"Law & Order" - "Merger" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael

Two maids are seen talking about the Vance family and the dinner they will have. They jokingly say that the guests won't eat anything so they can fit into their clothes, and they laugh briefly before being horrified by what they find on the street: the bloodied body of a young 15-year-old girl. Detectives Briscoe and Green arrive on the rainy scene to talk to witnesses and collect any evidence they can.

The crime scene technician informs Briscoe that Michael Garrison, the murder victim's father, is worth half a billion dollars.

The only things they find in Christie's pocket are petty cash and an inhaler. The detectives don't believe this is a robbery because she was still wearing her jewelry.

Answer: Prostate

Mr. Vance, a neighbor of the Garrisons, mentions that he was expecting his chauffeur Sammy but he is unusually late, which makes the detectives suspicious. Briscoe presses Vondie, the cook at the Garrison home and Sammy's mother, but she denies that Sammy has anything to do with the murder.

In the meantime, Green interviews Christie's mom, who says she imagines her daughter was outside smoking in secret because she can't think of another reason for her to have been outside. Mrs. Garrison also says that Sammy drove them from the Vances', since Mark Vance was tired from his chemo treatment for prostate cancer.

Answer: Phone

The Vances tell Briscoe that their father spoke about "setting Sammy straight" since he was making personal calls from the limo's phone. Nick Vance says he doesn't know who Sammy was calling but agrees to provide the phone bills so the detectives can track the recipient of those calls.

They discover that Sammy was calling his girlfriend, Regina, so they visit what they think is her apartment. The detectives are told that she left last night with Sammy to visit Regina's sister.

Answer: Queens

Regina's roommate tells Briscoe and Green that Sammy left around 5:00am with Regina, which she was thankful about because she could "finally get some sleep". Apparently, they were going to visit Evelyn, Regina's sister, in her home in Queens.

Queens is one of New York City's five boroughs; the other four are The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Queens, the largest of all boroughs, has important landmarks like Citi Field (the New York Mets stadium) and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, as well as two of New York's major airports (John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia).

Answer: Car wash

Briscoe and Green travel to New Jersey to look for Regina, who was apparently at her mother's house. Visibly upset, Regina explains that last night, she got a call from Evelyn saying that she was beaten up by her husband. Regina then called Sammy, who "borrowed" Mr. Vance's luxury car to take Evelyn and her kids away from the Queens home.

While they are talking, one of the little girls tells Green that her uncle Sammy got mad because her brother vomited on the limo, so Sammy had to take it to the car wash. Unsurprisingly, the detectives find Sammy at a car wash near the house.

They accuse him of the murder of Christie and upon finding Christie's ID and her lipstick on Sammy, they take him with them.

Answer: Inhaler

The police interrogate Sammy but find no corroborating evidence of his guilt in Christie's murder. They pursue other leads, mainly one they got from a Palm device recovered from the limo, to find more people who were in touch with Christie that night.

They interview a store clerk who met Christie at a nightclub, who says Christie was highly intoxicated that night. She tells the detectives that Christie had to leave because her asthma medication ran out, and she had to find another inhaler.

Answer: The blood became public domain

The detectives discover that Ethan Vance, one of the teenagers in the Vance household, was with Christie when she went to the pharmacy for a new inhaler. Ethan denies doing anything wrong, and the family's attorneys stop him from providing blood samples. ADA Carmichael presents a motion to obtain Ethan's DNA but the judge refuses to invade his privacy interests absent more evidence. The Garrison family holds the Vance family in high regard and rejects the detective's suspicions that Ethan had something to do with Christie's death.

Briscoe and Green try to get a blood sample Ethan donated in a drive organized by his school, but are confronted with a restraining order preventing them from doing so. ADA Carmichael successfully argues to the judge that no doctor-client privilege applies because this was not a medical procedure, and Ethan could not decide how his blood would be used after donating it. Carmichael also says that the act of giving blood to a federally-funded agency automatically made the blood public domain, forfeiting his right to privacy. The judge agrees and lifts the restraining order.

Answer: Argentina

Nick Vance, the older brother, is also found through DNA evidence to have had sex with Christie before her death. Both Vances are arrested but are released because there is no evidence to prove forcible rape or murder. The prosecutors agree that both brothers had motives to kill Christie, but need to find more evidence before they can charge either of them.

Mercedes does not seem surprised that Nick was sleeping with other women. Indeed, the police find another woman who admits that she has a relationship with Nick and Mercedes knows about it. Mercedes doesn't want to break the engagement, even after learning this, and the prosecution wants to know why. They talk to her maid of honor, who tells ADA Carmichael that Mercedes only was accepted as a member of an exclusive club after getting engaged to Nick. She also reveals that she met Mercedes in boarding school after she came back from a trip to Argentina with Nick. Apparently, Mercedes wasn't close with Christie and had a fight with her in the days leading to her death.

Answer: Zoloft

One of the maids reveals that Christie and Mercedes fought often, which intensifies the suspicions around Mercedes. She shows up with her mother and lawyer at Mr. McCoy's office, where they admit they believe her arrest is inevitable. The lawyer claims that Mercedes suffers from many different afflictions that impair her mental functioning. Some of the drugs that Mercedes was taking include Librium, Ativan, Xanax, and Zoloft, which are used to treat a range of disorders including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety. She also was supposedly diagnosed with ADHD and post-partum depression. No context is provided for why she would suffer from the latter condition, though it proves to be a critical point later in the episode.

The lawyer wants to negotiate for a "man 2" charge, which means manslaughter in the 2nd degree. Using the defense of diminished capacity, Mercedes would spend no time in jail, but instead be committed to a clinic. Mr. McCoy does not agree and demands that Mercedes speak to the prosecution's shrink before making a decision.

Answer: Self-defense

In her session with Dr. Skoda, Mercedes tells him that her engagement with Nick was important for her family. She also says she loved Christie, and can't even remember what their fights were about. Skoda ends up even more confused than at the beginning since it is unclear whether Mercedes saw Christie and Nick having sex at all. The prosecutors have another maid for the Garrison family fly from Mexico to tell them what she knows. Ms. Fuegos ends up revealing that there was never a fight between Christie and Mercedes, but that the latter probably imagined it because of her medications.

The prosecutors meet with the Garrison family, where Mercedes reveals that Christie is not her sister, but her daughter. This confession would explain why Mercedes suffered from post-partum depression earlier in her life. Mercedes says she got pregnant while she was in Argentina, and accuses Paula (her mother) of being Christie's killer.

At the end of the episode, the Vances tell Mr. McCoy and Ms. Carmichael that they witnessed Christie lunging at Paula and that after a struggle ensued, Christie was dead. The Vances insist that Paula acted in self-defense. The prosecutors are left with no choice, as DA Schiff explains because Christie was on drugs and the self-defense case is solid.

The episode ends with McCoy and Carmichael reflecting on how different rules apply to the rich, or rather, no rules at all. They also find out that Vance's company received a cash infusion from the Garrison Investment Group, making it clear that the marriage between Nick and Mercedes was actually a "merger".