Bad Apple (Season 24, Episode 8)
Premise: When a narcotics sergeant from Brady’s old precinct is killed after a fentanyl raid, the evidence points first at a dealer and then inside the squad, where no officer will testify.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 8
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Mike Vogel as Det. Miles Brandt, Fredric Lehne as Captain Greg Stockwell, Chris Silcox as Sgt. Jordan Harrison, Juan Javier Cardenas as Det. Travis Melcher, Amanda Warren as defense attorney Camilla Paymor
- Director
- Michael Smith
- Writers
- Art Alamo
Summary
The Investigation
“Bad Apple” opens with a narcotics raid on a stash house, during which Sgt. Jordan Harrison chases a man who escapes after a struggle. Hours later Harrison is found in a park, killed by a single 9mm bullet in the back, his gun holstered and his wallet and phone on him. He worked out of the 2-9, Brady’s old precinct, and she had recommended his move to Major Case Narcotics. The raid netted four arrests and 10 kilos of fentanyl, and Harrison’s partner, Det. Miles Brandt, is furious.
Harrison’s girlfriend, Maureen Herrera, who fought with him that night, is cleared by her taxi ride and late-night texts. His brother, Tyler, an anti-police activist who posted that dead cops are the only good ones, was slashing patrol car tires in Brooklyn. Ballistics link the bullet to Eddie White, the dealer who escaped the raid. Tailing White’s girlfriend, Hailey Vonn, leads to a sushi restaurant, where White surrenders unarmed and Brandt has to be calmed down; the gun turns up under White’s mattress.
White says the gun was in a blue duffel he left in the raid with $50,000 and drugs, and no such bag was logged. Over drinks in Harrison’s memory, Brady and her old captain, Greg Stockwell, recall that Harrison once wanted to report a colleague for pocketing cash, and Harrison’s body camera shows the duffel. With Internal Affairs, Brady baits a Queens storage unit supposedly rented by squad leader Travis Melcher; hidden cameras film Brandt planting the bag, and he is arrested. Harrison’s blood is then found on Brandt’s shoes.
The Trial
Brandt is charged with first-degree murder. Melcher, whom Brandt tried to frame, still will not testify against another officer, and the squad follows. The defense paints White as a man who shoots for revenge, and Riley concedes that Brandt never touched the gun and that the blood cannot be dated. Brandt testifies that Harrison stole the duffel under a deal with White, that he took it to return it and then panicked, and he cites his medals and spotless 25-year record.
Stockwell, about to retire, will not risk his pension by testifying. Brady tells Riley that as a young officer she kept quiet about a sergeant taking payoffs, and years later steered Harrison away from reporting Brandt. She then testifies that she received complaints, including Harrison’s, that Brandt pocketed cash from raids, and that she talked Harrison out of pursuing it.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Brandt of first-degree murder. Stockwell cuts Brady off and tells her not to seek his forgiveness, and an Internal Affairs detective, Jason Cassidy, arrives at the squad to talk to her about Brandt.
Why it stands out
- Brady returns to the 2-9, her former precinct, where she had been lieutenant to the detective who turns out to be the killer.
- Brady breaks the blue wall herself, admitting under oath that she talked the victim out of reporting his partner’s theft.
- The episode ends on a loose thread, as Internal Affairs comes to the squad to question Brady about Brandt.