Boss' latest scheme is to sell fake insurance policies that promise a $100,000 survivor's benefit to its holder. Two professional con artists decide to cash in by staging a fatal car accident. In the process, Coy becomes their patsy when the "accident" is so cleverly staged that he is led to believe he caused the accident and will be held legally responsible. As Coy slips into a world of despair, dark depression and self-destructive, borderline-suicidal behavior that even Uncle Jesse can't break him out of, Vance and Daisy are left to expose the cruel scheme and bring the fortune seekers to justice.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Driven to Suicide: OK, things don't go quite that far, but Coy — upon learning what (he thinks) has happened and what might happen afterard — is clearly on this path, through his own despair and self-destructive behavior.
- Faking the Dead: This time, it is a pair of con artists who use this scheme, this time to collect a $100,000 survivor's payment on Boss' crooked insurance scheme. The guy driving the car jumps out of the car shortly before it crashes over a cliff, but hides in nearby bushes quickly enough that he is not seen by Coy or Vance ... thereby creating the illusion that he had failed to escape and died from his injuries.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The crooks turning Boss' insurance racket against him, and then threatening to ruin both him and the Dukes (especially Coy) if he doesn't pay up and RIGHT NOW!!!
- Insurance Fraud: The whole point of the episode, and with irony: Two crooks hoping to cash in on another crook's insurance scam.
- Irony: The irony is that two crooks scheme to cash in on Boss' own crooked racket, which even Boss would admit he didn't count on it going.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: When the crooks smell money to cash in on Boss Hogg's insurance scheme — itself a scam — they stage an accident in such a way that someone other poor sap takes the fall.
- Manly Tears: Bryon Cherry gets a chance to show emotion as Coy struggles to deal with the fact that (he thinks) he caused a fatal accident. He becomes so distraught that it is left to Vance and Daisy to investigate their suspicions that all is not what it seems.
- What Have I Done:
- Coy thinks he had caused the driver of another car to crash his car over a cliff, resulting in the other's death. He's certain that he'll face criminal charges and that the "survivors" will sue him and the Duke family for all (and more) than they're worth.
- Boss realizing that his own scheme has gone too far, especially when he learns that Coy is on the verge of suicide ... not to mention that the criminals indeed plan to sue the Dukes, Boss and Hazzard County to collect an even larger fortune.
