When Jennica Malouf, a wealthy socialite, turns up dead on a golf course, Charlie and Rex discover a world full of scandal, gossip and buried secret.
Tropes:
- Affluent Ascetic: When the team looks into their background, it's shown that the Chopjians live well within their means with a big fortune. For the most part, they don't really show any Conspicuous Consumption aside from Sossi having splurged for a car after a big win.
- Busman's Holiday: The Major Crimes team enjoys themselves playing golf at the Williamswood Course Club, until Rex stops looking for their balls and finds a body buried in one of the sand pits. Needless to say, they go back to work and investigate who the killer is.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason why Jennica was killed is due to her having stumbled across Alistair moving Jack's body elsewhere on the course, and he consequently removed her as a witness.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Discussed and averted. When Jesse shows an orange golf shirt he had bought from Amazon in an effort to dress like Rickie Fowler, Donovan insists on him not wearing it, and later helps him with picking a snazzier one.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Alistair White is the figurative type who earned that reputation by helping other club members with their problems, such as paying for Jennica's fees. Additionally, he mentions to Charlie that his wife Monica likes the "knight in shining armor" act.
- Mock Millionaire: Jennica initially seemed to be wealthy, until the team learns that her father and stepmother froze her trust fund, leaving her unable to pay her fees and be on the verge of having her membership at Williamswood revoked (until Alistair covered for them, that is).
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Alistair's motive to kill Jack 15 years earlier was so that he could win Monica's heart and later marry her.
- No Kill like Overkill: Forensics reveal that Jennica was injured at the back of her legs and knees, as she was run over with a golf cart. This, combined with her strangulation with a golf club indicates that her murder wasn't premeditated.
- Revisiting the Cold Case: An unintentional example. Charlie learns about Jack Costigan, a former Williamswood caddy and friend to Alistair who disappeared under mysterious circumstances 15 years ago. While his car was found on a ferry, seemingly pointing to him skipping town to avoid gambling debts, recent evidence points to him actually being financially stable and having been killed at the club.
- Starter Villain: Luke Gill, a groundskeeper who has been running a secret drug ring within the club, turns out to have nothing to do with Jennica's murder, but did steal her missing wallet from her locker and is nonetheless brought in by Charlie for illegal drug charges.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Jennica Malouf was killed at the Williamswood Course Club's 13th hole. Subtle.
- The Worf Effect: When the perpetrator initially runs away from Rex, he successfully gets the German Shephard off his back by slamming him with a door. Luckily, Rex is mostly unharmed, but the investigation is set back.
- Your Cheating Heart: It's revealed that Baxter was secretly having an affair behind his wife Carmen's back, with Jennica. He hadn't backed out of it because he believed her to be pregnant (due to her having Sossi's pregnancy test), and thought he could pay her with 35K to keep quiet while figuring out what course of action to take, since he still loved Carmen.
