Carmen: <Player's Name>, I've loved traveling the world with you, but I admit I'm glad to be back stateside!
The Bureau visits the city of San Francisco in California, U.S., to attend a USStay rally being held by Sandy Turner, head of the movement, to learn more about the political tension going on in the country. After briefly speaking with him, Carmen and the player see Sandy leaving for another rally on his car, which doesn't manage to go far before an explosion inside of the vehicle kills Sandy and gravely injures his driver.
Tropes:
- All Take and No Give: Laetitia Badu, Sandy's campaign manager and mistress, accused him of not putting a lot of effort in their relationship, even believing he was just using her to advance with his movement.
- Almost Dead Guy: James Parker, Sandy's driver, manages to give you some advice about where to investigate next moments before perishing from his injuries, which helps you catch his killer in the end.Dupont: Before he passed away, James' last words were for you. He said: "the pin... rally..." I don't know what he was trying to say.
- Assassination Attempt: The killer was paid by someone claiming to be part of the USNay to assassinate Sandy and disrupt the USStay movement even further.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: During the Additional Investigation, Jack dresses in drag as part of a challenge issued by Chockas, prompting Lars to fall in love with "her" until Jack removes his wig.
- Call-Back: Chockas D.Lux, who appeared in Case 35, comes back as a suspect here.
- Choosing Neutrality: Sarah Bennett claims she can't choose a side between the USStay and USNay movements since, as the Vice President of the United States, she has to remain completely neutral in those kinds of affairs. For this reason, she couldn't provide Sandy with federal agents for security as he had requested.
- Collateral Damage: James Parker, the victim's driver, also died as the result of the injuries sustained by the explosion that killed Sandy.
- The Cynic: Terrance Williams has this kind of take on things, believing the United States should leave the Unified Nations because, in today's world, every country is practically on their own.Terrance: But, like, come on! Turner's ideas were stupid! Staying in the Unified Nations? "Believing in the world"? I'm too busy believing in my student debt! It's clear the current system is broken!At least the USNay people are honest. It's a dog eat dog world! Power, not friendship, rules the world.Carmen: That's a cynical view to take, Mr Williams
- Disguised in Drag: In the Additional Investigation, Jack dresses like a woman after Chockas challenges him to see if he's really the Master of Disguise he claims to be. Cue Lars falling in love with him.
- Drugs Are Bad: By the end of this case, Jack definitely acquires this mentality after getting high, claiming he wants to join SOMBRA, and accepting Chocka's Disguised in Drag challenge, which leads to Lars falling in love with him.Jack: <Player's Name>, please bury me under a headstone that says, "And this is why drugs are bad for you!"
- Erudite Stoner: Two of the killer's traits is that they smoke weed and also that they know sufficiently advanced electronics to fabricate a bomb, making them this.
- External Combustion: Subverted. At first, it appears that Sandy's car was rigged so it would explode and kill him, but Grace later discovers the real cause of the explosion was a tie pin that the killer discretely put on Sandy's clothes.
- Face–Heel Turn: Subverted. At the end of Chapter 2, Jack appears claiming he wants to stop fighting SOMBRA and has decided to join them, but turns out he's just high.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Carmen does this with Jack after discovering he's high.Carmen: Jack Percival Archer! Are you high? You stink of weed!Jack: High? Me? Nooooooo.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Terrance, an avid USNay supporter, murdered Sandy after being paid by members of the USNay, since he was getting desperate for money to pay his college tuition.
- Handy Remote Control: The killer used one of these to detonate the bomb they implanted in Sandy's clothes, allowing them to kill him from far away.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Jack asks Lars and the player to never mention how he disguised himself as a woman and Lars fell in love with him ever again.
- The Man Behind the Man: Unsurprisingly, Elliot discovers that the USNay representatives who paid Terrance to kill Sandy are also part of SOMBRA, which makes Carmen deduce that SOMBRA has either infiltrated the movement or they're the ones who created it in the first place.
- Mushroom Samba: Jack gets high on (legal) cannabis during the case, prompting him to say he'll join SOMBRA and accepting Chocka's challenge of dressing himself as a woman.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Elliot implies this regarding Jack and his little weed incident.Elliot: Is it true Jack got high as a kite and said he'd join SOMBRA? Man, I'm never letting him live this down!
- Picky Eater: When Carmen and the player analyze a sample that allows them to deduce the killer eats quinoa, Sanjay barges in to tell her he doesn't want to eat that stuff, which Carmen has apparently been trying to make him to.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Vice President Sarah Bennett is quite helpful with you while also time abstaining from taking a side between the USStay and USNay movements, a wise choice amidst the political tension breaking down the country.
- Repeated for Emphasis: Elliot does this after he finishes analyzing Sandy's phone.Elliot: I expected better from a phone owned by the leader of the USStay movement! The encryption on it was mediocre! Mediocre, I tell you!
- Secret Relationship: Sandy and his campaign manager Laetitia Badu were having a secret affair that you just casually discover, although Laetitia suspected Sandy was just using her to further advance his political campaign.
- Shout-Out:
- Laetitia Badu resembles Olivia Pope.
- Hunter McFarlane resembles Conor Mcgregor.
- Sarah Bennett has the same name as the protagonist of Slasher.
- Slave to PR: As you learn throughout the case, Sandy had become so deeply invested with keeping his followers happy that he was turning away from people who helped him in the past but now were giving him a "questionable" image, such as Chockas D.Lux (who was supposed to give a show during Sandy's rally but got cancelled at last minute) and Hunter McFarlane (who had donated thousands of dollars to the USStay movement while Sandy refused to promote his cannabis business).
- Stalker without a Crush: During the investigation, you find tons of pictures of Sandy in Terrance's phone, who claims he was just following him as part of a college project. However, this was probably part of Terrance's plan to murder Sandy.
- The Team Benefactor: A villainous example with SOMBRA, who you discover has been donating tons of money to the USNay movement to further divide the country. They're even the ones who paid Terrance to kill Sandy.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky: Apart from being against the USStay movement, Terrance was also desperate to get money since he needed to pay for his college tuition, and he saw killing Sandy as an appropriate way to obtain it.
- Vice President Who?: Averted. Vice President Sarah Bennett is shown to be a respected Reasonable Authority Figure across the country, who according to Carmen is even more liked than the President himself.Carmen: I wrote an article on Sarah Bennett in my journalist days. Many people say that choosing her as his running mate was the smartest thing the President's ever done!
- You Do Not Want To Know: Lars says this after Chief Ripley asks just what happened to Jack during the Additional Investigation.Chief Ripley: I'm glad that Jack's been found, even if no one will tell me what that was about...Lars: Trust me, Chief, you don't want to know.
