Deception (2013)

Series Finale:     
Episode #11 — I’ll Start with the Hillbilly
As the Bowers sit down with Meredith Vieira to discuss the closure of Vivian’s murder case, Joanna looks on with guilt. Vivian would still be alive if Joanna didn’t rat her out to her parents for running away from home at age 16. Nevertheless, Joanna is compelled to stay on the investigation, positive Audrey Cruz didn’t murder Vivian. From the hospital, Julian calls Joanna and updates her on Edward’s mental state. Edward’s not ready to let go of his Samantha, who’s brain dead with a signed DNR. Julian asks Joanna to move in with him; everything and everyone is crazy, and all he wants to do is come home to her.Will’s enjoying the fame that comes with solving a high profile case, which includes plans for a dinner party in his honor. Joanna finds him in his office, posing for photos for Empire State Magazine. Once alone, Joanna insists Will keep the case open, citing Audrey Cruz’s lack of motivation for murdering Vivian. Vivian needed to be alive for Audrey’s plan to work. Joanna thinks Haverstock had Vivian killed, but Will thinks she’s crazy. Joanna approaches Haverstock on her own and demands he provide an alibi for the night of Vivian’s death. Haverstock says he was at the White House, sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom. Not only is Joanna’s theory shot, but also Haverstock reveals he has known Joanna was a cop all along.

Sofia is at an upscale Manhattan supermarket trying to buy Edward a baked ham, even though Mia finds the gesture absurd. Furthermore, Mia thinks Sofia’s plans to attend Will Moreno’s big soiree when Samantha is languishing in the hospital are obscene. Spying Wyatt, Sofia orders Mia to get in line at the register. Wyatt hisses into Sofia’s ear; he fully intends to ruin her life for what she did to him. Spitting mad, Sofia attacks Wyatt, and when the managers step in, she starts throwing every grocery she can lay hands on. Meanwhile, Robert visits the hospital in a bid to patch things up with Edward, but Edward’s had enough of his family.

At the Bowers estate, an emotional and delusional Beverly confronts Julian thinking he’s Robert. She scolds him for killing his first wife Catherine, asking how he can live with himself. Julian is stunned. Will finds a suspect who matches the description of the guy who shot Edward’s wife. Edward is brought in to view the lineup, but when he sees the man, he refuses to identify him. Knowing something’s up, Will presses, but Edward remains mum, determined to take the law into his own hands.

Back at the office, Joanna asks Gabe for the file of witnesses he interviewed that were present at the motel on the night of Vivian’s death. He claims they’re all crazy drug addicts, mentioning one guy who clutched a suitcase, but she runs across a witness named Jeff – the same guy who just gave Mia heroin! Joanna visits Jeff a visit at his house, surprised to discover he’s a family man by day. Jeff admits to providing Vivian with heroine on the night she died. He remembers she gave him back the heroin and left the motel at 3:30 in the morning, although Joanna knows the coroner declared midnight as Vivian’s time of death. Jeff suggests Vivian may not have died at the hotel, energizing Joanna with new possibility.

At the police station, Will questions Wyatt about the incident in the grocery store. Wyatt brings up the past when he and Sofia “decided” he would take the rap for beating her father to death. When Will asks Sofia about her relationship with Wyatt, and whether Vivian knew anything about it, Sofia refuses to answer and threatens to call her lawyer. Meanwhile, Edward’s vigilantism leads him to an Albanian social club, where he asks a group of mobsters to bring him his wife’s killer for $200,000. He’ll do the rest.

Will visits Haverstock to question him about Sofia. Haverstock tells Will that Vivian definitely knew about Sofia and Wyatt because he told her… but isn’t Vivian’s case closed? Will won’t say, but it’s clear he’s beginning to give Joanna’s theories some credence, and Haverstock gets the idea that Sofia is the new prime suspect. At that night’s party for Will, Julian naively introduces Will to Joanna, and it’s hellishly awkward. After Will leaves, Julian gives Joanna a copy of the bracelet he once gave Vivian – that she was wearing on the night of her murder – and is surprised to see Joanna’s wearing the original on her wrist. Joanna excuses herself, this revelation too compelling to ignore.

At the hospital, Edward tells Mia he’s afraid of who he’ll become without his wife in his life anymore. Since recent events have aged Mia a bit, she offers some advice: Edward is remaining in the same limbo Samantha’s in, and he has two children to consider. Suddenly, Kyle shows up. Despite their terrible breakup, he just wants her “to have someone.” Mia doesn’t do any talking; she just embraces Kyle and kisses him deeply. Back at Will’s party, Haverstock confronts Sofia. If she had anything to do with Vivian’s death… he’ll grind her into dust.

Joanna tells Will about her discovery about Vivian’s bracelet, which Joanna just found in the wine cellar the other day. But if Vivian was killed at the Bowers’ house, how did Sofia get her back to the hotel? Joanna assumes it would be the same way anything gets into a hotel – via a suitcase. After all, Vivian was only 115 pounds. Joanna and Gabe track down the crazy witness with the suitcase he found outside the motel where Vivian’s body was found. Joanna’s confident that the suitcase will yield the DNA evidence they need to nail Robert, and Gabe offers to transport it into evidence. At the party, Julian asks his father about the events surrounding his mother’s death, but before he can get any real answer, Robert’s phone rings and he has to go.

At the hospital, a flashback prolongs Edward’s brutally necessary decision a little longer. He thinks back to happier days, when his wife had just given birth and the world was full of opportunity and warmth. The memory doesn’t last long, as Edward returns to the present moment and gives the doctors the go ahead to pull Samantha’s plug. Edward leaves the hospital, full of vengeance. He comes face-to-face with his wife’s killer, whom the Albanian mob has tracked down and apprehended. Looking him in the eyes, Edward orders them to cut both his hands off, the ones used to kill Edward’s wife. The rest is up to them.

Gabe was the one who called Robert during his talk with Julian. At the Roosevelt Island tram station, Gabe tells Robert about the suitcase. He now knows Robert used him to protect himself and eliminate Audrey, how he murdered his own daughter and stuffed her in a suitcase. Robert is caught out, and Gabe is holding the key – or in this case, the suitcase. Back at the Bowers’ estate, Mia tells Joanna her mother is lying as they watch the Meredith Viera interview together. On the night of Vivian’s death, Sofia passed out, drunk on merlot. Robert left the house after an argument, so she just assumed he spent the night with his sleazy assistant. Mia remembers her father packing a suitcase.

Joanna calls Will with big news: Robert killed Vivian! Back at the tram station, Robert isn’t prepared to give up so easily. He bribes Gabe with an obscene amount of money and the promise of a stellar career, convincing the now dirty detective to strategically “lose” the suitcase. Gabe is reluctant, but he agrees, since his career is at stake. Robert flashes back to the night of Vivian’s murder, when she came home with a bruise on her cheek, asking to sit down for a talk. The next morning, Will and Joanna are despondent when Gabe explains the property clerks lost the suitcase. That was their one piece of evidence pinning Robert to the crime – without it, they’re back to square one.

Joanna and Gabe are called to a meeting with Senator Haverstock. The senator is about to be promoted to Attorney General – that’s why he was at the White House the night Vivian died. He plans to use his power to bring Robert down, but he’ll need evidence. Now that he’s effectively Will’s boss and has taken a special interest, Haverstock re-opens the investigation to continue and demands Joanna keep working undercover at the house. That night, at the Bowers’ house, Edward returns to the fold, having nowhere else to go. Joanna sends Julian out the window when Robert knocks on her door to set the record straight: he always wins. Robert asks Joanna to join the family for dinner, but someone’s missing… Wyatt has kidnapped Mia.
Recap courtesy NBC.
First aired: March 18, 2013.