The episode opens with Sam, Oliver and Andy at the Penny celebrating Oliver rejecting the job offer as the permanent staff sergeant of 15 Division.
The next day Oliver walks through the station with a spring in his step, elated that he will soon give up the staff sergeant position. Inspector Jarvis confronts him about turning down the job, pointing out that 15 Division has been running smoothly under him and the officers love him, so he's perfect for the role, but Oliver insists the white shirt isn't in his DNA.
The show then moves to the parade meeting, where the criminal case of the episode is introduced.
The Case
Traci explains in parade that their mission of the day is to solve a fire bombing incident that occurred recently in Little Italy. A witness identified the bomber as Vincenzo Pizzuti. Soon Nick, Chloe and Gail are assigned to help search for Vinny.
When Nick and Chloe enter one restaurant during their search, with Gail waiting in a car outside, the owner, Mario, appears to be hospitable at first. But when they ask about Vinny and mention the fire, the Mario plays dumb, claiming he doesn't know where Vinny is and he's disgusted by the act itself. When the officers ask to check his basement, he demands a search warrant but promises he'll call them if Vinny shows up.
Nick and Chloe tell Oliver what happened, and Oliver simply suggests that they show initiative and figure out a solution. Nick decides to grab the garbage bags from outside of the restaurant before garbage men throw them in their truck. They rummage through them at the station in the hopes of finding something useful or suspicious.
Eventually, Chloe finds a severed human thumb that Sam and Traci presume will be too damaged to get a print from but will at least be enough for a warrant to search Mario's restaurant. So Chloe and Nick are sent back to the restaurant to look once more for Vinny. They find and arrest him, along with six other persons of interest.
At the station, Sam talks to Vinny bout the fire and Vinny denies his involvement. But when Sam says there is a witness, Vinny says ask her again; Sam triumphantly points out that he never mentioned the witness was female.
Unfortunately the witness recants her statement, clearly riled and afraid by something Vinny and/or others involved in the fire have done or said to her.
Sam and Andy are unable to get Vinny and Mario to fess up to anything involving the thumb or fire, but they get a big break when Holly successfully IDs the thumb as belonging to Mario's son, Little Mario. Traci and Sam assume Mario isn't aware of his son's injury. Little Mario claims he lost his thumb when he cut it on a meat slicer. When Traci asks him if he knows Vincenzo. Little Mario says he's a punk who runs errands and "kisses my dad's ass," but claims ignorance regarding the firebombing.
Traci informs Sam about Little Mario's obvious disdain for Vincenzo, so the officers decide to put them in the same room together to see what happens. It pays off. Vincenzo foolishly tries to talk in not so subtle code. From the interaction that follows, Traci and Sam deduce that Vincenzo cut Little Mario's thumb off for messing up the firebombing. Mario (the father) is shocked to discover his son's condition and when he eventually learns that Vincenzo is responsible for it, he tells the police that the witness will come through for them after all. Thus, Traci finally charges Vincenzo with the crime.
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As this case progressed, so too did another one of an entirely different kind.
Andy vs. Duncan
Andy's meeting involving the inquiry into rookie Duncan Moore was moved up two weeks early to that exact day, leaving Oliver and Andy with little time to prepare. When Inspector Jarvis informs them of the situation, Andy finally confesses to Oliver that she fudged reports about Duncan to make him look better, which Oliver states is bad news for them.
Amidst dealing with the main case and other issues, Oliver and Andy discuss her reports of Duncan. Oliver asks about one particular incident in which she wrote Duncan was "satisfactory with room for improvement." Andy explains that Duncan pulled his weapon when a woman they had pulled over reached in the glove box for her registration. There had been a kid in the back seat and Duncan's actions appalled the mother. Oliver is speechless. Another report with the same comment involved a situation in which Duncan used the bathroom (to defecate) of a house they had helped Chris and Nick clear in regards to a robbery case. When Oliver scolded her for this Andy, frustrated, questioned out loud why Duncan was going ahead with the hearing since he had seemed like he'd given up when she ran into him the week before. Oliver quickly stopped her, furious that she had talked to Duncan even though he'd warned her not to.
A few scenes later Oliver presses Andy about the conversation but she doesn't remember exactly what she said. She eventually explains that she was generous because she didn't want Duncan to be labeled as a failure without even having the chance to prove himself. Oliver tells her that she should say exactly that to professional standards. He expresses his understanding but states bluntly that she wasn't doing her job.
When the meeting finally starts, Andy's lawyer is late and seems rude and uninformed while Duncan's is a hot shot ruthless attorney. She starts by asking Andy if she thinks Duncan's performance suffered because Andy was new at being a training officer. Andy's lawyer quickly says no but the judge-- superintendent Helen Brooks says she needs to hear it from Andy. When the lawyer presses Andy again, Andy says, "I don't think Duncan was willing to learn from me or anyone else." Duncan interjects but Andy continues. "I don't think Officer Moore ever bought into the rookie TO dynamic and I don't think he was prepared for the stresses of this job or was ever really prepared to put himself in harm's way." Duncan is outraged that she's apparently calling him a coward and his lawyer just says Andy's giving her version. Andy retorts by bringing up Duncan turning off his radio when she called for backup. They launch into an argument over the facts of the incident until Brooks cuts it off. Duncan's lawyer then brings up Andy's reports. Oliver gives an answer but Brooks demands Andy speak, so Andy says something similar to what she told Oliver, which seems to win her some points with Brooks. As she says it, she looks directly at Duncan.
Next, Duncan's lawyer mentions Andy's encounter with him at The Penny. Duncan claims Andy told him it was all her fault and when Andy's lawyer objects to what seems like subjective, less than truthful testimony, Duncan's attorney says that they have proof; Duncan recorded the conversation.
A few scenes later, he plays it in the meeting. Andy suggests that she could have been better, that maybe it was her fault for not getting him ready properly. It's clearly just Andy being her kind, people-pleasing self but in the context of the case and how it's presented, it's quite damning. Andy is furious with Duncan and the two break into a heated argument. Brooks says in light of the new evidence, she may need to expand the scope of the investigation. Andy doesn't understand what that means but the faces of Oliver and her lawyer make it apparent that it's not good news for their side.
Brooks grants a break for everyone to digest the new information and Andy insists that Duncan set her up. Oliver knows it's true but thinks someone else put him up to it since he's well connected but not that smart.
Andy returns to the meeting ahead of Oliver and as Oliver heads towards it, he comes face to face with Jarvis. Jarvis states the bad news of what Brooks' words mean: she will launch an investigation into Andy herself. Oliver values Andy too much as a friend and officer so he cuts a deal with Jarvis. He'll take the staff sergeant job and give Duncan his job back if Jarvis tells Brooks that they are handling the matter internally (thus suspending the investigation into Duncan and getting Andy off the hook). Here's where the episode gets its name. Oliver essentially sold his soul to the devil, as Jarvis is not a very wholesome character.
When Jarvis announces the suspension to the rest of the involved parties, all are shocked but it's essentially a victory for Duncan so there's nothing they or Brooks can or would want to do. Andy however, is furious, since as part of his explanation, Oliver took responsibility for letting Andy train Duncan before she was ready for the role. Andy rushes out of the room after Oliver to confront him but Oliver says even though Duncan's a disaster, the evidence was not in Andy's favor. He essentially says she in fact should not have trained him in the first place, which crushes Andy.
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The rest of the show
Throughout the course of the show, there were other key plots unraveling.
Gail
Gail had to bring the thumb to Holly and for the first time since walking out on her at the bar, Gail tries to apologize and win Holly back. However, Holly already has someone new and isn't swayed.
Chloe
It's Chloe's birthday in the episode and her day begins with the good news that she's off desk duty. But then she has to dig through trash. And then instead of the big surprise she thought Dov had planned for her, she gets nothing from him, as he's distracted. She gets a gift she at first thinks is from Dov--The Breakfast Club (her birthday tradition is watching the film and eating popcorn), but it was from Wes, to her chagrin.
Dov and Chris
Meanwhile, Dov spent the whole day (or episode) calling Chris, lying to Oliver about why he wasn't at work. Supposedly he had food poisoning. At the end of the episode, before Dov heads home, he checks Chris's car. In the mess it has become, Dov finds a small bag of cocaine. When he gets home he is disgusted to discover that Chris has more. Chris insists it's not like he's a junkie criminal but Dov reminds him that he's a cop (thus, it's worse).
Oliver and his daughter
And finally, on top of dealing with Andy's predicament and the firebombing case, Oliver had to deal with his daughter Izzy. She got suspended from school for taking part in a protest against the cutting of the drama program. Izzy says that she was only taking Oliver's advice to do something to save the program. Zoe, Izzy's mother, takes this to mean Oliver is to blame for the whole predicament and leaves her at the station for Oliver to deal with.
Oliver brushes Izzy off on Gail. However, Izzy ditches Gail and it's not until everything else has been dealt with that he finds her in his car at the station. They have a makeup moment and Oliver asks why she really acted up all day. She confesses she saw Celery doing a fertility ritual and fears that if Oliver has another kid, she'll see her father even less than she already does. Oliver assures her he has no intention of having another child and the two then happily head out to get food together.
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The show ends with Sam comforting Andy about everything that happened with her. It's apparently the writer's new favorite way to end every episode.