Following one of her trademark barn-burning sermons, Evangelical preacher Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany) offers the Dodsons the church's full moral and financial support - much to her mother Birdy's (Lili Taylor) dismay. During a routine domestic intervention, beat cop Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) is re-routed to a gruesome crime scene, where he follows a confounding trail of evidence. Mason (Matthew Rhys) is left incensed by a jaw-dropping admission from Baggerly (Robert Patrick) and, after pressing Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin) on her husband's alibi, finds himself confronted by an outraged Della Street (Juliet Rylance). Detectives Holcomb (Eric Lange) and Ennis (Andrew Howard) use Drake's (Chris Chalk) findings to their own advantage.

In order to gain an advantage over E.B. and team, wily district attorney Maynard Barnes (Stephen Root) goes public with a shocking new development. Mason (Matthew Rhys) and Strickland (Shea Whigham) get unauthorized access to physical evidence with help from Virgil (Jefferson Mays), Mason's connect at the city morgue. Later, Mason attempts to extract information from a withholding Drake (Chris Chalk), who's weary of Holcomb (Eric Lange) and Ennis' (Andrew Howard) watchful eyes. Della (Juliet Rylance) notices a change in E.B. (John Lithgow), who seems uncharacteristically out of sorts.

While Mason and Della are up north, Strickland tracks down the sergeant assigned to the Dodson case. Mason drops in on his ex-wife Linda and son Teddy. Della sets out to find Mrs. Dodson more capable legal representation.