Judgment Call

Synopsis
When the wife of a judge is killed the team investigates - and they discover that it might not be for the reason they think, given how many motives present themselves. Meanwhile, Terry Lake has moved on to pastures new.

Plot
A woman is driving down the street. She pulls into her garage. Somebody is in there with her and blows her away with a shotgun. Don, David, and new team member Colby Granger arrive on the scene. The murdered woman is Alison Trelane, the wife of Judge Franklin Trelane who is in the middle of sitting a death penalty trial. The come to the conclusion that murder was the final object of the suspect, they just don't know if it was supposed to the judge instead of the wife.

At the office Don, Charlie, and new profiler Megan Reeves are looking at Judge Trelane's past convictions under the assumption that he was the real target. Charlie has a brainwave to reduce the suspect pool using an e-mail's spam filter as example to how he'd do it. Megan starts to go through threat assessment files. Colby doesn't think that it's the right path to go down, he thinks the man on trial facing the death penalty, Duc Lu Phan (leader of the JFM), is linked to Alison Trelane's death.

Don talks to Trelane in his quarters. Trelane thinks that he's the intended target. David and Colby talk to Duc Lu 'Danny' Phan. They fish to find out who may have tried to help Phan out. He points them to Raymond Hmong, his number two guy and heir apparent.

As he leaves Trelane's quarters, Don runs into Nadine Hodges, the prosecutor in the Phan trial. They discuss the case. It's also revealed that Terry transferred to Washington to give her marriage a second chance. Don and Nadine are about to go for lunch when Charlie interrupts, looking for a ride home. Charlie was at the courthouse looking to get his learner's permit re-established.

David and Colby go to the JFM's hang out to talk about Hmong. Colby comes on very strong during their conversation and David has to mitigate the escalating situation. He reads Colby the riot act regarding his conduct as they get in the car.

Charlie, Amita, Larry, and Alan gossip about Don and Nadine. Larry thinks that she could also be a target of the murderer.

David brings Don up to speed on the Raymond incident. Meanwhile, Colby had just been talking to Don, complaining about David regarding the same incident. Colby finds out that there were five domestic disturbance complaints at the Trelane residence where in two Trelane was asked to vacate the premises. They wonder if they were right with their initial assumption that her death was linked to the court case. Don talks to Trelane again. He admits to drinking too much. Alison left him and he entered AA to help get through everything. She came back the previous August after he started to recover and things have been great since.

Megan meets Charlie in his office. Her files are mixed up from when she organised them. Charlie uses origami to show her that he's not trying to replace her expertise, but rather make her approach more efficient. She gets a call from David. The JFM is looking to make another attempt on Trelane. They put protection on both him and Nadine. The FBI does a raid on the hang out to try to stop it. A man on a motorbike opens fire as they leave the courthouse. The man was Hmong.

Don and David interrogate Hmong. He denies killing Alison or trying to kill Trelane. He was aiming for Phan. Don is back to square one in his case. Nadine thanks him for saving her life.

Amita helps Charlie and Megan work on the case. Larry comes in with his lunch and is introduced to Megan. All of his food is white and they talk about the behavioural science behind it. Amita is done with the program and they have their suspect pool narrowed down to a lot less than before. They filter them further, comparing it to somebody hunting. It's now down to two potential suspects: Orson Hardee (a cop killer who shot LAPD Detective Josh Kalen in a drug deal in 1994) and Lance Dolan (wanted on a bench warrant, but never went to trial under Trelane). Don talks to the cop's widow, Erica Kalen, and wants to put her in protective custody. The family has been having a very rough go of it with Erica revealing that even with her dead husband's pension, she had to work two jobs to keep their house, her daughter ran away from home the day she turned 17 and her son would be in jail if some of her husband's fellow LAPD officers hadn't stepped in. Erica tells Don people need to see all of Kalen's crimes, not just what it cost the Kalen family.

Don, Charlie, and Alan discuss the case and Nadine over dinner. David and Colby talk to Hector Machado about the tip he made about Dolan to get more information.

Colby finds out that Dolan has a girlfriend by the name of Stacy Manning. LAPD is watching her place in hopes of finding him. Don is doubting using the resources on following this lead, but Charlie says that math sometimes finds things that we can't explain - it's pi. Pi shows up everywhere randomly and nobody can explain it. It still works, but nobody can explain why. The bench warrant out on Dolan is because he stabbed Machado. They think Machado is trying to setup Dolan. David and Colby bring him in for interrogation. They surmise that had Hardee arranged a hit on Alison Trelane he would let them know somehow, but since he hasn't they're wondering if he's still a viable suspect leaving only Dolan as their prime suspect. Don still doubts it.

Larry is at the FBI in the break room. He was supposed to go over work to Charlie, but he couldn't meet him elsewhere, so he came to the FBI. He brings up quantum entanglement to try to convince Don that he should go for Nadine.

David and Colby get Machado to call Manning to try to find Dolan. She heads over to him and Don and Megan follow. They arrest them both. Dolan has the gun that killed Alison Trelane. He's looking for a deal and says that he thought the contract was just some guy trying to kill his wife, not a judge's wife. Charlie does some more math. He's looked at things again and found that Dolan and Hardee aren't separate factors, but are linked. Machado introduced Dolan to Erica Kalen. She put a hit out on Trelane's wife. They arrest Erica Kalen. Judge Trelane is surprised to hear that the family thinks that he went easy on Hardee.

Alan and Charlie ambush Don to take him to dinner, however he already has plans with Nadine to 'discuss Machado's involvement in the case'.

Main

 * Rob Morrow as Don Eppes
 * David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes
 * Judd Hirsch as Alan Eppes
 * Alimi Ballard as David Sinclair
 * Navi Rawat as Amita Ramanujan
 * Diane Farr as Megan Reeves
 * Peter MacNicol as Larry Fleinhardt

Recurring

 * Dylan Bruno as Colby Granger

Guest

 * Sarah Carter as Nadine Hodges
 * Marguerite MacIntyre as Erica Kalen
 * Gary Perez as Hector Machado
 * Robert Wu as Raymond Hmong
 * Alan Rosenberg as Judge Franklin Trelane
 * Cristos as Orson Hardee
 * Stephen Quadros as Lance Dolan

Concepts, Principles and Allegories

 * (Reverse) Decision Theory - Hunter weighing risk/reward; tracking back from outcome to determine most probable perpetrator


 * (Quantum Entanglement - Don cites this much loved SF idea, which Charlie is quick to disavow as in any way science)

Major Events

 * FBI agents Colby Granger and Megan Reeves are both introduced for the first time. Terry is mentioned in passing as having gone back to Washington and her ex-husband.

Title

 * The more ambiguous and difficult scenario, in which there are a lack of definitive answers, and any choice must often be justified in detail.

Trivia

 * Amita says (with emphasis) "No, you're not." when Charlie admits to not being good at spotting signs of attraction, although he is speaking about Don and Nadine.

Crazy Credits
[This appears on the beginning of the episode] 18 Years on the Bench, 947 Convictions, 265 Death Threats, 1 Grudge