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Just Say No - Recap

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The episode begins seven years hence with Commissioner Walter Clarke’s assistant telling him that the City Councilman hates him. Walter says that he doesn’t care and will continue doing his job the best way he can because that is what got him, where he is today. Back in the present day, Arroyo and Deb are making love in a hotel room. While leaving, Deb gets a call from Arroyo’s wife, who says she wants to meet for coffee, to talk about Arroyo’s birthday. Arroyo and Deb are both worried that his wife is onto them because his birthday isn’t for two more months.

At a coffee shop, Nora tells Walter that she owes a loan shark $7K. Walter is worried on hearing this and says he doesn’t have that kind of money. On his way out he runs into Arroyo, who asks Walter if he said something to his wife about Deb. Walter is in no mood for his questions and makes it clear that he has done no such thing. Don arrives and informs Walter that a body has been found and he will be leading the case. They arrive at the crime scene, which is the house of the victim. Diaco informs them that the victim is Claudia Drexler, a 35 year old woman, who died because of blunt force trauma to the head. They conclude that the killing could be money related because Claudia was loaded. Her father-in-law Marvin Drexler, who is a billionaire, called it in.

Marvin is questioned and he says his son Nathan called and asked him to check on Claudia because he wasn’t able to get through to her. He says he arrived at 6.30 and saw Claudia’s body and called the police at 7.30. Walter asks him why there was a one hour gap and Marvin says that other parties needed to be informed. Walter isn’t pleased that the police was not on the top of that list and rather rudely tells Marvin to come to the police station for further questioning. At the station, the team discusses the case and Walter says that it doesn’t seem Marvin was the killer because he was in Maine at the time of the murder. Arroyo feels the husband could be the killer and Walter informs him that Nathan is being brought in for questioning, so they’ll see.

Nathan reveals that his wife was a reformed addict and used to help others who were suffering, so there were people who used to visit her for help. Don tells him to write down the names of all these people. Arroyo and Deb arrive at the “Bright Future Treatment Center”, a rehab that was run by Claudia. They are there to talk to Eduardo Rodriguez, a recovering addict, who had access to Claudia’s home for nearly a month. Eduardo makes a run for it on seeing them, but eventually they catch him and cuff him. At the station, Eduardo tells Don and Walter that Claudia was helping him stay away from drugs, so there is no reason for him to kill her. The Deputy Mayor arrives and reprimands Walter in front of the Sergeant for being rude to Marvin Drexler earlier.

While on his way out, he has a chat with Walter in private and says the Mayor is actually happy with him because he too doesn’t like Marvin. He hands Walter a couple of tickets of the Mayor’s Box for a Yankees game for tonight and says the Mayor will be there. Don and Walter visit the loan Shark, who Nora owes money to. They convince him to take $2300, which is the actual amount she borrowed minus the interest. At work, Arroyo is still worried if his wife knows something and discusses the issue with Deb, who tells him to calm down. Don and Walter dig up threatening emails that Marvin had sent Claudia and in one of them he has threatened to even kill her.

Although, Marvin’s alibi is concrete he does have a henchman called Lyle Creaseman, who is a PI, and was earlier busted for wiretapping and coercion. Creaseman tells them Marvin was merely warning Claudia to not waste money on the rehab centre. He is also rather rude to Walter and tells him that he is investigating him. After he leaves, Don tells Walter it shouldn’t matter if Creaseman is investigating him, if he has nothing to hide, but Walter does look worried. The team finds out that security cams caught Claudia going into a house in Queens and coming out in tears after sometime just a few days before her death.

Deb takes Walter aside and shows him a file and in it he sees all his juvenile crime records. She says she printed these documents from Creaseman’s files and says Marvin must be really well connected because these records are usually sealed. Don interrupts them, saying the house in Queen is owned by Andrea Gunderson, the councilor at Claudia’s rehab centre. Walter shows Don the file and he says there is nothing in it that Walter needs to worry about. He tells Walter that they are smarter than guys like Creaseman and Marvin and he should keep his cool to prove that. They talk to Gunderson and while at it Walter hears some noise from the back of her house. He checks it out and sees a guy stuck in a window. Apparently he was trying to escape and in his hand Walter sees some dope.

They discover that Gunderson is a drug dealer and she tells them that Nathan was her customer. At the station, Diaco shows the team a photo taken by a security cam in which Nathan is seen entering his building at the time of murder. Another photo of him leaving shows that he had changed his clothes. They conclude that the clothes he was wearing while committing the murder must be hidden somewhere in his house. Deb tells Arroyo that she just received a call from his wife asking her to meet at the diner where they usually hang out. She is worried, but decides to face this thing head-on. Deb arrives at the diner and is relieved when she finds out that Arroyo’s wife only wants Deb to teach her how to shoot, so she can bond with Arroyo by going with him to the shooting range.

Nathan is brought in for questioning, but denies everything. Walter knows he is lying, but before he can get Nathan to confess his lawyer arrives and takes him away. Walter and Don follow him after he leaves the station and see him visiting a drug dealer. They catch him red handed just as he is about to snort some heroine. Walter has a talk with Nathan and eventually they get Nathan to give a written statement, saying he didn’t want his father to know about his relapse because he would cut him off. Claudia found out about it and wanted him to get help, which would have alerted his father, so he killed her. Don gives Walter the money to pay off the loan shark and he reluctantly accepts it. Deb and Lorraine, Arroyo’s wife, are at the shooting range. Deb is shocked and worried when she sees how good Lorraine’s aim is.

Walter leaves with the Deputy Mayor for the Yankees game. Seven years hence, Walter meets with Councilman Marvin Drexler and they discuss about an initiative Walter wants him to vote in favor of. Drexler calls Walter a punk and refuses, saying he will never side with him. Walter blackmails him by showing him photos in which Drexler is with a young woman wearing lingerie and thanks him for his vote in advance. The episode ends at this point.