The clock is ticking as Charlie and Rex help David Mason try to find the culprit behind an attempt on his life before he succumbs to the poison slowly killing him.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero:
- Carson turns out to have been the real target of Haley’s poisoning. Mason only ended up being the victim instead because he unknowingly intercepted her tainted pen, meaning he inadvertently saved Carson from being murdered.
- Although the real hero here would arguably have to be Brenda Mathis, combined with Unwitting Instigator of Doom. While Mason was the one who directly foiled Haley’s plan and indirectly Tim’s, the only reason either of them happened was because of Brenda’s actions spooking Haley enough to hire him, which led to Mason’s poisoning and the events of the episode to occur. In other words, Brenda, obliviously and indirectly foiled not one but two murders through Mason and the SJPD.
- Batman Gambit: After talking Mason out of trying to kill Mike, Charlie comes up with an idea to figure out who sent him the text by using Mason’s email to send out a message to everyone who was at the cocktail party demanding a large sum of cash in exchange for Mason not turning them in to the police, telling them to meet him at the beach. Zig-zagged in that while it succeeded in luring Tim out, the latter mentions that he suspected that Mason wasn’t the one who sent the email but revealed himself anyway as he wanted to know who it actually was. What he didn’t realize however was that the second part of Charlie’s plan involved Rex ambushing Tim from his hiding place in the sand, leading to his arrest.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: The Major Crimes team work quickly to track down who’s behind Mason’s poisoning before his time is up, except Mason keeps interfering with the investigation into the Vanderholt case, the first time to reveal to Charlotte in front of her husband that Tim hired him to follow her and the second to try and kill Mike before he succumbs to the poison.
- The Bus Came Back: David Mason makes a reappearance since "The Mourning Show", having become the victim of a fatal poisoning unless the Major Crimes team can help him track down the culprit and possibly an antidote.
- Chekhov's Skill: At the start of the episode, we have Charlie sitting alone at the beach only to get pounced on from behind by Rex who was hiding in the sand nearby. Said beach becomes the meetup place for Charlie and the culprit behind Charlotte’s murder attempt, with Rex using the same trick from before to get the jump on Tim when he tries to escape.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Tim Vanderholt, one of Mason’s clients who hired him to find out if his wife Charlotte was having an affair, believing so due to supposed evidence such as seeing texts on her phone and her lies to him not adding up. Except Tim knew all along that she wasn’t having an affair, he just wanted everyone to think she was as part of his plan to ruin her reputation before killing her.
- Foreshadowing:
- While Sarah first has Mason in her lab to analyze the poison, Rex suddenly starts barking outside the door when Mason takes out a pen to sign a waiver giving Sarah permission to run tests on him. He does it again when the same pen is left on the table, which makes Charlie realize that it might actually hold the key to finding the culprit and the antidote. The pen is what poisoned Mason, having been tainted with contact poisons by Hayley, although it was actually meant for Carson.
- When first talking to Charlie, Carson mentions that it was Haley who had the idea to hire Mason just so the situation would remain quiet, even though Charlie points out to him that it would have been better to have just called the police instead. Turns out the real reason was because Haley was afraid that the police would find out about her trying to murder Carson, only for it to have backfired on her when Mason became the victim instead.
- Frame-Up: Mike is accused of being the culprit behind the attempt on Charlotte’s life when the hand cream for his eczema is found in the car that was used to try and run her down. Not helping his situation is someone later sending an anonymous text to Mason saying Mike is the person he’s looking for and is threatened at gunpoint by him. He’s actually innocent. Tim had set things up to frame him for Charlotte’s murder only for it to have fallen through because of Charlie and Rex, leading to Tim sending the text to try and cover his tracks.
- He Knows Too Much: Almost. After Tim is tricked into revealing himself at the beach he holds Charlie at gunpoint ready to kill him as he’s the only one who knows the truth, until the detective reasons with him that since he hasn’t killed anyone he would be in a better situation than if he had. While it convinces Tim to leave threatening to kill Charlie if he follows him, his getaway is foiled when Rex ambushes him from his hiding place buried in the sand.
- If I Do Not Return: When his condition starts to worsen, Mason has Charlie promise him that if he does not survive to give his ex-wife and son a call telling them he loves them and that they were the best thing to ever happen to him. While Charlie agrees, he is insistent that Mason will survive and that he can call them himself once it’s all over. After the case is solved and Mason is cured, Charlie meets up with him to gift him the contact info for his family, which Mason is greatly thankful for.
- Iron Lady: Tim Vanderholt’s wife Charlotte is a member of the city council, who has recently been planning a cocktail party to celebrate the opening of a new museum. However, her life turns out to be at stake when it’s revealed that someone is trying to kill her, although she refuses to cancel the party in spite of that. Adding on to that is Charlotte receiving controversy regarding her allegedly shady actions such as suddenly disappearing for moments at a time with her assistant Mike Friezen without telling anyone, leading to Tim suspecting that she is having an affair. Nope. She’s actually been secretly setting up her campaign for mayor with Mike’s help, while Tim just made up the belief about the affair to try and smear his wife’s reputation before killing her.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Carson Bishop (or rather his agent Haley Farr) hired Mason to look into whoever was sending him a series of morbid gifts like melted doll heads and bloody letter openers. It turns out to be the work of one of Carson’s fans Brenda Mathis as part of an elaborate plan to try and get Carson to notice her and convince him to read her novel manuscript thinking the imagery of the gifts (all of which were fake) would intrigue him, unaware that it backfired and instead made Carson and Haley think Brenda was a stalker. Brenda apologizes for her actions when Charlie informs her of it, admitting that she may have taken things too far.
- Noodle Incident: When Donovan calls Charlie about Mason wanting to see him, Charlie’s first response is to ask what Mason did "this time", implying that they’ve had a few more run-ins since “The Mourning Show” regarding the PI’s shady tendencies getting him into trouble.
- The Pen Is Mightier: What was used to poison Mason was a pen coated in various contact poisons by Haley. It was actually meant for Carson until Mason swiped it before meeting with him about the case.
- Running Over the Plot: When Charlie first goes to speak with Charlotte, she is walking out of a of a parking garage until a car comes speeding towards her. Fortunately, Rex saves her just in time while the assailant drives away. It was her husband Tim, who was trying to kill her before she could divorce him.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Tim devised an elaborate plan to kill Charlotte by ruining her reputation then later run her down and frame her assistant Mike for it, having hired Mason to make the idea of her having an affair seem more likely. It all came crashing down when Mason involved the SJPD in the situation after getting poisoned, which led to Charlie and Rex saving Charlotte and Tim’s arrest after being tricked into revealing himself as her assailant.
- Haley’s plan to kill Carson involved tricking him into using a pen coated with contact poisons, having placed it on his signing table for him to use. However, Mason unknowingly ruined everything when he took the pen instead, eventually leading to Haley’s arrest.
- Taking You with Me: After his condition worsens to the point where he can barely stand and move around via sheer willpower, Mason receives an anonymous text claiming that Mike is responsible for everything, with Mason deciding to head to Charlotte’s cocktail party to try and kill him before he himself dies. Fortunately, Charlie manages to talk him out of it, ensuring that he and his team will save him from dying.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Prior to Mason’s poisoning he was working on two unrelated cases. The first was for bestselling author Carson Bishop regarding who had been sending him a series of macabre gifts. The second was for Tim Vanderholt, a former Royal Newfoundland Regiment Special Ops member who hired Mason to look into if his wife Charlotte is having an affair. Nobody in the Vanderholt case had any involvement in the poisoning, with the culprit being Carson’s agent Haley.
- Ungrateful Bastard: What Haley considered Carson to be upon learning that he was planning on dropping her as his agent, despite Haley later protesting to Charlie that Carson wouldn’t nearly be as popular as he is today if not for her. She took it so badly that she decided to kill him before it happened so she could profit off his royalties, using one of his pens coated in a variety of contact poisons purchased from the dark net. However, her plan hit a snag when Mason became the unknowing victim instead, eventually leading to Haley’s arrest.Haley: Carson is looking for "new representation." I have held his hand for years, when he could barely sell a thousand units! And what!? Someone else is going to reap the rewards of all my hard work!?Charlie: You mean the royalties, the ones that will skyrocket after Carson’s death.Haley: I made him! That ungrateful piece of… It’s not fair!Charlie: Yeah. Well, you tell that to the man who’s fighting for his life because of you.
- Unwitting Pawn: What Mason ultimately was to Tim’s murder plan, the latter having hired him to unknowingly help sell the idea that Charlotte was having an affair to ruin his wife’s reputation before killing her. However, Tim is not behind the poisoning, having no knowledge of it or even wanted Mason dead as he didn’t consider him a threat.
- Woman Scorned: Male example. Tim reveals that Charlotte was making plans to divorce him after falling out of love with him, much to his dismay as he had sacrificed his entire career in order to be with her. Afraid that it would end in him becoming a laughingstock and be left with nothing, Tim plotted to kill her and frame Mike for it, enlisting the unknowing help of Mason to first ruin her reputation by making it look like she was having an affair. While Charlotte is appalled at Tim for his actions she admits that he actually did have a right to be worried about her leaving him high and dry once the divorce was finalized, and that she’s glad that she can finally go through with it without the risk of it damaging her mayoral campaign (as well as the possibility of the whole situation giving her a boost in the polls, which is Charlotte’s own positive spin on things despite Charlie questioning her thought process).
- Whodunnit to Me?: The plot revolves around David Mason being poisoned by an unknown assailant and enlisting the Major Crimes team to help him find the culprit before he dies in the next forty-eight hours, his condition eventually worsening until he eventually becomes bedridden. While the team also works on finding an antidote, Mason is fully prepared for the scenario of him dying just as long as he can find whoever is responsible. He survives thanks to Sarah concocting an antidote using information about the poisons found on Haley’s computer.
