Ride or Die (Season 25, Episode 18)
Premise: A young TV reporter is stabbed to death after judging a beauty pageant, and a veteran anchor who blames her for losing her job claims extreme emotional disturbance, defended by the lawyer who once mentored Maroun.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 18
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott)
- ADAs/DA
- ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Kelli Williams as Ann Merrick, Alanna Ubach as defense attorney Abigail Donahue, Tom Galantich as Thomas Williams, Bethany Lauren James as Dr. Andrea Fitzgerald, Whitney Kimball Long as Sarah Chase
- Director
- Oscar Lozoya
- Writers
- Jennifer Vanderbes & Jolie Huang
Summary
The Investigation
“Ride or Die” opens at the Miss New York Metro pageant. The next morning a janitor finds one of the judges, 29-year-old local TV reporter Katie Harrington, dead in a dressing room, stabbed in the neck with scissors. Backstage cameras were off for the contestants’ privacy, but street video catches a figure leaving at 10:25 p.m. in a beanie worn inside out, its stitching reading XLV. Runner-up Kailani Arizaga texted Katie a warning about her vote, but says she wanted to lose and only competed for her mother; she names classmates as her alibi. Katie’s father, Charles, points to a persistent suitor, hockey player Alexander Hayes, who was nearby that night but says he was at a party and steers detectives toward Katie’s risky reporting.
Anchor Ann Merrick, who calls herself Katie’s mentor at the station, says she was home all night. Katie’s burner phones show an angry text from Jazmin Hernandez, a gang associate who helped Katie and Merrick on a segment about gangs recruiting girls that misidentified a local man as a member. Hernandez has an alibi, but her beanie came from a batch Merrick had made for the station’s anniversary, and garage video shows Merrick leaving at 9:24 in clothes matching the fleeing figure. She is arrested as she prepares to go on air, and her DNA is on the scissors. With Price out for weeks after an appendectomy, Baxter gives the case to Maroun. Station chief Thomas Williams says he told Merrick that night that her contract was ending and that Katie would replace her.
The Trial
Defense attorney Abigail Donahue, Maroun’s former colleague in the Brooklyn DA’s office, offers a manslaughter plea and argues extreme emotional disturbance; Maroun refuses. On cross, Donahue gets Brady to confirm the scissors came from Katie’s own styling kit. After Williams testifies that Katie blamed Merrick for the misidentification, Donahue springs an email in which Katie took responsibility herself; the judge admits it but threatens sanctions. Defense expert Dr. Andrea Fitzgerald likens a protégé’s betrayal to a spouse’s infidelity, but concedes she knows of no such case ending in murder. Merrick testifies that Katie admitted blaming her and that she reacted without thinking.
Another former protégé, Sarah Chase, says Merrick grabbed her by the collar and threatened to kill her when she took a job elsewhere. Donahue presses Maroun to accept manslaughter, calling the law on extreme emotional disturbance sexist and saying Maroun owes her for helping her get hired. Told that no mentor worth the name would demand repayment, Maroun calls Chase to the stand.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Merrick of second-degree murder. Donahue walks away from Maroun, telling her they are done.
Why it stands out
- Hugh Dancy and David Ajala do not appear; Price is said to be recovering from an appendectomy, and Baxter hands Maroun the case.
- Kelli Williams, who played Maggie Corson in the Season 2 episode “Sisters of Mercy” (1992), returns 34 years later in a new role as Ann Merrick.
- Maroun’s opponent is her own former mentor, who asks her to repay the favor with a plea.