Charlie and Rex investigate a fairytale-turned-nightmare when a princess performer named Stacey Nielsen suspiciously dies at a child´s birthday party, with her death shedding light on the secrets of the attending parents.
Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: During Ivy's birthday party, Melina went to Stacey to try and get more Valium, only to be told that Stacey wasn’t doing that anymore and was going to tell Ron about Melina's prescription drug habit. Desperate to not let that happen, as it would mean that she would lose custody of Ivy, Melina spiked Stacey's hawthorn leaf shake with benzodiazepine to make her incoherent enough that Ron wouldn't believe what she would tell him (even though everything she would have told him was true, as Donovan points out). However, Melina accidentally used a fatal dosage, which ended up starving Stacey's brain of oxygen, killing her.
- Big Sister Mentor: Stacey used to babysit Corbin and Elaine Lewis's daughter Sophie before she started her job as an entertainer. Her death ends up hitting Sophie pretty hard. Not as hard as Elaine though.
- Crime After Crime: Before the events of the episode, Melina was already at risk of being charged with possession of narcotics and child neglect, which would land her in hot water if anyone found out. Now, because of her desire to keep her valium habit a secret, she's added to the list the crimes of manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and tampering with evidence, digging herself an even deeper hole once she's arrested.
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: Princess for Hire, an entertainer business Stacey used to work for run by Rick Dobran. He also uses it as a cover for his prescription drug trafficking business, with most of the people hiring the entertainers being his clients. Melina is one of them.
- Driven to Suicide: Elaine chooses to kill herself by jumping off a bridge when she believes that Stacey is dead because of her. Fortunately, she doesn't go through with it when Sophie finally refers to her as "Mom". Although she almost falls off anyway if not for Charlie and Rex saving her.
- Drugs Are Bad: Rick Dobran is actually a drug dealer who uses his business Princess for Hire and his employees to sell and deliver prescription drugs to his clients, most of which are parents who frequently hire birthday entertainers. Stacey used to help him before she decided that she didn’t want to anymore with Rick threatening to fire her, not that it stopped her.
- Foreshadowing: Stacey's phone reveals that she had deleted a phone call to Ron before her death, with the context of it being unknown. It was about Melina's secret Valium addiction. Melina was actually the one who deleted it from Stacey’s phone about five minutes after the latter's death instead of calling 911.
- Good Stepmother: Elaine is Sophie's stepmother, as her real mother died years ago. Their relationship is rocky, as Sophie distrusts her because of fairy tales revolving around stepmothers. They get better when Sophie gets Elaine to not go through with her suicide by finally calling her "Mom".
- It's All My Fault: Elaine blames herself Stacey's death, as she saw her about to fall down the stairs while high and never caught her. The guilt of it ends up becoming enough to make her try and commit suicide. However, what Elaine never knew was that Stacey was already dead from overdose before she went down the stairs.
- Parental Neglect: Melina's valium habit has caused her to perform multiple counts of neglect towards her daughter Ivy, such as not picking her up from school and driving with her while high). If Ron ever found out about her addiction, it would be strike three and that she would lose custody of Ivy. Melina was so desperate to not let that happen that she drugged Stacey’s drink when the latter told her she was going to tell Ron about it, which ended up killing her.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Stacey's autopsy reveals that she was pregnant when she died, with the SJPD trying to figure out who the father is. It's Corbin Lewis, but the egg is Elaine's. After Elaine had gone through multiple miscarriages and stillbirths trying to have a baby, Stacey offered to be a surrogate for their next attempt, with Corbin and Elaine secretly providing her finances due to compensating a surrogate being illegal in Canada.
- Taking the Kids: Melina and Ron Craw are going through a brutal divorce while trying to figure out who gets custody of their daughter, Ivy, with Melina fervently claiming that she belongs with her. This is despite the fact that Melina has neglected Ivy more than once because of her valium addiction, and as a result is desperate to keep it a secret from Ron. After the case is solved, Melina pleads guilty to criminal negligence causing death while Ron is awarded full custody of Ivy for the time being.
