When the co-owner of a successful board game company is found dead of a snake bite, the team has to not only catch the killer but also the deadly venomous snake still on the loose.
Tropes:
- Backhanded Apology: A downplayed case. Rex objects to Karma's claim of dogs being statistically likelier to bite someone than snakes. She apologizes to him, while still pointing out that it's true.
- Cowardly Lion: Kobe, the missing black mamba, is noted to be very shy, so he tends to slither away when nearby crowds get too noisy.
- Death by Irony: Alex Davies, the creator of a popular snake-themed board game, was killed by a snake bite, from a black mamba no less. This is not lost on the investigators.
- Distinction Without a Difference: When Charlie finds it somewhat arousing that Sarah's trying to apply logic to an irrational fear of snakes, she is quick to claim that she isn't afraid of them, it's just that people have been socialized into finding them upsetting.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Following a heart-to-heart talk with Jesse, Markus Davies decides to find out for himself about his late father's business partner Raya Knight being for the sale of Cottage Games to an American company. He learns that this is indeed the case after confronting her, going as far as to call her a snake. At the end, it's fortunately revealed through dialogue from the SJPD team that Markus and Raya did reconcile, and are in the process of working on a new board game.
- False Flag Operation: Kobe was stolen from Reptile Joey's Reptile Ranch with this type of plan; Todd Harvey blew the whistle on the Department of Wildlife, to have them seize all of the snakes (save for Kobe and Mr. Noodles) due to "paperwork irregularities", thus allowing him to break into the ranch and steal the black mamba undetected for his murder scheme. The distraction left RJ none the wiser, assuming that those people seized Kobe as well.
- Frame-Up: Todd Harvey fully intended on having Steve Sader take the fall for having secretly smuggled Kobe into the Cottage Games building, in order to acquire Alex Davies' shares of the company without being suspected for his murder. To achieve this, Todd planted Steve's FoodGo delivery bag in the building shortly after Kobe came into a business meeting, in an attempt at pointing the authorities towards the latter as the primary suspect.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Reptile Joey (RJ for short), the owner of "Reptile Joey's Reptile Ranch", fully cooperates with SJPD to retrieve his missing pet snake Kobe when he hears that the latter has been suspected to be involved with the murder of someone.
- I'm Standing Right Here: A variation. When Sarah is concerned about the possibility of getting attacked by a snake that's still loose in the Cottage Games building (since Alex's possible cause of death was bite via black mamba), Karma's initially skeptical by explaining that it's statistically much likelier for someone to be bitten by a dog than a snake. Rex, who is within earshot of her, objects by barking (though she does apologize to him).
- Manipulative Bastard: Todd used Steve as the perfect patsy for his scheme, having a secret meeting with the latter with the promise of funding his independent game, so long as he smuggled Kobe into Cottage Games, only to try diverting any suspicion by pinning Alex's murder on him as the sole culprit, via planting his FoodGo delivery bag at the building. The kicker is that Steve was under the impression that Todd only intended to play a prank on Alex.
- Mistaken for Romance: Georgia Hale was assumed by SJPD to have been going on a date with Alex shortly before his murder. As it turns out, she is a representative of the New York-based Pinnacle Games, and was having a meeting to try negotiating with him for the acquisition of Snakepit.
- Moving the Goalposts: At first, it seems that Todd has a fairly loose alibi of attending the TechAdvance party on a Saturday night, around the time that Alex was killed. Later on, Charlie confronts him about being at his home around 10:30 PM with no way to prove it, but then clarifies that he also took a trip to Gander and stayed at an hotel there.Charlie (sarcastically): You have all the right answers, don't you?Todd: I do, when I am telling the truth.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant:
- A more downplayed variant than usual with Karma, who is genuinely fond of snakes. Her rationale (admiring the shimmering skin of snakes) doesn't help with endearing Sarah (who has ophidiophobia) to them.
- Also applies to the dedicated herpetologist RJ, who sees no issue whatsoever with letting Sarah handle snakes (with safety measures or not, depending on the snake).
- Now You Tell Me: Sarah says this to Karma, when being expected to carefully catch Kobe and is then told by her about black mambas being the fastest land snakes in the world.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: A subtle downplayed variant near the end. After Charlie shows definitive proof that Todd is guilty of Alex's murder (a CCTV picture taken of Todd being present at the parking lot of a garage in Duckworth for his meeting with Steve), Todd runs away, which prompts Charlie to sic Rex with a noticeably exasperated tone.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: When Steve Sader describes his initial idea of a snake-themed board game to Charlie, the detective finds it to be similar to Snakepit, only for Steve to quip that it's the same idea since Alex stole it from him.
- The Resenter: Steve, who shows hard feelings towards Alex for having stolen his idea of the Snakepit board game.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Charlie suggests to Sarah that she sticks around for supervising RJ and Animal Control's search of the black mamba. Given that she is afraid of snakes, she refuses and leaves with him.
- Animal Control doesn't approve of RJ's less sophisticated search methods for finding a deadly snake, so they leave Cottage Games by the time Sarah sees him again.
- Charlie was just about ready to stop wasting time and end his interrogation of Steve Sader, until the latter finally confessed about him helping Todd Harvey with the murder of Alex Davies.
- Once Todd is exposed as Alex's murderer, he promptly attempts to hightail it from Cottage Games. He doesn't get far, as Charlie dives at him into the plush snake pit.
- Smug Snake: Todd Harvey, very fittingly for an executive of a company that produces a snake-themed board game. When he is suspected by Charlie of being Alex's killer, he is dismissive of any possible leads on him, seemingly has a rock-solid alibi, and rudely calls out the detective on interrupting the business meetings. Charlie himself was frustrated enough with the guy to tell the team that he is so cocky. Sure enough, he turns out to be the killer, and winds up getting bagged by Charlie.
- Snake Pit: Used metaphorically in several ways. Besides the board game being called "Snakepit" and the Cottage Games building having a pool filled with harmless plush snakes, it's later revealed that nearly everyone who represents Cottage Games in some way has a good possible motive to want its founder Alex dead.
- Sore Loser: This is what Todd's motivation boils down to. When he suffered from financial liquidation, the thought of having to sell his shares of Cottage games back to Alex would be admitting failure, which drove him crazy enough to resort to murder instead.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: When Kobe suddenly slithers in during a business meeting, Charlie carefully puts a poster in front of him. RJ arrives shortly after to check out the commotion and retrieve Kobe, but the snake has already retreated into an air duct. Justified, as black mambas (Kobe's species) are the fastest land snakes.
- Stillborn Franchise: In-universe; Alex wanted to turn Snakepit into a franchise, including, a TV show, toys, and possibly a movie (which Todd cynically thinks is a bit naive on his part). At least, until his death put a kibosh on those plans.
- Too Clever by Half: Todd's scheme to kill Alex via Steve planting Kobe at Cottage Games seemed sound enough to get away with. However, Todd decided to plant Steve's FoodGo delivery bag at Cottage Games, in an attempt to frame him...a few days after the murder. Charlie lampshades this at the end.
- White Sheep: Alex's son Markus is seemingly the only representative of Cottage Games who didn't want anything to do with the spirited debates for the company being sold. Even Charlie struggles with trying to fit him into the big picture.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: After the case is solved, Charlie informs the team that Raya and Markus are set on releasing their next board game, themed after a detective and his canine partner. Charlie suggests that it'll be called "Hudson and Rex", but Sarah is unsure about the name.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sarah is revealed to be deathly afraid of these, to the point that Charlie lampshades her having freaked out watching a scene from the movie where the Trope Namer dealt with them.*Sarah jumps after being shown footage of a black mamba hissing*Karma: You've got it bad.Sarah: Just a reflex.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Sarah almost says this word for word when RJ proposes that she should be the one to handle Kobe, the runaway black mamba.
- Zany Scheme: The episode's B-plot focuses on Jesse trying to convince Donovan to try online dating, to his reluctance. His plan to achieve this mostly involves sneakily taking pictures of Donovan, for an online profile that he's setting up.
