The Irrational (2023) s01e06 Episode Script
Point and Shoot
1
[TENSE MUSIC]
This wasn't suicide,
at least not in my professional opinion.
The bomber's handwriting
on the suicide note
isn't consistent with his old journals.
Even his signature is off.
Intense stress creates stroke impulses,
jerking movements when writing.
This note is full of them.
You think he was under duress?
This man wasn't looking to end his life.
He was forced into the noose.
He did kill 13 people.
That's a lot of guilt on his shoulders.
He bombed that church 20 years ago.
The concept of habituation says
most emotions dissipate over time,
meaning if guilt was the driving
factor in him taking his life,
he would have done it back then.
Maybe he got when we were coming.
Suicide made more sense
than going through a trial
and facing life in a cell.
Look at this.
One of the chairs
has a scuff mark on it,
a small chip at the bottom.
We didn't see it at the scene,
but someone
kicked that chair out from under him.
Looks like murder to me too.
Which leads to our
third man, the same person
who intimidated Wes Banning
in the parole hearing.
Now he's tying up loose ends.
OK, we press it as a murder. What next?
We talk to his mom.
He was living with her
when he bombed the church.
If someone wanted to kill her son,
maybe she points us
in the right direction.
Great. I should look at her file.
We can figure out an approach.
You can't be involved, not anymore.
What do you mean?
He's a suspect in a bombing
where you were a victim.
Technically you had motive
to kill the bomber.
I know that you wouldn't,
but it's optics.
Was this his idea?
This is the first I'm hearing of it.
Alec, please.
If this case isn't 100% above board,
the entire investigation is compromised.
Understood.
We'll let you know what we find.
Mm-hmm.
A wrongful death civil trial
is underway in D.C. six months
after three out of four
members of a tactical unit
known as the VIPER Squad shot
and killed Joshua Hill-Jones,
a local building inspector,
in a police raid gone wrong.
His husband Mason rejected
the city's settlement offer,
and now he's taking the district
and officers that gunned
down his partner to court.
I could have sworn there was a
gallon of milk in here last night.
I grabbed it in case
I needed to rinse my eyes out.
Did someone forget I was
protesting last night
outside that courtroom?
It was cloudy with a chance
of cops using tear gas.
Did they?
No, not yet.
But I got to stay ready.
I'd stay away from that coverage.
It's only going to make you angry.
Too late.
You know, I don't get how you always be
so academic about this stuff.
Come on, Kylie.
You don't think I get furious, sad?
This keeps happening to us,
to your close friend.
But somebody got to be the cooler head.
How is Mason?
Police killed his husband.
He's not great.
Mm.
I'm sorry.
Mason shouldn't be grieving his husband.
When we were at Hampton,
Mason was the life of our marching band.
And he got me through a lot
when you were in the hospital,
so I got to be there for him.
But it's not looking good, Alec.
His expert witness
bailed on him last minute.
Expert in name only.
Look, I know you detest the
whole expert witness racket,
but Mason won't win without one.
We both know it can help sway a jury.
Mason says that they got a long list
of potential psychologists.
Could you at least help Mason vet them?
That's not really a request, is it?
Mason is taking on the
entire District of Columbia.
I know you won't sit that out.
I appreciate you helping
us out like this, Alec.
Losing our expert
has been a bit overwhelming.
I'll do what I can.
But expert testimony in
officer-involved shootings
is 90% snake oil
paid actors who use science
to play on jurors' emotions.
But we still need one on our side.
There's a list of potential experts.
I'd scrap these first three.
They testified for both
sides, and any good defense
lawyer will pick them apart.
These last five are all convincing,
and they're marginally
more ethical than the rest.
It'll be easier to recommend one
if I know who they're up against.
His name is Dr
Dustin Atwood.
Never met a police shooting
he couldn't justify
dual PhDs in experimental
psychology and neuroscience,
morals of a jackal.
Well, our expert said he
bailed for personal reasons.
But I don't think it's a coincidence
this happened after I told him
Dr. Atwood
was on their witness list.
He didn't want to take the loss.
If he's on the stand and you
lose, it hurts his pay quote.
And Atwood's tactics
are nearly unbeatable.
Why is that?
Atwood is a master at cherry-picking
psychological principles
to support cops.
No one on this list
has a chance against him.
You know anyone who can beat him?
Only one person, me.
♪
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
The atmosphere is tense
outside this D.C. courtroom today.
Protests, as you can see behind me,
are mounting as Mason
Hill-Jones's civil lawsuit
looms over the city.
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
This is where we part ways.
Good luck in there today.
The facts of the case and
psychological data speak for themselves.
You go out there and make some noise.
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
Mercer.
Hey, it's been a while.
Dustin, long time.
Too long.
Well, looks like we
are a pretty big deal.
I got to say, I'm
surprised to see you here.
You know, I certainly
hope they paid you a fortune,
because taking an L on such a
high-profile trial would not
be good for your future quote.
I'm more concerned with the
case than my batting average.
But if I get in trouble,
I could do what you do
twist the science and sound folksy.
- Folksy?
- Mm.
Hmm.
See you inside, Mercer.
[LAUGHS] "Folksy."
That's a good one.
[LIGHT UPBEAT MUSIC]
Hey.
We need to go.
- Hello?
- Sorry.
Could you hold a second? Hey.
I just got ahold of the witness list,
for the Hill-Jones case.
Joy Reid wants Alec and Atwood.
That's really exciting.
Only, the professor said he's not
doing interviews about this trial,
and he's not giving Atwood free press.
But aren't these cases won in the media?
It's not my call.
Let him down nicely.
We have work to do.
[SIGHS]
All rise.
Docket number 125432,
Mason Hill-Jones versus
the District of Columbia,
Judge Jane Yuun presiding.
[GAVEL BANGS]
District Attorney Navarro,
your office requested
the no-knock warrant.
Why was that necessary?
We received a tip
that an illegal gun dealer
was working out of a house
on the same street
as Mason and Joshua.
I filed for a no-knock warrant.
The VIPER squad was tasked
with a high-risk arrest.
But they ended up at the wrong house.
Correct.
Why was that?
There was a typo on the warrant.
Judge Haynes, you signed the warrant?
Yes.
After reviewing
the warrant from DA Navarro,
I believed a no-knock raid was necessary
given the target's threat level.
So how did the VIPER squad
end up at the plaintiff's house?
I wish I could tell you.
It appears to have been a very
tragic case of human error.
Miss Styles, you're the court clerk
who processed the warrant, correct?
Yes.
Can you explain how
this human error happened?
Our systems had been down
for over a week,
so we were processing warrants manually.
I must have made a mistake
when I wrote it up.
And you were the only one
reprimanded for this incident?
Yes, I was fired.
See, Miss Styles may have
been the only one fired,
but she wasn't the only
person to make a mistake
more than a mistake,
a dereliction of duty.
Now, let's take a look at who exactly
was sent to this wrong address,
basically a kill squad.
My husband was up late
working in his office.
I went to bed around midnight.
It was about 2:20 a.m. when I hear
this loud crash downstairs.
- [LOUD RATTLING]
- The force was so strong.
I could feel it in our
bedroom, like a car had just
run through the front door.
Stay here.
The next thing I heard was gunfire.
[RAPID GUNFIRE]
I didn't think it would ever stop.
Your husband was a building inspector.
- Is that right?
- Yes, he was.
And you said your husband
was working at 2:00 a.m.
Is it typical for a building
inspector to be up so late?
Sometimes.
What kind of question is that?
Court records state the
two of you had been fighting.
Is that correct?
Objection, Your Honor. Relevance?
I'm getting to Joshua's state of mind
when he encountered those officers.
I'll allow it.
He'd been working late,
and it was causing
some issues between us,
but it wasn't a big deal.
So there was tension in the home?
- No.
- You had been fighting.
He'd been staying up all night.
It's possible, due to a lack of sleep,
while in a state of rage,
Joshua Hill-Jones charged those officers
leaving them no choice.
Objection, Your Honor.
The defense is speculating.
Plaintiff will answer the question.
Joshua was afraid, OK?
You may not think that Black
men gets scared, but we do.
Those cops came into
our house at 2:00 a.m.,
and they never announced themselves
like they were supposed to do.
We did nothing wrong.
They were looking to kill somebody,
and they killed my husband!
Please state your name
and title for the court.
I'm Sergeant Lawrence Powell,
team leader
of the Violent Incident Person
Evaluation and Response Unit.
Can you explain to the court the events
that led to your team
shooting an unarmed man?
- Objection, Your Honor.
- I'll rephrase.
Please detail what transpired
once the VIPER Squad arrived
at the Hill-Jones residence.
The resident charged at us.
We were told we were walking into
the home of a dangerous arms dealer.
We thought he had a weapon
and opened fire
to protect ourselves.
[RAPID GUNFIRE]
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
You didn't fire your weapon, correct?
I didn't need to,
because the rest of my squad
had neutralized the threat.
And by neutralized the threat,
you mean they had killed Joshua?
We followed protocol and immediately
sought medical attention
for Mr. Hill-Jones,
but it was too late.
There's a widely held
psychological misconception
a false belief contradicted
by scientific evidence
that cops constantly
get into firefights.
But 73% never fire their gun
once in their entire careers.
Why is this important
to note, Dr. Mercer?
One of the things this data shows is,
there are many ways to de-escalate
a dangerous situation.
Dr. Mercer can trot out shooting stats
all he wants, but we have
to look at this incident
from the perspective of the officers.
They walked into that house
expecting an armed criminal
who might kill them.
And yet three out of the
four officers entering Joshua
and Mason's house fired
their gun at an unarmed man.
Why is the VIPER Squad
so much more violent?
They have the highest shoot rate.
In three years, they've shot
12 people, killing 5.
Research shows that once a
person fires in the line of duty,
the psychological barrier to
doing so drops significantly.
It becomes easier
for them to shoot again.
And do these no-knock raids
push the statistical risk
even higher?
Yes, given every
member of the VIPER squad
had fired multiple times
in the past, that raid was
a disaster waiting to happen.
The VIPER squad is a tactical unit.
Is it possible
their shoot rate is higher
because they encounter
more dangerous situations?
The VIPER squad's record
is such an outlier
it's hard to justify simply by the
situations they find themselves in.
Sounds to me like you're
cherry-picking the data.
Objection.
Can you explain
what happens to the brain
in such an intense experience?
It's a fight-or-flight response.
We've all felt it.
In emergencies, the amygdala sends
a distress signal
that floods the body and brain
with survival hormones.
Under those circumstances, any officer
could have taken the shot.
Is it true there is no
specific research studying
an officer's brain chemistry
during a shooting incident
to back up your testimony?
Well, there's simply no plausible
way to gather that information,
even in simulation.
But you have used your position
to block any attempt
from researchers to gather
that data and run those tests.
Isn't that right, Dr. Atwood?
Well, the fact is, we haven't really
needed those studies, because
there's plenty of research
on humans under stress.
And the last time I checked,
cops are humans who are willing
to risk their lives
to protect you and me.
Atwood recovered,
but we got a jab in there.
What do you think?
Hard to tell. I was tracking
the jurors' body language.
They went cold during Mason's testimony,
often avoiding eye contact.
And they didn't even seem
fazed by the cops' haste
nor the mistakes made
processing the warrant.
So we're screwed.
Everything OK?
No, everything's not OK.
Alec's testimony didn't help?
I don't think it was
enough to win over the jury.
This jury won't be swayed by science.
Start with juror preconceived bias.
What's that?
In a lot of trials,
jurors walk in irrationally
predisposed to a particular
verdict in this case,
one that favors the cops.
Then how do you persuade a jury whose
minds are already made up?
We need to find a new
approach or Mason loses.
[TENSE MUSIC]
I haven't even made
funeral arrangements yet.
And here you are digging
up stuff from the past.
Peter was a good boy.
He blew up a church, Mrs. Shelby.
If he had good intentions,
help us understand.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Are you aware that your son belonged
to a terrorist organization?
Terrorist? [SCOFFS]
You government types only
labeled the New Apostles
terrorists after 9/11.
Thanks to you people, I
haven't seen him for 20 years.
Your son ran because he set
off a bomb that killed 13 people.
He's no martyr. He's a murderer.
Don't talk about him like that.
He was a sinner who
desecrated the House of God.
It was an accident.
All he wanted to do was return
this country to its roots,
to make us moral,
God-fearing people again.
So you did speak to him
about the church bombing?
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Let me ask you something.
Do you think the justice system
treats all Americans equally?
There are two systems,
one when you are poor or Black,
another when you are
middle class or white.
And there might be a third
another for the super-rich.
They get away with everything.
What would it take
to convince you otherwise?
A word from God Himself.
Otherwise, those are the facts.
That's the crux of our problem.
Not everyone grows up being profiled
or constantly pulled over.
Those same people want
to believe in equal justice.
People need to open their eyes.
Harder than you think
because of motivated reasoning.
When people have a belief,
they usually
connect to ideas that support it.
That's the headspace
most of the jurors are in.
So there's nothing we can do?
I'm out there protesting every day,
and you're saying none of that
will make things better?
Better.
That might be the key.
A person can believe in something,
like I believe in science,
but there's always room for improvement.
What if I tell the jury that
they can make things better,
we find one thing that they can
improve by siding with Mason,
make the whole case about that?
Broken is too hard a sell,
so we sell better.
I'd buy that.
What are you doing now?
I'm calling Phoebe and Rizwan.
I got an idea for an experiment.
Yesterday Dr. Atwood's testimony
appeared fair and unbiased.
The problem is, with paid experts
like Dr. Atwood, that's never the case.
Introducing money creates bias.
I wanted to better understand
how this bias works,
so I conducted an experiment
where I paid experts
to give their opinion
on a fictional case,
a slip and fall in a hotel.
All of them had the
same facts in the case.
The only difference?
Which side the person
was on paying them.
Almost all the experts argued
for the side paying them.
If the defense paid,
the expert's opinion
sided with the defense.
Same for the plaintiff.
That's bias.
And it makes you question the motivation
behind Dr. Atwood's testimony.
Objection.
I'll move on.
In your scientific opinion,
how do we remedy this bias?
We have a wonderful system, in theory
equal justice for all,
but it's not perfect
yet.
People tend to say
it's only a few bad apples,
but those bad apples
spoil the whole bunch.
Juries like this one have the
chance to get rid of the bad apples
and protect the bunch.
Dr. Mercer, you work as a consultant.
Is that right?
I'm a professor first.
But yes, sometimes I work
as a consultant.
And when you do consult, you're paid
upwards of $100,000 a day?
Depending on the client.
For this, I'm not making a dime.
[LAUGHS]
"I'm not making a dime."
Boom.
[LAUGHS] I wish I could have seen it.
We need five jurors.
We have four with two possibilities.
That's one juror closer to a win.
[LAUGHS]
Cop's behind me.
He's going to pull me over.
[SIRENS WAILING]
I knew it.
Pull over to the side of the road.
Stay calm. Let me talk.
I don't need instructions.
I know the damn drill.
♪
[LOUD TAPPING]
♪
License and registration, ma'am.
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
You drifted over the solid white line.
You been drinking tonight?
♪
Nope, just Diet Coke.
So you wouldn't mind submitting
to a field sobriety test then?
♪
Nothing would make
my evening more complete.
♪
I'm going to need you
to walk in a straight line,
one foot behind the other,
counting down from 1,001 by 3s.
♪
1,001,
998, 995
is this really necessary?
♪
Keep counting.
♪
No part of this calls for a gun.
She's shaking with adrenaline.
He's going to make her count
backwards until she stumbles forward.
No one is talking to you.
He's dealing with your sister.
You know she's my sister?
This wasn't random?
You're targeting us?
She crossed the lane
divider without signaling.
We both know what this is about.
She's got nothing to do with it.
You can take me in if you want
and deal with cleaning up that mess
in the press,
or let her go.
♪
Hey.
She clear?
♪
I'm not sure yet.
She seems fine.
Let's get out of here.
♪
[SOBBING]
♪
Hey.
Catch you at a bad time?
Even if you did, it wouldn't matter.
Bob Caswood, come in?
To what do I owe this surprise visit?
Something I can help the
intelligence division with?
Oh, there's no agenda.
Just stopped by for a little chat.
I worked under you for ten years.
You don't just stop by.
You're a busy man.
So why did you take the time
out of your day to come here?
Always the investigator, huh?
Someone taught me well.
Fine. Well,
I'll just come right out and say it.
Now, you know that I like to keep my ear
close to the street,
and there's been rumblings
about you and Jace.
That was fast.
We are intelligence.
It's not like we're the
first agents at the Bureau
to get involved.
We don't have many
opportunities off the job.
I get it.
I just wouldn't be a good friend if I
didn't give you a heads-up.
Everything is a conflict.
Now it's about me dating Jace.
Someone going to question my involvement
in Alec's case next?
Maybe.
Hey, it's not my call, but if
you want justice to play out,
I would avoid doing anything
that would compromise the investigation,
because like most things in life
It's the optics.
It's the optics.
Where you are.
- I don't have the problem.
- Classism. Classism.
You are constantly
- Someone needs to check her.
- Hey.
[LAUGHS]
Mm-mm. Mm.
- Mm.
- Don't go there with me.
Excuse you.
I'm watching that.
You've been watching this trash since I
went to bed last night.
OK. Where's the problem?
Studies show
I'll pass on the Mercer monologue.
Fine, no monologue.
But we should talk about this.
No, we shouldn't, because I'll scream.
And I don't want to scream at you,
but you're the only one here.
So I will if you force me to
talk about my feelings right now.
All I want to do is watch
"Housewives of Potomac"
and focus on other people's problems.
You'd rather suppress your feelings
by watching housewives
throw lettuce at each other.
[CHUCKLES]
You can't help yourself, can you?
It probably isn't a good idea, but OK.
Mia, I don't believe that you called us
broke bitches when you walked off.
[PHONE BUZZING]
- Are you serious right now?
- Let's do it.
Let's give a toast to forgiveness.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Hey, Mason. What's up?
I'll be right there.
Mason OK?
The defense made an offer.
They want to settle the case.
3 million is a good offer.
Is it?
It's like they're
forcing me to decide how much
my dead husband is worth.
So what?
It's over now?
Nothing about this makes any sense.
Alec got through to the jury,
pushed this settlement to happen.
This is what we wanted.
There's no such thing as
good news in this situation,
but we need to take
this offer seriously.
Defense makes an offer.
They know it doesn't look good for them.
And we could still be short a juror.
My advice, we don't chance it.
How about we look over
the deal and counter?
We can print it and
review it line by line.
The printers in Joshua's office.
I haven't touched anything there since.
We can go in with you.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
That yours?
Kylie said you played in college.
I haven't picked it up in years.
You miss it?
Sometimes.
There's a lot of paperwork in here.
He worked from home a lot?
A few weeks before everything happened,
he brought home all
these files in crates,
said he was doing important research.
He say what he was working on?
Something about zoning
violations and the city
not doing anything about them.
Joshua was obsessed.
So he wasn't always a workaholic.
No. He cared about his work,
but not like this.
He was so frustrated.
He kept saying something about
the system working against him
and that he was going to prove it.
I just thought he was overreacting.
He said it made him
feel like he was crazy.
You think it has something
to do with the case?
I don't know.
But if he had something to prove,
it's possible he made an enemy.
♪
It looks like Joshua was investigating
code violations against
one company in particular,
Ralbern Investments.
Ralbern is a huge multinational.
I've done contract work for them.
These are building codes.
Next to them are the violations
against Ralbern repeated
multiple times.
What does this have
to do with my husband?
Nearly half of Ralbern's security
staff are moonlighting
D.C. Metro Police,
Sergeant Powell included.
Joshua was building a case against them
issuing the same violations
against them over and over.
That must have pissed them off.
You're saying they targeted Joshua?
You said that Joshua felt like
the system was against him,
and the system killed him.
You think Sergeant Powell
deliberately took his team to our home
to take him off of Ralbern?
I'm saying I think
your husband was murdered.
[TENSE MUSIC]
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Anything from Ralbern yet?
I've been on hold for over two hours.
I still haven't spoken
to anyone in legal.
You're not going to get through.
They have a 100-person legal team.
This trial will be long over before
we navigate that legal minefield.
We need a way to
approach the VIPER team.
Maybe there's a way to get
one of them to come to us.
Rizwan, call Joy Reid's producers back.
Tell them I'm going to
give them what they want,
a sit-down with Atwood.
Moving on to the Hill-Jones trial,
an unarmed innocent man was
shot in his own living room.
It should never have happened,
but was it negligence?
We've got not one
but two distinguished expert
witnesses here tonight,
Dr. Dustin Atwood
and Dr. Alec Mercer.
Dustin, you say no.
No, it was not negligence.
Now, of course, I wish this tragedy had
not happened, as we all do.
But when you consider the
information the officers had,
they had every reason to believe
their lives were in danger.
Alec, you say yes.
As police officers, their job
was to assess and reassess
that danger moment by moment.
There was no time to reassess.
Any good cop would have taken a shot
under those circumstances.
Any cop? Wiggins didn't shoot.
Officer Wiggins
didn't even draw his gun.
If any good cop
would have taken that shot,
is he not a good cop?
I didn't say that.
Was he the negligent one?
Are you criticizing
an officer for not shooting?
I'm just trying to
understand your point of view.
You've said over and over that
those cops did the right thing.
Well, that must mean
Wiggins did the wrong thing.
No?
You raise a very interesting
question there, Alec.
Obviously, my friend
here is being hyperbolic, Joy.
Would you say Wiggins
isn't VIPER squad material?
Does he need more training?
I don't know.
Maybe Wiggins should find another job.
I I told you.
I don't know anything.
Withholding information
about the bombing
that's obstruction on 13 murders,
arson, and terrorism.
Could get you a lot of jail time.
He said no one was supposed to die.
He only wanted to get the church.
It was six months after 9/11.
And those Methodists were loaning
their church to a mosque.
So what happened?
I only know what he told me.
He said he was supposed to set
the bomb timer for 60 minutes,
and he accidentally
set it for 60 seconds.
Wait.
So you're saying that
the murder of 13 people
was a mistake?
Peter was in way over his head.
He didn't build the bomb.
He got it from some guy
he met on the internet.
What guy?
Was it Wes Banning?
Not him.
This guy was
a fancy-looking professional,
called himself Mathias.
So if what the bomber's
mom said was true,
Wes made the bomb.
Peter planted the bomb.
But the third guy,
Mathias, was behind it all.
That's who was at Wes's parole hearing.
Finding him will not be easy.
Pamela said he's white, fancy,
fedora, wears a flashy gold
watch, probably a Rolex
not much to go on.
Maybe not yet.
But the bomber met Matthias
in an online chat room.
That site might be gone, but
there's a company that maintains
a database of old websites.
We start there.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Is this about my interview?
I didn't shoot anyone.
Why the hell did you crucify me on TV?
Would you have come
to confront me otherwise?
♪
I want to know why you
didn't fire your gun.
I made a judgment call in the moment,
no different from anyone else.
Let me ask you something.
Are you familiar
with Ralbern Investments?
Yeah.
A lot of officers do work
for them on the side.
Like Powell?
Yeah. So?
Could Powell have changed
the address to Joshua's house?
No way.
I was there when we got the warrant.
He pinned it to our planning board.
If someone changed it, it
wasn't him, wasn't any of us.
Who else could have
touched that warrant?
♪
I don't know.
Ask the clerk.
♪
[BELL JINGLING]
You said that you might
be able to get my job back?
There may be a way to clear your name.
Looks like the victim
was keeping records
on overturned code violations.
Are you familiar with
Ralbern Investments?
The property development conglomerate?
These are all the
violations against Ralbern.
Do you know who would
have overturned them?
Oh, that's easy. Judge Haynes
handles all those kinds of cases.
The same Judge Haynes who
signed the original warrant?
A quirk of living in D.C
the same judges do criminal and civil.
♪
[LIGHT MUSIC]
♪
All right, so what's this about, Mercer?
I talked to Mason.
He doesn't want to take the settlement.
It could look like a loss for you.
Yeah, I guess we'll see.
But I think I know
a way I could convince him,
but turns out,
I'm going to need your help.
So I've got this multifamily development
that I'm renovating in Southeast,
but I keep running
into these BS citations
over gas line hazards.
Everyone whines there isn't
enough affordable housing.
But they make building codes so costly,
you can't build a damn thing.
Because the politics
always get in the way.
This country was built by
businesses, not regulations.
That's for sure.
That's why I say,
thank God for capitalism.
[CHUCKLES]
You know, I golf with
Thomas Wilson over at Ralbern.
And he says you are a free thinker,
that you don't allow
corporate bureaucracy
to get in the way of building
the American dream.
I do what I can.
And he said I should
talk to you about possibly
expediting the process.
You know, I'd love to make
a hefty campaign contribution,
but those limits and all
You're telling me.
Listen.
Why don't we avoid all that red tape?
Put me on retainer.
Retainer?
Sounds good.
How much?
For you, $5,000 a month.
Fair enough.
Let's say I transfer
a good faith deposit.
Offshore account?
I have it all.
Judge Thaddeus Haynes,
there are some people here
who want to speak to you.
What the hell is going on?
You have been taking bribes for years
and getting away with it.
You believed you were invulnerable,
especially after
killing a man and almost
getting away with it.
That's insane. I didn't kill anyone.
You had a nice little
side hustle taking bribes
from companies like Ralbern to
help them skirt around onerous
building regulations.
But there was a fly in the ointment
Joshua.
He caught on to your side hustle.
You weren't about to go down
because of some over-dedicated
building inspector.
But he wouldn't let up.
And then the DA hands you a request
for a no-knock warrant.
And you realize that the
location of the suspect
was on the same street as Joshua.
Computers had been down over a week,
so any mistakes could be
blamed on human error.
Everything just fell in your lap.
Must have felt like divine providence,
and you seized the moment.
A court clerk gets the warrant,
processes it manually,
and hands it back to you to sign.
That's when you change the address.
You made sure the VIPER squad
went to the wrong house,
where Joshua was murdered.
[TENSE MUSIC]
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
Whew.
I never thought we'd see
eye to eye enough
to work together.
Thank you.
Hey, got to protect my stats.
Most humans, when reminded,
will do the right thing.
Last I checked, you are human, right?
You're welcome, Mercer.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Wingo called.
Hey says they are
dismantling the VIPER squad.
Well, that's more good news.
[DOOR CLICKS OPEN]
Mason.
Hey, Dr. Mercer.
I just came over
to see Kylie and to say
thank you.
No need. I'm just glad you
got some semblance of justice.
Strange.
I've all these feelings
anger, shock, guilt, but never peace.
It may never go away.
But you can move past it.
How?
There's no one answer.
I don't know what's best for you, Mason.
That'll be for you to explore.
That's it?
No profound Mercer monologue?
I'm fresh out of monologues, young'un.
Nothing profound to say today.
Then I'll recycle an old one,
one that I know by heart.
Maybe start with finding something
that reminds you of happiness.
I could dust off the trumpet.
- Ooh.
- [LAUGHS]
I think I can still fit
in my majorette outfit.
[LAUGHTER]
I know I should go home, but
I don't want to face it yet.
Mm, hang here until you're ready.
We can stay up all night like old times.
[LAUGHS]
You know, I hear that there's
a reality show set in Potomac
that'll help you forget
all your problems,
even if it's only for an hour.
We should tune in.
Mm.
Hell yeah.
[CHUCKLES]
So you guys think there's something up
because of her relationship
with [INDISTINCT].
Absolutely.
[ALL SCREAMING]
- [LAUGHS]
- Oh, my God. We made it.
[TENSE MUSIC]
This wasn't suicide,
at least not in my professional opinion.
The bomber's handwriting
on the suicide note
isn't consistent with his old journals.
Even his signature is off.
Intense stress creates stroke impulses,
jerking movements when writing.
This note is full of them.
You think he was under duress?
This man wasn't looking to end his life.
He was forced into the noose.
He did kill 13 people.
That's a lot of guilt on his shoulders.
He bombed that church 20 years ago.
The concept of habituation says
most emotions dissipate over time,
meaning if guilt was the driving
factor in him taking his life,
he would have done it back then.
Maybe he got when we were coming.
Suicide made more sense
than going through a trial
and facing life in a cell.
Look at this.
One of the chairs
has a scuff mark on it,
a small chip at the bottom.
We didn't see it at the scene,
but someone
kicked that chair out from under him.
Looks like murder to me too.
Which leads to our
third man, the same person
who intimidated Wes Banning
in the parole hearing.
Now he's tying up loose ends.
OK, we press it as a murder. What next?
We talk to his mom.
He was living with her
when he bombed the church.
If someone wanted to kill her son,
maybe she points us
in the right direction.
Great. I should look at her file.
We can figure out an approach.
You can't be involved, not anymore.
What do you mean?
He's a suspect in a bombing
where you were a victim.
Technically you had motive
to kill the bomber.
I know that you wouldn't,
but it's optics.
Was this his idea?
This is the first I'm hearing of it.
Alec, please.
If this case isn't 100% above board,
the entire investigation is compromised.
Understood.
We'll let you know what we find.
Mm-hmm.
A wrongful death civil trial
is underway in D.C. six months
after three out of four
members of a tactical unit
known as the VIPER Squad shot
and killed Joshua Hill-Jones,
a local building inspector,
in a police raid gone wrong.
His husband Mason rejected
the city's settlement offer,
and now he's taking the district
and officers that gunned
down his partner to court.
I could have sworn there was a
gallon of milk in here last night.
I grabbed it in case
I needed to rinse my eyes out.
Did someone forget I was
protesting last night
outside that courtroom?
It was cloudy with a chance
of cops using tear gas.
Did they?
No, not yet.
But I got to stay ready.
I'd stay away from that coverage.
It's only going to make you angry.
Too late.
You know, I don't get how you always be
so academic about this stuff.
Come on, Kylie.
You don't think I get furious, sad?
This keeps happening to us,
to your close friend.
But somebody got to be the cooler head.
How is Mason?
Police killed his husband.
He's not great.
Mm.
I'm sorry.
Mason shouldn't be grieving his husband.
When we were at Hampton,
Mason was the life of our marching band.
And he got me through a lot
when you were in the hospital,
so I got to be there for him.
But it's not looking good, Alec.
His expert witness
bailed on him last minute.
Expert in name only.
Look, I know you detest the
whole expert witness racket,
but Mason won't win without one.
We both know it can help sway a jury.
Mason says that they got a long list
of potential psychologists.
Could you at least help Mason vet them?
That's not really a request, is it?
Mason is taking on the
entire District of Columbia.
I know you won't sit that out.
I appreciate you helping
us out like this, Alec.
Losing our expert
has been a bit overwhelming.
I'll do what I can.
But expert testimony in
officer-involved shootings
is 90% snake oil
paid actors who use science
to play on jurors' emotions.
But we still need one on our side.
There's a list of potential experts.
I'd scrap these first three.
They testified for both
sides, and any good defense
lawyer will pick them apart.
These last five are all convincing,
and they're marginally
more ethical than the rest.
It'll be easier to recommend one
if I know who they're up against.
His name is Dr
Dustin Atwood.
Never met a police shooting
he couldn't justify
dual PhDs in experimental
psychology and neuroscience,
morals of a jackal.
Well, our expert said he
bailed for personal reasons.
But I don't think it's a coincidence
this happened after I told him
Dr. Atwood
was on their witness list.
He didn't want to take the loss.
If he's on the stand and you
lose, it hurts his pay quote.
And Atwood's tactics
are nearly unbeatable.
Why is that?
Atwood is a master at cherry-picking
psychological principles
to support cops.
No one on this list
has a chance against him.
You know anyone who can beat him?
Only one person, me.
♪
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
The atmosphere is tense
outside this D.C. courtroom today.
Protests, as you can see behind me,
are mounting as Mason
Hill-Jones's civil lawsuit
looms over the city.
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
This is where we part ways.
Good luck in there today.
The facts of the case and
psychological data speak for themselves.
You go out there and make some noise.
ALL: Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua! Justice for Joshua!
Justice for Joshua!
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
Mercer.
Hey, it's been a while.
Dustin, long time.
Too long.
Well, looks like we
are a pretty big deal.
I got to say, I'm
surprised to see you here.
You know, I certainly
hope they paid you a fortune,
because taking an L on such a
high-profile trial would not
be good for your future quote.
I'm more concerned with the
case than my batting average.
But if I get in trouble,
I could do what you do
twist the science and sound folksy.
- Folksy?
- Mm.
Hmm.
See you inside, Mercer.
[LAUGHS] "Folksy."
That's a good one.
[LIGHT UPBEAT MUSIC]
Hey.
We need to go.
- Hello?
- Sorry.
Could you hold a second? Hey.
I just got ahold of the witness list,
for the Hill-Jones case.
Joy Reid wants Alec and Atwood.
That's really exciting.
Only, the professor said he's not
doing interviews about this trial,
and he's not giving Atwood free press.
But aren't these cases won in the media?
It's not my call.
Let him down nicely.
We have work to do.
[SIGHS]
All rise.
Docket number 125432,
Mason Hill-Jones versus
the District of Columbia,
Judge Jane Yuun presiding.
[GAVEL BANGS]
District Attorney Navarro,
your office requested
the no-knock warrant.
Why was that necessary?
We received a tip
that an illegal gun dealer
was working out of a house
on the same street
as Mason and Joshua.
I filed for a no-knock warrant.
The VIPER squad was tasked
with a high-risk arrest.
But they ended up at the wrong house.
Correct.
Why was that?
There was a typo on the warrant.
Judge Haynes, you signed the warrant?
Yes.
After reviewing
the warrant from DA Navarro,
I believed a no-knock raid was necessary
given the target's threat level.
So how did the VIPER squad
end up at the plaintiff's house?
I wish I could tell you.
It appears to have been a very
tragic case of human error.
Miss Styles, you're the court clerk
who processed the warrant, correct?
Yes.
Can you explain how
this human error happened?
Our systems had been down
for over a week,
so we were processing warrants manually.
I must have made a mistake
when I wrote it up.
And you were the only one
reprimanded for this incident?
Yes, I was fired.
See, Miss Styles may have
been the only one fired,
but she wasn't the only
person to make a mistake
more than a mistake,
a dereliction of duty.
Now, let's take a look at who exactly
was sent to this wrong address,
basically a kill squad.
My husband was up late
working in his office.
I went to bed around midnight.
It was about 2:20 a.m. when I hear
this loud crash downstairs.
- [LOUD RATTLING]
- The force was so strong.
I could feel it in our
bedroom, like a car had just
run through the front door.
Stay here.
The next thing I heard was gunfire.
[RAPID GUNFIRE]
I didn't think it would ever stop.
Your husband was a building inspector.
- Is that right?
- Yes, he was.
And you said your husband
was working at 2:00 a.m.
Is it typical for a building
inspector to be up so late?
Sometimes.
What kind of question is that?
Court records state the
two of you had been fighting.
Is that correct?
Objection, Your Honor. Relevance?
I'm getting to Joshua's state of mind
when he encountered those officers.
I'll allow it.
He'd been working late,
and it was causing
some issues between us,
but it wasn't a big deal.
So there was tension in the home?
- No.
- You had been fighting.
He'd been staying up all night.
It's possible, due to a lack of sleep,
while in a state of rage,
Joshua Hill-Jones charged those officers
leaving them no choice.
Objection, Your Honor.
The defense is speculating.
Plaintiff will answer the question.
Joshua was afraid, OK?
You may not think that Black
men gets scared, but we do.
Those cops came into
our house at 2:00 a.m.,
and they never announced themselves
like they were supposed to do.
We did nothing wrong.
They were looking to kill somebody,
and they killed my husband!
Please state your name
and title for the court.
I'm Sergeant Lawrence Powell,
team leader
of the Violent Incident Person
Evaluation and Response Unit.
Can you explain to the court the events
that led to your team
shooting an unarmed man?
- Objection, Your Honor.
- I'll rephrase.
Please detail what transpired
once the VIPER Squad arrived
at the Hill-Jones residence.
The resident charged at us.
We were told we were walking into
the home of a dangerous arms dealer.
We thought he had a weapon
and opened fire
to protect ourselves.
[RAPID GUNFIRE]
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
You didn't fire your weapon, correct?
I didn't need to,
because the rest of my squad
had neutralized the threat.
And by neutralized the threat,
you mean they had killed Joshua?
We followed protocol and immediately
sought medical attention
for Mr. Hill-Jones,
but it was too late.
There's a widely held
psychological misconception
a false belief contradicted
by scientific evidence
that cops constantly
get into firefights.
But 73% never fire their gun
once in their entire careers.
Why is this important
to note, Dr. Mercer?
One of the things this data shows is,
there are many ways to de-escalate
a dangerous situation.
Dr. Mercer can trot out shooting stats
all he wants, but we have
to look at this incident
from the perspective of the officers.
They walked into that house
expecting an armed criminal
who might kill them.
And yet three out of the
four officers entering Joshua
and Mason's house fired
their gun at an unarmed man.
Why is the VIPER Squad
so much more violent?
They have the highest shoot rate.
In three years, they've shot
12 people, killing 5.
Research shows that once a
person fires in the line of duty,
the psychological barrier to
doing so drops significantly.
It becomes easier
for them to shoot again.
And do these no-knock raids
push the statistical risk
even higher?
Yes, given every
member of the VIPER squad
had fired multiple times
in the past, that raid was
a disaster waiting to happen.
The VIPER squad is a tactical unit.
Is it possible
their shoot rate is higher
because they encounter
more dangerous situations?
The VIPER squad's record
is such an outlier
it's hard to justify simply by the
situations they find themselves in.
Sounds to me like you're
cherry-picking the data.
Objection.
Can you explain
what happens to the brain
in such an intense experience?
It's a fight-or-flight response.
We've all felt it.
In emergencies, the amygdala sends
a distress signal
that floods the body and brain
with survival hormones.
Under those circumstances, any officer
could have taken the shot.
Is it true there is no
specific research studying
an officer's brain chemistry
during a shooting incident
to back up your testimony?
Well, there's simply no plausible
way to gather that information,
even in simulation.
But you have used your position
to block any attempt
from researchers to gather
that data and run those tests.
Isn't that right, Dr. Atwood?
Well, the fact is, we haven't really
needed those studies, because
there's plenty of research
on humans under stress.
And the last time I checked,
cops are humans who are willing
to risk their lives
to protect you and me.
Atwood recovered,
but we got a jab in there.
What do you think?
Hard to tell. I was tracking
the jurors' body language.
They went cold during Mason's testimony,
often avoiding eye contact.
And they didn't even seem
fazed by the cops' haste
nor the mistakes made
processing the warrant.
So we're screwed.
Everything OK?
No, everything's not OK.
Alec's testimony didn't help?
I don't think it was
enough to win over the jury.
This jury won't be swayed by science.
Start with juror preconceived bias.
What's that?
In a lot of trials,
jurors walk in irrationally
predisposed to a particular
verdict in this case,
one that favors the cops.
Then how do you persuade a jury whose
minds are already made up?
We need to find a new
approach or Mason loses.
[TENSE MUSIC]
I haven't even made
funeral arrangements yet.
And here you are digging
up stuff from the past.
Peter was a good boy.
He blew up a church, Mrs. Shelby.
If he had good intentions,
help us understand.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Are you aware that your son belonged
to a terrorist organization?
Terrorist? [SCOFFS]
You government types only
labeled the New Apostles
terrorists after 9/11.
Thanks to you people, I
haven't seen him for 20 years.
Your son ran because he set
off a bomb that killed 13 people.
He's no martyr. He's a murderer.
Don't talk about him like that.
He was a sinner who
desecrated the House of God.
It was an accident.
All he wanted to do was return
this country to its roots,
to make us moral,
God-fearing people again.
So you did speak to him
about the church bombing?
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Let me ask you something.
Do you think the justice system
treats all Americans equally?
There are two systems,
one when you are poor or Black,
another when you are
middle class or white.
And there might be a third
another for the super-rich.
They get away with everything.
What would it take
to convince you otherwise?
A word from God Himself.
Otherwise, those are the facts.
That's the crux of our problem.
Not everyone grows up being profiled
or constantly pulled over.
Those same people want
to believe in equal justice.
People need to open their eyes.
Harder than you think
because of motivated reasoning.
When people have a belief,
they usually
connect to ideas that support it.
That's the headspace
most of the jurors are in.
So there's nothing we can do?
I'm out there protesting every day,
and you're saying none of that
will make things better?
Better.
That might be the key.
A person can believe in something,
like I believe in science,
but there's always room for improvement.
What if I tell the jury that
they can make things better,
we find one thing that they can
improve by siding with Mason,
make the whole case about that?
Broken is too hard a sell,
so we sell better.
I'd buy that.
What are you doing now?
I'm calling Phoebe and Rizwan.
I got an idea for an experiment.
Yesterday Dr. Atwood's testimony
appeared fair and unbiased.
The problem is, with paid experts
like Dr. Atwood, that's never the case.
Introducing money creates bias.
I wanted to better understand
how this bias works,
so I conducted an experiment
where I paid experts
to give their opinion
on a fictional case,
a slip and fall in a hotel.
All of them had the
same facts in the case.
The only difference?
Which side the person
was on paying them.
Almost all the experts argued
for the side paying them.
If the defense paid,
the expert's opinion
sided with the defense.
Same for the plaintiff.
That's bias.
And it makes you question the motivation
behind Dr. Atwood's testimony.
Objection.
I'll move on.
In your scientific opinion,
how do we remedy this bias?
We have a wonderful system, in theory
equal justice for all,
but it's not perfect
yet.
People tend to say
it's only a few bad apples,
but those bad apples
spoil the whole bunch.
Juries like this one have the
chance to get rid of the bad apples
and protect the bunch.
Dr. Mercer, you work as a consultant.
Is that right?
I'm a professor first.
But yes, sometimes I work
as a consultant.
And when you do consult, you're paid
upwards of $100,000 a day?
Depending on the client.
For this, I'm not making a dime.
[LAUGHS]
"I'm not making a dime."
Boom.
[LAUGHS] I wish I could have seen it.
We need five jurors.
We have four with two possibilities.
That's one juror closer to a win.
[LAUGHS]
Cop's behind me.
He's going to pull me over.
[SIRENS WAILING]
I knew it.
Pull over to the side of the road.
Stay calm. Let me talk.
I don't need instructions.
I know the damn drill.
♪
[LOUD TAPPING]
♪
License and registration, ma'am.
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
You drifted over the solid white line.
You been drinking tonight?
♪
Nope, just Diet Coke.
So you wouldn't mind submitting
to a field sobriety test then?
♪
Nothing would make
my evening more complete.
♪
I'm going to need you
to walk in a straight line,
one foot behind the other,
counting down from 1,001 by 3s.
♪
1,001,
998, 995
is this really necessary?
♪
Keep counting.
♪
No part of this calls for a gun.
She's shaking with adrenaline.
He's going to make her count
backwards until she stumbles forward.
No one is talking to you.
He's dealing with your sister.
You know she's my sister?
This wasn't random?
You're targeting us?
She crossed the lane
divider without signaling.
We both know what this is about.
She's got nothing to do with it.
You can take me in if you want
and deal with cleaning up that mess
in the press,
or let her go.
♪
Hey.
She clear?
♪
I'm not sure yet.
She seems fine.
Let's get out of here.
♪
[SOBBING]
♪
Hey.
Catch you at a bad time?
Even if you did, it wouldn't matter.
Bob Caswood, come in?
To what do I owe this surprise visit?
Something I can help the
intelligence division with?
Oh, there's no agenda.
Just stopped by for a little chat.
I worked under you for ten years.
You don't just stop by.
You're a busy man.
So why did you take the time
out of your day to come here?
Always the investigator, huh?
Someone taught me well.
Fine. Well,
I'll just come right out and say it.
Now, you know that I like to keep my ear
close to the street,
and there's been rumblings
about you and Jace.
That was fast.
We are intelligence.
It's not like we're the
first agents at the Bureau
to get involved.
We don't have many
opportunities off the job.
I get it.
I just wouldn't be a good friend if I
didn't give you a heads-up.
Everything is a conflict.
Now it's about me dating Jace.
Someone going to question my involvement
in Alec's case next?
Maybe.
Hey, it's not my call, but if
you want justice to play out,
I would avoid doing anything
that would compromise the investigation,
because like most things in life
It's the optics.
It's the optics.
Where you are.
- I don't have the problem.
- Classism. Classism.
You are constantly
- Someone needs to check her.
- Hey.
[LAUGHS]
Mm-mm. Mm.
- Mm.
- Don't go there with me.
Excuse you.
I'm watching that.
You've been watching this trash since I
went to bed last night.
OK. Where's the problem?
Studies show
I'll pass on the Mercer monologue.
Fine, no monologue.
But we should talk about this.
No, we shouldn't, because I'll scream.
And I don't want to scream at you,
but you're the only one here.
So I will if you force me to
talk about my feelings right now.
All I want to do is watch
"Housewives of Potomac"
and focus on other people's problems.
You'd rather suppress your feelings
by watching housewives
throw lettuce at each other.
[CHUCKLES]
You can't help yourself, can you?
It probably isn't a good idea, but OK.
Mia, I don't believe that you called us
broke bitches when you walked off.
[PHONE BUZZING]
- Are you serious right now?
- Let's do it.
Let's give a toast to forgiveness.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Hey, Mason. What's up?
I'll be right there.
Mason OK?
The defense made an offer.
They want to settle the case.
3 million is a good offer.
Is it?
It's like they're
forcing me to decide how much
my dead husband is worth.
So what?
It's over now?
Nothing about this makes any sense.
Alec got through to the jury,
pushed this settlement to happen.
This is what we wanted.
There's no such thing as
good news in this situation,
but we need to take
this offer seriously.
Defense makes an offer.
They know it doesn't look good for them.
And we could still be short a juror.
My advice, we don't chance it.
How about we look over
the deal and counter?
We can print it and
review it line by line.
The printers in Joshua's office.
I haven't touched anything there since.
We can go in with you.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
That yours?
Kylie said you played in college.
I haven't picked it up in years.
You miss it?
Sometimes.
There's a lot of paperwork in here.
He worked from home a lot?
A few weeks before everything happened,
he brought home all
these files in crates,
said he was doing important research.
He say what he was working on?
Something about zoning
violations and the city
not doing anything about them.
Joshua was obsessed.
So he wasn't always a workaholic.
No. He cared about his work,
but not like this.
He was so frustrated.
He kept saying something about
the system working against him
and that he was going to prove it.
I just thought he was overreacting.
He said it made him
feel like he was crazy.
You think it has something
to do with the case?
I don't know.
But if he had something to prove,
it's possible he made an enemy.
♪
It looks like Joshua was investigating
code violations against
one company in particular,
Ralbern Investments.
Ralbern is a huge multinational.
I've done contract work for them.
These are building codes.
Next to them are the violations
against Ralbern repeated
multiple times.
What does this have
to do with my husband?
Nearly half of Ralbern's security
staff are moonlighting
D.C. Metro Police,
Sergeant Powell included.
Joshua was building a case against them
issuing the same violations
against them over and over.
That must have pissed them off.
You're saying they targeted Joshua?
You said that Joshua felt like
the system was against him,
and the system killed him.
You think Sergeant Powell
deliberately took his team to our home
to take him off of Ralbern?
I'm saying I think
your husband was murdered.
[TENSE MUSIC]
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Anything from Ralbern yet?
I've been on hold for over two hours.
I still haven't spoken
to anyone in legal.
You're not going to get through.
They have a 100-person legal team.
This trial will be long over before
we navigate that legal minefield.
We need a way to
approach the VIPER team.
Maybe there's a way to get
one of them to come to us.
Rizwan, call Joy Reid's producers back.
Tell them I'm going to
give them what they want,
a sit-down with Atwood.
Moving on to the Hill-Jones trial,
an unarmed innocent man was
shot in his own living room.
It should never have happened,
but was it negligence?
We've got not one
but two distinguished expert
witnesses here tonight,
Dr. Dustin Atwood
and Dr. Alec Mercer.
Dustin, you say no.
No, it was not negligence.
Now, of course, I wish this tragedy had
not happened, as we all do.
But when you consider the
information the officers had,
they had every reason to believe
their lives were in danger.
Alec, you say yes.
As police officers, their job
was to assess and reassess
that danger moment by moment.
There was no time to reassess.
Any good cop would have taken a shot
under those circumstances.
Any cop? Wiggins didn't shoot.
Officer Wiggins
didn't even draw his gun.
If any good cop
would have taken that shot,
is he not a good cop?
I didn't say that.
Was he the negligent one?
Are you criticizing
an officer for not shooting?
I'm just trying to
understand your point of view.
You've said over and over that
those cops did the right thing.
Well, that must mean
Wiggins did the wrong thing.
No?
You raise a very interesting
question there, Alec.
Obviously, my friend
here is being hyperbolic, Joy.
Would you say Wiggins
isn't VIPER squad material?
Does he need more training?
I don't know.
Maybe Wiggins should find another job.
I I told you.
I don't know anything.
Withholding information
about the bombing
that's obstruction on 13 murders,
arson, and terrorism.
Could get you a lot of jail time.
He said no one was supposed to die.
He only wanted to get the church.
It was six months after 9/11.
And those Methodists were loaning
their church to a mosque.
So what happened?
I only know what he told me.
He said he was supposed to set
the bomb timer for 60 minutes,
and he accidentally
set it for 60 seconds.
Wait.
So you're saying that
the murder of 13 people
was a mistake?
Peter was in way over his head.
He didn't build the bomb.
He got it from some guy
he met on the internet.
What guy?
Was it Wes Banning?
Not him.
This guy was
a fancy-looking professional,
called himself Mathias.
So if what the bomber's
mom said was true,
Wes made the bomb.
Peter planted the bomb.
But the third guy,
Mathias, was behind it all.
That's who was at Wes's parole hearing.
Finding him will not be easy.
Pamela said he's white, fancy,
fedora, wears a flashy gold
watch, probably a Rolex
not much to go on.
Maybe not yet.
But the bomber met Matthias
in an online chat room.
That site might be gone, but
there's a company that maintains
a database of old websites.
We start there.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Is this about my interview?
I didn't shoot anyone.
Why the hell did you crucify me on TV?
Would you have come
to confront me otherwise?
♪
I want to know why you
didn't fire your gun.
I made a judgment call in the moment,
no different from anyone else.
Let me ask you something.
Are you familiar
with Ralbern Investments?
Yeah.
A lot of officers do work
for them on the side.
Like Powell?
Yeah. So?
Could Powell have changed
the address to Joshua's house?
No way.
I was there when we got the warrant.
He pinned it to our planning board.
If someone changed it, it
wasn't him, wasn't any of us.
Who else could have
touched that warrant?
♪
I don't know.
Ask the clerk.
♪
[BELL JINGLING]
You said that you might
be able to get my job back?
There may be a way to clear your name.
Looks like the victim
was keeping records
on overturned code violations.
Are you familiar with
Ralbern Investments?
The property development conglomerate?
These are all the
violations against Ralbern.
Do you know who would
have overturned them?
Oh, that's easy. Judge Haynes
handles all those kinds of cases.
The same Judge Haynes who
signed the original warrant?
A quirk of living in D.C
the same judges do criminal and civil.
♪
[LIGHT MUSIC]
♪
All right, so what's this about, Mercer?
I talked to Mason.
He doesn't want to take the settlement.
It could look like a loss for you.
Yeah, I guess we'll see.
But I think I know
a way I could convince him,
but turns out,
I'm going to need your help.
So I've got this multifamily development
that I'm renovating in Southeast,
but I keep running
into these BS citations
over gas line hazards.
Everyone whines there isn't
enough affordable housing.
But they make building codes so costly,
you can't build a damn thing.
Because the politics
always get in the way.
This country was built by
businesses, not regulations.
That's for sure.
That's why I say,
thank God for capitalism.
[CHUCKLES]
You know, I golf with
Thomas Wilson over at Ralbern.
And he says you are a free thinker,
that you don't allow
corporate bureaucracy
to get in the way of building
the American dream.
I do what I can.
And he said I should
talk to you about possibly
expediting the process.
You know, I'd love to make
a hefty campaign contribution,
but those limits and all
You're telling me.
Listen.
Why don't we avoid all that red tape?
Put me on retainer.
Retainer?
Sounds good.
How much?
For you, $5,000 a month.
Fair enough.
Let's say I transfer
a good faith deposit.
Offshore account?
I have it all.
Judge Thaddeus Haynes,
there are some people here
who want to speak to you.
What the hell is going on?
You have been taking bribes for years
and getting away with it.
You believed you were invulnerable,
especially after
killing a man and almost
getting away with it.
That's insane. I didn't kill anyone.
You had a nice little
side hustle taking bribes
from companies like Ralbern to
help them skirt around onerous
building regulations.
But there was a fly in the ointment
Joshua.
He caught on to your side hustle.
You weren't about to go down
because of some over-dedicated
building inspector.
But he wouldn't let up.
And then the DA hands you a request
for a no-knock warrant.
And you realize that the
location of the suspect
was on the same street as Joshua.
Computers had been down over a week,
so any mistakes could be
blamed on human error.
Everything just fell in your lap.
Must have felt like divine providence,
and you seized the moment.
A court clerk gets the warrant,
processes it manually,
and hands it back to you to sign.
That's when you change the address.
You made sure the VIPER squad
went to the wrong house,
where Joshua was murdered.
[TENSE MUSIC]
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
Whew.
I never thought we'd see
eye to eye enough
to work together.
Thank you.
Hey, got to protect my stats.
Most humans, when reminded,
will do the right thing.
Last I checked, you are human, right?
You're welcome, Mercer.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Wingo called.
Hey says they are
dismantling the VIPER squad.
Well, that's more good news.
[DOOR CLICKS OPEN]
Mason.
Hey, Dr. Mercer.
I just came over
to see Kylie and to say
thank you.
No need. I'm just glad you
got some semblance of justice.
Strange.
I've all these feelings
anger, shock, guilt, but never peace.
It may never go away.
But you can move past it.
How?
There's no one answer.
I don't know what's best for you, Mason.
That'll be for you to explore.
That's it?
No profound Mercer monologue?
I'm fresh out of monologues, young'un.
Nothing profound to say today.
Then I'll recycle an old one,
one that I know by heart.
Maybe start with finding something
that reminds you of happiness.
I could dust off the trumpet.
- Ooh.
- [LAUGHS]
I think I can still fit
in my majorette outfit.
[LAUGHTER]
I know I should go home, but
I don't want to face it yet.
Mm, hang here until you're ready.
We can stay up all night like old times.
[LAUGHS]
You know, I hear that there's
a reality show set in Potomac
that'll help you forget
all your problems,
even if it's only for an hour.
We should tune in.
Mm.
Hell yeah.
[CHUCKLES]
So you guys think there's something up
because of her relationship
with [INDISTINCT].
Absolutely.
[ALL SCREAMING]
- [LAUGHS]
- Oh, my God. We made it.