When Donovan’s ex-wife and Camilla’s mother Wendy Larson, a recovering addict, wakes up in her apartment to find blood on her hands and her roommate Diandra Popovich stabbed to death on her bed with a letter opener, Charlie and Rex set out to find the truth and the secrets of the organization Excellium.
Tropes:
- Cult: Excellium is considered to be this by people outside of the organization, as membership involves new members exposing their deepest darkest secrets which can be used as insurance. Wendy used to be a member before she left because she realized how much time and money she had wasted on them and was also the one who got Diandra involved.
- Domestic Abuser: Jay Piper. He approaches Diandra in her isolation chamber claiming he has the means to finally expose Excellium for their crimes and that the two of them could celebrate it by fulfilling their dreams, only for Diandra to turn him down because of her loyalty to the organization and that she legitimately wants to kick her addiction. Later, he snucks into her room while she is asleep and spikes her water with a fatal dosage of crushed fentanyl pills, killing her. He claims that he loves Diandra but she never returned his affections, with Charlie summing up their whole relationship as Jay using Diandra, the information she possessed, and her death to boost his writing career and be seen as the hero when Excellium is taken down for Diandra's death in addition to all their other crimes. He almost gets away with it if not for Rex finding the bottle he used to mix the fentanyl into Diandra's water in the garbage outside the building where the isolation chambers were.Charlie: (after revealing the bottle) You might have gone with these good intentions, but you clearly had a backup plan in place. The author emerges as a hero, helps the police expose and take down a parasitic cult, the same one that was responsible for his own girlfriend’s tragic demise. You go ahead and convince yourself this was about love, and that it was an accident. Me? I’m going with greed, and premeditated murder.
- Frame-Up:
- Wendy is forced to become Excellium’s scapegoat for Diandra’s murder or else they would expose her secrets, admitting to killing her while in a blackout high. The real truth is that after finding Diandra’s body, Laura had her transported back to Wendy’s apartment and planted fake evidence to make it look like Wendy killed her while tricking Wendy into eating a brownie laced with hydrocodone to loosen her inhibitions.
- Later turns out to be a frame up of a frame up, as Jay was the one who killed Diandra and planned to have Excellium take the fall for her death while making himself look like a hero for helping with the investigation.
- He Knows Too Much: When Charlie gets close to the truth behind Diandra's murder and uncovering all of Excellium's crimes, Laura has her employee Max try to kill him by running him down in the SJPD parking lot, if not for Rex saving him. Unfortunately for Laura, Max’s addiction to eating sunflower seeds gives him away as Charlie’s assailant when the latter finds a pile of seeds in one corner of the lot. Charlie later comments that conspiracy to commit murder is going to be added to Laura’s list of crimes and that the judge he knows doesn’t like to hear when an attempt is made on an officer’s life.
- The Informant: Wendy used to be an informant years ago before going into rehab.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Although Laura and Excellium as a whole are guilty of multiple crimes, she does have a valid point about why she couldn’t be Diandra’s murderer: It wouldn't make sense to tempt members in isolation chambers with fatal doses as it would hurt her brand. This prompts Charlie to go back to the isolation chambers and do a further investigation, where he and Rex find evidence pointing to the real culprit behind Diandra’s murder.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Laura does have good intentions of helping addicts, the way she goes about it is completely immoral. From locking people in rooms with illegal drugs to try and combat their addictions to making them confess their secrets so she can blackmail and bully them into full loyalty to protect her own. There is also the fact that she has no problem trying to frame an innocent woman for a crime she didn’t commit or trying to murder an officer of the law when they get close to figuring out the truths and crimes of her organization. To put it simply, Laura cares less about helping addicts and more about using them to protect herself and her personal interests from the law.
- Pen Name: The real name of the writer who wrote the article about Excellium and their controversies, Martin Booker, is Diandra's boyfriend Jay Piper.
- Recovered Addict: Up until the start of the episode, Wendy had been sober for ten months. She was waiting until it had been a year before she would reveal her progress to Donovan and Camilla until she apparently relapsed. She’s still considered sober, as Wendy was tricked into eating a brownie laced with hydrocodone to loosen her inhibitions as part of Laura’s plan to frame her for Diandra’s murder by making it look like Wendy killed her in a blackout. Since Wendy did not consume the drugs knowingly, her sobriety is still intact.
- Tampering with Food and Drink:
- The brownie Diandra left for Wendy at the beginning of the episode was laced with hydrocodone, which loosened Wendy’s inhibitions and caused herself to drink and drug herself into a blackout. It was actually from Laura Klume, who used Wendy’s blackout to move Diandra’s body from her isolation chamber into her former bedroom, changed her clothes and stabbed her body with a letter opener to make it look like Wendy killed her.
- Jay murdered Diandra by sneaking into her isolation chamber while she was gone and spiking her water with a fatal dosage of fentanyl.
- Tranquil Fury: Despite his usual tone when talking to Laura, Charlie is very understandably pissed off at her for trying to kill him, stating that he’s going to be adding conspiracy to commit murder to her list of crimes just because he's “feeling plucky”.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Excellium does legitimately care about the health of its members, but the ways they go about trying to help them kick their addictions are seen as unorthodox and cruel, such as blackmailing their members with their own secrets to ensure loyalty. The organization’s founder Laura Klume claims that it is all in order to achieve the best possible results. It starts veering into Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist when the multiple crimes they've committed are brought to light, such as possession of narcotics, obstruction of justice, and indignities to a human body. There’s also the fact that Laura has no problem with trying to frame an innocent woman for murder or kill an officer of the law to protect her personal interests.
