Law & Order: Los Angeles Episode 1.04 Sylmar

Kim Miller parks in the driveway of a nondescript house in Sylmar, telling her toddlers Billy and Nikki that she'll be right back. After locking them in the car, she rings the doorbell, then enters the home, looking back to make sure her kids are okay. Seconds later, the garage erupts in a giant fireball, and Kim's car is immediately engulfed in flames. It's not long before TJ and Winters are responding to the explosion at Ronnie Powell's rented house. Hysterical, Kim tells them Ronnie was home at the time of the explosion, but he ran to his truck and drove off. SID tech Takahashi shows the cop the fruits of his initial investigation: a beam scale, a hot plate and a crude ventilation system. Ronnie's been cooking meth. Kim claims she knows nothing about that; she was merely returning the dark plastic sunglasses Ronnie left at work.

TJ reports that Ronnie's rap sheet is full of priors for possession and sales, but nothing violent - however, the meth lab turns homicide into murder. Winters finds a half-empty box of bullets, and a pair of yellow-lensed wire-rimmed sunglasses. The detectives visit Kim and her husband Kevin in Pacoima, splitting up to interview them in separate rooms. When Kevin remembers a guy named Ronnie from last year's softball team he assumes the worst and angrily rushes at his wife. TJ holds him back as Winters advises Kim to tell the truth. Kim admits her affair with Ronnie. Kevin accuses her of murdering their kids with her adultery. Dissolving in tears, Kim insists she has no idea where Ronnie is. Offering Kevin a ride to a friend's house, TJ asks for any other info. Kevin recalls Ronnie used to live at his mother's house in Reseda.

Ronnie's mother Ellen explains that Ronnie moved out last year. His sister Amy immediately asks if Ronnie's in trouble again, claiming he's always been a godless screw-up. Ellen can't believe her son was making meth in his garage; his hobby is radio-controlled airplanes. In fact, he had some supplies delivered from HobbyMeister.com a couple weeks ago. TJ and Winters proceed to HobbyMeister's warehouse to question the inventory manager, who reports that Ronnie bought four boxes of Zeta Max fuel for model planes - which is 99% pure nitromethane. Mixed with fertilizer it would make a hell of a truck bomb. Takahashi doesn't know why the lab blew up, but it wasn't nitromethane, which leaves a distinct odor tag. He would have smelled it. What does it all mean? Ronnie's running around with 64 gallons of bomb juice.

According to the bomb squad, if Ronnie mixed his fuel with fertilizer, the blast radius could create a 15-foot crater. Gonzales gets a call: Ronnie's Bronco is parked in a driveway in the valley. The SWAT team busts the door down to find Jack Bryce playing X-Box. While they shake him down, Winters explores further, realizing Ronnie has crawled under the house. When TJ threatens to send rats in after him, Ronnie emerges. No model plane fuel is found in the house, so the detectives bring Ronnie in for questioning. He insists he had nothing to do with the kids' deaths. Gonzales hands over a report. Traces of denatured alcohol were found in the meth lab's cookpot - someone tried to murder Ronnie. Ronnie lawyers up, promising to make a deal, but Dekker refuses. Ronnie killed two kids! Since the bomb components are still out and about, Gonzales tells her men to focus on the still unknown fiancé of Ronnie's sister Amy, Terry Walker.

TJ and Winters find Amy at her job as a supermarket florist. She took Terry to meet Ronnie when he first got to California, but she's not sure if he went in the garage. They met at a swap meet last year in Arizona, and Terry drove cross-country from South Carolina to propose. He's staying at a campground in Topanga until he gets on his feet and buys her a ring. The detectives persuade Amy to take them to the campground, where Terry emerges from an RV parked next to a pick-up truck. He did poke his head into Ronnie's garage, but didn't say anything about the meth lab to Amy. When Winters notices Oklahoma plates on the pick-up truck, Terry claims he bought it in Tulsa and towed it. Afterwards, Winters tells TJ that Terry's story is bull - the hitch on the RV doesn't match the coupler on the pick-up. Someone else drove it.

Back at RHD, the detectives check in with Gonzales. Terry checked into the campground two months ago with two other men driving the pick-up. And Terry didn't drive straight across the country; he zigzagged, picking up a parking violation in Indiana, just a few blocks from a farm supply store - which obviously would sell fertilizer. The detectives pay another visit to Ellen to ask about Terry. Ellen explains Amy hasn't had the best luck with men, but Terry did bring a suitcase full of presents for her. She shows them a dress Terry gave Amy, which TJ is stunned to recognize as a traditional Muslim abaya. He makes a beeline for Amy's computer, which is packed with videos of her wearing her abaya and hijab, spouting extremist Muslim rhetoric. After discovering Amy visited HobbyMeister.com, the detectives return to the grocery store to arrest her.

Detectives and DAs watch Amy's video in RHD's war room. Apparently, Amy asked for a copy of the Koran, then lawyered up. Terry disappeared, but TJ found a photo of him and two other buddies on Amy's computer, all dressed in traditional Muslim clothing. She also searched for an address in Sherman Oaks, so the detectives proceed to the home of Jason Parr, showrunner of an irreverent animated series. They're surprised to find armed guards in front of the house. Apparently, Jason wrote an offensive sketch, which resulted in the usual death threats. When Winters shows him a photo, Jason recognizes Amy - she'd been hanging around his coffee place. Stanton and the cops question Amy at the jailhouse with her lawyer Stephen Tasker present. She insists Terry would never kill anyone - he's the purest of them all - and defiantly crosses her arms and shuts her mouth.

Using AT&T facial recognition software, TJ identifies Terry's unknown friends as Joey Pine and his brother-in-law Roger Hagen, who did prison time for mail bombs. Roger's former cellmate Silas Wilson has a local welding business. Silas claims he hasn't seen Roger, but finally reveals Roger paid cash for some large metal plates cut to spec, and picked them up three days ago. The plans for the plates look like they're meant to line the floor of the RV, directing a blast upwards and sideways. When Roger called, Silas could hear planes in the background; Roger said they were in a groovy bar with lots of lava lamps. Realizing that Terry, Roger and Joey were at LAX's circular glass bar, the detectives question the hostess, who recognizes the men from their photo. They frequently sit at a table with a clear view of Terminal 7.

Fearing Terry and his crew plan to deploy a bomb over Thanksgiving at LAX, Dekker and the cops visit Amy in jail. Amy insists Terry wouldn't kill anyone, but Dekker re-directs her focus to Roger. He must have twisted Terry's love for an evil purpose - how do they find him? All Amy knows is Roger found a big rental garage on Craigslist. It's not long before the SWAT team yanks the door off the garage containing Terry, Roger, Joey and their RV bomb, which is almost complete. Amy's lawyer Tasker defends the trio at the arraignment hearing, claiming they're not guilty on all counts. Clearly, Terry sees this as an opportunity to grandstand, yelling about American injustice towards Muslim people.

Just as the judge confirms Dekker's request for no bail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Schuler and Army Captain James Locked arrive with an executive order from the Department of Defense to take custody of the defendants. Dekker asks the judge to stay the order until he can file a motion, but he has no choice but to surrender the defendants, who are immediately escorted to transport vehicles behind the courthouse. Dekker calls DA Hardin, begging him to pull the Attorney General out of a meeting to stop the proceedings, but no dice. Tasker steps up to inform that Amy just decided to cooperate with Dekker. Though she denies knowing anything about the LAX plot, she saw Terry tamper with Ronnie's meth lab, and can tie him and his buddies to the murder of Kim's children.

Dekker visits Colonel Mark Richards at his El Segundo J.A.G. office. Apparently, Tasker has been denied access to Terry et al because they're no longer his clients. Their trial will proceed at a secure military facility and they're out of civilian reach. Dekker insists he needs Amy's statement, but Richards assures him that anything she says is classified. Terrorism trumps murder, even if the military has a very poor success rate with conviction. Dekker complains to Hardin, who thinks it's all a blessing in disguise. A trial would be a circus, providing a soapbox for the defendants. Still, Dekker can't see letting them get away with murder, and holds a press conference to announce the DA's office will dispute the military's jurisdiction in court.

Dekker makes his case before the judge. Terry and his crew committed crimes against the citizens of L.A., and the citizens have the right to have a jury decide their guilt or innocence. Only through the open administration of justice can we ensure our freedom. The judge sides with Dekker, and Terry takes full advantage of his transfer back into LAPD custody to spout rhetoric. Hardin warns Dekker that Lane Garfield has taken the defendants' case. He's famous for defending Hamas and the PLO, and will surely turn the trial into a pep rally. Dekker promises to handle it by gagging Garfield, but Hardin fears Dekker's putting his personal ambition ahead of his responsibility to the DA's office.

When Judge Rumford opens the trial, Dekker shocks the court by asking to dismiss all terrorism charges against the defendants, instead trying them each on two counts of murder. Garfield is flummoxed, but the judge agrees to the request. Dekker's opening statement is simple. The trial isn't about terrorism, politics or ideology, but Nikki and Billy, who were incinerated when Terry and his crew tried to murder Ronnie. When Garfield opens with the claim that his clients are on trial because they tried to wake America up to the slaughter of innocent Muslims, Dekker objects. The judge reminds Garfield to limit his statements to the murder charges. Deflated, Garfield takes a seat.

Kim takes the stand to explain what happened the day the meth lab explosion killed her kids. Then Dekker puts Amy on the stand to explain how Terry had her buy denatured alcohol. Two days later, they visited Ronnie, and she found Terry in the garage pouring the alcohol into Terry's cookpot. Warning Amy she had to obey his wishes, Terry claimed he was making sure Ronnie would make no more drugs. Getting angry, Amy rages that Terry fooled her into believing he loved her, when he was just using her the whole time. On cross, Garfield shows Amy a photo the cops took of a drawer in Terry's RV. Spying an engagement ring, Amy has a complete change of heart, recants her testimony, and claims responsibility for the children's deaths.

His case demolished, Dekker tries another angle. In order to marry Terry, Amy had to convert to a strict form of Islam. As a future Muslim wife, she has to obey her husband-to-be, seeking his counsel in all decisions. Therefore, wouldn't she need Terry's approval to kill Ronnie? Amy remains silent. In his closing statement, Garfield claims his clients were denied their right to have a jury hear all the evidence in their case. Dekker's close is simple. About certain things there can be no doubt, like the taking of innocent life is never justified, no matter where it happens. Murder is murder. The jury finds Terry and his two buddies guilty of two counts of murder in the first degree. As he's led away, Terry warns that nothing will stop his people - the message is coming!