Directed by Agnieszka Holland
Written by John Brian King
The investigation team reopens the murder case of Ed Dubinski, a mechanic who won a lottery not long before his death.
Tropes for the episode:
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Ed gained a large sum of money through the lottery, but his mishandling of his newfound wealth and passing funds out to those who suddenly crowded around him for a share of said wealth quickly drained much of the winnings. Ed's financial advisor even uses the expression replacing "soon" with "easily".
- All for Nothing: Pam and her husband murdered her little brother because they’d been counting on his winnings to back their new business venture, and Ed said he couldn’t help them. They could hardly check his bank account immediately after the murder, and the probate on his assets took two years and a lot of paperwork- so they didn’t learn until the present day that they’d killed over $7.39.
- All Take and No Give: Ed's sister and brother-in-law just happened to come up with a new money making business when he won, and they started begging him for money, more so than anyone else. It's actually what gets him killed when he finally runs out; his brother-in-law confronts him with a gun, claiming they're about to lose it all, and he straight up tells him he gave all his money to the one person who didn't ask for a handout.
- At Least I Admit It: A more tragic case. All of Ed's family proves to be a bunch of ungrateful bastards once he wins the lottery, turning into gold diggers and leaving him out to dry and even killing him, but the only one who regrets it is his Disappeared Dad Jack, lamenting not spending time with Ed when he had the chance, and admits that he really was a horrible father.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Winning the lottery pretty much led to Ed's downward spiral and eventual death, and left his friends and family members being consumed by greed.
- Cassandra Truth: Ed Dubinski told his killer that he didn’t have any more money to give. The killer refused to believe this, took the shot, and became the owner of seven dollars and change.
- Face–Heel Turn: Greed turned Ed's sister Pam, who raised him after their dad left and got him a job, into a Green-Eyed Monster who continued to swindle money off him, and killed him when he refused. And her continued attempts to access Ed's account after his death got the case reopened.
- Fair-Weather Friend: A lot of Ed's friends showed themselves to be this after he won the lottery.
- Gold Digger: Ed quickly got engaged to one, but she left when he started to lose money. She's still trying in the present.
- Hanlon's Razor: The use of this eventually leads to tragedy. Ed, as a Nice Guy who had no idea how to handle serious money, lost nearly eight million dollars in short order to various leeches and scam artists, and eventually decided that he was happier without the hassle. He ended up murdered because Pam and Morty refused to believe that he could have lost all that money so quickly, meaning Ed had just decided not to help them anymore, letting his sister lose her business when he could’ve helped.
- Horrible Judge of Character: After winning the lottery, Ed surrounds himself with fair-weather friends and gold diggers without a second thought. In turn, he gets killed when one Fair-Weather Friend decides that Ed was leaving them out to dry when he could’ve helped.
- Inciting Incident: Had Pam not accessed Ed's monitored bank account by guessing his password, the murder case would likely remain unsolved.
- Lack of Empathy: Ed's accountant justifies swindling Ed out of his money by saying he hadn’t really earned it.
- Manchild: Ed is described by his sister as a "big kid".
- Never My Fault: Shortly before Ed’s death, his sister and brother-in-law railed at him about how ungrateful he was to not back their project after Pam had raised him from when she was eighteen. They conveniently overlook that they were the ones who had started the renovations without consulting Ed first, had neglected to check whether the required funds were even there, and repeatedly reassured him that they would be fine even without the loan.
- The Reveal: Nick discovers his new girlfriend Frankie is married.
- Smug Snake: Ed's accountant who cheated him out of a good chunk of his winnings. When Lilly asks him if he feels guilty about stealing money from someone who trusted him, the guy slyly remarks, "It's not like he earned it".
- That One Case: The case is reopened at the request of the detective who initially worked on it, after he found out someone had recently tried to access Ed's bank account.
