Jessica's niece Pamela takes a cruise to de-stress after being hospitalized following the suicide of her husband. However, the cruise proves anything but restful as repeated incidents bring up Pamela's past and further threaten her future. Jessica acts to safeguard her niece and to track down the person behind these merciless machinations.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Adoption Angst: Apparently Johnny found out that he was adopted, and it bothered him.
- Affectionate Nickname: Johnny called Pamela "Pepper", and the nickname keeps popping up all over.
- Closed Circle: Doesn't get more closed than "middle of the ocean".
- Disguised in Drag: The young schoolteacher disguises himself as Jessica to bait the killer.
- Driven to Suicide:
- The catalyst of the plot is Pamela's husband Johnny having committed suicide.
- Dr. Reed is found sprawled on her bed, having apparently overdosed on pills after failing to kill Pamela. It turns out her husband George actually killed her and set it up to look like suicide.
- Exact Words: The captain says he should punish the officer he assigned to watch Pamela for being involved with Reed's capture. Then Jessica points out that he told said officer to stick to Pamela, and she was watching the capture. Given that the young man was following orders to the letter, there's no reason he should be punished.
- Gaslighting: George Reed does this to Pamela throughout the episode, plaguing her with incidents that made her think she was being plagued by the ghost of her deceased husband.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: Adding to the tension of the opening, halfway through the scene, the eerily serene music is compounded by the sound of a beating heart that grew louder and more frantic as the scene lead up to the moment of Pamela discovering Johnny's body.
- Never Suicide: Dr. Reed, Johnny's birth mother, goes to her cabin and is found later, having apparently committed suicide with drugs. Jessica deduces that her husband George murdered her.
- Playing Drunk: Jessica does this while threatening to expose George Reed.
- Shipper on Deck: Jessica keeps trying to set Pamela up with the men on board, particularly a young schoolteacher. They do seem to get along pretty well and he tries to help her, including in catching the killer.
- Starts with a Suicide: The episode starts with a Flashback Nightmare of Pamela discovering her husband's body.
