The fifth season of the crime drama spin-off focusing on an elite group of New York cops continues. In tonight’s episode, the detectives attempt to pin the murder of a 16-year-old girl on a well-known judge. But the judge fights back by delving into Logan’s past and attacking Goren’s mental health.

The detectives of the Major Case Squad have teamed up to investigate the disappearance of high school-student Bethany Lunden (see last week’s episode). Bethany was seen in the company of Ethan Garrett, the son of influential judge Harold Garrett (Colm Meaney). Ethan has already been connected with the death of another young woman, Tiana Peterson, but he refuses to talk about what happened to Bethany.

Goren and Eames lock Ethan up with a cellmate who encourages him to talk. Goren records the conversation and his interest is piqued when Ethan mentions a childhood incident in which his dog was lost in a salt marsh near their country home. The cops suspect the marsh could have provided the ideal dumping ground for Bethany’s body. Sure enough, a search of the area uncovers the girl’s remains in the reeds.

An autopsy reveals that Bethany had sex with two different people the night she died. It seems likely that Harold Garrett was the other man, especially when a friend of Ethan’s reveals that the judge has a history of sharing women with his son. For Ethan’s 16th birthday, Garrett paid for him to sleep with an escort, before sleeping with her himself. ADA Carver suggests that they reduce the charge against Ethan in the Tiana Peterson case if he reveals what he knows about Bethany.

Ethan is reluctant to implicate his father, but his mother encourages him to tell the truth, saying that his dad would not hesitate to betray him. Ethan eventually reveals that his dad found him and Bethany together and invited them to drink with him in his study. Ethan felt sick and passed out in bed, leaving his father alone with the girl. Based on this testimony, a warrant is issued for the judge’s arrest.

Garrett soon fights back by striking at the Major Case Squad. First, a string of complaints is filed against Detective Logan for his rough policing. “Judge Garret got a lawyer to put this together,” Deakins says. “He’s going after the cops investigating him.” Then the conniving judge attempts to access Barek’s old FBI file. However, he crosses the line when he sends a private detective to interview Goren’s sick mother.

Goren is furious to learn that the detective’s interrogation pushed his mother into a psychotic break, and marches over to the judge’s office to confront him. “You send an ex-cop to terrorise an old woman,” he screams. “You got to ask her something? Ask me!” Goren goes on to taunt the judge’s manhood and draw unfavourable comparisons with his son. An enraged Garrett falls into Goren’s trap and blurts out an admission that he slept with Bethany: “She didn’t want a boy, she wanted a man!” he cries.

Garrett is forced to resign in disgrace, but still faces a trial for murder. In court, his lawyer attempts to undermine Goren further by reading out a transfer request filed by Eames five years earlier. Eames is cited as being critical of Goren’s “erratic and antisocial behaviour” and his “volatile and bizarre interrogation techniques”. However, Eames tells the court that she withdrew her request: “I came to appreciate him as an ethical person and an effective police officer,” she says.

The case seems to be going in Carver’s favour when Ethan takes to the stand and suddenly throws doubt on his father’s guilt. The boy reveals inside knowledge of Bethany’s injuries – knowledge that only the killer could have known. Is it possible that the wrong man is on trial?

Tuesday Feb. 19 at 11:00pm on five