Charlie and Rex discover a wanted criminal named Harper Vance has been living in St. John's for the past twenty years under the fake identity Nelson Dwyer, and end up in the crosshairs when the man's past comes back to haunt him.
Tropes:
- Batman Gambit: The Major Crimes team set up a sting to catch Olivia in the act of stealing the diamonds from Vance’s house, involving Vance wearing a bulletproof vest so he would survive getting shot by Olivia’s partner Clive and removing the diamonds from the hiding place Vance normally keeps them. It works and Olivia is apprehended, but a wrench is thrown into the aftermath when she’s given another chance to kill Vance after being approved for transfer and put on the same prison bus as him.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The real Nelson Dwyer is long dead. Vance got ahold of his ID via purchasing it twenty years ago from a guy in a van and had been using it as his alias while in hiding.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Vance tells everyone he would prefer to be called Nelson, as his old name reminds him of his criminal past.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Gender-inverted. Vance realizes that Olivia is not a bad person, just a girl who’s been severely broken by the death of the father she loved dearly. Because of it, he requests that the SJPD bring her in unharmed despite her trying to kill him.
- It's All My Fault:
- Scott blames himself for allowing Olivia Milner to find his dad so she can kill him because of the online DNA test he submitted. Lois tells her son he’s not to blame, and Vance tells him that everything that’s happened is his dad's fault for not being honest with his son from the start.
- Vance meanwhile blames himself for what happened to Shane, even admitting that he would have been more than willing to have died in his place since he wouldn't have been the one leaving a wife and kid behind.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Vance told his wife Lois who he actually was when they first started dating after he arrived in Canada a year earlier. However, neither of them ever told their son Scott about his father’s criminal past, which prompted him to submit an online DNA test to find out who his dad really was. Little did he know Olivia Milner would use it to track down Vance and exact her revenge for Vance allegedly killing her father Shane.
- Because she didn’t know the exact details about what happened with the heist that ended in her father's death, Olivia spent the next twenty years of her life believing Vance killed him to keep the diamonds for himself.
- My Greatest Failure: Vance deeply regrets not being able to save Shane from dying, admitting that he would've taken his place if it were possible due to Shane's death causing him to leave his wife and seven-year-old daughter behind. He also professes to Olivia that he let her and her mother down the night of Shane's death and that he deserves to suffer the same fate, unflinching at Olivia pointing a gun at his head.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When talking to eyewitness Rick "Manny" Mannox (who is on parole for fencing stolen jewelry) about the mystery woman who shot at him and Vance at the beginning of the episode, the SJPD are unable to get any info out of him with Manny unflinching at the threat of being sent back to jail. That is until Donovan threatens to send him to a prison housing an inmate whom Manny snitched on years ago, making the former jewel fence desperate enough to not let it happen that he almost immediately confesses everything he knows.
Charlie: Inside every hardened criminal is a coward.- Charlie has one when he hears that Olivia was just approved to be transferred to another facility shortly after her arrest, realizing that the transfer agent just inadvertently gave her another chance to kill Vance by putting her on the same prison bus as him.
- Sanity Slippage: Shane's death really hit his daughter Olivia hard, and her mother's death years later just caused her to snap completely. Her increasing aggression got her kicked out of university for several assault charges, which led to her obtaining a job at a home security firm that so she would be able to track down her father's "killer" and exact her revenge, no matter the cost.
- Secretly Dying: The reason Vance was selling the stolen diamonds is because he is dying from severe leukemia, having wanted to leave his family with enough money to be able to take care of themselves after he’s gone. He never sought treatment at hospitals because his criminal record makes him ineligible for life insurance and out of fear that his old medical records would give his real identity away. He didn't have much time left until Rex figured it out, with the SJPD managing to secure Vance treatment for his condition.
- Starting a New Life: After being wanted for theft and falsely accused of murdering his partner Shane, Vance fled the United States and across the Canadian border all the way to St. John's, having lived under a fake identity for the past twenty years while making a new life and family for himself in the process.
- Train Job: More like Boat Job, but still the same case. Twenty years ago, Vance and his partner Shane Milner planned the heist of a London cargo ship making its way to New York with a shipment of diamonds, with them managing to steal two and a half million dollars’ worth when it stopped to refuel at Maine. They almost pulled it off flawlessly had it not been for the ship’s security noticing their escape boat and shooting Shane during the duo’s getaway, leading to Shane passing out into the sea and drowning with Vance unable to save him. After being falsely accused of murdering his partner in addition to being charged with theft, Vance went on the lam under a false identity until he was found by Shane's daughter Olivia, who sought revenge for her father’s death as she grew up mistakenly thinking Vance killed him to keep the diamonds for himself.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Vance's son Scott submitted an online DNA test to find out who his father really was, unaware that Olivia Milner would use it to track down his father's whereabouts and try to kill him.
- You Killed My Father: Shane’s daughter Olivia is out to kill Vance out of the belief that he betrayed and killed her father during the heist twenty years ago. Except he didn't, but Olivia is almost too consumed by her misguided desire for revenge to hear Vance's side of the story. Fortunately, she abandons her plan when Vance manages to convince her not to kill him as she will lose the actual truth about what actually happened back then as well as several other stories about her father that he possesses.
