On the third anniversary of Charlie and Rex's partnership, Charlie recounts to Sarah how a high-stakes kidnapping of a young boy named Sam Hanson brought the duo together on their first case.
Tropes:
- A Simple Plan: According to Jackson, anyway. The plan was for him to evade the cops long enough so that he could get Sam to his father and collect the reward money. Except he ended up making things worse for himself by killing a cop who was pursuing him (and royally pissing off said cop's K-9 partner in the process) and eventually killing his own partner/girlfriend Veronica all because he didn't want to share the reward with her. Donovan has none of it when Jackson claims that nobody was supposed to get hurt, telling Jackson that if he has any shred of decency he’ll cough up the whereabouts of Sam’s father.
- Abusive Parents: Henry gave his own son a black eye when the kid was only four years old. Things only got worse from there, to the point Henry's wife ran away with their child.
- Asshole Victim: Granted, she was suffering from severe financial problems that made it easy for Jackson to take advantage of her, but it was ultimately Veronica's own choice to sell Sam and Lisa out to Henry so she could collect the reward on Sam's head, leading to his kidnapping and, by extension, Grace's death. Aside from some pity from Charlie and Donovan, nobody was really mourning her upon finding out that Jackson double-crossed and killed her, with Lisa being more upset with her for betraying her and Sam’s trust than anything else.
- Blatant Lies: After getting caught, Jackson claims that nobody was supposed to get hurt in the events of the episode. Donovan immediately calls B. S. and points out that despite Jackson’s claim, he abducted a child, killed a cop, and killed his own partner.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The real Emma Hansen died of cancer eight years before the events of the episode. The real identity of the Emma Hansen in the present day is Lisa Crawford, a woman who fled from her abusive husband with her son, Sam. She kept their real names a secret because she didn’t have legal custody of Sam and her husband had issued a bounty on his head.
- Death by Origin Story: Constable Grace Lindsay, Rex’s former partner who was shot dead at the beginning of the episode trying to save Sam from his kidnapper. Rex was hit hard and wouldn’t let anyone near her body until Charlie came along and convinced him to help the SJPD rescue Sam and catch his partner's killer. Every year on that day, the two of them, Jesse, Donovan, Renley, and Sam and his mother come to pay their respects to Grace’s gravesite, with Sarah coming along on the latest visit while Charlie tells her the story of how he and Rex first met (as she wasn’t yet working for the SJPD back then).
- Disappeared Dad: Emma tells Charlie that when Sam was four, his father Henry died in a car accident. It's all a lie. Henry is alive and has been searching for Sam and Lisa for years after Lisa ran away with their son under a stolen identity.
- Domestic Abuse:
- Henry's growing aggression against his wife and son gets him six charges of assault, driving his family to abandon him. He retaliates by accusing his wife of child abduction and being hellbent on finding them so he can regain control of their lives.
- Jackson has assaulted and committed fraud or extortion on all of his girlfriends. The current one is no exception.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. Veronica was Jackson’s latest girlfriend, having met while Jackson was doing art therapy. When she informs him of the reward on Sam’s head, the two of them plotted to kidnap him. Jackson however had no intention of sharing the reward and eventually killed her when the exchange was soon to happen.
- False Friend: Veronica and Jackson to Lisa and Sam. Sam told Veronica his secret about him and his mother being on the run from his father, believing he could trust her due to her being a longtime friend of Lisa. Veronica, who was deep in debt and desperate for money, almost immediately sold them out to Henry and then kidnapped Sam with help from Jackson so she could collect the reward. Lisa is devastated to find out that two people she considered to be her friends ended up using her and her son for monetary gain.
- Falsely Reformed Villain: Sam’s kidnapper is Jackson Waters, a criminal on parole with a history of assault, fraud, and extortion, with most of his victims being women whom he was romantically involved with. One of the conditions of Jackson's parole was that he had to undergo some form of counselling and he decided to take art therapy, which was how he met Veronica Majors and the two of them became a couple. He used her financial problems to manipulate her into helping him kidnap Sam for the reward when she told him about it, with Veronica being unaware that Jackson planned to kill her and keep all the money for himself.
- Fire-Forged Friends: When they first met, the relationship between Charlie and Rex was rocky, but the events of the episode eventually caused Rex to open up more and allow the two of them to develop a strong bond.
- Foreshadowing: While showing a drawing made by Sam to his mother Emma and her friend and Sam’s art teacher Veronica Majors, both are shown to hesitate before giving answers about it relating to the kidnapping. Emma because of her real identity and past regarding Sam and his father, and Veronica because she’s one of Sam’s kidnappers.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Henry Crawford. His actions are ultimately and indirectly what caused the events that led to Sam’s kidnapping and Grace and Veronica’s deaths. Fortunately, they were also responsible for the formation of Charlie and Rex’s partnership.
- It's Personal: The hunt for Jackson becomes this for Rex as his former partner Grace was shot and killed by him, with Rex becoming so negatively imprinted by their first encounter that he goes berserk just from picking up Jackson's scent.
- Karmic Death: Veronica betrayed the trust of Sam and his mother for monetary gain, only for herself to eventually be double-crossed and killed by the man she put her own trust in.
- Origins Episode: In this episode, Charlie tells Sarah how he and Rex first met and became the crime-fighting duo they are today, as Sarah wasn’t working for the SJPD at that time while her predecessor Gus Masters still was until he retired four months later.
- Price on Their Head: Sam’s father put a hundred-thousand-dollar reward on his son’s head for his return, with the kidnappers agreeing to meet him on the water. He gets arrested after Jackson is caught and Sam is rescued before the exchange happens.
- Returning to the Scene: Sometime after abducting Sam, Jackson returned to Lisa’s house to steal the passport containing Sam’s real name, since the border police would be looking for Sam Hanson and not Sam Crawford.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Veronica sold out Sam and Lisa to Henry in exchange for the reward on Sam’s head. Instead, she receives nothing but a bullet in her chest from Jackson just before the exchange is about to happen.
- Taking the Kids: Lisa Crawford had taken her son Sam away from her abusive husband and fled from Michigan all the way to St. John’s, all the while telling Sam to keep it and the price on his head a secret. Unfortunately, Sam made the mistake of trusting Veronica with his secrets, which led to him being kidnapped by her and Jackson.
- Would Hurt a Child: The events of the episode begin with a young boy named Sam Hanson being abducted by an unknown man on the way home from his piano lesson, with Rex’s former partner becoming a casualty trying to save him. His mother Emma is distraught by what happened to her son. He was kidnapped by Jackson and Veronica because of the huge reward on his head posted by his father.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Sometime after kidnapping Sam and grabbing the passport containing his real name, Jackson shot and killed Veronica while on their way to the exchange, leaving her body behind in the car they were driving there in. Charlie theorizes that in addition to wanting all the reward money for himself, Jackson did it because the exchange was happening soon and he wanted to tie up all the loose ends.
- You Monster!: Lisa calls both Jackson and Veronica this as she had considered the two of them to be her friends, only for them to have abused her trust to get the reward money for Sam's return to his father.
