S22.E20: Class Retreat

[WendyCR72]

Quote

When a businessman is murdered, his surprising connection to Cosgrove's daughter helps the police make a break in the case. Price and Maroun disagree on how to proceed at trial when the defendant's age brings up legal precedent they must follow.

Airing May 4, 2023.

[Xeliou66]

This was pretty good - I always get nervous when there is a personal aspect to the cases because I’m not a fan of too much personal stuff, but this was pulled off fairly well. It was a nice feature for Cosgrove - I really like how they’ve fleshed him out and shown us a softer side of him as a caring family man, in season 21 he was too much of a hardass all the time, they’ve done a great job with him this season, and this was a good feature for him. I felt for him and his daughter, they were put in a tough position. Cosgrove has gone from a terrible start to being one of my favorites. 

I didn’t find the victim’s daughter sympathetic, her exaggerating her fights with her dad over normal teenage bullshit to saying her dad was abusive led in part to the murder, she wasn’t sympathetic at all to me. And I think the killer had stalkerish creep tendencies, he was already tracking his girlfriend and her dad before any allegation of abuse was made, I think he wanted to be a “tough guy” by bludgeoning the dad, and he never even talked to his girlfriend to get more information about the alleged violence from the victim, he just went straight out to planning murder. I didn’t feel much sympathy for him, but I also didn’t feel much sympathy for the daughter. Lily was just doing the right thing by trying to tell someone, and it was a low blow from the defense attorney to try to make her seem unstable. I also thought the school was a bit irresponsible in letting teenagers talk about all of these things without a counselor/trusted adult present, teens can vent and blow off steam and exaggerate things which is what the victim’s daughter did, but ultimately it wasn’t the school’s fault that the murder happened.

I would’ve liked testimony from the wife of the victim and the daughter of the victim about what happened. And I really would’ve liked to have heard closing arguments in this case - we haven’t seen those as much lately and it would’ve been really nice to hear each lawyer make their case. Also I wish the show would introduce a psych expert, because I would’ve liked to have heard their testimony about the case, that’s something this show needs. But it was nice that on the legal side there were no huge flaws. I did think Price was a bit all over the map - he went after the perp hard on cross, which he was absolutely right to do, but then he seemed to have sympathy for him. And I thought he was kind of disrespectful to Jack a couple of times, and I liked Jack standing firm and Maroun agreeing with Jack.

The police side was strong as usual - Cosgrove/Shaw are a really good pairing and I liked their investigation, the show has gotten that part down well. I liked the classic wisecracks at the crime scene and I liked how the investigation played out.

Overall this was pretty good - solid case that flowed well from start to finish, the personal stuff was handled fine and it was a nice feature for Cosgrove. There were a few things missing but no huge flaws which has sometimes been the case with the legal side this year. I liked this one pretty good.

[Madding crowd]

I dislike Price always being the whipping boy for Maroun and Jack. Price did want to charge the boy as a juvenile but when Maroun had a fit about it he changed his mind. At that point he had no choice but to go hard on the cross exam. Maroun bugs me; she is always angry at Price. Jack also seems angry not professional.

Cosgrove’s daughter is already not fitting in at the school and now will be bullied for being a snitch. I think kids do need a safe place to talk about things but it won’t work in a group setting where kids can tell on each other.

[storyskip]

3 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

I dislike Price always being the whipping boy for Maroun and Jack. Price did want to charge the boy as a juvenile but when Maroun had a fit about it he changed his mind. At that point he had no choice but to go hard on the cross exam. Maroun bugs me; she is always angry at Price. Jack also seems 

YES!!

Between last week and this week I am done with Saint Maroun. She is as sanctimonious as Saint Olivia and Jack feels like he’s just there to be her “yes” man.

[Door County Cherry]

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I didn’t find the victim’s daughter sympathetic, her exaggerating her fights with her dad over normal teenage bullshit to saying her dad was abusive led in part to the murder, she wasn’t sympathetic at all to me.

I think she got wrapped up in the wholly inappropriate "share" that the school did.  I've heard of companies trying things like this.  People feel vulnerable and pressured in these things that I'm not surprised they make things up as a way to truly expose their weaknesses.  It's also completely irresponsible of the school to have a student claim to be abused and NOT contact authorities about it.  They're mandated reporters. 

So in that respect, I agreed with the defense attorney (Justina Machado, yay! even if her character was awful). That exercise was completely irresponsible for the school to do.  But since the killer wasn't at the retreat, testimony about its awfulness was completely irresponsible and I can't believe the judge allowed it. 

I also didn't get why she was trying to claim Lily was lying.  They only know Lily told Aaron because of the text, which is evidence he at least believed his girlfriend's father was beating her. 

I also agree we should have had a change of plea and a psychiatrist in this episode instead of the defense attorney just changing her strategy.  

I like Maroun.  And I think Maroun was right.  If Price had an issue with overcharging minors, the time to feel that strongly is when they were overcharging black teens and not once a white teen of means commits murder. 

[Jenniferbug]

I had a hard time buying into the premise of the episode. As a former teacher married to a teacher, I cannot fathom any school (no matter how progressive) encouraging kids to share deep dark secrets with each other as some sort of weird bonding activity. Not to mention that teachers are mandatory reporters so any student who discloses abuse or sexual assault would have had their disclosures shared with police immediately. 

Aside from that, I thought the show did a good job of handling the case and balanced the personal and professional aspects of the plot well.

I feel like the writers have Price and Maroun taking turns about who wants to be most sympathetic to the defendant. It's starting to veer into Serena territory on occasion. I was glad Jack put his foot down at the end with Nolan, but it also seems out of character for an office under Jack's authority to be overcharging black defendants in the first place. I like all 3 characters for the most part, but it doesn't always feel like the writers have a firm grasp on who they are and how they differ. 

Does Cosgrove have other kids? In earlier episodes (even this season) he mentions kids plural, but we only ever hear about Lily and there was no sign of another child in their home. 

[dubbel zout]

I thought Cosgrove was an idiot to tell Lily he'd keep what she told him confidential. It's part of a case he's working on—of course he has to tell someone, especially since the information was relevant.

Agree with everyone that the school retreat was deeply misguided, to say the least. 

I didn't quite understand why Price had to run the plea agreement by Jack. Was it because of the optics of letting a rich white kid make a deal? That kid had a boatload of problems—I'm a little surprised some sort of mental deficiency defense wasn't there from the start.

I kind of liked that they made the victim's daughter somewhat unsympathetic. It's more realistic to me than the sainted, suffering family members we often see.

[blackwing]

I have teenaged kids about the same age as Aaron and Lily and Sophia, this was a tough episode to watch for me.  Things got out of hand and yes the kid was a creep and a murderer, but he's still a kid.  He made some incredibly poor choices and he deserves to go to prison.  I agreed with the decision to try him as an adult and I agreed with the verdict, but it didn't make it any less easy for me watching a kid get locked away.  His crying and his "Mom?  Dad?" as he was being led away made me sad for all of them.

I'm frustrated by this episode having yet another example of key evidence being thrown out by a judge.  I'm not sure what else the detectives could have done in this matter.  

13 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I would’ve liked testimony from the wife of the victim and the daughter of the victim about what happened.

Yes, I agree.  Doesn't it seem natural that the prosecution would put these two on the stand?  At the very least, we should have gotten a scene with Price talking to them and them saying they didn't want to testify, or a line between Jack and Price about why they were not calling them to the stand.  As usual, the shortened episode times lead to me having to make up imaginary scenes in my head.

12 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I dislike Price always being the whipping boy for Maroun and Jack. Price did want to charge the boy as a juvenile but when Maroun had a fit about it he changed his mind. At that point he had no choice but to go hard on the cross exam. Maroun bugs me; she is always angry at Price. Jack also seems angry not professional.

Cosgrove’s daughter is already not fitting in at the school and now will be bullied for being a snitch. I think kids do need a safe place to talk about things but it won’t work in a group setting where kids can tell on each other.

Agree, just like last episode, Price is always being made to look like the hardass while Maroun critcises him from her high horse.

I feel bad for Lily, everyone is going to know that she violated the retreat rules by telling Aaron what was said and then again by telling her dad about it.

2 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I had a hard time buying into the premise of the episode. As a former teacher married to a teacher, I cannot fathom any school (no matter how progressive) encouraging kids to share deep dark secrets with each other as some sort of weird bonding activity. Not to mention that teachers are mandatory reporters so any student who discloses abuse or sexual assault would have had their disclosures shared with police immediately. 

Does Cosgrove have other kids? In earlier episodes (even this season) he mentions kids plural, but we only ever hear about Lily and there was no sign of another child in their home. 

 I agree, this retreat seems like a really poor idea.  And why was there the rule that everybody had to share?  It doesn't seem like this retreat was mandatory since Aaron wasn't there, so I'm not sure why Lily would have gone if she felt uncomfortable and didn't want to share anything.

I recall us talking about how many kids Cosgrove has based on what he said before, and I think the conclusion is that nobody knows.  Was this the first time we have seen his wife?

[jalady]

The Law side was terrible, as usual.  Throwing out the confession was laughable.  There’s no requirement for a comfortable place to seat the suspect, and if he starts talking without any questions being asked, oh well.  Too bad, so sad.  And the judge made another ruling during the trial that made me wonder if she was on the take or just terminally stupid.  Not to mention, after getting the confession suppressed the defense suddenly switches to an insanity defense (meaning an admission of guilt) - with no notice to the court or prosecutor.  You can’t do that.  Watch some of the old episodes; that plot point came up all. the. time.  Maybe this should just be a detective show with a note at the end about what happened at trial.

But I did love Jack’s “Damn right I did!” when Nolan was debating who made the decision to charge the killer as an adult.  Lol 

Edited May 5, 2023 by jalady
Actually I think it’s the Order side that involves the lawyers. Oops.

[illdoc]

Once more, it's evident that Price skipped the day they taught "how to prep a witness". Following this episode, over on SVU, their DA has their witness (before she's even on the stand) and he tells the cops "found out all you can. I want to see what else she may be hiding." Why didn't Price do the same? As in, what was Lily's "share"? Didn't he think that was relevant? When the defense attorney was going after the principal ("didn't you consider the harm that might be done"), why didn't Price hammer home that the defendant wasn't there and therefore the "harm" to those at the retreat wasn't relevant to him?

Edited May 5, 2023 by illdoc
added comments that should be elsewhere

[jalady]

Yes, good point about the defendant not being at the retreat!  I meant to mention that.  And Lily says the defense attorney lied about her “share”.  I wouldn’t put it past her . . .

[Door County Cherry]

I actually don't mind that the confession was tossed in this instance.  (I don't know what would have really happened. )  He was under custody,  even if not officially arrested, at the police station with no parent around. I think extra care should be taken with minors.  Had it happened at school or elsewhere?  No but in this circumstance, I didn't hate it as much as I've hated other legal decisions. 

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

Agree, just like last episode, Price is always being made to look like the hardass while Maroun critcises him from her high horse.

Except he was the softie in this ep.

[Xeliou66]

To touch on a few other points - I could see the motion to toss the confession going either way, it was a tough call that I could both sides of, the police didn’t do anything improper but it didn’t involve a minor who confessed in a police station without a parent or lawyer present.

As for Frank’s family, yes this was the first time we’ve seen his wife, and while he’s never said how many children he has I believe he did mention having multiple kids last season - my guess is that Frank has an older kid who’s away at college and that’s why they haven’t been shown. As for Frank’s conversations with Lily, Frank was in a hard position as he wanted his daughter to be able to talk openly with him and trust him, but yeah he should know, and for that matter Lily should know as well, that the information she had was relevant to a murder case and others might have to know. They were both in a tough position but I think they both did the best they could. And I think the defendant tried to make up some stuff about Lily’s emotional state, he probably heard some stuff from his girlfriend that Lily had told her and twisted it to try to make her look unstable. Anyway I liked how Frank handled the whole situation, they’ve done a great job in making him a well rounded character this season, and showing that he has a caring and compassionate side while not completely losing his edge.

I thought the legal side was handled better than normal this week, but I really would’ve liked to have heard closing arguments. And I would love it if the show would introduce a new psych expert, the way they used to have Skoda or Olivet, a psych expert is something the show needs every now and then. 

[jalady]

It’s not just custody that matters. It has to be custodial interrogation.  There was literally ZERO interrogation.  They offered him drinks and snacks and told him to wait for his parents before they asked him anything.  They tossed the confession for plot purposes only.  Not what would ever happen in the real world, juvenile or not.

[shapeshifter]

17 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I didn’t find the victim’s daughter sympathetic, her exaggerating her fights with her dad over normal teenage bullshit to saying her dad was abusive led in part to the murder, she wasn’t sympathetic at all to me.

Well, now that her father is dead, and a perp has been convicted, social services will never get involved to find out just how "abusive" her father was. Children who are victims of abuse will often cover up the abuse because of their own misplaced shame. Even if she was just trying to have a story as sad as the other kids' stories, saying she thought her father was going to kill her seems extreme.  
And, yes to this as well:

15 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

It's also completely irresponsible of the school to have a student claim to be abused and NOT contact authorities about it.  They're mandated reporters. 

7 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

As a former teacher married to a teacher, I cannot fathom any school (no matter how progressive) encouraging kids to share deep dark secrets with each other as some sort of weird bonding activity. Not to mention that teachers are mandatory reporters so any student who discloses abuse or sexual assault would have had their disclosures shared with police immediately. 

The school psychologist would have had to report the utterances of abuse. Maybe she did and nothing came of it? 

 

15 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

I also didn't get why she was trying to claim Lily was lying.  They only know Lily told Aaron because of the text, which is evidence he at least believed his girlfriend's father was beating her. 

Good point. Should Price have pointed out the only reason for the Defense Attorney to accuse Lily of lying was to intimidate her or something?

At this point in the trial:

• [DEFENSE ATTORNEY] . . . the reckless disclosures of the victim's daughter at the retreat helped to insight Mr. Cole's mental breakdown.
• [PRICE] So now he did it but only because the retreat drove him insane? That... that is insane. The defendant wasn't even there.

I was expecting the defense attorney to say it was Lily's fault.

 

+++++++++++++++++++

 

At the end when the killer kid was being led away with his hands cuffed behind his back, his pitiful whimpers seemed to foretell his future prison experiences, which will likely in no way be rehabilative. 

 

 

[The Wild Sow]

18 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

It's also completely irresponsible of the school to have a student claim to be abused and NOT contact authorities about it.  They're mandated reporters. 

But as far as we can tell, no adult was actually there to hear her claim.  Just her peers.  And Lily is absolutely going to be a pariah now.

[Door County Cherry]

1 hour ago, The Wild Sow said:

But as far as we can tell, no adult was actually there to hear her claim.  Just her peers.  And Lily is absolutely going to be a pariah now.

I thought the school psychologist was also there.  Cosgrove kept asking about what was said and the psychologist said she couldn't disclose what was said in confidence. That made it seem to me like she knew otherwise I think she'd say she didn't know what was said. It appeared she felt bound by ethics even though no one was alone with her when they disclosed. 

[Xeliou66]

25 minutes ago, Door County Cherry said:

I thought the school psychologist was also there.  Cosgrove kept asking about what was said and the psychologist said she couldn't disclose what was said in confidence. That made it seem to me like she knew otherwise I think she'd say she didn't know what was said. It appeared she felt bound by ethics even though no one was alone with her when they disclosed. 

I don’t think the school counselor was in the room when the teens were talking to each other, the counselor might’ve known some of what was said but I took it that the teens were alone when they were talking. 
It was a bad idea by the school to have teens alone with no trusted adult talking about their problems. And if the counselor knew about any allegations of abuse then she should’ve reported it, but I don’t think she did. 
It was an interesting case and I kind of liked how the victim’s daughter was unsympathetic rather than the usual sympathetic relatives we see. But ultimately it was the defendant who committed the murder and I think the defendant already had a nasty streak before the victim’s daughter said anything about her dad being abusive, he was already stalking her. If he had talked with his girlfriend he would’ve known she wasn’t being physically abused by her dad and they were just having arguments, but no he went straight to planning murder. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Name-checking Taylor Swift and Jay-Z. Look at L&O trying to be down with what the cool kids are putting down. Or their middle-aged mothers.

Yep, Cosgrove should've been more aware he was potentially putting his daughter in a place where she'd be called to testify about things that were meant to be kept in confidence. Now at school she'll be known as a rat and she might be shunned even more as "not our kind."

Unexpected to see Justina Machado playing an attorney. Good on her for trying not to get Hollywood typecast as the "spicy Latina."

I think there's something to be said for families who train their kids to keep the dirty laundry inside the house. Those retreats couldn't have had the fully informed consent of all the parents because some of the parents would've feared that certain kinds of sharing by their kids could make them ripe for blackmail. Or worse. (I'm being a tad tongue-in-cheek here. Of course kids should tell someone if they're being abused at home. But they might want to be careful who they decide to tell or they could be putting themselves in more danger. Sadly though many kids may not realize this.)

Quote

And the judge made another ruling during the trial that made me wonder if she was on the take or just terminally stupid.  

I figured she was paid off by the defendant's wealthy parents. As long as they were willing to subvert justice, they probably should've slid a few bucks to a couple of the jurors too.

[853fisher]

The tone is totally different, but I was reminded of the “Community” episode where Troy takes an acting class with Britta.  The students are pressured to share about their traumas, but Troy has nothing beyond the mundane to offer, so he pretends to have been molested by an uncle.

My high school had a big annual retreat.  I didn't go - I wasn't prepared to open up in a big group.  My sister did.  I have no reason to believe inappropriately deep sharing was encouraged, but I recall wondering how secret / private it all really was.  I recall the kids wrote letters to each other - maybe they were reviewed.

I think in the end, a smaller circle of confidence was better for me then and is better for me now.  Not that I've had any major traumas - I just don't like to air my dirty laundry.  I'm surprised by what many people I know share on Facebook, never mind in a setting like a retreat.  Sometimes I feel bad about being so cynical, but I do think sometimes people just want attention.

[Raja]

On 5/5/2023 at 10:13 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Yep, Cosgrove should've been more aware he was potentially putting his daughter in a place where she'd be called to testify about things that were meant to be kept in confidence. Now at school she'll be known as a rat and she might be shunned even more as "not our kind."

I couldn't help but think of Lenny's daughter and that there are many schools in Manhattan.

[illdoc]

BTW, the defendant had a burner phone (that's what they kept referring to it as) registered to another kid, so he could spy on the girlfriend secretly. Isn't the point of a burner phone that it's unregistered?????

[Raja]

1 hour ago, illdoc said:

BTW, the defendant had a burner phone (that's what they kept referring to it as) registered to another kid, so he could spy on the girlfriend secretly. Isn't the point of a burner phone that it's unregistered?????

Well if you call it a burner and not just an additional line the root is to toss it if need be. But I guess now like brand name supplants generic descriptions so has burner.

[dubbel zout]

The phone wasn't registered to the buyer, so I'd call that unregistered. 

[oakville]

On 5/4/2023 at 10:41 PM, Xeliou66 said:

 

The police side was strong as usual - Cosgrove/Shaw are a really good pairing and I liked their investigation, the show has gotten that part down well. I liked the classic wisecracks at the crime scene and I liked how the investigation played out.

Overall this was pretty good - solid case that flowed well from start to finish, the personal stuff was handled fine and it was a nice feature for Cosgrove. There were a few things missing but no huge flaws which has sometimes been the case with the legal side this year. I liked this one pretty good.

Agreed. Cosgrove & Shaw are the best part of the show.

[CrystalBlue]

9 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

The phone wasn't registered to the buyer, so I'd call that unregistered. 

I'd call it fraudulently registered.  At least make up a fake name and don't potentially frame another student who goes to your school!

TIL that parents should never let their kids go to off-campus sharing retreats.  WTH?

[blackwing]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:32 PM, Door County Cherry said:

I thought the school psychologist was also there.  Cosgrove kept asking about what was said and the psychologist said she couldn't disclose what was said in confidence. That made it seem to me like she knew otherwise I think she'd say she didn't know what was said. It appeared she felt bound by ethics even though no one was alone with her when they disclosed. 

I agree, I thought she was there as well.  Especially since she kept saying she couldn't disclose what was said.  If she wasn't there, she would have said she wasn't there, and that only the kids know what was said.

She was implying that the communications between her and the students were privileged communications and therefore couldn't be disclosed.  That could only be applicable if she was there.  I don't think there's any privilege when it is student-to-student communications, despite the school's promise that nothing would be said.  A student wouldn't be protected from being forced to testify in court about what was discussed, as we saw here.

After this incident, I imagine the New York State Department of Education should be looking into this school and this culture of "forced sharing" that has led many to feeling uncomfortable.  If the school even continues with these retreats, I would think Frank will never let his daughter go to this retreat again, since it appears to have been optional.  That is, assuming his daughter doesn't leave the school. 

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I'd call it fraudulently registered.  At least make up a fake name and don't potentially frame another student who goes to your school!

The so-called burner phone was registered in the name of Cooper Walsh, who was a friend of the killer's girlfriend, Sophia.
I wasn't sure if Sophia and Cooper were "friends with benefits" or anything of that nature. Maybe that info was cut for time?
Wasn't  Aaron, the killer, seen on video visiting Cooper at his home? Or am I conflating low res B&W videos? 

[jcbrown]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:48 AM, jalady said:

The Law side was terrible, as usual.  

I tried twice to watch this episode last night and fell asleep during the Law part both times.

22 hours ago, oakville said:

Agreed. Cosgrove & Shaw are the best part of the show.

Completely cosign. I wish they could ditch the Law part and do the show just focused on them.

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, jcbrown said:

I tried twice to watch this episode last night and fell asleep during the Law part both times.

Completely cosign. I wish they could ditch the Law part and do the show just focused on them.

I wouldn't mind if Maroun was replaced, depending on the new ADA dynamic have an improvement to Price or replace both of them, definitely keep Jack McCoy and over on the Law side keep Lt. Dixon.  (The cops Cosgrove and Shaw are on the Law side and the DA Jack and the two ADA's are the Order side.)

[storyskip]

I'd give a cheer if they got rid of Maroun. I've tried to like the character/actress since Season 21 but to no avail.  I feel like when they're not trying to frame up Saint Maroun, the episodes where she's not as heavily featured, the writing for Price gets better.  But who knows what's going to happen with the writers' strike happening. That's going to throw a wrench into a lot of shows.

Small thing I liked in tonight's episode was when Price was re-directing Lily on the stand. Usually he is back from the witness stand, working the jury box but this time he came up on the corner and placed himself physically between Lily and the defense attorney/defendant. It was a small thing but a sweet protective gesture all the same.

[jcbrown]

21 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I wouldn't mind if Maroun was replaced, depending on the new ADA dynamic have an improvement to Price or replace both of them, definitely keep Jack McCoy and over on the Law side keep Lt. Dixon.  (The cops Cosgrove and Shaw are on the Law side and the DA Jack and the two ADA's are the Order side.)

I was living in opposite world, evidently. It's the cops I like. The attorneys (other than Jack) are a snooze. It does confuse me that the ones practicing law are not on the law side?

[CrystalBlue]

No, I understand that you like the cops side, as do I.  Price and Maroun on the Order (In The Court) side can be snoozy and are the weaker of the two sides.  That being said, it's not L&O without Jack McCoy.

[Samsnee]

I liked this ep even though I knew it was the boyfriend as soon as they mentioned the daughter was cheating on him. But how did they find the burner phone?

The law side has gelled pretty well alright Camryn Manheim isn’t given much to do and definitely isn’t as good as Van Buren. I liked how Cosgrove’s personal life got caught up in this. 
 

Price and Maroun still aren’t great. Price’s morals seem to change each week. One minute he’s a bleeding heart liberal, the next he’s ultra conservative. 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Samsnee said:

Price and Maroun still aren’t great. Price’s morals seem to change each week. One minute he’s a bleeding heart liberal, the next he’s ultra conservative. 

This episode was the second time in  few weeks that has me predicting the Price will be fired because he's a lesbian in the season finale.

[psychfan]

On 5/5/2023 at 1:23 AM, Door County Cherry said:

I also didn't get why she was trying to claim Lily was lying.  They only know Lily told Aaron because of the text, which is evidence he at least believed his girlfriend's father was beating her. 

 

That bugged me so much here. There were other stupid things throughout (why on earth would you promise your kid you'd keep things secret when literally you're asking for info for the murder you're investigating??), but this was the most impossible to wave away. The text was the evidence in the first place. And her father wasn't the one who discovered it; he just recognized it was her phone number. Even if they never knew who'd sent it they'd have had the evidence from the kid's phone that he knew of the retreat statements.

(Plenty of other things bugged me in this one also, including the idea that this kid who so creepily stalked his gf and then her father was somehow sympathetic. But the above part bugged the most because I hate when they do nonsensical stuff just as a plot device.)

[incandescent]

Nolan can pay lip service to also wanting them to charge black youths as adults less often but this is the second time this season that he's wanted to go easy on the rich white boy who brutally killed a guy, so I'm gonna need to actually see him advocate for the DA's office to show leniency to a young black man.