After a maid who worked at the Senator’s club comes forward with new information, the team reopens the 1958 case of Julian Bellowes (played by Johnathon Schaech), whose body was found near the plains that would one day become the suburban paradise he envisioned.
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: George cut Julian's throat open, up close and personal.
- Chocolate Baby: Julian was terrified this would expose his secret once his daughter was born. Luckily for him, his daughter was born looking as white as him, so neither her nor her mother found out Julian was a black man passing as white until it is uncovered during the reinvestigation. And neither care.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Your loan pre-approved by your friend was later rejected by the bank and your wife was left crying? Don't try to ask your friend about his side of the story or accept it as an unfortunate reality for Black Americans in the 1950's. Just assume your friend is lying and stab him to death.
- Hiding Your Heritage: Julian’s mother was Creole, so Julian looked like a white man, even though his sister and father were darker. When marking Negro on his Army papers was assumed to be a mistake, Julian chose not to correct it, and went on living as a white man. It worked, a little too well, as benefiting from white privilege in the fifties earned him the jealousy of the killer. After Julian's murder however, the secret was revealed to the father-in-law, and to avoid a scandal, the murder was covered up.
- My Greatest Failure: Paul Romano still regrets letting his father Angelo sell their shares in Somerton.Paul: "My father gets his cut, we'd be having this chat on my own private island!"
- Pass Fail: Julian was really a black man, but looked white because his mother was Creole. When marking Negro on his Army papers was thought to be a mistake, he chose to pretend it was, and went on from there living as a white man. While it did give him more opportunities in 1958, getting him a high-end job and a white wife, it also distanced him from his family and made him unsure if he was doing the right thing.
- Posthumous Character: Julian's father-in-law and boss Harrison.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The former maid was right in that there was a coverup about Julian's murder. Her boss Harrison Kemp refused to dig any further into the matter to hide the fact that his son-in-law was black passing for white.
- Suburbia: The episode is named after a soon-to-be-developed suburban neighborhood. The victim is killed, and later found, in front of the "Coming Soon" sign.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Harry, Julian’s brother-in-law, was pissed when Julian started proving himself to be a better businessman and negotiator than him, earning the respect and praise of his new pop-in-law, while paling next to Julian got Harry demoted to the stockroom by his own dad. This eventually led to Harry investigating Julian's background and a confrontation with the latter, who revealed his secret to Harry.
- Wham Line: Julian was visiting Regina Reynolds, a black woman, before his murder. When Scotty and Kat go to interrogate her decades later, they ask if she and Julian were involved.Regina: Of course we were. He was my brother.
- White Sheep: Julian's wife, Caroline, is the only one in her family to not see any problems about his background. Her first reaction when knowing about her husband's black family, after all those years, is to thank the detectives. She even meets them after the case is closed along with her daughter. Compare that to her father, who uses his position to quickly close the case at the time, and her brother Harry, who, while relatively accepting of the truth about Julian, still reveals his secret to their father out of jealousy while knowing how Harrison will react and both of them hiding the truth from Caroline for decades.
