After a five-year banishment to the traffic division for offensive behavior, he has returned from disgrace to lead Portland's newly minted Special Crimes Unit (S.C.U.). Tasked with navigating the city's most sensitive and serious cases, he must solve each crime as he tries, and fails, to change his own self-destructive behavior. In the series premiere, the S.C.U. investigates the death of a college student. Initially deemed a suicide, the team discovers the boy's death was in fact a drug-fueled homicide. With Backstrom's unorthodox investigative techniques, the team must utilize all of their individual skills and work together to catch the killer. Meanwhile, Backstrom's doctor DEB CHAMAN (guest star Rizwan Manji) threatens to fail him on his physical if he doesn't start making healthy choices, and prescribes him to make one new friend.
