Cancer researcher Max Franklin, is presumed dead in a plane crash, on the verge of his company finding a new drug. As Franklin's circle of friends (including Jessica) deal with their loss, they discover that there might be irregularities with the cancer drug (most of the research for which has disappeared from Max’s laboratory) and that Max himself might still be alive (at least for now), and trying to expose the truth. Feature Sam Anderson as fellow scientist Stuart Himes.
Tropes:
- All Take and No Give: Max and Liz’s relationship, which is why she killed him after he dumped her after all the sacrifices she'd made for him, and then still wanted her to do errands for him as he tried to expose the drug chicanery.
- Beard of Evil: Grundberg is a very nasty man with a full beard on his face.
- Call-Back: Jessica’s publisher Ted Hartley, from multiple earlier episodes, is mentioned.
- Cassandra Truth: David telling Liz that Max didn’t care for her as much as she thinks.
- Child Prodigy: Max was one in the past, getting a P.H.D. at fifteen.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Dr. Grundberg and Priscilla Lake want to market a defective cancer drug despite the side effects, lie to Richard about this, and when they sense exposure on the horizon, they simply sell all of their stock, lining their pockets and ensuing that everyone they sold the stock to is wiped out.
- Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Played with. Grundberg claims that Max had been the only one to know about the drugs side effects and that he'd been testing this on his own time without telling anyone, in order to avoid liability of his own.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Hinted at with David unsuccessfully asking Liz to go out to eat.
- False Reassurance: Grundberg telling his scientists the drug won’t go on the market if it’s in any way defective is a bald-faced lie.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Grundberg is a corrupt, bespectacled figure. Subverted with David, who’s a nice guy interested in seeing the mystery solved and the drug trial done safely.
- Frame-Up: Liz tries to frame Stuart for killing Max.
- Genre Mashup: In-Universe: Liz is writing a mystery story at a microbiology lab.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Richard might have his suspicions about the drug but he does repeatedly question Lake and Grundberg about it.
- Ignored Expert: Max, Liz, Stuart and David all protested the cancer drug they develops being pushed forward without tests but were ignored by Grundberg. Although Stuart was in on faking the data, and was only pretending to feel this way.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Pell, the investigator looking into Max doesn’t seem to know the big picture and is a former cop who seems to have some idea of civic duty when Jessica points this out as why she told the police about him.
- Relieved Failure: After the cover-up of the drug concerns comes out Stuart says that maybe that's for the best, although its unclear if he's sincere.
- Science Marches On: In-Universe, Stuart argues that pushing the drug forward despite its problems is justifiable because the side effects will take years to settle in, and by that point there might be new medical advances to counter that.
- Serendipitous Survival: The plane crash was apparently a complete accident and it was sheer chance Max happened to miss it.
- Sinister Surveillance: Grundberg’s employee Pell is following Max’s car at the beginning of the episode and trying to find him afterwards.
- The Starscream: Prisiclla shows some interest in usurping her boss Grundberg, although she shoves this aside as more pressing concerns arise.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The final scene mentions that Grundberg and Lake are facing charges of insider trading for dumping all of the stock right before they were exposed for faking drug test results.
