Recap / Criminal Case: The Conspiracy - Case 18: Game Over

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Wanting to investigate DreamLife, their glitched VR game designed to brainwash players into obsession, and their true connections with the fallen satellite and Tony Marconi's company, Chief Parker sends Jones and the player to The Green's annual Tech Convention where DreamLife will be having a booth. There, both officers stumble onto a conference hosted by DreamLife's mascot and VR hostess model Juniper seconds before she's messily killed by her VR headset exploding while giving a demonstration of the game.

Tropes:

• Anguished Outburst: During his arrest, Tim is seen angrily crying while explaining the motivations for killing his sister Juniper.
• Anonymous Benefactor: During the Additional Investigation, Marconi comes to inform you that DreamLife has been making payments to his security company via a temporary account that gets constantly refilled. However, it turns out that said account isn't only being managed by DreamLife, but also an anonymous contributor that, as a plus, is likewise directly giving money to DreamLife itself. Thanks to some investigation done by Ramirez, the police department soon manages to pinpoint The Higher Truth cult as the ones making these mysteriously anonymous donations, prompting them to go investigate the cult in the next district.
• Annoying Pop-Up Ad: During an interrogation, Annie, who believes she killed Juniper with her psychic powers, tells you she was starting to get sick of the virtual Juniper popping up inside the game to advertise sponsored content, such as trying to make her buy tofu.
• Attention Whore: Eoin just can't stand the amount of attention DreamLife and Juniper were receiving despite him being the new CEO of iPear and feeling worthy of all that attention.
  Eoin: At least now that the face of the VR game is gone, the media spotlight is sure to land on its true star: ME.
• Back for the Finale: Officer Tim Cooper, Annie Schmidt, and Rozetta Pierre all return as suspect in this case, which is the last one set in The Greens. Tony Marconi also reappears during the Additional Investigation.
• Big Brother Instinct: Tim claims this is the reason why he installed a tracking device on his sister's computer, since he wanted to make sure she was alright even if she won't let him.
• Big Damn Kiss: The final shot of this case has Zoe giving one to Jones at the end, having regained her memories of him.
• Blaming the Victim: Rozetta blames the victim's death on herself since Juniper always wanted to use her own VR headset instead of one directly provided by DreamLife prior to the conference, which gave the killer opportunity to Booby Trap it with total security.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: Jones gets visibly splattered with Juniper's blood when her headset blows up, and it's safe to assume the same happens to both the player and the rest of the public attending the conference.
• Booby Trap: Juniper was killed by having her VR headset rigged with an explosive device by her killer.
• Cain and Abel: The killer of this case turns out to be Tim Cooper, Juniper's own brother. When asked why, Tim explains that their father got hospitalized after falling sick, and instead of visiting him like he requested, Juniper just sent him a VR headset, which caused him to neglect his already poor health and eventually die talking to his virtual daughter instead of the real thing. When Tim confronted his sister about it, she merely stated it was his time to go.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Annie and Rupert have gone off the deep end so badly regarding their obsession with DreamLife VR that they're shown to be completely delusional throughout most of the case: Annie is firmly convinced she's still in the virtual world when you speak with her for the first time, then confesses having killed Juniper with her "psychic powers" because she wouldn't stop bothering her with Annoying Pop Up Ads; for his part, Rupert can't seem to differentiate the real Juniper from her virtual self, believing he and the real one knew each other and had a special connection just because he constantly talked with her in-game version.
• Church of Happyology: You discover there is one called The Higher Truth that has been around for a year and, according to Ramirez, are all about "enlightenment and reaching higher planes." Since they've been making anonymous donations to DreamLife for unknown reasons, the department decides to investigate them in the Old Town, where their main headquarters are located.
• The Climax: For The Greens.
• Cool Big Bro: Tim tried to be this for his sister Juniper, but their huge age gap led to her not caring that much and leaving his efforts in the dust.
• Continuity Nod: Paul Gigs' death is mentioned when you meet Eoin Cafferey, the new CEO of iPear.
• Cute Kitten: According to Cathy, Juniper's laptop were full of these, with most of them stored in her "work" folder.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: At the end of the case, Chief Parker says she doubts this'll be the last the team hears from DreamLife, as there's still the mysterious satellite in the forest and the cult making anonymous donations to them.
• Dramatic Irony: A possibly unintentional example. When you visit Gabriel for an analysis, he asks Jones and the player if they'd like to talk about what they witnessed at the conference, citing that "the psychological trauma of seeing someone's head get blown off in front of your very eyes is not one to ignore." Yeah... Could it be Gabriel doesn't actually know Grimsborough's history that well?
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: During the Additional Investigation, Rozetta tells you DreamLife is removing their VR game from the market, but not before giving the players an "end game" that will help them smoothly transition into the real world and give them closure. In this end game, the virtual Juniper pops up to tell them the following message:
  Juniper: Dear PLAYER, it's been so great playing with you! I will always cherish these memories!
  I will never forget you, PLAYER! All our fun missions, our secret talks...
  But now it's time for you to go back to the real world, and be with your real friends.
  They miss you so much, they can't wait to have you back in their lives to share new adventures!
  I'll always have you in my heart, and rejoice knowing you are back in your own world!
  Goodbye, PLAYER! Go back to your life and to your friends, there's so much to see!
• Evil All Along: Zig-Zagged. During the Additional Investigation, Cathy obtains irrefutable proof that DreamLife purposefully implemented the "bug" that made people addicted to their game. However, Rozetta excuses herself claiming that she didn't authorize said feature to be programmed into the game, and that the team responsible for the development has been fired. As such, this leaves the purpose of the game as a straight example of this trope, while Rozetta and DreamLife as a whole still remain Ambiguously Evil.
• Faux Horrific: Jones has this reaction when Amir informs you that the killer eats tofu.
  Jones: Tofu? What kind of monster eats tofu?! It doesn't even have any grease in it! <Player's Name>, this killer scares me even more now!
• Gadgeteer Genius: One of the killer's traits is that they know about electronics, since the bomb used to kill Juniper was homemade.
• Gorn: Juniper's head (or what's left of it) after the headset explosion is... not pretty.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Eoin is shown to be deeply resentful of DreamLife and Juniper because they hog all the spotlight for themselves in magazines while barely any is given to him despite being the new CEO of iPear.
• Handy Remote Control: The killer used one of these to kill Juniper while blending in the crowd. It even has a Big Red Button with the word "BOOM" written on it.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Happens to Juniper.
  Juniper: It all starts with the VR headset! The player puts it on...
  ...like so, and can start enjoying the-
  [BOOM!]
• Killer Cop: The culprit of this case is Tim Cooper, a beat cop working on The Greens.
• Lack of Empathy: Juniper cared so little about her father she just sent him a VR headset when he fell sick and was admitted into the hospital so he'd talk to the virtual version of his daughter. After he died (partially the headset's fault too), she just told her brother it was his time to go.
• Last Episode, New Character:
  • Zig-Zagged with Juniper. While this is the first time you personally see her, her virtual version serving as the hostess of DreamLife's VR game had already made a couple of appearances in past cases.
  • Played straight with Eoin Cafferey, the new CEO of iPear, who is introduced in this case as a suspect.
• Mascot: In addition to her virtual avatar serving as the hostess of their VR game, Juniper also was this for DreamLife.
  Jones: <Player's Name>, the lady who greets people in the VR game is also a real-life person?! I had no idea!
• Mean Boss: Rozetta is shown to have shades of this when she blames Juniper for her own death due to apparent carelessness, then latter admits she'd been threatening Juniper with replacing her if she kept bothering Rozetta with asking for more recognition, calling Juniper "just a pretty face" and nothing more.
• One of Our Own: Rupert gets flagged as a suspect when his ticket to the convention is found at the DreamLife offices.
• Only One Name: Subverted. Juniper it's only known by her first name alone until you interrogate Officer Cooper, who reveals they're siblings and thus her full name is Juniper Cooper.
• Parental Favoritism: During his Motive Rant, Tim bitterly recalls how his father seemed to prefer Juniper over him ever since she was born. When their dad fell sick, Juniper was the only person he wanted to talk with, and ignored Tim in favor of interacting with the virtual version of his daughter until he died.
• Posthumous Character: Tim and Juniper's father, whose Parental Favoritism and death created a rift between both siblings that eventually led to Tim murdering his sister.
• Practically Different Generations: Tim, Juniper's brother, is eighteen years her senior, so he never got the chance to spend as much time with her as he wanted.
• Regained Memories Sequence: At the very end of the case, Zoe gains back her memories of Jones before their Big Damn Kiss.
• Revenge Before Reason: Tim murdered his own sister for no other reason than wanting Revenge, no matter how irrational it could be.
  Jones: So you decided to blow her head off... how did you think that'd make anything better?
  Tim: I didn't need things to be better, I just needed her to pay!
• Rivals Team Up: As of this case, Marconi seems to have decided to aid the department in their quest to investigate DreamLife's shady business, which is why he tells you about the Anonymous Benefactor providing them with money.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the DreamLife Booth scene, there is a pink teddy bear.
  • In the VR Products scene, there is a Nintendo Switch.
  • In the DreamLife Office scene, there is a figure of a cartoon gorilla, a pixelated heart, a poster of a mushroom labelled "1-Up", a poster of a familiar zombie and a blue ghost.
  • In the Office Staircase scene, there is an Xbox controller.
  • In the Player Zone scene, there is another pink teddy bear.
  • Mockia is a parody of Nokia.
  • Forpes is a parody of Forbes.
  • Rolington is a parody of Remington.
• Sibling Murder: Juniper was killed by Tim, her own brother.
• Sinister Surveillance: Tim installed a spying device on Juniper's laptop to supposedly make sure she was doing alright without his assistance, which Cathy considers a disgusting violating of privacy.
• Skewed Priorities: Rozetta's main concern after Juniper's killed is how is she supposed to promote her VR game without its mascot.
  Rozetta: <Player's Name>, I don't have time for your questions, I'm in the middle of a PR nightmare! Killing the face of our company is a direct attack on DreamLife!
  Not to mention that without Juniper, our whole marketing strategy has to be rethought! Do you know how expensive that is?
  Jones: Yes, I'm sure Juniper would be devastated to cost you money.
• Sucksessor: Considering how an enormous mob gathered to demand answers about Paul Gigs' death yet Eoin barely makes it into the news despite being the new CEO of iPear, it's clear he's having a tough time being in charge of the company.
• We Need to Get Proof: The Additional Investigation focuses on finding proof of both DreamLife purposefully programming in their game a glitch designed to brainwash its users into obsession while also trying to discover the Anonymous Benefactor giving them money in secrecy.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tim cries and even asks for time to grieve when you inform him about Juniper's death, since he reveals to you she was his sister. He's also her murderer.
• You Killed My Father: Or rather, their father. Tim blamed his dad's death on his sister Juniper because she sent her father a VR headset when he fell sick, which made him so obsessed with the virtual version of his daughter he neglected his health even more and died as a result. It's the main reason why Tim killed Juniper.
• Your Head A-Splode: How Juniper was killed, thanks to her VR headset getting tampered with. Interestingly, only one half of her head is blown up due to the explosives being concentrated in a single side of the headset.