Barnfather gives the homicide unit hours to solve the case of the detective shootings before it is handed over to Violent Crimes. The investigation, still led by Pembleton, leads to a new prime suspect: Gordon Pratt, the resident of the apartment the detectives had mistakenly approached when trying to serve a warrant to Glen Holton. Pembleton, Bayliss and Mitch Drummond search Pratt's home, his parents' house and his workplace before tracking him down in a massage parlor. Meanwhile, Bolander, Felton and Howard are in various stages of recovery following their surgeries. Munch and Bolander's ex-wife stay with Bolander to keep him company; he seems fine after his first surgery but awakens after his second surgery with no memory of who Munch is.
The detectives alternate interrogating Pratt, who reveals himself to be a racist loner pretending to be a highly educated intellectual with a grudge against the concepts of government and society. Bayliss, however, finds Pratt's high school records and discovers that his intellectualism is a ruse. Hoping to rattle a confession out of him, Pembleton tricks Pratt into attempting to translate a passage from Plato, but unlike Pembleton, Pratt cannot read the original Greek, and his radical misinterpretation of Plato's words reveals that he is a fake. Unfortunately, this strategy backfires on Pembleton when an angered Pratt demands a lawyer. The attorney arranges Pratt's release, leading to rising tensions within the homicide unit and a physical altercation between Munch and Pembleton. In the episode's epilogue, Bayliss is called to a crime scene and discovers that Pratt has been shot; reporters question Bayliss whether a police officer seeking revenge for the shootings may have been responsible.
