On the anniversary of the death of Garret Frost, a serial killer Charlie helped catch five years ago, Charlie and Rex find themselves captives of a kidnapper seeking vengeance, with the SJPD trying to figure out where they are and who the culprit is before it's too late.
Tropes:
- Buried Alive:
- Charlie is knocked out by an unknown assailant going by the moniker “Friend of Frost” and buried alive in an unknown location, with the culprit having installed a webcam in the box to keep track of him.
- Pat Gillespie was also buried alive for even longer than Charlie had been, to the point where he may have received brain damage. Fortunately, he’s alright.
- Distressed Dude: Charlie is buried alive by an unknown assailant and is left with only a few hours of air before he suffocates, with his kidnapper demanding half a million dollars within eight hours in exchange for his return. The situation worsens when the box Charlie is in is filled with smoke, reducing his time, as well as his air tube being plugged. He gets in even more trouble when Lisa and Richard decide to leave him for dead by both filling the box with smoke again and plugging the hole, greatly reducing his time. Fortunately, Rex manages to escape from his tether and brings back one of the darts used to knock him and Charlie out to the SJPD, giving them a lead to the kidnapper’s identity and Charlie’s whereabouts.
- Frame-Up: Before kidnapping Charlie and Rex, Lisa and Richard buried Gillespie alive and used his truck and history with Frost to frame him for the kidnapping.
- The Informant: Gillespie was actually an informant and not an accomplice to Frost like Lisa and Richard believed. He had heard Frost confess to details about his crimes, but the defense argued that the case would risk being corrupted if they had made him a witness.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Lisa and Richard Bunting accused Charlie of botching the investigation of Garret Frost and failing to rescue their son Noel because nobody would listen to them about the ransom and about Pat Gillespie being an accomplice. Charlie informs them that what they didn’t know was that Frost killed as soon as he got the ransom money and that Gillespie was actually an informant who heard Frost confess to details about the kidnappings, with the defense arguing that he couldn’t be a witness because it would corrupt the case. Charlie never told Lisa and Richard about it even after the case was closed because he didn’t want them to know that paying the ransom triggered Noel’s death, lamenting that he had wanted to tell them that before. Lisa and Richard choose not to believe him and decide to leave him for dead by reburying him and filling the box with smoke and closing the air hole so he will suffocate quicker. Fortunately, Rex and the SJPD manage to get to him in time and arrest his kidnappers.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After getting arrested, Lisa laments that she made a terrible mistake and had let her emotions get the better of her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: One of Frost’s victims was a seventeen-year-old boy from St. John’s named Noel Bunting, who died before he could be saved by the police. His parents Lisa and Richard were deeply affected by the loss of their son. After years of constantly seeing Frost’s “accomplice” Pat Gillespie roaming free without any charges, Lisa eventually snapped and sought revenge on both him and Charlie for their supposed roles in Noel’s death.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Charlie tries to tell the SJPD through the box’s webcam that he’s being held at a Christmas tree farm owned by Lisa and Richard Bunting. However, due to there being no audio to go with the video, they think he’s trying to say a name like Chris MacPhearson. They eventually figure it out though.
- The events of the episode happened because Charlie never told Lisa and Richard about the revelation that Frost killed his hostages as soon as he got the ransom money, which meant he was trying to protect Lisa and Richard from knowing that they had indirectly killed their son.
- Revenge: Charlie and Rex’s kidnapper is believed to be Patrick Gillespie, a man who was a friend of Frost and is now seeking revenge for what happened to him. He’s not. The real culprits are Lisa and Richard Bunting, who are seeking revenge on Gillespie for supposedly being Frost’s accomplice and Charlie for supposedly botching the investigation resulting in Noel’s death.
- Serial Killer: Garrett Milton Frost, a man who five years prior to the events of the episode was responsible for seven murders across North America until he was captured by a team that included Charlie and eventually hung himself in jail. All of his murders were crimes of opportunity until he was desperate for money, where starting with his fourth victim Chase Golick started burying them alive and held them for ransom. Charlie was an investigator on Frost’s final ransom attempt about a year and a half after the Golick incident, involving a local 17-year-old boy named Noel Bunting. Frost used a payphone to make his ransom demands, and forensics was able to pull off multiple DNA samples from the phone. Charlie was the one who made the connection to the Golick incident and sent the DNA report to the San Fransisco investigators, resulting in Frost’s arrest.
- Tranquilizer Dart: While out on a hike Charlie and Rex are shot by an unknown assailant with tranquilizer darts containing entorphin, with Charlie being knocked out long enough for the culprit to have buried him alive and Rex to be tied to a pole.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Jesse catches Sarah secretly trying to gather enough money to pay the ransom for Charlie’s return, with him and Donovan reminding her that the SJPD do not negotiate with criminals. However, the situation eventually grows dire enough that the three of them decide to dip into their own personal finances to try and pay the ransom in time.
- Lisa and Richard Bunting blame Charlie for supposedly botching their son Noel’s investigation, leading to his death, unaware that Charlie was actually trying to protect them from the revelation that they indirectly got their son killed by paying Frost’s ransom.
- You Are Too Late: Lisa tries to pull this in regards to where Charlie is buried after getting arrested. It doesn’t work, as Rex is able to figure it out anyway.
