New Normal (Season 25, Episode 13)
Premise: A private-school student is gunned down in Washington Heights in place of a gang member trying to quit, and the only witness who can convict the shooter is an undercover officer who refuses to give up his cover.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 13
- 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
- Naiqui Macabroad as Officer Raymond Booker, Ty Jones as Lt. Ryan Barkley, Natalie Paul as Juju Mills, Adrianna Mitchell as Kendra Newton, Jason Lyke as Eric Robinson
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Rick Eid & Ajani Jackson
Summary
The Investigation
“New Normal” opens with 16-year-old Hassan Peterson, an honor student at Roberts Academy, shot twice in Washington Heights moments after a woman shouts a warning to his companion. Ballistics tie the gun to an unsolved triple homicide, and Walker’s former undercover colleague, Lt. Ryan Barkley, says the Pleasant View Mafia was behind it. His father says Hassan landed in the gang database after police saw him with a student he tutored, and the detectives suspect the bullet was meant for that friend.
Street video shows a man in a team jacket standing calmly through the shooting. Walker takes Riley to a bar where he once worked undercover, where Juju Mills, who knew him then and is angry he vanished, names the man as Book, a low-level dealer; Walker poses as Hassan’s cousin to get it. Book claims he was home sick, but Walker recognizes his address as an NYPD safe house: Book is Officer Raymond Booker, two years undercover. Meeting him alone, Walker learns that a man called T-Brickz asked him to keep watch during a supposed drug deal and that the gunman wore red sneakers. Walker keeps this from Riley.
Taris Stewart, a gang member from Hassan’s tutoring program, says he had announced plans to go straight days before the shooting but will not testify. A witness, Kendra Newton, describes a masked gunman of about 5′11″ with red sneakers and light green eyes. That leads to Eric Robinson, 23, a member since age 11, who asks for a lawyer; the gun turns up in a trash bin in his building.
The Trial
Baxter insists on second-degree murder. On the stand, Kendra says she never got a good look, then explains privately that she is pregnant and will not be branded a snitch. With the trial paused, Walker admits Booker’s secret to Riley, who objects to his partner working alone. Booker refuses to testify and jeopardize his case against the gang, so Riley goes over his head, and Barkley is warned that he and Booker face obstruction charges if they resist.
Booker still balks in a session with Price and Baxter. Walker tells him he has been under too long, recalling that he was once ready to cut off a man’s thumb on a gang leader’s orders and was spared only because the man was shot the next day.
Spoiler, the ending: Booker testifies that he saw the masked gunman with a pistol, red sneakers and green eyes, and the jury convicts Robinson in under three hours. Walker gives Booker the name of a counselor he has been seeing for months and admits he is still working through his own time undercover.
Why it stands out
- The episode explores Walker’s undercover past: a woman he knew in that life does not know he is a police officer, and he admits he has been seeing a counselor about it.
- Lt. Brady does not appear; Maura Tierney is credited but absent from the episode.