Frank: The Mayor wants to give civil rights to machines?! Great. Next thing you know, they'll be taking our jobs!
In the wake of the Mayor of Innovation Valley giving sentient robots rights and people getting uneasy at the thought of being replaced by them, Chief Marquez orders Frank and the player to patrol the robot scrapyard in case anyone's planning starting trouble. There, they find the body of Annette Arbor, the aforementioned Mayor, crushed into a cube.
Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: The victim Anette Arbor and suspect Karen Knight.
- Amicable Exes: Apart from some teasing on her part, Frank and Karen get along relatively well.
- Androids Are People, Too: A lot of the conflict of this case sterns from a new law establishing that robots deserve rights just like human beings, leading to people fear that they'll get replaced by machines. In consequence, riots and protests start breaking out in Innovation Valley.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: At the end of the case, Franks is glad that he won't have to deal with terrorists, angry robots, and his ex-wife anymore.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: The following exchange after Roxie tells you she found a coin inside the victim's mouth.Roxie: I didn't know what to make of it, but I thought the boy wonder might have an idea on the subject...Frank: Oh no, don't tell me you called Russe-Russell: Hello, <Player's Name>!
- Companion Cube: Sunny's best friend is a plant inside of a boot.
- Continuity Cameo: In the TV inside of the Mayor's office, a picture of Jones sometimes appears on the screen.
- Continuity Nod: Clifford Grady, the recurring sports announcer last seen in Case 25, and Tiffany Neng sometimes appear on the TV screen of the Mayor's office.
- Double Agent: Larry had become this since the mayor asked him to spy on the Anti-Robot League in exchange for money.
- Down in the Dumps: Where the body is found.
- Evil Luddite: Larry Newark, the murderer, killed the mayor because she had passed a new law giving robots rights, which led to him losing his job to a robot. There's also the Anti-Robot League (which the killer was part of), an organization campaigning against the victim's Robot Act.
- Fold-Spindle Mutilation: The victim was crushed and compacted into a cube with a car crusher.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: When Frank asks Sunny if the robots are planning revenge for the Mayor's murder, he tells you that it's humans who you should be worried about instead.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Parodied when Frank threatens Sunny with "magnets and a toolkit" if he doesn't cooperate with the interrogation.
- Job-Stealing Robot: The citizens of Innovation Valley believe that giving robots right will eventually lead to this.Larry: I killed her because she was going to ruin the lives of every human in this city! That Robot Act was going to put us all out of a job!
- Lady in a Power Suit: Karen, the vice-president of Meteor Systems, sports a nice tailored suit to go with her position.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Frank believes that the reason why Sunny is dangerous is because he's got too many arms.
- Oh, Crap!: Frank's reaction when Yann tells you that the DNA he found in the victim's office belongs to Karen, his ex-wife.
- Only in It for the Money: Karen and Meteor Systems were trying to help Annette pass the Robot Act so they could be accepted and the company would sell more of them, which would clash with the Mayor's ideals of giving robots positions of power and wages.
- Opposites Attract: Yann says this word-by-word when he learns about Karen, Frank's ex-wife.Yann: What?! Your ex-wife is Vice President of the biggest tech company in the world?! You can barely operate a cell phone! I guess opposites attract...
- Parental Neglect: Colbie, Annette's daughter, claims this about her mother.Colbie: Her career always came before her own daughter. And when robots started evolving, she was fascinated; it was like I didn't exist anymore!
- Power Hair: Karen has it.
◊ - Pun: Defied by Frank, who asks Roxie to not make puns involving squares, cubes or boxes regarding the Mayor's death.
- Promise Me You Won't X: Frank asks you to not tell anyone about what he and Karen talked about during her interrogation.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: During the riots, the members of the Anti-Robot League begin to fight and dismantle (which basically equals to murdering) the robots of Innovation Valley.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: Like Per-Sephone, Sunny acts mostly like a human being apart from some Robo Speak.
- Shout-Out:
- Howard Boehner is a parody of John Boehner.
- Sunny's appearance seems to be a cross of General Grievous and a battle droid. He is also named after Sonny and owns a plant in a boot.
- In the Scrap Pile scene, there is a purple version of the Tesseract.
- In the Mayor's Office scene, there is a miniature parody of DUM-E.
- In the Activist's Desk scene, there is a picture of Karl Marx and a mask resembling V's mask.
- Chapter 2's cover image (seen at the top of this page) is a parody of Liberty Leading the People.
- Tap on the Head: Annette was knocked out with a robot arm before being crushed with the compactor.
- Technophobia: The Evil Luddites known as the Anti-Robot League (and also Frank, though his phobia is Played for Laughs) believe that robots are evil and shouldn't be allowed to have rights.Colbie: Robots are the root of all evil... They're ruining our lives, and we've got to stop them!
- Third-Person Person: In addition to RoboSpeaking, Sunny also communicates like this.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Hannah recalls how as a child she used to sneak into a scrapyard and crush cars on her own.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Frank calls Sunny an "ungrateful jumped-up microwave" when he discovers that Sunny demanded even more rights from the Mayor (such as minimum wage and holidays) despite all she had done for them already.
- Unishment: Upon being sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and getting assigned to the prison's garbage disposal team, Larry happily remarks how he's getting a job and decent meals again, and even asks Judge Dante to give him a longer sentence because of this.Honorable Dante: I sentence you to 25 years in prison. You're to be assigned to the prison's garbage disposal team. The worst job there is!
Larry: What... A job? You're giving me a job?! And regular meals?! Your Honor, can I stay in prison longer?
Honorable Dante: Suit yourself. I sentence you to forty years! Court dismissed! - Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When you speak with Colbie for the first time, she's distraught and crying about her mother's death, but we later find out that she didn't care about her, believing she was an idiot for giving robots rights and protesting against her campaign.
