Empire (Season 9, Episode 20)
Premise: A powerful bond analyst dies after a massive Viagra dose, and a charity fundraiser with her own angle helps the DA’s office go after the developer behind a new stadium.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 20
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Julia Roberts as Katrina Ludlow, Daniel Hugh Kelly as Julian Spector, Edward Herrmann as defense attorney Mosbeck, Kathleen McNenny as Mrs. Sanderson, Craig Wroe as Harris Wollinsky
- Director
- Matthew Penn
- Writers
- Story: René Balcer; Story & teleplay: Robert Palm
Summary
The Investigation
“Empire” opens with the death of Gilbert Sanderson, who stumbles out of his East 60s townhouse into a restaurant and collapses. The M.E. finds a huge dose of Viagra in his blood, a drug his doctors had warned his weak heart could not take, yet none is found in the townhouse. Sanderson rated bonds for a living, and his pending report would decide the financing of the new stadium that Julian Spector, his old prep school friend, is building. Sanderson’s wife recalls a 3 a.m. call from Spector the night before that left him rattled.
A limo driver says Sanderson told him to buy Spector stock if it fell to $50, and a call from the car leads to fundraiser Katrina Ludlow. She admits she slept with Sanderson that night, and a lingerie shop confirms the underwear found there is hers. A club dealer admits trading Spector eight pills for opening game tickets. Schiff tries talking to Spector in person, but a judge dissolves the grand jury and bars further action.
Ludlow then calls Curtis, says she fears Spector and has a piece of insurance. He hides her at a Putnam County motel, where she hands him a tin of pills she says Spector gave her to slip to Sanderson. She makes a pass at Curtis, which he turns down, and he keeps the tin in his car for the weekend before logging it. Spector’s thumbprint is on the tin, Spector is arrested, and the judge lifts the injunction.
The Trial
Ludlow testifies that Spector gave her the pills knowing of his friend’s heart trouble, but Spector’s lawyer, Mosbeck, attacks her past, including a changed name and a lie about family ties that got her expelled from school. Carmichael finds that Spector’s family trust promised her charity far less than she reported, and Ludlow admits she expected a fee. She now offers to walk away rather than testify for the defense about Curtis.
McCoy has no choice but to put Curtis on the stand to defend the chain of custody. Mosbeck presses him about the weekend, and Curtis says his wife, Deborah, has multiple sclerosis, admits he was unfaithful to her once in the past, and swears he did not tamper with the evidence.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Spector guilty of second-degree murder, but he stays free on bail pending appeal, and his stadium bond is fully subscribed. Ludlow, still free, tells Curtis she will be remembered as part of the stadium, and he tells her she let him down.
Why it stands out
- Julia Roberts guest stars as Katrina Ludlow; she was then in a long relationship with series regular Benjamin Bratt and only weeks from shooting Erin Brockovich.
- Curtis has to testify about a weekend alone with a witness and discloses his wife’s illness and a past affair on the stand.
- Schiff meets Spector face to face before a judge shuts down the grand jury, and McCoy later wins the injunction’s reversal with new evidence.