Sheriff Bronson Stone's career is in jeopardy after his idol, the legendary wild west lawman Dead Justice (Powers Boothe), returns and starts cleaning up Crystal Cove. Naturally, Mystery Inc. feels something is amiss, so they team up with Sheriff Stone in order to solve the mystery.
The episode provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: For Sheriff Stone.
- Acrofatic: Deputy Bucky is overweight, but evidently can move fast despite his girth since he turns out to be the real face behind Dead Justice.
- A Sinister Clue: Inverted. Velma realizes that something is off about Dead Justice because he isn't left-handed, whereas the original Dead Justice was.
- Badass Boast:Dead Justice: Sheriff Stone, yer the worst lawman this side o' Heaven and Hades. And believe me, I've been to both.
- Bait-and-Switch: After Dead Justice rejects his Crimey Award and makes a dramatic exit, everyone looks frightened before applauding how cool he was.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Deputy Bucky is introduced showering Sheriff Stone with praise. It later turns out that he was dressing as Dead Justice to discredit Sheriff Stone because he was bitter never being considered applicable for sheriff.
- Breather Episode: A fairly humorous episode that comes between the plot relevant and creepy "A Haunting In Crystal Cove" and the intense and emotionally draining two-part season finale.
- Brown Bag Mask: After he's fired, Sheriff Stone wears a paper bag on his head while working at the Clam Cabin, out of embarrassment.
- Cartridges in Flight: The "demon bullets" Dead Justice fires are Bullet Bill-style whole cartridges. Justified, because Bucky was producing them with laser holograms.
- Chekhov's Gag: Sheriff Stone wearing a mask and wig of an old woman that somehow also manages to fit his hat and using this disguise to lure out a criminal only to be one-upped by Dead Justice comes back when he disguises himself as a criminal to lure out Dead Justice. It works.
- Disco Dan: The Night Ranger, who wears a Miami Vice style jacket and a pair of ray bans.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Piranha-Goat, who doesn't get the chance to do more than swipe some documents and bleat a bit before Dead Justice lassos him. Poor critter didn't even get an unmasking...
- Enemy Mine: The Gang teams up with Sheriff Stone for this one.
- Facial Horror: Dead Justice only has a few straps of flash on his mostly-skeletal face, like an even worse-looking version of Jonah Hex.
- Fan Disservice: The Night Ranger shirtless.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Bucky's promotion exams have some amusing answers if you pause to read them.
- Foreshadowing: The Sheriff's mother and the Sheriff himself declare him as "Sheriff Bronson Stone". The gang doesn't catch on to the fact that Sheriff really is a part of his name until he literally says that it's his given name and not a title when Mayor Jones asks his to Turn in Your Badge.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Sheriff Bronson Stone. Bronson isn't his first name — Sheriff is. His mother was preparing for his future in case.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Despite being in the same room as them and the group being bunched up together, Dead Justice somehow manages to miss every one of them with multiple shots. It's ultimately revealed to actually be holographic bullets that couldn't have hit them.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Downplayed. Mayor Jones is too lazy to thank Fred for solving the case, so he claims that he's late for a business meeting and walks away in the opposite direction from his workplace.
- Jerkass: The Mayor is usually this in general but stabbing his best friend in the back by firing him and not caring one bit deserves special mention.
- Kick the Dog: A bunch for Mayor Jones.
- First, he asks a hula girl to hand him the letter announcing the winner of the Crimey Award. For no known reason, he snatched it from her and glares at her before continuing.
- Despite spending the entire season seemingly liking Sheriff Stone as a friend, doesn't hesitate to give the Crimey Award to a new officer who is an undead monster because said officer can do his job better than Sheriff Stone and for free. He even tells him this to his face while grinning! He's lucky that Sheriff Stone easily forgives.
- And then he goes to look for Sheriff Stone in the middle of night so he can fire him and ask him to Turn in Your Badge, then rubs it into his face about how it would be much more advantageous to have Dead Justice over Sheriff Stone, and leaves nonchalantly even after Sheriff Stone starts crying about it.
- When Fred explicitly asks for his approval after solving the case, Jones dismisses their conversation for later, claiming that he has to go to an important business meeting... while walking away in the opposite direction from City Hall.
- Monster of the Week: Dead Justice, a ghost of Crystal Cove's sheriff from its Wild West days, returned to reclaim the title from Sheriff Stone.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who was the Piranha-Goat, and why did he/she need those stolen documents? Neither we nor the gang ever find out.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The Night Ranger to Sheriff Stone, as the ranger uses his blog to talk about how much he hates Sheriff Stone.
- Stepford Smiler: This is the episode that makes it clear Fred isn't blissfully unaware of whenever his father callously brushes him off; he just puts on a brave face.
- Taking You with Me: How Dead Justice met his end in the past, riding his horse into Nitro Wisinski's and sending them both into a volcano.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Dead Justice's creepy skeletal horse is named... Greg.
- Turn in Your Badge: Mayor Jones forces Sheriff Stone to turn in his badge after seeing Dead Justice as a more capable law enforcer.
- The Voiceless: The Night Ranger never speaks. He apparently saves it all for his blog.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Averted. Other than Fred using an onion ring as the engagement ring and apparently not knowing what graduation is, his proposal to Daphne is played surprisingly straight for Fred.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Towards the end of the episode, Fred tries to get a thank you out of his dad for stopping Dead Justice, but his dad just brushes him off. Throughout the series so far, Fred seems oblivious to it, but it turns out it upsets him but never showed it.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Sheriff is actually Sheriff Bronson Stone's first name. His mom likes to plan ahead.
- Fred: I don't know, Daph. Sometimes, when I look around, the only one I see at my side is you.
Daphne: And that's just where I belong, riding shotgun with my guy.
