Only the Lonely (Season 22, Episode 7)
Premise: A crisis consultant is strangled after a night spent managing a tech mogul’s divorce scandal, and the case leads to a con man who preys on accomplished women and to one of them, a celebrated women’s rights lawyer.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 22, Episode 7
- Detectives
- Det. Frank Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan), Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)
- Guest stars
- Mark Feuerstein as Devon Miller, Alysia Reiner as Grace Pollard, Francesca Faridany as Dana Clarkson, Eric Engleman as Mark Zanford, Bobby Daniel Rodriguez as Dr. Peter Royce
- Director
- Elisabeth Röhm
- Writers
- Pamela Wechsler & Jennifer Vanderbes
Summary
The Investigation
“Only the Lonely” opens on tech founder Mark Zanford facing reporters after his wife serves him divorce papers, with crisis consultant Dana Clarkson managing the fallout. The next morning Clarkson, 43, is found strangled on the stairs by a laundromat, her cash and cards untouched and her phone gone. Zanford says she left his car after an angry text. His estranged wife, Gabby, who threw a glass at Clarkson that night, is arrested when a bloodstained shirt turns up in her home, but the blood is her own from self-harm, and the DNA under Clarkson’s nails belongs to a man.
Clarkson’s lunch companion that day, a man calling himself Pierre Briones who claims to be an old friend visiting from Zurich, tells the detectives she feared an abusive ex. That ex, Dr. Peter Royce, lies about recent calls with her, and a silk scarf matching the fibers on her neck is found in his trash, though it carries none of his DNA. Her finances show heavy debt, and her frozen card was tried for a $3,700 dinner by a man whose bill lawyer Grace Pollard paid; Pollard refuses to say anything. Restaurant video shows the man was “Briones,” who lives three blocks from the scene. His townhouse holds passports under several names and Clarkson’s financial papers, and he is arrested.
The Trial
In court he is named as Devon Miller, accused of romancing Clarkson out of almost half a million dollars and killing her when she moved to expose him; he posts $1 million bail. None of his other victims will testify, and Miller fires his lawyer to argue his own case. He blames Zanford and Royce in his opening, then persuades the judge to hold a mid-trial hearing and suppress his statements to the detectives on Miranda grounds.
The scarf traces to Pollard, who bought it for Miller on Valentine’s Day during a ten-month affair that cost her about $200,000. She begs Maroun not to expose her, warning that it will damage the causes she has spent her career on, but she is called to testify. Cross-examining her, Miller suggests she killed Clarkson out of jealousy and plays part of an intimate video he recorded at his home, which shows Pollard there when Clarkson came pounding on the door. Questioned again by the prosecution, Pollard says Miller left with the scarf and came back about 20 minutes later, disheveled, and poured himself a large whiskey.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Miller guilty of second-degree murder. Afterward, Pollard questions whether the verdict counts as a victory for her.
Why it stands out
- The episode was directed by Elisabeth Röhm, who played ADA Serena Southerlyn in seasons 12–15.
- The defendant fires his lawyer and tries the case himself, using his pro se status to win a suppression hearing in the middle of trial and to question the witness he once dated.