Spoiler warning: This review discusses major plot details from “Crossing Lines,” including a sexual-assault-related case argument.
In “Crossing Lines,” Baxter’s recusal turns a murder prosecution into a test of whether he and Kate Norris can keep their professional and personal lives apart. The episode gives Tony Goldwyn a compelling conflict to play, but the CBR reviewer argues that the hour’s heavy-handed point and familiar dramatic construction undercut its emotional force.
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When Baxter recuses himself, the case becomes personal
“Crossing Lines,” Season 24’s 15th episode, debuted on NBC on March 13, 2025, according to the CBR review indexed by IMDb. The episode brings District Attorney Nicholas Baxter’s new relationship with defense attorney Kate Norris directly into the work: Kate’s client is implicated in the killing of James Powers, and Baxter steps aside because of the conflict. Nolan Price takes over the prosecution.
Powers is the son of Senator George Powers and a political figure. As detectives investigate his personal life for clues to his killer, the case carries public and private stakes. But the episode’s sharper tension lies in the fact that Baxter’s professional judgment now affects someone he cares about, while Kate is defending a client whose fate is tied to the prosecution he has left behind.
#1 Best Overall
The case argument complicates the ethical conflict
Kate’s client claims self-defense. The review also describes her misleading a witness about what might come up on the stand; the witness subsequently recants, and the client is ultimately found guilty. That sequence gives the courtroom plot a consequential turn, but it also shifts the focus from Baxter and Kate’s boundary problem to the episode’s argument about the defense.
The CBR reviewer’s criticism is that the script leans too hard on its point. That is a judgment about this episode, not a broader verdict on the series. In this telling, the ethical dilemma is strong material, but the case mechanics make the intended lesson feel more pronounced than the characters’ complicated choices. The result is a conflict that matters to Baxter and Kate, yet does not always feel as nuanced as the premise promises.
Rank #2
Goldwyn and Siff bring different strengths to the fallout
Tony Goldwyn makes Baxter’s conflict legible
Goldwyn is the reviewer’s standout. Baxter has to recuse himself and then watch the case proceed without him, a position that leaves him personally invested but professionally constrained. The review praises Goldwyn’s ability to carry difficult material, lending weight to the character’s effort to respect the boundary even as his relationship is under pressure.
Maggie Siff gives Kate her own side of the divide
Siff plays Kate as more than the person caught in Baxter’s conflict: she is the defense attorney responsible for advocating for her client. The episode’s strongest character premise depends on that distinction. Kate’s obligations in court and her relationship with Baxter overlap, but they are not interchangeable, and the story’s tension comes from the space between them.
What happens to Baxter and Kate at the end?
After the verdict, Baxter tells Kate she did what she could. Kate agrees and walks away. The CBR review and related reporting describe the relationship as strained or possibly over, but the episode’s ending does not establish a longer-term outcome. Its emotional resolution is deliberately limited: the case is over, while the cost to the relationship remains unresolved.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does “Crossing Lines” work as a character episode?
It works best when the procedural conflict presses Baxter into an uncomfortable position and Goldwyn plays the personal cost without making recusal seem like a simple solution. The murder investigation and courtroom outcome provide stakes, and Siff’s role keeps Kate’s professional responsibilities in view rather than reducing her to Baxter’s romantic interest.
Rank #4
Its weaker moments, in the reviewer’s assessment, come when the case seems arranged to underline the episode’s point instead of deepening the dilemma. “Crossing Lines” is therefore a mixed character hour: a promising Baxter story with a strong central performance, but a familiar construction that blunts some of its moral and emotional complexity.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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