Charlie and Rex investigate the murder of Dr. Imran Abas, a college biology professor. Meanwhile, Sarah, who is away on a women’s retreat, tries to figure out the culprit behind a series of attempted murders on one of the members in her group.
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Olive doesn’t exactly show the healthiest level of sanity, with her having been driven crazy enough by Stuart Johnson’s orders, Abas’s actions, and her own obsession with making everything perfect for her clients that she resorted to murder to complete her objective.
- Bait-and-Switch: The beginning of the episode has Sarah seemingly on the run from someone, until she gets hit by a rubber dart fired by someone else, revealing that she is actually on a tech-free wilderness retreat on orders from the Deputy Chief.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: While on the retreat, Sarah expresses her want of a scenario where she has to think on her feet and trust her instincts. She gets her wish when she ends up having to protect Madelyn from the person trying to kill her.
- Busman's Holiday: Despite being sent to a women's retreat, Sarah ends up investigating a crime on her end.
- Closed Circle: The members of the retreat consist of Sarah, retreat leader Dina Braithewaite, Minister of Industry Madelyn Hendry, Olive Chambers, Kelly Sinodinos, and Mirai Sidhu, leaving a limited list of suspects for the murderer targeting their group.
- Connected All Along: The person who murdered Abas is the same person trying to kill Madelyn, Olive Chambers.
- Dying Clue: Abas is revealed to have secretly left an encrypted flash drive with his former assistant Justina in her house, with it taking the combined efforts of her and Jesse to decrypt it. It contains the real results of his research pertaining to Penndale’s fracking project, as well as recorded phone calls hinting at the identity of his killer.
- Foreshadowing: The beginning of the episode has the women in the treat discussing how difficult it can be to appease their respective work clients. Olive mentions to the other women that she feels a need to make everything perfect for her clients at work, only for Madelyn to tell her that it is impossible to please everyone. Olive also questions Sarah on what exactly her job at the SJPD is, and is also quick to point fingers at various people when the group discovers someone sabotaged the climbing equipment to try and kill Madelyn. She’s also the one to present the damaged SIM card used for the walkie-talkie, claiming that Dina is behind everything. She’s the one trying to kill Madelyn, as well as being the one responsible for Abas’s death.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Three weeks ago, Abas suddenly fired his assistant Justina Capaldi with no explanation, with her having tried to find out why. She offers her help in trying to solve the case when it’s discovered that Abas secretly left an encrypted flash drive at her house the last time that she talked to him. He fired her to protect her from the blowback Abas would have received from blowing the whistle on Penndale’s fracking project, with the drive containing the real results of his study.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Olive expresses her reason for killing Abas as being this, since Stuart Johnson told her to do "whatever it took" to get a positive report on Penndale’s fracking proposal.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: After Stuart Johnson was informed by his consulting firm’s head Olive Chambers that Abas’s report would ruin Penndale’s fracking project worth millions of dollars, he ordered Olive to do whatever it took to get a positive report and to make sure that the proposal was approved, or else Johnson would fire her firm. When Abas refused to keep quiet about his research and went to Madelyn about his findings, as well as not wanting to lose two million dollars in commission, Olive became desperate and crazy enough that she murdered Abas and then went on to try and murder Madelyn to keep the truth about the report covered up.
- Never Suicide: Upon first inspection of the crime scene, it appears that Abas killed himself in his garage via carbon monoxide poisoning. That is until the discovery of fresh produce still in the trunk of his car and a non-fatal wound on the back of his head, prompting Charlie to declare Abas's death to actually be a murder.
- Sanity Slippage: Olive was instructed by Stuart Johnson to make sure that the fracking proposal would have a positive report, or else he would fire her firm. This ended up making her frantic to get it done, as she would lose two million dollars in commission if she was unsuccessful in her goal. She only got worse when Abas got Madelyn involved and made the task harder to accomplish, which caused the rest of Olive’s sanity to go out the window and made her resort to murder to complete the job.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Despite signing an NDA and Olive doctoring his report so that it would look better on Penndale to the Minister of Industry, Abas decided to prevent the company from fracking at Gros Mourne to protect the ecosystem by informing Madelyn about it himself, ensuring that the proposal would never be approved. Olive was not pleased with any of his actions, with her having threatened Abas multiple times until she snapped and killed him.
- She Knows Too Much: Olive is out to kill Madelyn because she’s the only other person to know about the real results of Abas’s research regarding Penndale’s fracking project, with Abas having told Madelyn about it before she left for the retreat to make sure the proposal would never be approved.
- Spanner in the Works: After killing Abas, Olive infiltrated the women’s retreat to kill Madelyn to keep the truth about Abas’s research covered up. What she didn’t count on was Sarah also being there and foiling all of her attempts, forcing Olive to eventually drop her façade and just kill the both of them. She also didn’t account for Abas secretly leaving a flash drive containing a backup of his research with Justina so that the truth would remain uncovered.
- Toxic, Inc.: Abas’s profession involved research pertaining to the preservation of the natural environment while still fostering economic growth. He was silently working for Penndale Oil & Gas to create an environmental assessment for their future fracking project in Gros Mourne, with the government having requested an independent report and a weigh in on the proposal from the Minister of Industry before making a decision. Penndale’s CEO Stuart Johnson mentions how the reports aligned with those of the company’s scientists regarding the ideal conditions for the site, with Abas having signed off on the proposal. Abas’s real findings were actually regarding the reasons as to why the project should not be permitted, as it would result in the disruption of a fragile ecosystem. That didn’t stop Johnson from trying to get the proposal approved anyway, only for his desires and actions to indirectly get Abas murdered and put Madelyn's life in danger.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: This episode is split into two separate plots. The first being Charlie, Rex, Jesse, and Donovan investigating the murder of Imran Abas, and the second being Sarah out on a tech-free leadership retreat ordered by the Deputy Chief, which takes a dark turn when it’s revealed someone is trying to kill fellow retreat member Madelyn Hendry, the Minister of Industry, with Sarah protecting her. They intersect at the end of the episode when it’s discovered that retreat member Olive Chambers is the one behind Abas’s death and the attempts on Madelyn’s life.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:A week prior to the events of the episode, Stuart Johnson was told by the head of his consulting firm Olive Chambers that Abas’s research threatened to sink Penndale’s fracking project. In response, Johnson intimated that Olive do whatever it took to make sure the report was positive and that the proposal was approved (his idea of "intimation" being threatening to fire Olive and her firm if his request wasn't fulfilled, which would end in her losing over two million dollars in commission). Despite Olive’s threats and signing an NDA, Abas refused to keep the real results of his study a secret and informed Madelyn about it, assuring that the proposal would never be approved. This caused Olive to snap and murder Abas, then went on to try and murder Madelyn so that the truth about the report would remain a secret. In short, the episode’s events happened all because Johnson refused to take no for an answer on the fracking proposal, with the executive expressing regret at his actions having caused so much trouble for everyone involved.
