When a senator's son dies during a fraternity initiation ritual, it initially looks like the unfortunate result of illegal hazing. However, the discovery of peanut oil (to which the victim was allergic) on his cup turns it into a murder investigation. Meanwhile, Sue and Lucy deal with "mothering" Amanda for a week while her dad is working.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Big Secret: The FBI becomes suspicious when the victim's ex-girlfriend lies about where she was the night of the murder. Under pressure, she confesses that she's having an affair with her professor, and she didn't want to ruin his career or marriage by revealing that they were together that night.
- Cramming the Coffin: Knowing that security would probably check the guests at the funeral, the killer planted the bomb on the one person who wouldn't be checked...the deceased.
- Deadly Hazing: Subverted. Initially, the senator and the FBI think that the victim died after being pressured into drinking too much as part of a fraternity initiation. However, the victim actually died of exposure to peanut oil put on his cup by one of the other college boys. The alcohol consumption delayed people's realization that something was wrong, but the Initiation Ceremony had nothing to do with the death.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Ben, the good-natured object of Amanda's affections, instantly crouches down to begin petting Togo when the dog trots over to retrieve the frisbee she threw for him.
- In with the In Crowd: Amanda initially breaks up with Ben because two girls she's trying to impress don't like him. It doesn't ultimately make a difference; they don't want her as a friend anyway. The episode ends with Amanda contacting Ben to apologize and ask him if he wants to go to the movies.
- Irony: The professor having an affair with the victim's ex-girlfriend teaches ethics.
- Meet Cute: When Sue asks for suggestions to help Amanda with her crush, Jack and Bobby suggest "coincidentally" turning up in a place where she knows the crush will be. At the end, Jack "coincidentally" turns up in a place where Sue, Lucy, and Amanda are. Sue points out how interesting that is, and Jack refuses to confirm whether he did it on purpose, saying that the mystery is one of the technique's good aspects.
- Motive Misidentification: When a senator's son dies at a party, the team at first thinks it's a frat initiation gone wrong and he died of drinking too much. When they find the boy was murdered, they suspect a classmate did it for money from a millionaire businessman angry the senator ruined a big deal of his. The real motive? The classmate is the recently radicalized son of a known terrorist who killed the boy just so he could set off a bomb at the funeral to take out the youth's father and several other senators.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Senator Fenton loses his son at the beginning of the episode. When he's brought into the office, he says that he wants to help make sure no parents have to endure this because of illegal hazing again. However, the death turns out to be related to terrorism, not hazing.
- Plot Allergy: The senator's son had a well-known peanut allergy. The killer took advantage of this, coating the lip of his cup in peanut oil to kill him in the middle of the ritual.
- Red Herring:
- The victim's ex-girlfriend was upset when he broke up with her and has a history suggesting potential violence. The agents become even more suspicious when it turns out that she lied to them about where she was the night of the murder. However, she did not kill the senator's son.
- Brad, one of the other college guys, reputedly had a feud with the victim after the victim exposed him for cheating. However, upon being interviewed, he expressed gratitude that the victim called him out, because it gave him the wake-up call necessary to get his life back on track. He didn't kill him.
- One of the senator's rivals promised to punish him after they had a falling out, and he paid a large sum of money to one of the party attendees. He too had no involvement in the boy's death.
- Revenge by Proxy: Subverted. The senator suspects that a former friend of his might have had his son killed, because he threatened to punish him for wrecking a plan. The real killer wasn't interested in hurting the father by killing the son so much as getting the father and other senators together for the funeral.
- Villainous Lineage: The killer, Jason Byers, turns out to be adopted. By birth, he was the son of a known terrorist and he recently reconnected with his birth father. Killing the senator's son and setting up a bomb at the funeral home was an attempt to impress his biological dad.
- Woman Scorned: The FBI agents suspect the victim's ex-girlfriend when they find out that the incident was murder. The breakup had not been her choice and a previous boyfriend got a restraining order against her.
