Sarah, Charlie and Rex are introduced to the world of high art after art gallery curator Joshua Spall is murdered during a robbery at the Spall Gallery.
Tropes:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Chloe secretly hated working for Joshua, calling him a tyrant with impossible standards. She was going to do an interview for her dream job as a curator at the art museum and wrote a reference letter in Joshua’s name and forged his signature, knowing that her boss wouldn’t support her decision to leave. When Joshua found out what Chloe had done, he was so furious about her betraying his trust that he fired her and told her that not only would he make it so that she would lose her interview, she would never find work in another gallery room again. Chloe ended up killing Joshua with a box cutter out of blind desperation, wiped and stashed the blade, and scrambled to put together an alibi using Joshua’s phone and used the unrelated robbery to strengthen it. After getting arrested, Chloe laments that all she wanted was a change in her life. Charlie points out that she got her wish, as Chloe will be going from a gallery room to a prison cell.
- Foreshadowing:
- At the beginning of the episode, Joshua’s assistant Chloe Shipman claims that she left the gallery at eight while Joshua stayed, with Joshua having sent her a text at ten telling her to come in early the following morning, showing Charlie her phone at the same time which has a surrealist art design on it. Yet in the footage of her leaving the gallery the night of the murder, the phone she has in her back pocket has a different design on it. It’s Joshua’s phone. Chloe took it with her after murdering him to help create her alibi.
- Phoenix claims that while his pieces are his, he only provides the blueprints while his assistants are the ones who actually create the physical versions. One of Phoenix's assistants Frederick Bouchard also mentions that bakelite is used in the making of many of the former's pieces. Frederick had snuck in to the gallery by making the base of one of Phoenix's recently-delivered statues hollow instead of solid, with the forged painting partially made from bakelite also being made by him.
- Hugh suggested to Veronica that she buy Spall Gallery from the bank and let him run it as a way to honor Joshua, with Veronica mentioning that the gallery holds a special place in her heart for making her a good profit over the years. This alludes to Hugh being the mastermind behind the art heist and Veronica’s involvement of secretly buying and selling stolen art.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Veronica Kaatchi to Hugh Reid. Through satellite imaging, Jesse figures out that Veronica is the Russian buyer she told Hugh about. The ownership of the boat she’s seen on traces back to a European company with ties to Veronica, with Jesse theorizing that she created the Russian as a means to buy stolen art but still keep her hands clean. Donovan mentions that he’ll have Interpol look into it and that maybe they can connect her with more stolen art. Pretty much everything else that happens in the episode (barring Joshua’s murder) can also be traced back to her in some way.
- The Heist:
- The thief who broke into Spall Gallery and supposedly killed Joshua stole a statue made by an up-and-coming artist known as Phoenix. However, the trail leads to the revelation that the thief ended up destroying the statue with the SJPD trying to figure out the reason as to why. It’s because the statue was a decoy to throw off the police from the real target, the most valuable painting in the gallery which was replaced with a forgery. The thief however, is not responsible for Joshua’s murder.
- Hugh devised a plan to steal the Spall Gallery’s most valuable painting (a Marc Legache painting valued at over two to three million dollars at auction), believing that if he had gained some cache of his own, then Joshua would want him back. He involved Frederick in his plan knowing that he was ambitious and believed that he could create a convincing forgery (though Hugh regretted it later as Frederick was quick to rat him out and pin Joshua’s murder on him after getting arrested). After the heist was completed, Hugh went to see Veronica at the auction to try and sell it to her, but she refused due to the theft still being hot and instead hooked him up with a Russian buyer in exchange for a small finder’s fee.
- Hidden Depths: Sarah reveals herself to be an art buff, knowing a lot about several of the pieces being sold at the auction Veronica Kaatchi is attending.
- Manipulative Bitch: Veronica Kaatchi, according to Hugh Reid, anyway, as he blames her for Joshua choosing to cut ties with him. He’s not wrong about her being manipulative though, as the Russian buyer she told him about for selling the stolen painting is Veronica herself.
- Oh, Crap!: Played for Laughs. At the art auction Veronica is supposedly attending, Charlie accidentally bids thirty grand on a painting when trying to get Sarah’s attention when she walks through the door. Fortunately, someone else bids higher than him.
- Older Than They Look: The latest picture of Veronica showing her face (as she always hides her face from the cameras) was twenty years ago, and she looks almost exactly the same in the present day.
- Spotting the Thread: After killing Joshua, Chloe took his phone with her and sent herself a text telling her to come in early the next morning so she could plant the phone at the crime scene for forensics to find. Chloe had no knowledge that the gallery would be robbed the same night, but she used it to frame the thieves for the murder and strengthen her alibi even more. The only mistake she made was letting Joshua’s phone be caught on camera in her back pocket, which allowed Charlie to put two and two together and figure out that Chloe was Joshua’s murderer after arresting the culprits behind the art theft and hearing their sides of the story. Charlie even admits that if not for that one mistake, Chloe’s alibi would’ve been perfect.
- Tragic Dream:
- Frederick wanted to become an even bigger artist than his boss Phoenix, having agreed to help Hugh with the art theft as it would make him enough money to buy his own studio. Too bad he ended up getting arrested when the SJPD figured out his involvement in the crime.
- Hugh devised the art theft because he wanted to make enough cache for Joshua to want him back and patch things up with him. All of his efforts were rendered moot when Joshua was murdered and Hugh was left scrambling to find a buyer for the stolen painting, eventually leading to his arrest.
- Chloe wanted to get out from working under Joshua and landed an interview for her dream job as a curator for the art museum. Unfortunately, events instead led to her not only losing her interview, but also murdering Joshua and landing herself in jail for it.
- Trojan Horse: Frederick was hired by Hugh to help him steal the Spall Gallery’s most valuable painting in exchange for a fifteen percent cut of the profit. The plan involved Frederick hiding in a hollow base of a recently delivered statue until it was time to emerge and steal the sculpture as a decoy and the painting as the real target and replace it with a forgery made from bakelite. He claims that he found Joshua already dead on the floor and assumed Hugh killed him to frame Frederick and keep the all the money for himself. The earbuds Frederick wore while hiding also prevented him from hearing Chloe kill Joshua.
- We Used to Be Friends: Joshua and Hugh Reid used to be business and life partners until six months ago when the former got support from Veronica Kaatchi, obtaining access to her collection on the condition that he run his gallery according to her every whim and fancy. Hugh made the mistake of standing up to her, resulting in Joshua breaking things off with him (Hugh believes Veronica made Joshua do it or else she would cut all ties with him if he didn’t). Hugh then tried to start his own gallery, only to become blacklisted and closed down after only three months, nearly bankrupting him, and deciding to wash his hands of the art world. At least until Hugh decided to rob the Spall Gallery in an attempt to get enough cache for Joshua to want him back.
