Hindsight (Season 16, Episode 21)
Premise: Det. Nick Falco becomes a suspect when a woman he met at a bar is found stabbed to death in his bathroom, and the case leads to a robbery crew and a family with an old grudge against him.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 21
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Michael Imperioli as Det. Nick Falco, Tonya Pinkins as Angela Young, David Wayne Britton as Tyrell Young, Bambadjan Bamba as Henry Young, Kenya Brome as Keisha Sipes
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Chris Levinson
Summary
The Investigation
“Hindsight” centers on a murder in a detective’s apartment. Det. Nick Falco, Fontana’s former partner, wakes late to find a woman he brought home from a bar stabbed to death on his bathroom floor, his own kitchen knife in the sink. Falco says he lost eight hours after sharing wine with her, and a knockout drug shows up in his blood. Van Buren takes his gun and shield. The victim, Sonia Vasquez, has a petty larceny record but, to her father, Hector, was a community college science student.
A wealthy married man whose license Sonia kept says he woke after a night with her to find his valuables gone, and the detectives conclude she knocked out rich men so a crew could rob them. She was also three weeks pregnant. Her lab partner, Jared Perry, is shot dead after Falco, defying orders, questions him; Perry had told Falco the crew got its targets by text and that he received none the night Sonia died. The crew draws on rival gangs, including Henry Young, son of New Black Mafia founder Tyrell Young, a recently released killer turned anti-gang author who says Falco framed him.
Henry, found at his girlfriend Keisha Sipes’s apartment, admits fathering the baby but has a bar alibi. Falco re-enters his sealed apartment and finds a woman’s heel tip bearing Sonia’s blood, though she wore flats. Matching shoes surface in a dumpster behind Keisha’s building, and DNA links them to her. Keisha has three assault priors and a jealous motive. Questioned by prosecutors, Falco suspects a revenge plot by Tyrell, but nothing connects Tyrell to the crew.
The Trial
The prosecution calls Falco first to air his past suspension and his crime-scene visit. Defense attorney Kyle Rowen accuses Falco of killing Sonia and planting the shoes, and the judge bars any mention of the robbery ring because no victim will come forward. Mid-trial, Perry’s credit card, found on the Staten Island Ferry, leads to ferry video of Henry’s mother, Angela Young, hours after Perry’s murder. Cell-tower records place the crew’s texts near Angela’s office, her church and her younger son’s boarding school. On the day of the murder a single text sent Sonia to Falco, and Angela then phoned Keisha. Keisha refuses a deal, saying Angela would kill her.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits Keisha of second-degree murder. Tyrell then admits to Henry that he really committed the murder Falco arrested him for. When Henry turns up at Falco’s apartment with a gun, Angela, trying to stop him, admits she steered Sonia to Falco, told Keisha about the baby and shot Perry. Henry’s gun is empty; he joined the setup expecting to clear her. No charges against Angela are shown.
Why it stands out
- Michael Imperioli returns as Det. Nick Falco, who temporarily replaced Ed Green as Fontana’s partner in the last four episodes of Season 15; here Falco meets Green for the first time.
- The woman tried for the stabbing is acquitted, and the person who arranged it is exposed only after the verdict, through a confrontation staged with an unloaded gun.
- Cell-tower data on prepaid text messages reveals a churchgoing mother as the organizer of a robbery crew drawn from rival gangs.