blah horrific-insult-cakes.
It's 10:30, so it must be the Connie and Cutter show now. In the courtroom, Sugar pleads not guilty and gets bail set at $5,000. Tito then pleads not guilty, and Connie launches into her reasoning for him being remanded. When she gets to the part about him brutally raping and murdering Anne-Marie, Sugar loses it and begins screaming that it's a lie and she's sorry and loves him. I get the idea that I'm supposed to feel more sympathy towards this poor cautionary tale of a girl than I do, but really I just want to punch her so she'll be quiet. Tito is remanded for now, but then the lawyers all meet with the judge where the little matter of Lupo's note is brought up. Since this crossed the line of the trickery cops are allowed to use to get a statement, the judge suppresses the evidence of Sugar's statement against Tito, leaving them with nothing but rage, which Connie and Cutter then take out on Lupo and Green. They have a big argument where the detectives list out all the other evidence they have, but Cutter refutes it all, pointing out that it all leaves room for reasonable doubt. Connie asks them about other witnesses at the hotel, and Green gives them the name of a woman who is now at a battered women's shelter.
Clearly not content to leave anything else up to Lupo and Green, Connie and Cutter go themselves to interview the witness, Tabitha. She's sporting quite a shiner as she tells them about hearing a couple going at it in the other room. The only person she actually saw that night was Sugar dumping a bag of garbage after all the noise had subsided. They didn't speak, but Tabitha tells them somewhat grudgingly that "her man" Timmy went over to Sugar's room, as he was wont to do. She tells them Timmy's currently in jail due to the state of her face, and assures them that this time she's pressing charges.
And with a jump we're at the jail with Connie and Cutter, talking to Timmy. He claims he might have seen something, then hints that jail is so crowded and he'd like the room emptier. It's a horribly clumsy set-up that doesn't actually work, but he's trying to get some time alone with Connie. But since it's in the script, she gets it and sends Cutter away, mainly because they're going to need to bring up this situation in an argument later. Once they're alone, Timmy explains that when he was arrested, he also had just the teeniest amount of drugs on him, and that if those charges went away his memory might return.
Jack doesn't have much to do this week; his purpose is to go visit the Bronx DA's office to tell them about Timmy's requested deal. The ADA told Jack he wouldn't do it, so Jack is now there to try and make it work. They exchange barbs to illustrate their strained relationship and different backgrounds, but stay cordial like the civilized people they are. Delgado, the Bronx DA, thinks about it and then offers that if Jack will fix one of his guys' parking tickets, he'll, as Jack puts it, "Help [him] convict a rapist/murderer." Well, they say parking in the city can be murder, so that's a fair trade, right? See what I did there? Parking...murder...no? Maybe? Let's just move on like Jack does; he takes the unexpected gift and runs with it.
Timmy, memory now nice and drug-charge free, shows Connie and Carla around the crime scene and describes what he saw. Being the top-notch fellow that he is, he went over to try and pick up Sugar once all the noise had died down. Tito was gone and he didn't see Anne-Marie, since she was supposedly in the bathroom at the end of the hall, but he did see that there was something moving and yelping in a duffel bag half-under Sugar's bed, which he assumed was another dog she brought home. Dude, the chartreuse tights were ugly, but "dog" is a little harsh, don't you think? For those who couldn't follow, Connie mutters, "My God, Anne-Marie was still alive," and Cutter adds, "And [Sugar] was all alone with her." Connie remembers the detail about Sugar throwing out her trash, so they call Lupo and Green back to do some disgusting investigating.
Triumphantly, Lupo strides into the office holding a plastic bag with a hair dryer, which he announces is the murder weapon; it still has Anne-Marie's blood on it. Interestingly, though, it turns out that only Sugar's prints are present, not Tito's. Cutter figures it out and explains for all of us watching at home that Tito thought he killed Anne-Marie and went out to find a place to dump the body; while he was gone, Sugar realized she was still alive and finished the job off in a jealous rage. It's enough to give Lupo and Green the opportunity to once again arrest her for the murder, this time at her parents' house so that she can scream for her dad to help her as they put her in the car.
For a change of pace this week, we see the less sexy side of trials: jury selection. It's nonstop action, folks, as Cutter takes slips of paper and asks a couple of questions of potential jurors and decides if he wants them or not. One guy there has somewhat unkempt greasy hair and a slightly uncomfortable demeanor, so we know he's going to be bad news. He answers that he'd been arrested once at a demonstration and was ticked that he was then held for three days. Connie doesn't want to keep him, but Cutter for some reason wants him there, so onto the jury he goes. Tito's at the other table watching the whole thing nervously, and when Cutter keeps Juror # Creepy, Mr. Campbell, Tito leans over and whispers to his lawyer. In the office, Connie tells Jack and Cutter that Tito wants a deal. He'll plead to rape and attempted murder and testify against Sugar. Cutter, always the optimist, thinks he can get him for murder as an accomplice. But after some talking, they convince Tito to take the deal, both to get him behind bars and to have a better chance of nailing Sugar.
Back at court, Cutter examines Timmy, who testifies to the bag and the yelping. Sugar's lawyer then tries to cast doubt by asking Timmy about the deal he struck. In the moment of silence following, the camera shows us that Juror # Creepy is staring not at the witness but at Connie. As they talk about their plans for the day while they walk out of the courthouse later, Cutter suggests to Connie that she be the one to question Tito. She's flattered and slightly suspicious, but agrees, and Cutter explains that the "feminine touch" will soften the jury. Sexist? Maybe. But in a job like this where you do what you can to nail criminals, also realistic, I'd think. Up on the stand, Tito slimes through his testimony about how he wanted to make Sugar jealous, and Sugar squirms in her seat, visibly shrinking with each verbal blow. He claims that he told Sugar to leave, but she didn't want to leave him alone with Anne-Marie, so she stayed and watched the rape. As Connie turns to make a point to the jury, Juror # Creepy is staring at her intensely, but she doesn't seem to think anything of it. Tito then finishes up his testimony by explaining that when Anne-Marie tried to run away, he tried to push her down to stop her and she hit her head on the table, at which point he thought she was dead. The rest we've already gone through, and he corroborates what he can.
That evening, Connie is at her computer when Cutter comes in and compliments her on a job well done. She chuckles that someone else thought so too, and reads a short anonymous email saying she's smart and has great legs -- "the total package." Admittedly we've had Juror # Creepy shoved down our throats via camera angles already so I'm not unbiased, but if I were her I think I'd find that email at least a little bit weird. She just seems to find it cute, though, and Cutter agrees with the contents. The two share a brief awkward look that screams, "Oh my gosh, don't look over there, he/she may think I LIKE like him!" It feels a little weird and out of the blue, and I can't tell if it's setting up a possible relationship in the future or is just ham-fistedly telegraphing what's . I guess we'll figure that out in episodes to come. Cutter asks if she wants to cross-examine Sugar, but she gets uncomfortable and tells him and his own great legs to do it.
Fortunately, Sugar's sores have cleared up nicely in time for her turn on the stand. She again says that Tito didn't let her call the police, but can't offer up evidence of him stopping her. Cutter insists that she was the one who killed Anne-Marie, and compares the two women, which finally starts to get a reaction. Sugar insists, more and more agitated, that they weren't at all the same, but Cutter keeps nagging her -- including calling her a "junkie skank," which oddly enough the judge allows -- until she breaks down completely and yells that she just wanted Anne-Marie away from Tito, crying that she wanted her gone. The swelling music tells us that the point has been made, and Juror # Creepy looks, well, creepy.
Some time later, Connie is outside and stops at a newsstand to buy a "Fashionelle" magazine. Ooh, I hope they have a Fashion Director named "Tina Farcia" who's on the panel of a popular reality show about clothing designers. As Connie walks away, Juror # Creepy stops her to say hi. She finally has a realistic reaction and seems both freaked out and worried as she tells him they can't speak outside the courtroom. He tells her he knows, and that he just wanted to compliment the job she did, but she asserts that it's inappropriate and walks away. She goes back to the office and tells Cutter she had the "great legs" email traced. Before she can tell him, he guesses that it's from Juror # Creepy. She's completely offended when he explains that J#C had been checking her out all week, especially when she realizes that Cutter saw it during jury selection and kept the guy for that very reason. He plays dumb at her indignation as she wonders why he'd tell her that a man found her attractive. "It's a rather common occurrence, Connie." Well, if that was flirting earlier, and if this is supposed to be more now, I don't think that it's going to materialize into anything after all this. Guys, a hint -- if you like someone, don't encourage someone else to leer at her for days on end. It doesn't give the impression that you want. Maybe an invitation to dinner instead?
Connie yells at him about how she doesn't appreciate being pimped out to the jury, and Jack walks in and silently observes as the fight unfolds. Cutter brings up the meeting with Timmy, claiming Connie threw him out when she saw Timmy lusting after her. Yeah, this really is grade-school pigtail-pulling at its best. She counters that she did the interview just like she would have if Cutter had never been there. He asks what she wants to do, but when she wants to tell the judge, he plays again like there was nothing to tell. He claims she did nothing inappropriate, and telling the judge throws out the near-confession Sugar gave on the stand, which means she could go free. Connie says that's not the point, but always seeing everything in black and white, Cutter tells her, "It's the only point." She finally turns to Jack, who has remained silent, and asks if he's going to say anything. He maintains that jurors and lawyers are all humans with human reactions, and until robots can try cases, they all have to use what they have. He then also says as an afterthought that the jury has come back, and as he leaves, Cutter tells Connie it's her call: hear the verdict or talk to the judge. She just sets her jaw, and turns and leaves.
In the courtroom, Juror # Creepy watches Connie out of the corner of his eye while the judge asks for the verdict. Sugar is found guilty of second-degree murder, and the usual weeping/filing out takes place. Connie keeps her eyes pointedly on her papers while J#C gets up and leaves. Cutter then says her name, but she warns him, "Don't," and leaves. He looks up at J#C and thinks while the music swells around him. For once, it appears he's thinking just for a second that his black-and-white view of everything might not always be right. But I'm sure that will be short-lived, and we'll get much more of that familiar Cutter bluster to keep us warm Wednesday night.