As election day rapidly approaches, Detectives Lupo and Bernard discover the disfigured remains of a man with the word "FED" written across his bare chest.
After the victim's perplexing past emerges and the list of suspects multiplies, the detectives find themselves dealing with more than just dirty politics.
Former detective Rey Curtis, having recently lost his wife Deborah, has come back to Long Island with his three daughters to bury her beside her parents.
Curtis, who heard about Van Buren's illness from the police grapevine, commented gravely about her cancer as "just rotten luck all around".
On its original American broadcast on December 11, 2009, "Fed" was watched by 8.77 million average households over the hour, among viewers aged between 18 and 49, according to Nielsen ratings.