Motive Episode 4.13 We'll Always Have Homicide

Three years after Judge Natalie Rodman's killer gets away, evidence in a new homicide suggests the killer may have resurfaced. The whole team reunites to finally closing the case.

Victim: Trent McAllister, a repo man

Killer: Lexi Moore, Judge Rodman's killer who got away

The Discovery: On the grounds of a fancy estate, blood and gore is found splattered all over the tail rotor of a helicopter. The victim was sliced and diced. He was supposed to be repossessing the helicopter, but it turns out the company that hired him was a fake. He was lured there.

The Investigation: Det. Paula Mazur calls Angie Flynn in Paris when they find grey cat hairs on the victim, like the ones found in Meredith's apartment. Angie speaks passable French and is busting war criminals, but flies home to work her open case.

Gavin Saunders is now Deputy Chief. Brian Lucas married Emma and is still in Internal Investigations, but joins Angie on their old case. Things are still going well between Angie and Agent Jack Stoker. Dr. Betty Rogers is now Chief Medical Examiner and is still with Oscar Vega.

The detectives learn Trent was estranged from his daughter, Bally. When she was 17 she started seeing the assistant basketball coach at her school, Duncan Anderson, who was only three years older than her. When she got pregnant, Trent was furious and wanted her to have an abortion. When she wouldn't, he accused Duncan of raping her and Duncan went to prison, missing the birth of his own son. Duncan and Bally are married now and Bally hasn't spoken to her father since the trial.

The Andersons come in to talk to Angie with their lawyer: Oscar Vega. He founded the Tabula Rasa Society (Latin for "blank slate") for people wrongly convicted or hurt by the justice system. Oscar asks Angie to come work for him as his investigator.

The Andersons are wary of the legal system and storm out when asked for alibis. After Oscar calms them down they explain that their son Thomas doesn't know he had a grandfather.

Later, Lucas sits down with Bally and Angie talks to Duncan. Their stories match but they're each other's alibis. Thomas says he was working at the radio station and woke his parents up when he got home. Then Duncan admits he called Trent a few months ago to ask for money for Thomas to go to college, but didn't tell his wife.

Detectives Mazur and Mitch Kinecki check out a stolen car found in the woods near the murder scene. They see cat hair on the seat.

Angie sits down with Vega and talks through the case with him like old times, seeming to forget they're on opposite sides now. She doesn't think the Andersons did it but now she's out of suspects. She wants to talk to Vega's staff, in case they know anything. But Vega, the lawyer, tells her to come back with a warrant, which annoys Angie to no end.

Angie tries to figure out who else knew about Duncan's past and might have wanted revenge on Trent. She goes to the radio station where Thomas worked and learns he cut his hours back to earn money doing repo work. He was seeing more of his grandfather than his parents knew.

Angie sits down again with Thomas and Vega. Thomas confesses he'd been ditching work to hang out with Trent until he found out what he did to his parents. The only person he told was Lexi Moore.

Angie immediately recognizes the name of Rodman's clerk. Lexi is a mediation lawyer at the firm where the people who own the murder weapon helicopter settled their divorce. They only need to connect her to Meredith.

Background: Thomas made friends with Sean, a DJ at the radio station who was dating Lexi Moore. One day they dropped him off at home and found the word "rapist" spray painted on his house. They knew about his dad and that Thomas was often taunted and beaten up for it.

After killing Trent, Lexi swerved in the woods to avoid an animal and crashed her stolen car. After coming to, she cut out the airbag to avoid leaving evidence. When Sean saw her seat belt bruises later, she lied and said she was running and a bicyclist hit her. He didn't believe her.

After talking to detectives, Thomas tells Lexi that the police kept asking if he had a cat.

Lucas and Angie talk to Sean, who says he broke up with Lexi after she was acting oddly. Kinecki and Mazur talk to Lexi's childhood neighbor, who connects Lexi to Meredith.

Angie serves a warrant on Lexi at her house and although Lexi has gotten rid of her cat, they find cat hair that connects her to all the murders. But Lexi manages to get the warrant overturned and the evidence is tossed.

Angie wants to stay and work the case, but Interpol wants her back. She has a ticket back to Paris waiting for her.

On her last night in town, Vega is troubled that he hasn't had the chance to put things right with Angie and tries to track her down, but no one knows where she is.

Angie can't stand the thought of Lexi getting away with another murder. Instead of going to the airport, she goes to Lexi's house. Lexi answers the door with a knife hidden in a dish towel. Angie asks her where she was when she got a call from Sean the night of the murder. When Lexi says she was at home, Angie tells her she'll be checking the cell phone towers to confirm her story. Lexi realizes she's caught.

Impulsively, Lexi stabs Angie repeatedly.

Motive: As Angie bleeds on her floor, Lexi prepares to shoot her, but Sean comes in her front door bearing flowers. Angie stalls, asking Lexi why she killed Trent.

One night at the radio station, Lexi tried to talk to Thomas and found a gun in his backpack. When she demanded an explanation, he told her what Trent did. She didn't want to let him become a monster.

Thomas reminded Lexi of Meredith, a young kid who should have been protected by adults but instead was betrayed by them. The night she killed Trent, she waited in the helicopter for him. He fired it up and she sprang up out of the back seat strung a wire around his neck. He tried to fight her off but they fell out of the helicopter and she managed to push him into the rotor blade.

Angie buys just enough time. Vega and Lucas bust through the door to the rescue and kill Lexi before she can fire at Angie.

Angie slumps over, muttering: "I think I made a mistake here." They take her away in an ambulance.

Wrap-Up: After Angie has healed, she sits down with Vega before her flight - one she intends to catch. He rescinds his job offer, not wanting to be the reason she quits a job she clearly loves. She's going to do one more tour with Interpol and after that, who knows, anything can happen.