Charlie and Rex investigate a hot case under cold conditions when a figure skating coach named Diane Bourke is found dead in the middle of the ice rink.
Tropes:
- Broken Pedestal: Shauna loses all respect she has for Merrick when she finds out he was taking steroids to boost his performance.
- Can't Catch Up: Shauna is unable to compete at the levels of skaters like Julian and Merrick due to her pernicious anemia (she gets nerve damage if she doesn't get enough B12). and she knows it. She decides to retire from skating for a while and focus on her studies instead.
- Career-Ending Injury: Julian and Shauna Weyland's mother Brandy used to be a famous skater years ago and could have made it to the Olympics if not for a knee injury that ended her career. She now tries to live her dreams through her children, much to their dismay as she puts a lot of pressure on them to be good enough to hit the Olympics.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Lucas Arbec (the rink physiotherapist) was supplying Merrick with anabolic steroids and helping him beat the drug tests under the promise that Merrick would take him on as his personal physician at the next Olympics. However, when Merrick ignored Lucas's instructions to take it slowly or else someone would notice he was improving too quickly, it led to Diane finding out about it and Lucas killing her out of desperation when she threatened his dreams by firing him. Lucas is arrested for murder while Merrick is suspended from competitive skating for doping.
- Fallen Hero: Merrick Slade was a rising star in the skating world, having won a gold medal in junior nationals when he was thirteen and amassed a large fanbase. That is until his reputation took a nosedive after getting arrested for a DUI when he was seventeen. Diane was the one who helped Merrick to restore his public image by getting him to go on apology tours. His reputation is ruined once again when he’s caught for using anabolic steroids and suspended from competitive skating.
- He Knows Too Much:
- Lucas killed Diane after she found out he was supplying Merrick with anabolic steroids and threatened to fire him and report him to the authorities.
- Lucas also tries to kill Charlie and Sarah by locking them in the walk-in freezer when they figure out that it was where Diane was murdered and were searching for evidence. Fortunately, Rex manages to get to Jesse and gets him to open the door before Charlie and Sarah freeze to death.
- Locked in a Freezer: Charlie and Sarah get locked in the walk-in freezer by Lucas after finding out it was where Diane was murdered and started searching for evidence. They would have frozen to death had Rex not gotten to Jesse in time and got him to open the door.
- Never My Fault:
- Lucas chose to blame Merrick for the steroids when Diane found out about it, only for her to point out to Lucas that he was the one who got the idea to administer the drugs to him in the first place.
- He also claims he murdered Diane because she threatened his dreams and was left with no other choice. Charlie tells Lucas there is always a choice, and that the latter just made the wrong one.
- Returning to the Scene: Lucas left Diane’s body in the walk-in freezer, but he came back hours later and moved her to the middle of the rink out of fear that the police would find evidence in the freezer that would trace Diane’s murder back to him. Charlie comments that while that was a smart idea, it was calculated and the jury will not like that.
- Skewed Priorities: Brandy is more concerned with Julian and Shauna's performance in the upcoming junior nationals now that they don't have a skating coach than she is with Diane's murder. Donovan doesn't hesitate to call her out on this.
- Stage Mom: Brandy greatly pressures her children, especially Julian, so that they can be good enough to take home women's gold. This put a strain on their relationship as it made Julian feel like he couldn't be who he wanted to be. Conversations with Charlie, Sarah and Donovan cause Brandy to reevaluate her ways and decide to not put her dreams first and give her children more freedom in their lives.
- Sticky Fingers: Winston Healey (the rink custodian) is revealed to have been stealing belongings from skaters so that if they ever hit Olympic fame, he could sell them online for big money, including a rosary belonging to Julian Weyland from his grandmother and a medal case with an empty anabolic steroid bottle in it belonging to Merrick. He claims to only take things the skaters won't miss, but Charlie tells him that is not true since Julian has been looking for his rosary for a while now. Winston was also trying to find out who the steroids he found in the men’s locker room belonged to so he could blackmail them for money, since anyone caught using them risks being banned from competitive skating. He's charged with property theft and tries to bargain with Charlie for a lesser charge in exchange for all the secrets he knows, only for Charlie to shoot down his offer as he tells Winston that he will tell him everything he knows regardless.
- Trans Tribulations: Julian is revealed to be transitioning using hormones, all the while hiding it from Brandy with help from Shauna and Diane. Brandy knew what he was doing the whole time and was conflicted about it as Julian would no longer be able to compete in women’s skating, but eventually respects her son's wishes.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Brandy always knew Julian was trans since childhood due to his desire to be a boy. His mother was upset about it because she wanted Julian to be a strong role model for young girls and that he was Brandy’s last hope for women’s gold. Despite this, Brandy eventually chooses to accept her son for who he is.
