A young tech-company CEO is found with a knife in his back and hanging from a tree after skydiving out of a plane. Evidence confirms that he wasn't stabbed before he exited the plane or after he landed, and the seemingly inescapable conclusion is that he was stabbed in mid-air.
Tropes:
- Body in a Breadbox: The victim is found hanging from a tree by a parachute harness, with a knife in his back. As soon as the team establishes that he was alive when he jumped out of the plane, and the coroner confirms that he was dead before he landed, they're left with wondering how he could possibly have been stabbed in midair.Marlon: So would that mean that... the sky is our crime scene?
- Broken Pedestal: Zach Ogilvy was revered throughout the world as a genius entrepreneur, but everyone who went to work for his company quickly learned that he was an abusive, emotionally manipulative tyrant.
- Call-Back: Commissioner Patterson takes Florence to the scene where she was shot and her fiancee was killed, in Season Eight.
- Chekhov's Gun: Marlon is fascinated with the specs of the aircraft the victim jumped from, particularly its rapid takeoff and landing capabilities. The rest of the team brushes him off, until he mentions to Parker, after the plane has departed without him, that it will be back on the ground within ten minutes.
- Control Freak: Zach Ogilvy.
- Face Your Fears: Parker overcomes his terror of heights and prepares to skydive, believing that "someone has to inspect the crime scene."
- Faint in Shock: Marlon comforts Parker that lots of people faint before their first skydive - albeit usually not before they've even boarded the plane.
- Never My Fault:
- Zach triggered his killer's Berserk Button by saying he can't be held accountable for his son's death; the boy had a preexisting heart condition, it's not Zach's fault if some people are just born with "bad genes."
- On a more humorous note, Parker's attempt to "inspect the crime scene" by skydiving is interrupted when he faints before he even boards the plane. He says his harness must be too tight, making it hard for him to breathe.
- Never Suicide: Parker is able to rule out suicide fairly quickly, since the knife in the victim's back was in a position that he couldn't possibly have reached himself.
- Not Worth Killing: Interviewing Zach's best friend and business partner Chad, the latter admits to most of the ugly things the team has discovered about Zach, but insists that murdering him wasn't necessary: after the company went public, Zach was answerable to a board of directors, and the "wheels were already in motion" to force him out.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Parker, panting, tells Florence that he's learned that a person has to face their fears head-on; he's talking about his resolve to skydive from a plane and emulate the victim's last moments, but Florence hears what she needs to finally accept the undercover assignment in Jamaica.
- Sexual Extortion: Zach's lawyer admits to having an affair with him, and that he tried to blackmail her when she tried to end it.
- Tempting Fate:
- When Parker comes into the station in the morning, he reminds Naomi and Marlon that Florence will be absent for most of the day, but hopefully it should be a quiet day. Then the phones light up.
- Marlon asks Parker if he has any interest in skydiving; Parker, deadpan, asks if he looks like that sort of person, and Marlon, Florence, and Naomi all share a chuckle. Near the end of the episode, Parker feels he has no choice but to jump out of a plane to "inspect the crime scene."
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Naomi takes a call on one line to report a missing skydiver; Marlon takes a call on another line from a pair of hikers who reported finding a body in a tree hanging from a parachute. Once they hang up, they realize they've just heard about the same person.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: The killer, once arrested, says he's avenged the death of his son. Parker says yes, he has, but it doesn't seem to have brought him complete peace.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: As Parker and the team delve deeper, everyone in his entourage admits to a motive for wanting Zach dead.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Zach Ogilvy was clever enough to survive his killer's first attempt to murder him. Unfortunately, confronting that killer face to face, with no one watching, threw that cleverness out the window.
- You Killed My Son: The killer's motive.
