Recap / Criminal Case: Pacific Bay - Case 37: The Ship of Dreams

Frank: Hey <Player's Name>, you ever heard of the "Gigantic"? She was the heaviest luxury liner in the late 19th century. They called her the ship of dreams!

Frank and the player visit a movie set where a film of the historical ship known as the Gigantic and its sinking is being made. There, they find the body of young artist Fabrizio Gallardo floating in the water and with a flare stuck on his eye.

Tropes:

• Boom, Headshot!: How Holly commits suicide.
• Brainwash: Both Maggie and Chief Marquez become brainwashed by the Utopians in the Additional Investigation,
• Call-Back: Holly Hopper reappears as a suspect, while Jupiter Crane also becomes a suspect after having a minor appearances in Case 33 and Case 35.
• Cliffhanger: The case ends with the Ivywood Awards almost commencing, where the Utopians will try to enact their Mass Hypnosis plan even after Holly's suicide.
• Comically Missing the Point: During Lizzie's trial, Judge Dante first believes she killed Fabrizio because he painted her too old, then because he bought third class plane tickets when she wanted to be on first class.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Unlike Rose from Titanic (1997), Lizzie is clearly a Gold Digger who chooses her rich fiancé and the life of splendor he offers her over her poor suitor.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Tyler Snakes, Lizzie's fiancé, is so jealous and controlling that he says you must ask him if you want to talk to her.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The victim was killed by having a flare slowly melt his eye and brain.
• Cult Defector: Fabrizio was strongly against the Utopians and their ideals, which makes Holly give a reportage about his death to make people fear their wrath if they mess with the cult.
• A Deadly Affair: Fabrizio and Lizzie were having a secret affair and were going to escape to Italy together, but when Lizzie found out she was pregnant this served as a wake-up call for her, who understood her career in Ivywood and her rich fiancé were more important than him, so she murdered him.
• The Dead Rise to Advertise: Holly uses Fabrizio's death to promote the Utopians.
  Holly: Any enemy of the Utopians is an enemy of peace, anyone against peace should know the same fate! So save your soul now and join the Utopians!
• Driven to Suicide: Holly kills herself when you try to arrest her for being leader of the Utopians and brainwashing Chief Marquez, intending to take the Utopian's secrets to her grave.
• Fighting from the Inside: Chief Marquez manages to resist the Utopian's brainwashing for a moment, which allows her to give you clues about their leader and finally expose them.
• I Can't Hear You: Maggie O'Mally has hearing problems, so she asks you to repeat things to her during her interrogations. Justified since she's 104 years old.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When the player and Frank go to arrest Lizzie, she denies being the killer by claiming she's never fired a flare gun in her life. Frank points out to her that the player never mentioned anything about a flare gun.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Russell arrests his own father for supposedly being the Utopian leader before you find out the true leader is Holly.
• Moe Greene Special: The victim was killed by being shot with a flare gun, which got stuck on his eye.
• Mondegreen Gag: Maggie mishears Fabrizio Gallardo's name as Fabulous Gelato.
• Parental Substitute: Jupiter became this for Fabrizio, who bailed him out of jail for begging in the suburbs and took him under his wing. However, we later learn that their relationship got strained when Fabrizio became an Anti-Utopian activist.
• Pun: Roxie says the victim's last vision "must have been a blast."
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: The victim was a poor artist trying to pursue romance with an actress, who was already engaged to a wealthy but possessive movie producer. In an interesting twist, however, the actress decides that she loves her glamorous lifestyle (and, by extension, her rich fiance) more than she does the poor suitor and she kills him to cut off her ties with him.
• Running Gag: Frank telling Russell to fix his daddy issues whenever Russell brings up his father.
• Shout-Out:
  • The entire setting is a huge reference to the Titanic film. It even involved a love triangle between a poor artist, a high-class young girl, and her much older wealthy fiancé.
    • The centric film is Gigantic.
    • Fabrizio Gallardo is a parody of Jack Dawson, and is named after Dawson's Italian companion.
    • Lizzie Dion is a Corrupted Character Copy of Rose Dewitt Butaker, and her surname comes from Céline Dion, who sang "My Heart Will Go On".
    • Tyler Snakes is a parody of Caledon Hockley.
  • Maggie O'Mally is a parody of Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the RMS Titanic.
  • In the Movie Set scene, there is artwork of a mermaid resembling Ariel and a poster for Craftenstein.
  • In the Victim's Studio scene, there is a painting of Nosferatu.
• Sickness Equals Redness: One of the killer's traits is that they have a common cold. As such, many of your suspects have red noses and sneeze when you talk to them.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Lizzie got pregnant with Fabrizio's baby during their affair, which made Lizzie realize being with Fabrizio would only be trouble as he was too poor for her, who already was engaged with a rich man and had a career in Ivywood. It's the reason why she killed him.
• We Can Rule Together: Holly tells you and Russell that you should've joined her and rule over the Utopians together before killing herself.
• Ye Goode Olde Days: Maggie attacked Fabrizio because he painted Lizzie naked for the movie, which according to her is something that would've never happened in the real Gigantic and he was disrespecting the survivors of the incident.
  Maggie: Youth these days, they have no respect! Fabrizio brought shame upon the people who died on that boat! This is not a way to pay homage to them!