Jerry is asked by a psychiatrist if he s a religious man. One man Jerry suspects of the murder is a country preacher. Jerry storms into the church, sure the preacher has murdered the girl, only to find a children s Bible study going on. Others think it s just a fairy tale. That fact alone will drive most families away from The Pledge .
Several detectives make crude references to deviant sexual acts and genitalia.
A cop makes an obscene gesture to a suspect. The first murder scene shows fleeting images of a nude, dismembered body. Jerry receives a detective packet and lingers on explicit crime-scene photos of another murdered girl. A grisly scene has a murder suspect stealing a cop s gun and blowing his own brains out in an elevator. A car accident shows a blackened corpse trapped in the driver s seat.