Jones: <Player Name>, you heard the Chief! Let's go to the dome and finally take a look at this mysterious meteorite!
Still grieving Rupert's death but deciding to not let his sacrifice go to waste, Chief Parker sends Jones and the player to DreamLife's dome in the middle of the night to infiltrate the meteorite lab with the access card their deceased colleague stole beforehand. Without time to waste, both officers arrive to the scene pretty quickly without any mishap... before stumbling onto the decapitated corpse of DreamLife's Chief of Security Barb Bellamy lying inside the lab.
Tropes:
- Admiring the Abomination: When you enter the dome with Gabriel, he can't help but admire the fact people have been living inside of it for over a year, finding it fascinating from a sociological standpoint.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: Due to being angry with Jasper for lying to him about DreamLife's job offer, Amir has been sleeping in the lab for the past couple of days instead of his home. Thankfully, he reconciles with Jasper and goes back at the end of the case.
- Animal Testing: During the Additional Investigation, you find that DreamLife experimented with a rabbit by injecting it with Berzelium, the Imported Alien Phlebotinum that came from the meteorite. The results are... not pretty.
- Anti-Regeneration: It's discovered in this case that the meteorite DreamLife has been studying contains Berzelium, an alien element that, in addition of having some healing properties, also has the ability to suppress the immune system of living organisms, preventing them from naturally healing and decaying their body.
- Body Horror: The rabbit injected with Berzelium that you recover from the lab is covered in painful-looking sores, which is the result of Berzelium suppressing living organism's immune systems and regenerative abilities.
- Buffy Speak: When Mortimer informs you that the meteorite contains Berzelium, Gloria calls it "Brazil-what."
- Call-Back: Rozetta Pierre and Dr. Phillip Hoover reappear as suspects. Mortimer Pickering and Jasper Everett also reappear during the Additional Investigation.
- Caring Gardener: Wendy Stokes, the victim's girlfriend, works as a botanist at the DreamLife dome.
- Chainsaw Good: A rock saw, really, but if you need to use a motorized saw to cut someone's head off, they both get about the same results. Barb can attest to that.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Amir does this throughout the case regarding Rupert's death and his problems with Jasper, dismissing them whenever Gloria tries to speak with him about them.
- Classified Information: Once again, the player is subjected to this by the scientists that become suspects in this case, as neither Emilio, Wendy, or the returning Phillip agree to tell you anything about what's going on under the dome. Emilio later gets tricked into disclosing valuable information during the Additional Investigation, though.Gloria: Yeah, that sounds pretty exciting. What kind of work are you doing, exactly?
Emilio: Oh, I can't tell you about it, of course. But believe me, it's AMAZING! Groundbreaking! - Clear Their Name: As Rozetta stumbles onto Jones standing near Barb's body at the start of the case, she instantly accuses him of committing the murder, forcing him out of the case and giving you limited time to find the real culprit or else she'll press charges and get him fired from the department. It's very likely she didn't actually believe Jones was the murderer, but still accused him to get you kicked out of the dome.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Cyril Shelwater, the killer, is fully convinced that the meteorite DreamLife has been hiding possesses magical properties capable of granting him superpowers, and went as far as murdering Barb when she tried to prevent him from hugging the meteorite to "absorb" its powers.
- Continuity Nod: Emilio Fuller has a Miracle Girl shirt.
- Contrived Coincidence: Rozetta happened to call Barb into the meteorite lab to discuss the issues regarding the latest security breaches occurred at the dome, said meeting time being just moments after you decided to infiltrate the lab.
- Cope by Pretending: Amir has been dealing with Rupert's death and his issues with Jasper by pretending nothing bad is going on and changing the subject whenever it's brought up.He gets better during the Additional Investigation with Gabriel's help.
- Crusty Caretaker: Cyril Shelwater, the Cloudcuckoolander janitor under the dome who murdered Barb because she interfered with him "absorbing" the meteorite's powers.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: Wendy sent one of these to Barb warning her to get out of the dome before something bad happened, fully convinced that something wrong is going on withing DreamLife.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite Emilio being a Teen Genius graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Barb barely respected him and often belittled him for no reason. Examples include breaking his graduation trophy after saying he probably won it for a baking soda volcano, mocking and calling him a kid for drinking orange juice, and asking if he had gotten his diploma from an ad in the back of a magazine. This, understandably, angered Emilio a lot. - Evil, Inc.: Wendy joins the list of scientists shown to be scared of DreamLife and claiming that the dome is dangerous place to be, which is why she threatened Barb via an anonymous letter to make her leave.Wendy: Haven't you notice by now, <Player's Name>? This place is hell! Everyone is scared of Rozetta! If you knew some of the things I've heard...
- Felony Misdemeanor: According to Cyril, Barb often issued him infraction tickets for the most ridiculous things, the most ludicrous being him leaving his mop bucket in a "physically dangerous position," which was on the floor against the wall.
- Fiery Cover Up: One of the last clues to be found is a magazine the killer tried to burn, since one of the culprit's traits is that they read it.
- Food as Bribe: After Emilio ends up Saying Too Much regarding the meteorite, he tries to convince you to not say anything by offering a burger.
- Foreshadowing:
- During her second interrogation, Wendy tells you she tried to get Barb leave the dome due to being a dangerous place, and also claims she too is planning on leaving it as soon as possible. Sadly, her trying to leave the dome prompts DreamLife to order her death in Case 35.
- Cyril's whole motivation for murdering Barb and his rambling about the meteorite granting superpowers ends up being completely true when you discover the meteorite does have said ability (albeit not due to magic, but rather because of the Berzelium it contains) in Case 52.
- Geek: Emilio Fuller. He's even seen wearing a superhero shirt.
- Geek Physiques: Emilio fits the lanky archetype of the trope.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Mortimer helps you with a couple of analysis during the Additional Investigating regarding the meteorite's properties.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: It's revealed that the meteorite contains the previously only-hypothesized element known as Berzelium, which as seen both here and in previous cases, has the property of either acting as a Healing Factor or getting rid of regenerative properties and suppressing the immune system. The police department is understandably worried that DreamLife is trying to exploit Berzelium for the latter.
- Irony: In the the previous case, it was implied Barb was going to cut Rupert's body up with a circular saw, and another circular saw is how she met her end.
- The Lab Rat: Emilio Fuller, one of the suspects, is a Teen Genius who works for DreamLife as a lab technician.
- Lipstick Mark: Wendy, Barb's girlfriend, becomes a suspect when you find a potted plant with lipstick mark she sent to Barb as a gift.
- The Lost Lenore: Barb becomes this for Wendy, her girlfriend.
- Magic Meteor: Cyril is convinced that the meteorite has magical properties just like the one he saw in a comic book, which led to him trying to "absorb" said properties to gain superpowers and murdering Barb when she tried to stop him.
- Meddlesome Patrolman: It seems like Barb wasn't this only for the police department, as Cyril and Phillip tell you how she often intruded on their workspace with the excuse that she was just doing her job, much to their annoyance.
- Missed Him by That Much: According to Martine, Barb's body was still warm when you found her and the murder couldn't have taken place more than five minutes before you arrived.
- Morton's Fork: Chief Parker is presented with this dilemma after Rozetta catches Jones and the player inside the meteorite lab and attempts to press charges against the former for the murder, since she either admits you infiltrated with a stolen key card (which would spare Jones but get you in big trouble anyway) or doesn't say anything and lets Rozetta threaten Jones either way (which is the option she takes in exchange of giving you twelve hours to investigate the murder). You could say she was put between a rock and a hard place.
- Nervous Wreck: Dr. Hoover is shown to be one of these during the case, mainly because of the fact he lost his access card to the meteorite and Barb had been stressing him out by being a Meddlesome Patrolman. As a result, he made a stress ball with Barb's face on it.Gloria: The stress ball is Hoover's? I guess that makes sense! That man is anxiety personified at this point!
- Not Proven: Despite the obvious implications that DreamLife is planning to exploit the harmful properties of Berzelium for whatever scheme they're doing under the dome, the lack of solid proof about this manages to spare the company of a court order to investigate them more deeply, once again giving Rozetta the upper hand.
- Off with Her Head!: How Barb was killed, courtesy of a rock saw.
- Power Crystal: The meteorite is revealed to be made of purple crystals, and since it's made of the amazing element that is Berzelium, it certainly is powerful.
- Properly Paranoid: When you find Hoover's notes of Jasper's job interview with DreamLife, he remarks on numerous occasions how Jasper is suspicious and most likely pretending to be interested on the job to gather intel for his boyfriend and by extension the department. Considering how Jasper claimed he did exactly this in the previous case, Hoover was completely justified in being beware of him.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Barb is revealed to be either bi or a lesbian in this case when she's shown to have a girlfriend.
- Race Against the Clock: Chief Parker negotiates with Rozetta and Judge Powell to give you twelve hours to solve the murder before Rozetta decides to press charges against Jones.
- Rule of Three: Barb appeared in the last two cases in a row, and winds up the victim in her third case
- Saying Too Much: Gloria tricks Emilio into telling you more about Berzelium when you discover the meteorite is packed with it, exploiting his excitement and geekiness about the whole ordeal.Emilio: And I wish I could tell you about the effects of Berzelium on that rabbit that we injected with it!
Gloria: A... rabbit? You injected a rabbit with this element from the meteorite?
Emilio: Uh, no, no, that's not what I meant! There was no rabbit at all, no, not at all! - Shout-Out:
- In the Laboratory Steps scene, there is a helmet resembling a clone trooper's and a motorcycle resembling a light cycle.
- In the Laboratory Walkway scene, there is an Xbox controller.
- Sosch is a parody of Bosch.
- Skewed Priorities: When you interrogate Emilio for the murder, he shows a little bit of concern for Barb... before worriedly asking if the meteorite is fine.
- Spanner in the Works: Cyril being inside the meteorite lab and Barb catching him in the act once again derails the department's plans of investigating the meteorite, throwing another wrench at their pursuit for bringing DreamLife down.Chief Parker: Needless to say, this means we don't have time to investigate the meteorite. This murder couldn't have come at a worse time.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Surprisingly, it seems Barb was this to an extent, if the words of her girlfriend Wendy are to be believed.Gloria: Bellamy was "funny and kind"? I don't think anyone's described her like that before!
Wendy: Oh, she had to be tough as Chief of Security... but in private, she was lovely! - Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even if she didn't actually believe Jones committed the murder, Rozetta manages to get the upper hand in the eyes of the law and almost press charges against him due to the police department having the less favorable reputation, as it's now common knowledge that Rupert was a spy sent to infiltrate the dome and Jones was caught in a restricted area without even having authorization to be inside the dome in the first place. The most Judge Powell can do for you is granting you twelve hours to solve the murder due to her hands being tied.
- Taking Up the Mantle: At the end of the case, Chief Parker promotes Amir to the new Lab Chief after Rupert's death.
- Teen Genius: Downplayed since he's 22, but Emillio is nevertheless a very young and bright man who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now works for the tech giant that is DreamLife.
- True Companions: Gloria reassures Amir with this after seeing he's still shaken up by Rupert's death and Jasper lying to him, telling him that you'll always be there for him if he needs to speak about his problems.
- Unobtainium: Berzelium, the Imported Alien Phlebotinum contained inside the meteorite, used to be just a theory among the scientific community according to Mortimer.
- Warning Mistaken for Threat: Wendy sent a seemingly threatening note to Barb telling her that she would die if she didn't leave the dome, but Wendy clarifies it was actually a warning, as she's convinced DreamLife and the dome is a dangerous if not outright evil place.
