Severance (Season 21, Episode 8)
Premise: The strangling of an electric car company’s finance chief points to a business deal gone wrong, and the consultant accused of killing her claims a brain injury from his diplomatic posting in Havana left him unable to control himself.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 8
- Detectives
- Det. Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson), Det. Frank Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)
- Guest stars
- Tate Ellington as Colin Baker, Francie Swift as defense attorney Diana Marcus, Christian Campbell as Ethan Merritt, Josh Clark as Grant Fisher, David Dean Bottrell as Dr. Patrick Grady
- Ripped from the headlines
- The defense draws on Havana syndrome, the disputed set of unexplained illnesses reported by American diplomatic staff in Cuba beginning in late 2016.
- Director
- Yangzom Brauen
- Writers
- Art Alamo
Summary
The Investigation
“Severance” opens with Alexis Morphew, chief financial officer of the electric car company QuestArc, telling her team on a late call to stop work for the night and then answering her door. She is found strangled in her West Village town house, her alarm switched off at 10:03 p.m. to admit a visitor, with blood under her nails. The colleague who reported her missing, consultant Colin Baker, says they had met only on video calls. At 8:37 p.m. she had texted QuestArc’s founder, Ethan Merritt, about a problem.
Merritt points to her predecessor, Terry Bellatoni, who sent her abusive emails after being pushed out, but Bellatoni was in Palo Alto. A burner phone leads to journalist Robert Fletcher, who says Morphew was his main source for an exposé on Merritt’s abusive workplace. Merritt lied about being asleep, having slipped out to see an employee he is dating, and his DNA does not match. Solar company founder Gus Imelski, whose sale to QuestArc Morphew canceled that day, admits knocking on her door but says she never answered and that he passed Baker a block away. Baker, who complains of a migraine, has scratches on his arms.
The Trial
Maroun wins remand despite defense attorney Diana Marcus citing Baker’s migraines, and Baker appears unsteady. The judge then suppresses his DNA swab after the defense argues that pain, lack of sleep and medication undercut his consent. The prosecution tells jurors Baker overvalued Imelski’s company by about $100 million, an error that Morphew could reveal and that would end his hopes of making partner. After Imelski testifies, Baker erupts in court, and Marcus gives late notice of an insanity defense: Baker was posted to the embassy in Havana in 2017 and has Havana syndrome.
Subpoenaed by the defense, CIA deputy director Grant Fisher asks McCoy to consider a plea, and McCoy urges Price to weigh it, but Price refuses. Defense expert Dr. Patrick Grady ties Baker’s symptoms to CTE, conceding that it can only be confirmed after death and that none of the roughly 1,000 people with the syndrome he has studied turned violent. Baker’s wife, a pediatrician, describes his worsening temper. Baker testifies that he blacked out during an argument and blames the government for hiding how serious his condition was.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits Baker, finding him not responsible because of mental disease or defect. Afterward, one prosecutor still believes Baker lied, and an old boss’s view is recalled: lawyers determined to be right tend to lose more often.
Why it stands out
- The title is shared with a Season 2 episode from 1992.
- The case ends in an insanity acquittal after Price turns down a plea that McCoy had urged him to consider.