Written by: Jo William Phillip
Directed by: Alexander Singer
Jessica unravels the death of a ballerina after she dances a ballet that has killed everyone who has tried it.
Tropes:
- Ballet Episode: The episode revolves around Jessica unraveling the death of a ballerina after she dances a ballet that has killed everyone who has tried it.
- Batman Gambit: Jessica has Mr. Presser make an announcement that they'll start preparing for a production of Cinderella after some construction people go over the stage to make sure no more accidents occur. As she suspected, Edward Hale comes back to the theatre that night to retrieve the second skull that he rigged with poisoned needles. When Jessica and the lieutenant toss a skull at him, he makes no effort to catch it, which implies he knew something might be wrong with it.
- Blackmail Backfire: Edward Hale (the dancer who plays Death) is just getting back into dancing after addiction forced a hiatus. However, he slipped Off the Wagon during the performance and Lily found out about it. She blackmailed him and he poisoned her in a desperate attempt to keep his life on track.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: An example that becomes apparent only in retrospect. After Lily dies on stage, Jessica comes upon Edward Hale having a breakdown in the back. He tearfully tells her that he thought Lily was the woman he was going to marry. However, Jessica ultimately discovers that he killed her in desperation after she blackmailed him about being back on pills. He went through with it, but it obviously took a nasty toll.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lily Roland sees herself as The Ingenue when in fact, she is anything but. First, she's the ballerina who caused the Career-Ending Injury of Barry Carroll, and dumped him as soon as he could no longer dance. Then, when she didn't bag the starring role on the Danse Diabolique ballet, she harasses the star, Claudia, and manipulates the choreographer, Edward, so she can get the role. Once she gets the role, it appears she's not as talented as she believes herself to be and lashes out at her dance partner, Damien Bolo, for calling her out on her flaws.
- Chekhov's Gun: The video showing how the ballet was performed in the 1920s provides an important clue as to how (and by whom) the murder was done. Jessica notices that the ballerina in the film never touched the skull, but the choreography for this version had her clutch it. That wouldn't be a big deal, except that Edward emphasized that he was staging the piece exactly as it had been done before.
- Creepy Ballet: The titular piece is a ballet that has ended with every ballerina who danced it dead (which was only two before the episode took place). Lily Roland, one of the ballerinas, is an ambitious jerk who uses everyone she can and steals the lead from the more experienced Claudia through a combination of seduction and blackmail. Claudia unhappily notes that the emphasis on youth is a dark side of the ballet world. It all climaxes when Lily drops dead during the dance from poisoned puncture wounds.
- Fatal Method Acting: In-Universe example. A ballerina is murdered on stage. As she succumbs to the poison during her death scene, it is only when her partner kneels at her side that he notices that she is really dead.
- Ironic Name: Lilies are typically associated with innocence and purity. Lily Roland is an unscrupulous woman who only cares about herself and will happily use other people's secrets to get what she wants.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Barry Carroll used to be Lily Roland's boyfriend. However, she dumped him after causing the injury that ended his career, callously saying that she had to get on with her life. Being around Lily and seeing her flirt with multiple other people makes him belligerent, but he's not the killer.
- Poisoned Weapons: Jessica and the police notice that Lily's hands are bleeding from a puncture wound, suggesting that the poison that killed her was administered via a sharp object she had held in her hand.
- Red Herring: The fact that the plastic red rose prop was replaced with a real, thorny rose receives a lot of emphasis, as though setting it up as the murder weapon. Turns out, it was something else.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Twice before, the ballerina who performed the Danse Diabolique had died due to unusual circumstances. Everyone is wary on whether history will repeat itself. It does...but not for reasons anyone expected.
- Skeleton Motif: The villain of the Danse Diabolique ballet is a man dressed in black with skull makeup and wields a skull with Glowing Eyes of Doom. Fitting, given that he's supposed to be Death.
- Something about a Rose: The dancer playing Death presents a rose and a skull to the ballerina, who then
dies on stage. Jessica initially suspects that the ballerina was killed by a poisoned thorn on the rose. - White-Dwarf Starlet: Claudia Cameron is treated like a washed-up ballerina by Lily and Edward despite her status as Prima Ballerina. And while this might not be true, by the episode's end, she decides to refocus her talents elsewhere and find purpose outside of being a ballerina.
