Jessica arrives in a small mining town to bail out former student Molly Connors, who got jailed for trespassing after crashing a party to accuse mining magnate Tyler Morgan of killing her father. Shortly thereafter, Tyler meets his end by shotgun and, despite the huge pool of possibilities, Molly becomes the primary suspect.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Carlton dismisses the sheriff's accusations against Molly, saying anyone could have grabbed a gun off the unlocked rack by Morgan's cabin door. Jessica later puts this together with Mrs. Harmon's word that only people who Morgan invited could come to the cabin (and therefore its furnishings wouldn't be common knowledge) to reason that he probably committed the murder.
- Molly took her father's book of Shakespeare with her when she and her mother left town for Cabot Cove. Jessica uses this to reason that the evidence Mr. Connors claimed he had found had been hidden in the book, given that it was the only thing the family hadn't torn into in search of the missing paper.
- I Was Young and Needed the Money: Mrs. Harmon turns out to have been Mr. Morgan's mistress; she says that she needed the cash he was willing to pay her (being a young widow with a child) and initially hated it.
- Nothing Personal: Carlton tells Jessica that he didn't have anything against Mr. Harmon; he just needed to get rid of Mr. Connors and Harmon happened to be working with him that day.
- Pop the Tires: Travis keeps Carlton from driving Jessica into the woods to kill her by shooting out his tires. When Carlton scrambles out to catch his escaping captive, the boy fires a warning shot at him.
- She Is All Grown Up: Mr. Morgan remarks how much Molly's changed since she left for Cabot Cove as a young girl and encourages wolf whistles from the surrounding young men. Molly pays no attention.
- Single Parents Are Undesirable: Jessica finds out during her investigation that local widow Mrs. Harmon was the mistress of the murdered coal magnate. Mrs. Harmon says in her defense that other people who might have helped wouldn't want to deal with her and her son.
- So Proud of You: Jessica tells Molly she thinks her progress in the world of law would make her father proud.
- Threat Backfire: Molly Stevens attempts a Badass Boast at the beginning by claiming that she will prove that Tyler Morgan killed her father. However, she ends up getting arrested for trespassing.
- You Killed My Father: Molly walks into Morgan's party to announce that she intends to prove his involvement in her father's death. Unusually for this sort of plot, she's wrong.
