Bend the Knee (Season 25, Episode 5)
Premise: A senior partner who led his firm’s resistance to federal pressure is bludgeoned at home, and the colleague charged with his murder claims diplomatic immunity while Washington leans on Baxter to drop the case.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 5
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Afsheen Misaghi as Nasser Al Hallaq, Toby Leonard Moore as Jack Drell, Hill Harper as defense attorney Eric Ferguson, Joshua Malina as Kevin Bradley, Tom Coiner as Robbie Chilton
- Director
- Michael Smith
- Writers
- Scott Gold
Summary
The Investigation
“Bend the Knee” begins with senior partner Roger Wallace urging his colleagues at Blackwell & Kett to hold the line, over objections that defiance will wreck the firm. The next morning managing partner Kevin Bradley finds Wallace dead in his townhouse office, pushed through a glass table and then struck on the head. A gap in the dust shows a heavy deal trophy is missing. Street video catches a figure fleeing down the alley behind the house and colliding with a man in a vintage Mets jacket, Robbie Chilton, who saw blood on the stranger’s face.
Newspaper publisher Eddie Lopez, who emailed Wallace that he hoped he would die after a foreclosure fight, has an alibi. Wallace’s fiancée, Bridget Chimenti, points to Bradley, who explains that the administration threatened to bar the firm from federal work unless it donated $80 million in friendly pro bono services, and that Wallace led the opposition. Phone data clears Bradley but places partner Nasser Al Hallaq, whose practice depends on federal contracts, near the house. Chilton identifies him, and he is arrested, then announces that he has diplomatic immunity as the son of the United Arab Emirates’ chief envoy.
The Trial
Sworn in as a special assistant U.S. attorney, Price argues before the judge that Al Hallaq, 40 and earning about $5 million a year, depends on his father only because he spends like a playboy, and the prosecution can proceed. Jack Drell, Washington’s senior counsel for judicial strategy and an old friend of Baxter’s, warns that a trial will sink a $100 billion arms deal; Baxter tells him to go to hell.
In court, Riley ties a duplicate trophy to the wound, though defense attorney Eric Ferguson notes the weapon was never found and about 1,800 phones were in the area. Bradley reads Al Hallaq’s message calling Wallace an existential threat to the firm, but admits other partners posted similar things. Then Chilton fails to appear and recants, claiming he had been drinking. Detectives trace him to a closed subway platform at 18th Street, where he met disbarred lawyer Louis Trammell, who once worked under Drell. Confronted by Baxter, Drell admits he was following orders and that Ferguson was involved. Baxter forces Ferguson to accept first-degree manslaughter with 12 years by threatening witness-tampering charges, overruling Price.
Spoiler, the ending: Drell warns Baxter that people must now fall in line, and Baxter answers that he knows no other way to work. Chimenti is furious at the deal, and Price confronts Baxter for shutting him out; Baxter says he was protecting him. With donors gone and his campaign permit revoked, Baxter invites Price to dinner.
Why it stands out
- Baxter’s re-election campaign launches and immediately pays for his defiance: by the end, major donors have withdrawn and federal park officials have pulled the permit for his kickoff event.
- Price is sworn in as a special assistant U.S. attorney to fight the immunity claim in federal court.
- Maroun (Odelya Halevi) is absent from this episode, so Price handles the trial while Baxter takes a direct hand.