Warning: Spoiler Alert
There was just one burning question at the outset of the season finale for the TNT Original Series “Murder In The First,” would tech wunderkind Erich Blunt, walk away from committing two murders, or could SFPD detectives Hildy Mulligan and Terry English, outsmart their suspect and put him behind bars where he belonged. Although Blunt’s attorney Warren Daniels, got his client exonerated of the murder of his lover Cindy Strauss, evidence putting the tech genius behind the murder of his biological father Kevin Neyers, starts pointing directly to him.
The episode opened with Betty Harbach, arriving via limousine to the office building where Blunt’s company’s located, met by her grandson’s assistant, who tells her she will take her to her meeting with Erich and his attorney David Hertzberg. Blunt expresses sorrow over the suicide of his grandfather, Betty’s late husband James, who shot himself in the head in the previous episode, leaving behind a handwritten confession that he had killed Neyers. However, he soon reveals the reason he had asked for them to meet, telling her that he and her husband had bonded although they had met for the first time just months earlier and that James and Hertzberg setup a financial package for Betty’s welfare after James had passed. She’s quite surprised when she realizes that she now has a financial portfolio valued at half a million dollars.
Hildy and Terry discuss the weapon that Harbach used on himself and to kill Kevin Neyers and they’re informed that the weapon doesn’t have a paper-trail, although it was originally issued to an officer from the department. When the pistol’s disassembled there’s a number; 1970 written on the inside of the handle. The three of them realize that the number came from the officer who got assigned the weapon and that number now belongs to their fellow detective Edgar Navarro. Navarro, tells him that the weapon was never in his possession, but he recalls the officer that had the number before him was Howard Toomey, an officer fired from the department for drinking excessively.
Toomey now runs a half-way house and readily admits his drinking should have gotten him fired 18-years-earlier, however after the detectives show him pictures of the weapon, he tells them it was never his. Toomey then tells the detectives, that the reason he had wanted the number 1970, was his father had held it before him and he had to trade numbers with another officer to acquire it. The officer was Jimmy Salter, English’s former captain on the force, now head of security for Erich Blunt.
Mulligan and English meet with Salter at an Italian deli in the city and the former captain, admits that the gun was his rookie service revolver, but that he never gave the weapon to James Harbach. Hildy, asks Salter if he believes that Harbach got possession of the gun by coincidence and the former cop tells her, coincidence is not a factor in the equation and he ‘s pretty sure he knows how the old man got the gun.
Salter heads to Blunt’s office and asks him how Harbach got the pistol that the former police officer had given to his employer four years earlier for protection. Blunt looks Salter directly in the eyes and tells his head of security that he never gave him a weapon and with that statement loses another valuable employee. The former officer tells Blunt it’s been an adventure and wishes him good luck as he resigns on the spot.
Hildy and Terry travel to Betty Harbach’s home, where a security company’s installing a state of the art alarm system in the rather dilapidated house. Hildy remarks that it’s probably expensive and the old woman replies, that the company’s giving her a deal. The detectives then start asking Betty about her grandson and she responds that her lawyer advised her not to talk with the police about Erich. When she’s asked if the attorney’s David Hertzberg, she tells them she has to close the door and Mulligan responds that’s fine, the officers will soon return with a warrant and the detectives get invited into the house.
She then shows the officers the portfolio that her grandson had given her and they look at the withdrawals from the bank account; one that she had made to pay for the new security system, but she has no knowledge about the other, a withdrawal of $1300 shortly before Neyers got shot. Hildy asks Harbach if she ever heard of Fentanyl and the old woman replies that the drug was the only thing that gave her late husband any relief from the pain the cancer caused him. As she looks through her calendar, the detectives notice an entry about an insurance agent who wanted to meet with James but her husband wasn’t home. She told the officers that she didn’t really trust him as James had already been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. When she told the man her husband was out he got into his fancy red sports car and drove away.
English has a pretty good idea what the withdrawal was for and drives over to Chris Walton’s house, the man originally convicted of murdering Neyers, to confirm his suspicion. Walton’s repairing a motorcycle when English arrives and tells the detective that helped free him from prison that he may move to Sacramento, get a job and start a new life. Terry tells Chris he’s proud of him and then asks if he remembers how much Neyers paid him for the delivery of Fentanyl the day he got shot to death and Walton confirms that it was $1300 cash up front.
Blunt’s starting to have sex with an attractive young woman in his home, when his security alarm informs him that someone’s at the front door, it’s his pilot Bill Wilkerson and Blunt was not expecting the visit. He tells the young woman to wait for him and heads downstairs to talk with his guest. The detectives quickly surmised that the fancy red sports car belonged to the pilot and they had already questioned Wilkerson whether he had any involvement in Harbach acquiring the gun. Bill tells his boss that they’ll soon be behind bars, but Blunt counters that the detectives are just guessing and that Erich never gave the pilot any gun. He then asks Wilkerson if he’s wearing a wire and makes him strip naked, but then realizes that the transmitter is in Wilkerson’s wristwatch which he soon smashes.
He asks how the pilot could betray him in such a manner and Wilkerson loses it, screaming to Blunt that he stole Cindy away from him then destroyed the pilot’s marriage. He then asks how he could kill a woman who carried his child and Blunt starts justifying all the heinous acts he committed by explaining that he’s just more evolved than normal humans, it’s time to cull the herd and he’s just a step ahead of everyone else.
The tech genius decides to go on the offensive the following morning and heads to the police station to talk with Mulligan and English. He then tells the pair that he’s recently become aware that Salter and Wilkerson were the men behind the murder of Neyers, they were due huge paydays if the IPO of Blunt’s company went through and that they murdered Neyers to make sure the sale went through without any problems. Hildy tells Blunt she doesn’t believe a word he’s saying and he offers to undergo a polygraph.
English then asks Blunt if he can convince Wilkerson to wear a wire so they can entrap Salter, but Blunt tells the cops Wilkerson wouldn’t after already being caught wearing one. He then hands Erich a copy of a magazine, which has an article stating that the NSA can use a person’s cellphone as a recording device, even when not in use. Blunt responds that something like that would be simple and English asks if he could accomplish that with a court order and then hands Blunt a copy of the order they obtained to bug Blunt’s phone. Hildy then plays back the conversation he had with Wilkerson the previous night admitting all his crimes and place him under arrest.
Hertzberg goes to Warren Daniels’ office and tells the attorney that Blunt wants him to represent him in the upcoming trial and Daniels refuses without hesitation, then asks his old friend why he’s still working for that sociopath. David replies that every criminal deserves an attorney and then says the only difference between a CEO and a criminal is venture capital. He goes on to tell Daniels that he truly believed Blunt’s innocence before this revelation and the other attorney admits he knew Blunt was guilty from the start. Hertzberg says that Blunt passed a polygraph, but Daniels informs him that his client did not pass the test.
David heads to prison to meet with Blunt and asks him point-blank if he admitted what the District Attorney claims they recorded him saying and Blunt denies it and tells him to have Daniels file to make the tape non-admissible at the trial. Hertzberg then tells him that Daniels refused to take the case and that he’s resigning as of that moment and sticks out his hand to shake Blunt’s hand before he leaves. The tech genius instead spits on the attorney’s hand and Hertzberg glares at him then silently walks out.
Mulligan and English are walking the streets of San Francisco splitting a six-pack of beer as they walk, throughout the afternoon and into the evening. The two start talking about how somebody like Blunt could exist, when Terry’s phone rings and we can see by his reaction what the call was about. Erich Blunt had hung himself in his prison cell, as we hear his words about his grandfather going out on his own terms rather than waiting for death repeat over and over.
