Switch (Season 5, Episode 22)
Premise: A free-clinic psychiatrist is beaten to death after hours, and the case turns on a patient diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and her estranged father.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 22
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Francie Swift as Megan Nelson / Bobby / Nancy, Sam Groom as Frank Nelson, Bob Dishy as Larry Weaver, Gerry Becker as Dr. Neal Latham, Richmond Hoxie as Dr. Albert Cantrel, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- Christopher Misiano
- Writers
- Jeremy R. Littman & Sibyl Gardner
Summary
The Investigation
“Switch” starts when a cleaning crew finds Dr. Lillian Hampton beaten to death in her office at a free clinic, struck with her own award. The clinic director says he heard a man shouting in her office after her last patient, Megan Nelson, left. Hampton’s ex-husband says he never left his car, and his cell phone records back him up.
A gym swipe card in Hampton’s office belongs to “Bobby Walker,” and Megan explains that Bobby is one of her alternate personalities; Nancy is another. She says she cannot remember what the others do. She clocked in late for work that night, and diaries on her computer show her father, Frank, was supposed to attend the session, though both Megan and Hampton had restraining orders against him. The director picks Frank’s voice out of a lineup, traces of blood turn up in his kitchen, and he is arrested.
The Trial
Megan says she and her father left while Hampton was alive. McCoy charges her with conspiracy so that an insanity defense will open her medical records. Hampton’s notes show Megan recovered a memory of Frank pushing her mother down the stairs in 1977, a death ruled an accident. McCoy drops Megan’s charge to get her testimony, and Bobby surfaces to confess.
At a competency hearing, psychiatrist Dr. Cantrel brings Bobby out, and Bobby describes striking Hampton at her desk. McCoy shows Hampton was standing at her door, and the judge bars the testimony. Frank insists the memory is false, and Megan’s aunt confirms Carol Nelson’s death was an accident; she says Megan called her from Hampton’s office, distraught, wanting to find her father and apologize. With Frank cleared, the prosecutors question Megan, and the Nancy personality emerges to say she killed Hampton for lying to Megan.
Spoiler, the ending: Nancy admits she struck Hampton with the award. The prosecutors agree Megan is a fit case for an insanity plea, and she is headed for a psychiatric hospital, with her father waiting for her.
Why it stands out
- McCoy uses a conspiracy charge to push the defense toward an insanity plea, which waives the patient’s privilege over her psychiatric records.
- A competency hearing weighs whether an alternate personality can testify, and McCoy defeats the confession using a crime-scene detail.
- The recovered memory at the center of the case turns out to be false.