Jesse goes undercover at the university when Professor Sharpe, an infamous Anthropology professor, is found murdered in his classroom, with the crime revealed to be connected to the suicide of a student named Meagan Bailey that happened weeks earlier.
Tropes
- Deadly Prank: Kevin, Alicia, and Lane got together to pull a prank on Sharpe, each with their own motives (Kevin and Alicia for what happened to Meagan, and Lane for Sharpe’s mistreatment of him). The plan involved drugging him with Rohypnol confiscated from an on-campus dealer (Alicia meant to do it at the university's pub but couldn't because the bartender was watching, so she did it at her apartment instead), then transporting him in a wheelchair to his classroom to be tarred and feathered. The latter two just wanted to humiliate him, but Kevin wanted justice for Meagan and took it a step further by using his Pre-Med knowledge to secretly intubate Sharpe's lungs and dry-drown him in Toby Whalen's car after he was drugged by Alicia before passing him off to Lane to be transported in a wheelchair to his classroom for the tarring and feathering. Alicia and Lane had no idea what Kevin did until after they covered their tracks and Sharpe was found dead, making both of them unwilling accomplices with no way out. Charlie comments that while Kevin will go down for murder, Alicia and Lane will be lucky if they get off with manslaughter.
- Driven to Suicide: A student named Meagan Bailey committed suicide three weeks before Sharpe's murder. She ingested a ton of meds and drowned herself in the university's pool after being assaulted by Kevin Conway while she was drunk, and her report of it and request for a rape kit went unprocessed due to a backlog. Sharpe's offensive and misogynistic comments on it that partially caused Meagan's suicide is the motivation for Kevin murdering him.
- Frame-Up: Toby Whalen is framed for the murder when tar and feathers are found slathered all over the steering wheel and front seat of his car. He isn't guilty of anything except selling answer sheets for Sharpe's tests to his students. Toby's car was used by Kevin to transport Sharpe to the university when he was drugged by Alicia, and it was where Kevin dry-drowned him.
- He Knows Too Much: When Jesse gets close to figuring out who killed Sharpe, Kevin drugs him with a spiked energy drink and leaves him to drown in the university’s pool.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Lane Wheatley, a campus security guard who applied to be a SJPD police officer, but didn't make the cut because of his bad leg. His registration in the SJPD applicants database is used to figure out his involvement in Sharpe's murder when his fingerprints are found on a pack of Rohypnol inside the confiscated bag of drugs and not just outside from where he mishandled the evidence.
- Jerkass: Professor Sharpe was both extremely misogynistic and racist, made offensive comments about Meagan's assault and suicide, and liked to humiliate Lane for his job, all of which which made him a lot of enemies, especially students like Alicia Gillis who took Meagan's suicide hard. Yet despite all of that, Toby Whalen (his teacher's assistant) and a few others considered him to be a genius in his field of study.
- Karmic Death: Kevin delivered one to Sharpe that mimics Megan's suicide: rendered unconscious by drugs (Megan taking drugs before jumping in the pool), dry-drowned via intubation (Meagan drowning in said pool), and tarred and feathered using feathers from Meagan's pillow (Sharpe referencing the practice in one of his recorded speeches as a metaphor for people attacking him for his opinions).
- Never My Fault: Refusing to acknowledge that he was ultimately the one who ruined her life in the first place, Kevin chose to place all of the blame for Meagan's suicide on Sharpe's comments about her assault and murders him.
- The Reveal: Kevin was the one who assaulted Meagan when she was drunk, which prompted her to file two complaints against him to the university and create an assault report, later committing suicide when it all fell through.
- Slipping a Mickey: Sharpe was drugged with Rohypnol by Alicia Gillis in her apartment (she meant to do it at the bar but failed) to be set up to be passed off to Lane through Kevin. Kevin does this to Jesse using an energy drink when the former figures out the latter is actually an undercover cop and leaves him to drown in the university's pool.
- Spotting the Thread: Jesse accidentally blows his cover when Kevin notices the two different backstories he gives to the other students contradict each other, prompting him to do research. Kevin almost kills him by giving Jesse a drugged energy drink and leaving him to drown in the university's pool until Charlie saves him.
- Stalker with a Crush: Kevin Conway to Megan Bailey, in spades. He was so obsessed with her that he switched from Pre-Med to Political Science to be closer to her, and wound up receiving two complaints from her to the university about him stalking her. He's also the one who assaulted Meagan when she was drunk and was ultimately the one responsible for her suicide. Refusing to acknowledge his involvement in it, he murdered Professor Sharpe for his offensive comments toward Meagan's assault and suicide while making fellow student Alicia Gillis and security guard Lane Wheatley unwilling accomplices.
- Tar and Feathers: Sharpe had this happen to him while unconscious by Lane as payback for the former’s mistreatment of the latter, using the feathers from Meagan's pillow.
