Girls Like Us

Nell Flynn, a 28-year-old FBI agent with the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), returns to Suffolk County, Long Island, after the death of her father, Martin Flynn, a homicide detective with the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) killed in a motorcycle crash at age 52. Nell joins Martin's lifelong best friend and her godfather, Glenn Dorsey, now chief of detectives, along with officers Ron Anastas and Vince DaSilva, to scatter Martin's ashes at sea. Nell has not been home in ten years, having left for MIT after a falling-out with her father during high school. She is on paid medical leave after shooting and killing a suspect during an operation; the Bureau requires her to undergo counseling with Dr. Andrew Ginnis before returning to duty. She stays at her grandfather's house in Hampton Bays, which she has inherited and plans to sell.

The morning after the memorial, Lee Davis, Nell's former high school acquaintance and Martin's most recent partner, brings news: a woman's dismembered body, wrapped in burlap, has been found buried at Shinnecock County Park. The case mirrors an unsolved murder from the previous summer. Ria Sandoval, a 17-year-old sex worker from Brentwood, was shot, dismembered, wrapped in burlap, and buried in the Pine Barrens Preserve. The primary suspect was Alfonso Morales, a Salvadoran landscaper who drove a dark red pickup matching one seen near where Ria was last spotted, but Martin had refused to arrest him. Both victims used the same driver: Giovanni Calabrese, an ex-con who runs a limousine company as a front for a prostitution ring. Lee asks Nell to consult unofficially, and she agrees.

At the crime scene, Nell discovers a cairn, a deliberate stack of small stones, beside the grave and notes that the dune grass was carefully replanted over the burial, suggesting horticultural expertise. The property bordering the park belongs to James Meachem, a billionaire financier. Nell also encounters Ann-Marie Marshall, a journalist who covered the murder of Nell's mother, Marisol Reyes Flynn, 21 years earlier. Marisol was stabbed to death in their home while Nell and Martin were camping. A 17-year-old neighbor, Sean Gilroy, confessed and was sentenced to life, but Marshall has spent two decades arguing the confession was coerced by Dorsey. Nell visits Grace Bishop, Meachem's neighbor and wife of Treasury Secretary Eliot Bishop. Grace sits on the board of the South Fork Preservation Society (SFPS), which manages the land where the body was found, and is an expert marksman. She tells Nell that Meachem hosts parties with young escorts and powerful guests and that police look the other way.

Martin's attorney reveals that Martin had an offshore bank account and a secret apartment in Riverhead where a woman lived. The landlord identifies the tenant as Maria Cruz, who left abruptly the day before Martin died. Nell finds a Polaroid of two young women. The new victim is identified as Adriana Marques, an 18-year-old sex worker from Riverhead. Adriana's older sister, Elena Marques, reveals that Adriana was picked up by a black sedan the night she disappeared, believed Adriana was pregnant, and that a police officer named Flynn visited afterward and took a phone from Adriana's desk. Nell recognizes Adriana as one of the girls in the Polaroid.

Medical examiner Jamie Milkowski determines that Adriana was killed by a close-range shot from someone tall, left-handed, and skilled with firearms. Adriana was in her first trimester of pregnancy. These details do not match Morales, who is short and right-handed, but Dorsey pushes to arrest him. Breaking into Martin's locked home office, Nell finds a file on Calabrese's operation containing a surveillance photograph of Adriana, the burner phone from Elena's house, and a gold cross necklace Adriana wore. She recalls Martin showing her a cairn while camping as a child, echoing the cairns at both burial sites. Martin was tall, left-handed, an expert marksman, and drove a red pickup matching witness descriptions. Nell begins to suspect her father killed both girls, and possibly her mother.

Nell contacts Sarah Patel, head of the FBI's Human Trafficking Task Force, who reveals that Meachem uses hidden cameras to record powerful men for extortion. Nell convinces Luz Molina, Ria's friend and a former Calabrese employee, to talk by promising protective custody for Luz and her younger brother. Luz reveals that Dorsey runs the ring from inside the SCPD: He arrests girls and offers them a choice between deportation or working for Calabrese. DaSilva provides security, and Anastas participates. Luz describes a fourth officer, a tall, quiet man who rode a motorcycle; Nell identifies him as her father. Luz also identifies Meachem's house as the party location.

A bartender tells Nell that Martin was completely sober for months before his death. A mechanic shows her that the brake line on Martin's motorcycle was cleanly severed: Martin's death was murder. Marshall tells Nell that Milkowski does not believe Morales was the shooter and that a rumor persists of a DEA mole planted inside the SCPD.

Nell arrives at a bar expecting a gathering but finds only Dorsey and DaSilva. Pretending to believe her father was the killer, she secretly records Dorsey's admissions: He was in love with Marisol and she had planned to leave Martin for him. He pressured Gilroy into confessing. He brought Martin into Calabrese's payroll, insisting the payments were for looking the other way.

Lee then reveals that Milkowski has been killed in a hit-and-run, likely by Dorsey's associates. He discloses that he is an undercover DEA agent embedded in the SCPD for two years. Lee explains that Martin was not genuinely corrupt: He fabricated gambling debts to infiltrate Calabrese's operation and was secretly building a case against Dorsey. Martin rescued Maria Cruz from the ring, rented her the apartment, and collected evidence. Behind a map in Martin's office, they find a hidden safe containing a laptop, files, and recordings.

FBI teams mobilize to raid SCPD headquarters and Calabrese's offices. As Lee leaves to brief arriving agents, a car bomb detonates in the driveway, killing him. Nell, badly injured, escapes through the marsh with evidence, steals a car, and crashes after losing consciousness. Sarah, on the phone with Nell, directs agents to her location. Nell wakes in the hospital after surgery to learn the raids succeeded: Dorsey, Calabrese, DaSilva, Anastas, and others are arrested. A second bomb was found on Martin's truck. Luz and her brother are safely in protective custody.

During her recovery, Sarah visits with surveillance stills from Meachem's cameras. Nell recognizes Eliot Bishop among the guests at Meachem's parties. Sarah reports that additional victims in Palm Beach and near Grace Bishop's family ranch in Texas were killed in the same manner. Nell deduces that Grace is the killer: She is tall, left-handed, an expert marksman, and connected to the SFPS in every location where murders occurred. Grace killed the escorts out of jealous rage over her husband's affairs with them; Adriana's pregnancy was the breaking point, since Grace was unable to conceive. Nell also realizes the gold cross necklace was a recording device Adriana wore to capture evidence for Martin. When Nell confronts Grace, Grace attacks her, stabbing her in the thigh. Sarah shoots and kills Grace.

In the aftermath, Dorsey dies by suicide in prison. DaSilva, Anastas, and Calabrese are sentenced. Meachem signs a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for footage implicating powerful men. Sarah introduces Nell to Maria Cruz, who is Nell's half-sister: Martin never knew about Maria until her dying mother wrote to him, and he had rescued her from the ring to build a new life for her. On New Year's Eve, Nell scatters her mother's ashes at a beach where Marisol used to take her as a child. She has come to believe, without certainty, that Gilroy did kill her mother, and she accepts this as enough to move forward. Nell takes a position on the Human Trafficking Task Force in Miami, donates Martin's offshore funds to a charity for trafficking victims, and places the remaining estate proceeds in a trust for Maria. Nell and Maria plan to move to Miami together and begin a new life as family.