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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mysteries_of_the_past_teaser_6.png]]
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3''Criminal Case: Mysteries of the Past'' is the fourth game of the ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'' series, released in 2016. It is set in the Victorian era.
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5Following SOMBRA's defeat, Armand Dupont gives his Bureau colleagues [[NestedStory the journal of his great-grandfather Charles]], detailing the adventures he had in the city of Concordia, as a member of the Flying Squad, with a detective that looks just like the player. The Flying Squad deal with the rise of gang warfare and the corruption plaguing the police force. The story takes place in the 19th Century around ten districts - New Haven, Elysium Hills, Century Mile, Sinner's End, Coyote Gorge, Crimson Banks, Wolf Street, Grim Chapel, Ivory Hill, and Capitol Peak.
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7!!Tropes:
8* AdvertisedExtra: One wonders why Lady Highmore is on the preview images for the arc, as she appears as a suspect in two cases in Elysium Fields and made minor appearances afterwards. This is especially unusual since she's occupying the place usually taken by the chief of police of the season.
9* AliceAllusion: One of the suspects in ''Doctor, Interrupted'' is Alice Riddel, a young girl who carries around a white rabbit, sees delusions of fantastic creatures, and often invites the Player to have a tea party with her.
10* BedlamHouse: The second half of the Grim Chapel district focuses on investigating Gryphon Sanctuary, a mental asylum where [[{{Lobotomy}} lobotomies]] and [[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture electroshock therapy]] are common [[spoiler:and completely sane people are being hospitalized by the corrupt [[AristocratsAreEvil Rochester family]]]].
11* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Rochester family, a prominent and corrupt family in Concordia, has witnessed infighting within. There are few WhiteSheep among them, such as Leopold, Rockley, Bernadine, and [[spoiler:Viola]].
12* BluffingTheMurderer: In ''Breaking the Glass Ceiling'', Madeline got the killer to confess by saying that the note they sent to the victim revealed their fear of heights. The accused sealed their fate when they denied writing such a thing on said note.
13* BubblegumPopping: Lab Chief Viola Pemberton, will blow and pop gum on occasion in the lab.
14* CallForward: In ''That Sinking Feeling'', we meet several minor characters who mention that they are going to board the ''Gigantic'' ship--which, as we already know from the [[VideoGame/CriminalCasePacificBay Pacific Bay]] Arc, is going to sink.
15* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Despite Concordia being mostly a PoliticallyCorrectHistory, the game does make several attempts to show a different set cultural values prevalent in the late Victorian Era, such as mentioning the taboos of living together before marriage, bearing a child out of wedlock, etc.
16* DirtyCop: The Concordian Police Department is filled with some of these, which leads to the inception of the Concordian Flying Squad as the InternalAffairs to investigate them.
17* EnemyMine: BountyHunter Catastrophe Joan has a bitter history with Rose, who is formerly a bounty hunter herself. But the two made amends in order to bring down [[spoiler:Vittorio Cappecchi and his goons when the latter challenged the Flying Squad to a shoot-out]].
18* IdenticalGrandson: The detective described by Charlie Dupont's journals looks and acts almost exactly the same as the player, and is likely their ancestor. This is {{Subverted|Trope}} at the end of season 8, where a descendent of Charlie and Maddie is talking with Amy Young, and reveals that the player character actually knew Charlie. It's not an IdenticalGrandson, it's TimeTravel -- just like in season 6.
19* InternalAffairs: The MythArc set-up for Season 4. Rumours of the possible corruption within the Concordian Police Force have led to the inception of the Flying Squad.
20* InVinoVeritas: The reason for Anna Jewell's death in ''Get off Your High Horse''. [[spoiler:Anna knew "Princess Eliza Rheinberg of Splichtenstein" had really been Eliza Fairfax, a poor flower girl from when both were childhood friends. Later in life Eliza took on her Princess Persona. Anna recognized Eliza at a soiree, however, and Anna began talking more when she got drunk. Afraid [[HeKnowsTooMuch Anna would expose her]] Eliza initially tried to talk to Anna in the stables, but her temper got the better of her, causing her to bash her one-time childhood friend's head in with a stirrup.]]
21* JackTheRipoff: The Scarlet Slayer has several similarities with the infamous UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Both killers were active during the late Victorian era, primarily targeted female prostitutes, and killed their victims in areas of poverty and corruption.
22* KarmaHoudini: Mr. Alastor spent the entire Elysium Fields arc setting up proxy-murders in order to impress [[spoiler:Giuletta Capecchi]]. After his scheme is discovered, he... gets away with all of it because he technically didn't kill anyone and couldn't be convicted by law.
23* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: "Mr. Alastor" eventually ends up being the victim [[spoiler:in ''Tipping the Scales'', as his father had tried to double-cross Archie's murderer by not intending to honor promises to the murderer made in return for supporting turning Concordia into a family city-state.]]
24* LoonyFan: The killer of ''The New Truth!'' killed [[spoiler:Judge Takakura]] for criticizing Justin Lawson, whom she idolized.
25* MayorPain: Mayor [[spoiler:Lawson]] quickly turns into a ruthless dictator in his quest to rid Concordia of crime, forming a secret police answerable only to him, mandating the death penalty for any crime regardless of its severity, imposing censorship on the press, and ordering the arrest of anyone who opposes his policies.
26* NestedStory: The plot of Season 4 is derived from the memoirs of Charles Dupont, the great-grandfather of Armand Dupont.
27* PlotArchaeology: [[AristocratsAreEvil The Rochester family's corruption]] and evasion of justice are brought up during Elysium Fields, the game's second district, as the ArcVillain ends up being a KarmaHoudini for his actions due to how powerful and influential his family is, but nothing is really resolved and the Rochesters mostly disappear from the story when you leave Elysium Fields. Twenty-four cases later, though, you reach Wolf Street, the game's seventh district and where the Rochesters officially become the main focus of the story for the next three arcs as you attempt to dismantle their corruption machine and stronghold over the city.
28* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Despite being set in the late 19th Century - early 20th Century in the USA, the cast of the fourth season is somehow more ''diverse'' than most of the other seasons, which are set in modern times. There is a distinct lack of prejudice against people of colour and/or different sexuality. The Concordian Flying Squad alone features 2 black characters (Isaac and Violet), 1 Asian (Rose), a lesbian (Evie), and later joined by 1 Latino (Diego), and that's not counting the city officials, which features a black mayor, an Asian deputy mayor and an Asian judge. By contrast, the Grimsborough PD initially has two non-whites--Nathan (Indian) and Ramirez (Hispanic); the Pacific Bay team has 3--Chief Marquez (Hispanic), Yann (black) and Hannah (Asian, and also a lesbian); The Bureau has 2 non-whites at first--Angela (Asian) and Carmen (Hispanic), although they are later joined by Jonah Karam (black) and Michelle (AmbiguouslyBrown).
29* SelfOffense: The violent gang war taking place in Crimson Bank eventually caused one street kid to accidentally kill another when the former thought he was being attacked by a gang member.
30* ShaggyDogStory: The conclusion of the Ivory Hill arc ends with this. The Flying Squad had spent the entire 6 cases trying to stop [[spoiler:the Rochesters]] from rising to power and enacting a bill that would end free press. They manage to dismantle [[spoiler:the family's power and influence over Concordia]], only for the bill to be enacted anyway when [[spoiler:Justin Lawson becomes the Mayor]].
31* ShootYourMate: [[spoiler:Diego del Lobo]] is forced to kill his former teammate [[spoiler:Charlie]] while he's trying to infiltrate into Justin Lawson's inner circle to take him down. Lawson, who has been on a crackdown on the [[spoiler:Concordian Flying Squad]], orders [[spoiler:Diego, who is living under the alias of Eddie Lebold]] to execute [[spoiler:Charlie]] when they are meeting up to discuss their plans to prove his loyalty to him.
32* ShoutOut: In The Victim's Vault scene of [[Recap/CriminalCaseMysteriesOfThePastCase37DeathComesToLunch "Case 37: Death Comes to Lunch"]], there is a satirical version of ''Art/GirlWithAPearlEarring''.
33* {{Steampunk}}: What the main aesthetics of this season are, mechanical arms, airships, top hats with goggles, an entire district dedicated to invention, the works.
34* TakingTheHeat: [[spoiler:Leopold Rochester]] allows himself to be arrested for [[spoiler:endorsing investment bonds in a company that doesn't exist]] even though he's not actually involved in the scam. [[spoiler:Larry was the one behind the fake company and Leopold endorsed it, believing that his wayward son had finally made use of his life. When the player revealed the truth, Leopold took the fall in order to protect Larry from being arrested.]]
35* UnderStrangeManagement: The heroes, who are essentialy police InternalAffairs end up running a telephone company when they discover that it's a scam and try to salvage it so that all the locals who invested in it won't lose their money.

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