Exit Stage Death
Charlie's waitress job at a dinner theater is interrupted by a tragic death onstage during a performance by two washed-up television stars; when she starts to investigate, deadly motivations come to light.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: The first act leads the audience to believe either Michael or Kathleen will be the victim of the other due to their constant hate and bickering. It's even shown how Michael is messing with the trap door while Kathleen fiddles with a light fixture on the idea there could be dual murders. In reality, the pair are working together to kill Michael's rich wife, Ava, for her inheritance.
- Blackmail Backfire: Just narrowly averted. Rebecca blackmails Kathleen and Michael over Ava's murder, and of course, Kathleen tries to kill her. If not for Charlie, Kathleen's plan would have worked without much of a hitch.
- Broken Pedestal: In-universe example with Michael's character in "Ghosts of Pensacola", a military officer, apparently having this with the military, seemingly over the death of his son who died in service.
Michael: I used to wait for that parade every year. "Independence Day"! For who? From what?!
- Brutal Honesty: Charlie dishes some out to Kathleen after she tears into her for interrupting her rehearsal, telling her that she didn't believe a single word of her monologue. Surprisingly, the vain Kathleen seems to find it refreshing.
- A Deadly Affair: Michael and Kathleen murder Ava not only so they can be together, but so Michael can inherit her money.
- Death by Falling Over: Ava heads to that dinner theater in the sky when she strikes her head as she falls through the trapdoor. Of course, falling 15 feet onto solid concrete wasn't gonna do her any favors.
- Dinner Theater: The episode takes place at one, where Charlie gets a job as a waitress.
- Dramatic Irony: Phil says he's lucky the police didn't check the contents of his thermos, because if they found the alcohol, he could have faced charges for Ava's death. If the police did check his thermos, they would have also found Ambien showing he was drugged and possibly clear him for her death.
- Driven to Suicide: It's strongly implied that Kathleen steps through the trap door at the end knowing that she'll fall to her death.
- Engineered Public Confession: Charlie tricks Michael and Kathleen into arguing about the murder with a hidden mic in the dressing room broadcasting the whole thing to everyone in the theater (or at least the kitchen staff and audience members with the theater's hearing devices).
- Entertainingly Wrong: When she realizes Michael messed with the trap door, Charlie jumps to the logical idea that Michael is trying to kill Kathleen and Ava fell into the trap instead, even trying to warn Kathleen in the middle of the play.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Charlie finally realizes the pair are in cahoots when she sees them acting a scene of their characters talking of how they love each other and it's the first time she sees absolute truth from either of them.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job:
- Kathleen mocks Michael for doing cheesy insurance commercials before meeting Ava, and the dinner theater they do together doesn't seem much better.
- One for Charlie as well - she ends up at the dinner theater after being fired for another waitressing job for throwing a tip at a customer and eating another one's bacon.
- Follow the Leader: In-Universe — Frankly Franklin is a real play, but it's one meant to be for schoolchildren. The dinner theatre decided to emulate Hamilton and turn it into a hip-hop musical about a founding father.
- Frame-Up: Michael and Kathleen indirectly set up Phil to take the dive for Ava's death with it happening under his watch. The only reason he doesn't get locked up is because the police didn't check what was in his thermos.
- Graceful Loser: When the pair realize they're going down with ironclad evidence, they don't run. Instead, they deliver a fantastic performance that has even Charlie starting to tear up.
- Granola Girl: Rebecca grows some concerns over playing a character with a club foot, wanting the role to be advised by someone with an actual club foot. Kathleen is quite annoyed.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Ava reveals to Kathleen that she pushed her husband to be in Kathleen's play not to encourage him to keep acting but in fact the exact opposite, because she knew that working with a toxic nightmare like Kathleen would make him tired of acting forever. She then calls Kathleen a freak under her breath as she walks off.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard:
- All Michael and Kathleen had to do was end the show after Ava's death, lie low for a while and collect the money before heading away together. But Kathleen, Large Ham as she is, was so flushed at the attention the death was getting that she insisted on doing one more performance, which gives Charlie the chance to figure out what happened.
- The duo used their mics for the hearing disabled as part of their plot, and one of those is used on them for an Engineered Public Confession.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Charlie comes to Kathleen with her idea that Michael rigged the trap door to kill her, Kathleen tries to deflect her suspicions pointing out that he wouldn't rig the spotlight to kill himself. Charlie, who hadn't even considered the possibility of the spotlight being rigged, goes to investigate, catches evidence incriminating Kathleen, finds out they acted together and uncovers the rest of the plot.
- Inheritance Murder: The murder was done so that Kathleen and Michael could be in their own sort of throuple: them, and Ava's money.
- It's All My Fault: Phil thinks Ava's death was his fault for drinking his whiskey and not realizing what was wrong with the trapdoor until it was too late.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Rebecca is saved from being murdered by the two for attempting to blackmail them. We don't see her getting punished for trying to make money off the murder, but it is safe to assume thanks to the two's confession being recorded, she's not going to see a penny of her demands.
- Long Game: The talk between Kathleen and Michael indicates they cooked up this scheme before Michael even met Ava, meaning he wooed her, married her and they spent months together before Kathleen showed up with the "play offer."
- Make It Look Like an Accident: How the pair kill Ava, as Michael pretends he's having a heart attack on stage after a light fixture nearly falls on him and when Ava races to check on him, she falls through a trap door with the protective mat below removed, breaking her neck (and probably her skull). Michael even set it up with him taking an "accidental" fall before to make it appear it was faulty.
- May–December Romance: Ava is certainly decades younger than Michael. Hell, Kathleen even mentions the trope by name.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Kathleen's dog, Fosse.
- Noodle Incident: When Michael loses his final straw falling onto the crash mat before rehearsal and Kathleen threatens him over past affairs of his, he claims he'll put out a chapter in his memoirs about something that happened in Acapulco (which required him to sign an NDA) to take her down with him. As he and Kathleen were in the murder plot together, it's debatable if something actually happened or if that was more acting to make people think they hate each other.
- Oh, Crap!: Phil, when he realizes there's no bolt holding the trapdoor up. Michael & Kathleen share one later when they realize they've had their Engineered Public Confession.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Charlie doesn't like Kathleen (for obvious reasons), but even she's teary-eyed at Kathleen's monologue to end the play.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Rebecca sees her discovery of Kathleen and Michael's murder plot not as something she should inform the cops about right away, but an opportunity for a cool $5 million.
- Plot Allergy: When Michael and Kathleen get blackmailed by Rebecca, Kathleen tries to trigger her deadly peanut allergy by putting peanut dog treats in the bowl she was going to eat from during the play.
- Recycled Script: The duo do this In-Universe, as they not only lifted their Fake Alibi from an episode of "Spooky and the Cop", they used the same dialogue verbatim according to Rebecca.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- The reveal that Michael and Kathleen were working together all along puts much of their earlier encounters in a new light. Watching the scene of Kathleen begging Michael to be in the play with her, it's clear the pair are putting on a performance for the watching Ava to make it sound like they're enemies who haven't talked in years.
- In the scene that juxtaposes both of Michael and Kathleen's seemingly unrelated murder attempts, they are clearly answering each other in their rantings, despite being apart and with no way to talk to one another. At first it seems a standard use of Two Scenes, One Dialogue, but in hindsight it's obvious they're actually saying rehearsed lines to establish an alibi.
- The Show Must Go On: After realizing they've been found out, Kathleen and Michael resolve to go out with a bang, giving the best performances of their lives before the cops come for them.
- Slipping a Mickey: The duo drugged Phil's whiskey thermos with Ambien to ensure he'll be unconscious and allow Michael to replace the trapdoor's bolt and move the crash mat.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Kathleen's biggest credit is a goofy "psychic cop" show from thirty years earlier, but she carries herself like she's a world-famous award-winning actress who rants at anyone disturbing her "craft."
- Stylistic Suck:
- Whoever wrote Frankly Franklin, the Hamilton knockoff Charlie watches with Ben Franklin as the focus, Lin-Manuel Miranda they ain't.
- The play's real
. It is in fact not good. There's a song sung by Franklin's gout.
- "Ghosts of Pensacola" looks corny as hell, and the hammy melodramatic acting doesn't help.
- The writers actually planned to have a whole montage of bad plays, including an all-white version of The Wiz and Oedipus: The Musical. Only a poster for the latter made it into the episode.
- Verbal Backspace: As the show is getting close to opening night, Kathleen grills Phil on the stage mat for her fall at the show's finale, after he has said it's not safe. When she says she did that fall every night for a year, he starts saying "That was a long time, uh..." and stops when he sees Kathleen give him a Death Glare and dare him to say "ago". Phil wisely decides to go check on the mat.
- Villainous Valour: Knowing that they're done for and will definitely be arrested after the curtain call, Kathleen and Michael decide to deliver one last (and this time, truly moving) performance on stage rather than make a run for it or try to get revenge. One has to respect the commitment to the art.
- Weaponized Allergy: Kathleen attempts to trick Rebecca, who's allergic to peanuts, into eating peanuts instead of paying her off.
- Wham Line: After Ava's death, Kathleen confronts Michael... and both smile.
Kathleen: That was the performance of a lifetime.
Michael: You did it, darling.
Kathleen: We did it. (the pair kiss)
