A note is left on Steve's car with the section of the California penal code against armed robbery - and soon after that there are gun shots, and among these gun shots some cheap jewelry is robbed from a nearby jewelry store by 3 men. Steve ultimately shoots one of them, and he dies - and the other 2 escape, leaving the jewelry behind, intentionally. Turns out the fatal bullet wasn't shot by Steve - one of the other robbers did it. And when Steve gets a note with the penal code against stealing a vehicle and Steve's police car is stolen, Steve now understands that he is being targeted personally.
"Down Among the Dead Men" displays symptoms of the following tropes:
- Advance Notice Crime; The culprit of the episode sends notes to Steve with the official penal code number and text of a series of crimes before they are committed.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: BBQ Bob's gets assaulted by the main culprit throughout the episode, initially getting shot at by the main culprit and his partners, then later being used by him to threaten Steve personally.
- Fame Through Infamy: Searching through the culprit's home reveals that he owns several books for famous criminals, like Bonnie and Clyde. This indicates that he wants to go out getting killed to compensate for having so much of his life wasted in prison, and not die from a disease he suffers from.
- It's Personal: The real motive of the main culprit is revenge against Steve for having taking 15 years of his life (sending him to prison) when the rest of it was taken by his fatal disease.
- Suicide by Cop: The criminal asks Steve to kill him, and threatens to kill first Steve himself, and then Jesse, when he doesn't.
- Terminally-Ill Criminal: The main criminal has Huntington's disease. The prognosis is that he will loose control of his muscles and have dementia before dying.
