Fatal Beauty

Rita Rizzoli stages an undercover purchase of a new cocaine strain called Fatal Beauty with dealer Tito Delgadillo. She interrupts the sale to rush to Charlene’s aid, saving her informant from a brutal beating. Delgadillo escapes with the money, foiling the deal.

Delgadillo steals Rita’s money and retreats to a warehouse in Chinatown where Fatal Beauty is manufactured. The warehouse becomes the drug's supply hub, attracting local players and setting the stage for later confrontations.

Nova and Skinner storm the Chinatown warehouse and kill the entire gang. They unknowingly steal a botched batch of Fatal Beauty in the process. Rita’s investigation widens as the missing drugs connect to a new wave of street dealers.

Rita identifies Delgadillo’s body after the confrontation. She discovers another corpse in a van labeled Kroll Enterprises, a clue linking the case to Conrad Kroll. The van marks the growing involvement of Kroll's company in the drug trade.

Rizzoli asks to investigate the company's owner, Conrad Kroll, but her superior Lt. Kellerman rebuffs her due to Kroll's political connections and Rizzoli's past drug bust. Her lack of backing forces her to pursue information on her own. The friction delays official action and heightens tension.

Charlene tells Rita that the warehouse owner drives a Rolls Royce, hinting at immense wealth. Rita sneaks into Kroll's Beverly Hills mansion and accuses him of drug dealing. Kellerman orders her to leave, effectively ending the confrontation.

A scanner alert signals a standoff at Charlene's house in Hollywood. A man intoxicated on Fatal Beauty emerges, fires at the police, and remains standing after being shot. Rita discovers Charlene dead from an overdose and learns from Charlene's young son that she bought the drugs from her pimp, Jimmy Silver.

LAPD determines Fatal Beauty is 50 percent pure and cut with phencyclidine, causing users to go insane and die rapidly. Rita and Detective Jiminez track down and arrest Jimmy Silver and his supplier Rafael. The city closes in on the network behind Fatal Beauty.

Rita engages Nova and Skinner in a gunfight, but is saved when Mike Marshak intervenes. Marshak’s protective act reveals his dangerous ties and foreshadows his double role. The confrontation underscores the reach of Kroll's operation.

After Rita recovers, Marshak convinces her to let him drive her home as Jiminez starts another confrontation with Nova. The volatile chase underscores the increasing reach of Kroll's operation.

Rita learns that numerous preteen children in her neighborhood are dying from Fatal Beauty, including Zach Yeager's friends, after Zach's mother Cecille supplied the drug. Rita confronts the personal stakes of the drug trade and begins to reflect on her own past addiction.

Denny Mifflin, Zach's mother's dealer, will buy Fatal Beauty from Nova and Skinner at Kroll Plaza that night. As Rita readies to arrest Mifflin, Kroll orders Marshak and his guards to kill Nova, Skinner, and Rita. Marshak warns Rita that they are coming.

In a climactic gunfight, Nova and Skinner kill most of Kroll's security and kill Kroll himself. Rita and Marshak fight back, killing Nova and Skinner. A wounded Marshak is carried away in an ambulance, and he tells Rita he will likely go to prison; she vows to wait for him and kisses him.