The Enemy of All Women (Season 25, Episode 11)
Premise: An engineer at a surveillance-tech firm is shot dead days before she planned to report a rape, and the case against her billionaire boss turns on a friend who has her own secret.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 11
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Theo Walker (David Ajala)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Ennis Esmer as Marius Cole, Virginia Kull as Vanessa Barrett, Elizabeth Marvel as defense attorney Rita Calhoun, Mathias Goldstein as Sean Morris, Katie Croyle as Natalie Wallis
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Art Alamo
Summary
The Investigation
“The Enemy of All Women” opens with Natalie Wallis, chief engineer at the surveillance-software firm Utomnia, shot dead in her brownstone soon after leaving an urgent message for a friend. Nothing is taken, but every recording from her home devices, and even the street cameras on her block, has been wiped through a hidden flaw in the city’s systems. Her last text went to Vanessa Barrett, Utomnia’s former chief technology officer, who mentions a bitter ex-boyfriend and the Gamergate harassment Natalie suffered as a video game designer.
A gamer who posted a threat against her, Tanner Lovell, has a tournament alibi. When Natalie’s work emails start vanishing remotely, Utomnia calls it routine, and chief executive Marius Cole offers help but shares nothing about her work. A fired employee whom Natalie caught trying to expose the company’s data harvesting points detectives to a man she met at a café. He is Sean Morris, a trauma counselor, who says Natalie was raped about a month earlier and had decided to go to the police.
The medical examiner finds faded bruises on her wrists and throat and a recent hepatitis B infection. Vanessa recalls that on the night of the assault, Natalie left their dinner early when Cole called her to the office. A search of Cole’s home turns up hepatitis B medication and 9mm ammunition, the caliber that killed Natalie, and the hair found on her body proves to be his. He is charged with murder.
The Trial
Defense attorney Rita Calhoun seeks dismissal with home video and biometric logs placing Cole at home all night, but the judge leaves that for the jury. A cybersecurity expert says Cole’s company could erase data and fake an alibi, though he concedes thousands of others could too. Morris recounts Natalie’s account of being restrained and raped by a man she trusted after he tried to drug her, though she never named him. Cole testifies that he and Natalie had a secret affair, which explains his hair and the shared infection, and that the bullets came from a shooting range.
Needing another victim, the prosecutors consider Cole’s habit of buying silence with nondisclosure agreements, and Maroun realizes Vanessa may be one. Confronted, Vanessa admits Cole assaulted her and that she took a payout, and fears exposure would brand her the enemy of all women. Maroun, who says her sister was also assaulted, argues against forcing Vanessa to testify and proposes another approach.
Spoiler, the ending: In court, Price names Vanessa as a rebuttal witness. Calhoun quickly offers a manslaughter plea, and Price holds out for murder. Cole admits to second-degree murder in a deal that calls for a 20-year term, and Vanessa never has to testify.
Why it stands out
- Elizabeth Marvel returns as Rita Calhoun, whom she also played in Season 24’s “The Perfect Man.”
- Lt. Jessica Brady does not appear in the episode.
- The title is Vanessa Barrett’s own phrase for how she fears the public will see her for taking Cole’s money.