Motive/The Dead Hand

The Dead Hand
Season 4, Episode 7
Airdate	July 5, 2016
Written by
Directed by
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← 4x06 Interference	4x08 → Foreign Relations
Motive — Season Four

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The Dead Hand is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Motive, and the forty-sixth episode overall.

Starring:

Guest Starring:

Co-Starring:

Plot Overview

The victim is a high-school senior and reporter on her school's newspaper. The killer is a teacher who is the faculty advisor for the paper. This case begins in a very unusual manner...a woman with a bomb strapped to her enters the station, demanding to speak to someone in homicide. She's a Special-Ops soldier who's just gotten back from Afghanistan and has learned that her son was tried and convicted of killing her daughter. The son, who had been banned from the house by his stepfather due to his drug use, apparently broke into the house to steal money and was surprised by his stepsister and pushed her down a flight of stairs to her death. The mother is naturally certain of her son's innocence and is now demanding that the case be reopened. Angie convinces her to let Paula and Lucas go out and investigate, while she tries to talk to the woman and get more information. All the while, a militaristic SWAT leader is outside, just ready to blow the woman away, but that may not be a good idea as the bomb is set so that if she falls, the bomb will detonate. On the outside, the detectives discover that the young intrepid reporter got a popular teacher fired for selling grades, and the fact that he was close to the paper's advisor may be a good enough motive, but it turns out that she discovered another story that more directly involved the paper's advisor, and it is that story, as well as something even more shocking that she discovers, that serves as a motive. In terms of Betty's situation, Oscar warns Lucas against further involvement, but his warning may be a little too late.