Gladiator
While the team investigate the killing of a professional basketball player's wife who also happened to be a famous lifestyle guru, Kristin finds herself growing closer to her ex-husband and Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille, the team's supervisor checks in to see how they're faring on the case.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Bronson Styles is strangled to death by Sonny after Sonny finds out Styles lied to him about his CTE being cured.
- Driven to Suicide: After surrendering his kids to the Task Force to keep them safe, Sonny shoots himself in the heart out of grief over killing Esme.
- Frame-Up: Styles and Toledo covered up Sonny's murdering of Esme by pinning the blame on a stalker known for antagonizing Esme, making said stalker look more guilty by hiring someone to clean up and tamper with evidence at the crime scene.
- Jerkass: Bronson Styles, Sonny's manager who tricked him into helping a Snake Oil Salesman sell a glorified placebo for CTE, then talked Sonny into coming out of retirement despite knowing of the potential dangers. Then after Sonny accidentally murders his wife, Styles covers it up with help from Toledo so as to not let it hurt their sales of Toledo's CHEVAL chairs.
- Mood-Swinger: Sonny's CTE makes him a dangerous one of these, with even the slightest provocations being enough to set him into a blind, murderous rage.
- Sanity Slippage: Sonny Langer originally retired from basketball due to developing CTE from various concussions, only to come out years later claiming that he was cured thanks to a special rotating chair. Unaware at the time that said chair was nothing but a placebo, Sonny's mental health gradually worsens to the point where he ends up murdering those close to him in fits of blind rage.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Nash Toledo, whose CHEVAL chair supposedly capable of curing CTE by opening new neural passages in the brain is a glorified placebo. Sonny was not pleased upon finding found out about it to say the least, especially since it led to him accidentally murdering his wife.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: The true culprit behind Esme Langer's murder is her husband Sonny, having accidentally done so in a CTE-fueled blind rage over a misunderstanding.
- Tragic Villain: Sonny Langer, arguably one of if not the biggest in the series to date.
