That boy isn't sleeping...
While discussing about the dangers of the recently-discovered venomous Demon Fish and the meteorite hidden under DreamLife's dome, Chief Parker, Gloria, and the player are interrupted by newly-hired beat cop Mia Loukas to inform them about a murder being reported at the Bloom estate by Chelsea Bloom, the teenager they previously met at Fairview. Once there, Gloria and the player collect the body of heir Mason Bloom, dead after being stabbed in the chest with a halberd.
Tropes:
- Angry Guard Dog: The Blooms possess guardian hounds that patrol their castle, which chase off Carter and Marconi at various points of the investigation.
- Big Fancy Castle: The Bloom family lives one of these, which according to Clive was dismantled and brought piece by piece from Europe to America.Gloria: Did you hear or see anything unusual before you found him?
Chelsea: No! I was in my room on the other side of the castle! There are, like, a billion stone walls between my room and where he...
...was KILLED! - Big, Screwed-Up Family: It's left clear than the Bloom family isn't a very healthy one, what's with Clive being a neglectful parent who only seems affected by his son's death due to being the family's only heir and Violet killing her own grandson to keep the family bloodline pure.Chelsea: <Player's Name>, my family is going completely insane!
Gloria: It's good to know you see it too. - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Violet Bloom pretends to be a weak, disabled, and sleepy granny when she's actually a cunning Evil Matriarch willing to commit murder if that means her family's pure blood will be preserved.
- Blue Blood: The Bloom family considers themselves these, since they came from Europe in the 16th century and have strictly been following their ancestor's old habits that include preserving the pure bloodline. When Mason got the maid pregnant, his grandma decided to kill him for soiling the Family Honor.Violet: Oh, yes! He said he got the vixen pregnant, said it was love! He was going to leave his ancestral home and give our noble name to their bastard child!
Mason was going to set aflame the legacy of all Blooms who came before him!
Gloria: This is a very extreme reaction to your grandson falling in love!
Violet: The cleanliness of the family bloodline must be preserved! If he insisted on throwing his family into the mud, he had to die! - Call-Back: Chelsea Bloom returns as a suspect. Tony Marconi also makes another appearance during the Additional Investigation.
- Continuity Cameo: In Mason's room, a poster of Ian Devine can be seen hanging from the wall.
- Continuity Nod: While discussing the plan to infiltrate DreamLife's dome disguised as someone else, Rupert dismisses everyone's concerns by reminding them how Gabriel infiltrated The Higher Truth without problem.
- Contrived Coincidence: Mortimer Pickering, the English geologist DreamLife has hired to work under them inside the dome, attended Oxford at the same time as Rupert. What's more, they're so look-alike they often played pranks in their youth that involved switching places to confuse people, which Rupert intends to use to infiltrate DreamLife.
- Crusty Caretaker: Subverted. Ruben Lindstrom, the Bloom estate caretaker, is mostly calm and harmonious, and only loses his cool when he recalls how Mason constantly played pranks on him such as hiding away his tools and harassed his squirrels.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": Chelsea tells Anita to stop calling her Miss Chelsea after finding out she's pregnant with her brother's children, as she considers Anita family now.
- Elopement: Mason and his girlfriend Anita intended to run away from his house after he got her pregnant, since his family would obviously not approve him marrying a maid. Unfortunately, his grandma finding out about this is what led to her killing Mason.
- Evil Matriarch: Violet, the current Bloom matriarch, murdered her own grandson for no other reason than wanting to preserve her family's pure Blue Blood, and shows a disturbing Lack of Empathy at the prospect of leaving her great-grandson without a father.
- Evil Old Folks: Violet is 86, and she's by far one of the least sympathetic and evil murderers in the entire franchise.
- Family Honor: Deconstructed. The Bloom family is shown to strictly adhere to their traditions due to their Blue Blood, with one of them including preserving and keeping the bloodline pure. When Mason broke this rule and intended to run away after getting the family maid pregnant, his grandmother murdered him for it.Gloria: Mrs. Bloom, I'm speechless. What you've just described is grotesquely medieval! There's no other word for it!
Violet: The only thing medieval is the age of our traditions! I wasn't going to let that whelp destroy our family's honor! - Foreshadowing: When you discover one of the scientists hired by DreamLife is an old friend of Rupert, he says they used to switch places and pretend to be each other to prank people back in Oxford due to their similar appearances. This knowledge is what sadly leads to Rupert's death when another of DreamLife's employees who studied with them manages to recognize him in Case 32.
- Gratuitous Latin: One of the killer's traits is that they speak Latin, since they sent a threatening message in the language to Mason.note
- Green-Eyed Monster: Chelsea was jealous of her brother Mason due to their parents clearly preferring him, as he was the family heir and so they needed to focus on indoctrinating him the most.
- Gruesome Grandparent: Mason was killed by his own grandmother, who disowned him after finding out he got their maid pregnant and intended to run away with her.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Chelsea joins you for most of the Additional Investigation to receive help tracking Anita after being kicked out of the Bloom estate.
- Helicopter Parents: Clive was this towards Mason, wanting to control every aspect of his life (such as the university he was going to attend) merely because it was family tradition to mold the Bloom heir in the parents' image.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Chelsea says this word for word when she accompanies you to get some results from Gabriel.Chelsea: Well, Mr. Profiler, did you find what we need in my brother's planner?
Ha! I've always wanted to say that! Oh, my God, police dramas are so fun. - I Have No Son!: Or grandson, in this case, as Violet disowned Mason after finding out he got Anita pregnant and murdered him for it.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Mason was killed after being impaled in the chest with a halberd.
- Impersonation Gambit: When you discover the geologist flying from London to work under DreamLife is an old friend of Rupert, he devises a plan to impersonate him and infiltrate the dome, although he'll first need to learn about geology from Jasper.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Rupert and his old friend Mortimer are almost identical, the only difference being their hairstyle and the fact Mortimer has a beard. Rupert decides to use these similarities to infiltrate the dome in his place.
- The Infiltration: During the Additional Investigation, Rupert comes up with the idea of infiltrating DreamLife's dome after discovering his old pal Mortimer Pickering is one of the scientists hired to work under them, although he'll need time to prepare first.
- Kick the Dog: As if having her boyfriend murdered right after getting pregnant with his child wasn't bad enough, Clive kicks Anita out of the Bloom estate when he finds out about it too, and it's implied she has no home where she can return to. Fortunately, Chelsea manages to make things a little bit easier for Anita.
- Kinda Busy Here: When you go receive the autopsy analysis, Martine is seen studying the Demon Fish biology in an attempt to find a cure, and says she's got no time to analyze bodies because of it.
- Longer-Than-Life Sentence: In a way, Violet, a 86-year-old granny, is sentenced to 15 years in prison, which means she'll most likely die before serving it all.
- Mama Bear: Gloria absolutely lashes out on Clive after he uses his Angry Guard Dog to chase Carter out of the Bloom estate.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Anita got pregnant with Mason's child, but both of them hid it from his family because they knew their relationship wouldn't be approved by them.
- Obfuscating Disability: Violet has been pretending to be disabled and wheelchair-bound to get her family do things for her, which got her in trouble when Mason took a picture of her walking up a flight of stairs.
- Out of Focus: As the Additional Investigation focuses on investigating more about DreamLife and helping Chelsea find Anita after she gets kicked out, this is the only case of Maple Heights that doesn't deal with the Demon Fish in any way, with only a handful of mentions about Martine and Rupert working on a cure for their poison being thrown during conversations.
- The Patriarch: Clive Bloom, the current patriarch of the Bloom family.
- Parental Favoritism: Chelsea tells you she'd grown jealous of Mason because he hogged all of their parents' attention due to being the family heir while she suffered from Parental Neglect.
- Pet the Dog: After Clive kicks Anita out of the Bloom estate for being pregnant with a bastard child, Chelsea offers to support her in any way she can, including gifting her Mason's baby rattle like he intended to for their child.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Violet doesn't outright say anything about it, but all her talk about cleaning the family bloodline after Mason impregnated Anita gives the impression that part of Violet's problem with their relationship is that Anita is Hispanic. Doubles as Racist Grandma.
- Power of Trust: Marconi offers you a symbol of trust by providing you invaluable information regarding DreamLife's business under the dome that involve scientists periodically arriving to presumably study the meteorite, giving you the upper hand against the shady company.Gloria: You're letting us look through your briefcase? That's a real sign of trust, Mr. Marconi!
Marconi: Hey, if we're gonna be allies in this, we gotta start somewhere. - Right for the Wrong Reasons: After Mason is murdered, Chelsea attempts to run away from the castle with her grandma, claiming that there's something going wrong with their home and she wants to protect her. Yes, there's something very wrong with her family... and her grandma is the one responsible for it.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Sort of. Chelsea plans to support Anita and her baby no matter what Clive says about Anita not being family.
- Shout-Out:
- The case has references to Riverdale:
- The victim, Mason Bloom, is a parody of Jason Blossom.
- As before, Chelsea Bloom is a parody of Cheryl Blossom.
- Clive Bloom is a parody of Clifford Blossom.
- Violet Bloom is a parody of Rose Blossom.
- Ruben Lindstrom is a parody of Rubeus Hagrid.
- In the Hall of Knights scene, there is a bust of Julius Caesar.
- In the Armor Corridor scene, there is a soda can parodying Coca-Cola.
- In the Victim's Desk scene, there is a Nintendo Switch, a pixelated heart, and a drawing of a mushroom labelled "1-Up".
- James Bond is mentioned.
- The case has references to Riverdale:
- Single Line of Descent: As the only son of the current Bloom family, Mason was the only heir available to continue with his family's bloodline, which is why his father is so upset about his death.
- Skewed Priorities: As described above, Clive shows absolutely no sadness regarding Mason's death, feeling more upset and disappointed at the fact his only heir is dead.
- Title Drop: Ruben basically says one during his interrogation.Ruben: I don't know much about what goes on behind those walls. I've been working for this family a long time, but I don't venture up there unless I need to speak with Mr. Bloom.
- Tragic Keepsake: Mason's baby rattle becomes this for Anita, as he intended to give it to their child after being born and you help her get it from his house.
- Unequal Pairing: Mason, the heir of a very influential Blue Blood family, was in relationship with Anita, the family maid.
- Unishment: Violet considers her prison sentence this, claiming that she's already done her job as the matriarch of the Bloom family.
- Upper-Class Twit: The Blooms are very proud of their wealth and lineage, and the ones you meet in this case are rather unpleasant.
- Voodoo Doll: Chelsea did one of her brother to vent due to Mason being subject of Parental Favoritism and resenting him for it.
- White Sheep: Chelsea seems to be the only member of her family shown to be entirely good, as her father is a Jerkass who sees his children as tools rather than family, her grandma pretends to be a cripple and murdered her own grandson, and even her brother was sometimes troublesome if Ruben's testimony about how he hid his tools and harassed his squirrels is to be believed.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Anita gets kicked out of the Bloom estate at the end of the case, though it's implied Chelsea is working on finding her and her unborn child a new home.
