[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Law & Order Season 25 premiere “Street Justice.”]

Heading into Law & Order Season 25’s premiere on Thursday, September 25, there was one big question — and it was one even Price (Hugh Dancy) had to ask: Did Maroun (Odelya Halevi) murder her sister’s killer after he was exonerated when he was caught for another crime?

Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) has a similar question for Price when they meet up at the beginning of the premiere: There’s no reason to think she had any involvement, right? “I’m not sure,” Price admits after her lack of an answer when he confronted her at the end of the Season 24 finale.

Maroun, on her part, takes her anger and frustration out at the boxing gym, then brushes off Price when he tries to approach her. She calls him out on doing what he wanted and made him feel good and noble, while he counters that their job is following the law.

It doesn’t take long for Riley (Reid Scott) and Brady (Maura Tierney) to address Shaw’s absence following Mehcad Brooks‘ exit between seasons: He took a job at another precinct, she reveals, and he says he knows he wants to get back to Brooklyn. “I’m going to miss that guy,” Riley says. But then it’s back to business, working the case, and soon there’s a witness saying they saw a woman shoot the victim after yelling “You deserve this.” The person of interest matches Maroun’s description, and she was seen arriving home 28 minutes after the 9-1-1 call — plus, she owns the same kind of gun used in the crime, and while it’s not in her apartment when Brady serves a warrant, a hoodie matching the description of the one the shooter was wearing is.

Soon after that, Maroun (finally) tells Price she didn’t shoot Carter, but she can’t hand over her gun to be tested because she threw it into the river that night. She’d wanted to confront him, even left to do so, and was afraid of what she might do with it. But Brady can’t just take Maroun’s word (and Price’s that she’s never lied to him). She can, however, use a witness not picking the ADA out of a photo array and identifying the shooter as taller than Maroun. When Price fills her in, Maroun tells him that if she had the ability to take someone’s life, she’d be in handcuffs because she really wanted to kill him but couldn’t.

Riley, Brady, and Violet’s (Connie Shi) investigation leads to Carter’s girlfriend — or rather, ex-girlfriend, Julia (Christine Spang). Though she stuck with him through the trial and defended him, his sister reveals that Julia broke up with him three days before the verdict. Furthermore, she bought the same kind of gun used to kill him three hours after the verdict. The motive is unclear, however, until her lawyer says in her opening statement that Julia shot and killed Carter in self-defense. Price doesn’t buy it, arguing that she’d bought the gun hours earlier and had set out to kill him that night. But can he prove it?

It gets tougher when the judge allows for his past actions — being tried for rape and murder — to be admissible to speak to Julia’s state of mind. Then, when Julia takes the stand, she testifies that when she broke up with him, Carter choked and raped her, then threatened to kill her if she told the police. The night of the shooting, she’d taken a walk to clear her head, and when she ran into him, he approached her and said she was done. She took it mean he was going to kill her, so she shot him.

Price continues to remain focused on the law, on whether lethal force was justified in that moment, while Maroun wonders what they’re trying to accomplish. He reminds her that Julia buying the gun with the intent to kill Carter and leaving her apartment with it is practically the definition of murder, while Maroun reminds him that he’d just raped and threatened to kill her, so she was under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance (manslaughter). “We let a monster walk free. You let a monster walk free. If you ask me, we practically forced Julia to shoot the bastard,” she says. While Price argues that’s not fair, she counters that what’s not fair is watching the guy who killed her sister and another woman walk free because he didn’t have the guts to do what was necessary to get the conviction.

Price then decides to offer Julia man 1, and Baxter checks that he’s doing it because it’s the right legal move and not to placate Maroun and make amends after Carter’s trial. Price says he is. However, after they present the deal to Julia, she admits, while alone with Maroun, that she waited outside his condo that night then tries to walk it back. Price is listening outside.

He then clearly waits in his office to see if Maroun will tell him, which she does after reporting Julia’s lawyer says she wants to accept the plea. Price points out that means Julia lied on the stand, and Maroun agrees that, on paper, it was premeditated. He asks how she wants to proceed, and she lays out the two choices: testify as a rebuttal witness, tell the jury what Julia blurted out, or they both pretend she didn’t hear what Julia said, accept plea, and move on. Price wants her opinion. Maroun wants them to accept the plea; just because they can win the case based on the letter of law doesn’t mean they need to. He agrees.

What did you think of the premiere and resolution to the cliffhanger? Let us know in the comments section below.

Law & Order, Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC