Mannion's friend Teddy Reed is the only witness to a Congressman's murder, and Mannion thinks she's lying about the whole situation. Meanwhile, the city erects a statue depicting a heroic act by three police officers, including Cutter, but many are infuriated when Cutter's figure is altered to represent someone of a different race.

Mannion assigns Debreno and new detective Olivia Cahill to work together on a missing Picasso case. They get on each other's nerves, but solve the case after Debreno makes up a theory that at first sounded too conspiracional, but turned out to be true. Meanwhile, Nancy's mom announces she's leaving her father because she found out he was cheating on her. Nancy accidentally let slip that she already knew about it and has to ask her mother to forgive her. Ella is threatened by the possibility of a breast cancer return and both Mannion and Clive offer her their full support. They look back at their best times with her and learn that Ella is cancer-free.

When one of Debreno's first cases solved under Mannion goes to trial, the defense uses Debreno's troubled professional and personal past to discredit him, implying that he set up the defendant in order to impress Mannion. Now, as Mannion questions Debreno's motives, he must also decide whether or not Debreno has a future as a part of his team.

Mannion goes head-to-head with the U.S. Attorney General and a tough civil-rights lawyer (Jaclyn Smith) in an emotionally charged episode. The investigation into the murder of an 11-year-old girl turns up the child's photo on a porn site, prompting Mannion to seek help from Attorney General Hatcher to toughen legislation against Internet child pornography. But Hatcher has an agenda of his own. In other cases, the chief is asked by a congressman to look into a case involving the alleged accidental death of his son, and a high-profile lawyer (Smith) accuses an officer of using excessive force.

After a black prostitute is found murdered with the inscription ""Respect the Order"" attached to her body, Mannion and his team start a deep investigation that leads to a racial criminal who started serial killing African-Americans who were involved with white people. Meanwhile, Parras sees her father being arrested for requesting the services of a prostitute and has to face her own family problems. Temple helps a friend detox from heroine and Ella investigates a suspicious fire that could promote an officer – but ends up being the reason for his arrest.