Returning to the present day, the player joins the Supernatural Hunters, a team dedicated to solving crimes regarding the supernatural. The season takes place across the United States and features six regions - The West, the Southwest, the Rockies, the Midwest, the East, and the South.
Tropes
- Accidental Murder:
- In Case 1, DJ Blood's killing of Lucy Winters turns out to be completely accidental - He intended to convert her so she should stop stalking him, but ended up drinking too much of her blood.
- Case 9's murder has Adam, Dr. Stein's creation and assistant kill her an a trepanning Gone Horribly Wrong in an attempt to fix her sociopathy, he feels guilty to the point of taking his own life later.
- Case 18's murder was the result of an altercation between the victim and the killer, after the killer refused the victim's suicide ritual.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Inverted with Martin Fuller, a drug dealer encountered twice in the Midwest. He's willing to co-operate with the team, and actually helps them during their investigation into the disappearance of various children in that arc.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Eric Zwart receives this treatment from Dr. Aculus due to only being 98 years old, when the rest of his convent is at least more than twice his age. It's what compells him to seek invincibility and murder Aculus.
- Anyone Can Die: Much like The Conspiracy before it, the season doesn't shy away from killing off established characters early on.
- Dr. Aculus, the vampire convent leader and seemingly plot-relevant character, gets killed off as early as the fifth case.
- Marigold Carson, a suspect in Case 2, returns six cases later as the victim of Case 8.
- Case 22 and 23 have two in a row - Ronnie Hawk, who hadn't appeared after Case 10, and Agnes Leek, a plot-relevant character in the previous arc indirectly responsible for Zeke Davis' summoning.
- Exaggerated with the South arc, where recurring characters such as Bucky Johnson, Dolores Harper, and Roxanne Vega meet their end.
- The last case of the season kills off both of the season's recurring regulars, Arthur Darkwood and George Mathison.
- Arc Number: The number 25 pops up quite often in the conflicts the team gets mixed into this season.
- Arc Villain: Every region has a rogue supernatural creature causing trouble for the Supernatural Hunters and their allies, with the main focus of each Story Arc being putting an end to their plans. Starting from the Southwest, the villains also start having a connection with the Big Bad in one way or another.
- West: Eric Zwart, the vampire responsible for kidnapping Mina Reynolds in an effort to create an invincibility elixir.
- Southwest: Abigail Riley, the ghost of a woman sacrificed five years ago who has been possessing people so they commit murder. Her sacrifice also ended up summoning Zeke Davis, the villain of the next region.
- The Rockies: Zeke Davis, the demon summoned five years ago who has been draining the life of livestock over the Southwest and is trying to steal the core of a magical tree that serves as one of the keys for the Demon Queen's cage.
- Midwest: Morgana Blackhawk, the witch who has been kidnapping children over the region so she and her coven can eat them for power. She returns two regions later, killing Gwen's mother in exchange for demonic powers after an alliance with the Demon Queen.
- East: Reggie Pratt, the demon searching for the final key for the Demon Queen's cage. In addition, he's also revealed to be the demon who mentally tortured Gwen in the previous region.
- South: The Demon Queen under the guise of Chief Arrow's wife, Lily Arrow, who also serves as the Big Bad of the season and is planning to destroy the world with an army of demons.
- Bedlam House: The setting of Case 9 is a run-down asylum whose resident doctor subjected many of her patients to cruel, often fatal experimentation. One of her experiments, an artificial human created from patients who died under her care, ends up realizing her insanity and ends up killing her.
- Breather Episode: Compared to the three districts before it, the Midwest arc is more tame both in plot and overall cases. Instead of having to deal with rogue vampires like the West, serial-killing ghosts like the Southwest or conspiracies of an alliance between werewolves and demons like The Rockies, the Midwest mainly focuses on deciphering a riddle provided by a nutty witch so the team can obtain her help, with a subplot involving some kidnapped children who end up being fine by the end backing it. In addition, every murderer in here ends up being either non-malicious (Cases 16, 17 and 18), too silly to be taken serious (Case 19), or manipulated by another person to commit the crime (Case 20), and the only significant loss in the district (Belinda's death) loses a lot of weight after she returns as a ghost in Case 27 to keep helping the team.
- Christmas Special: Case 11 (released on December 26th) takes place the morning before Christmas, where even the real Santa Claus makes an appearance as a suspect and the team decides to celebrate a Christmas party after the case is solved.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: You'll get it very clearly as soon as the 2nd case that Bathsheba's a bit nutty, Clybourn probably out-crazies her.
- Creepy Doll: Case 8 has the Island of the Dolls visited as a crime scene. In fact, the killer of the case actually turns out to be this.
- Cute Witch: Belinda and Avery Mitchell fit this trope well.
- Darker and Edgier: Fitting for a season about hunting the supernatural, Supernatural Invesigations is this compared to the Lighter and Softer tone of Travel In Time, with killers ranging from rogue vampires to even demons. In addition, recurring characters are also killed off throughout, with a seemingly plot-important character being killed off in the fifth case of the season.
- Demonic Possession: The Southwest arc revolves around a spirit who possesses various people, all of whom work in natural resources, and then driving them to murder. The spirit turns out to be a woman called Abigail Riley, who was sacrificed by her friends as part of a demon's offer.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In Case 30, Maetheron's height and weight are the same as George Mathison, right before he reveals he's the same person.
- Foreshadowing:
- The murderer of Case 3, located in the first region, turns out to be a ghost possessing a human and making it commit murder, with the vessel recalling nothing about killing someone. Guess what the Arc Villain of the second region, another ghost, has been doing for some time?
- Felix's comments about artifacts, such as one in the Louvre, being stolen earlier in the season? Turns out that they're actually the keys being sought out by the demon queen's supporters to free her.
- Hope wondering who her parents are, and the fact that not even Santa Claus knows. Hope didn't have biological parents; she had been created by her guardian, the demon Rathimael.
- She also says that the killer of case 8 has something in common with her. While she was referring to their spider-collecting hobby, Tiffany was a doll turned human by magic. Hope herself is an Artificial Human by magic.
- The death of Lily Arrow 25 years prior to the series. That happened at around the same time as the Demon Queen and her supporters being defeated, and Rathimael sealing the Queen away. As it turns out, the Queen is none other than Lily herself.
- For Want Of A Nail: Had Lucy Winters not been killed accidentally, Eric Zwart wouldn't have gone crazy, and the plotline of the West would likely not have happened.
- Great Offscreen War: Critical to the Myth Arc of this season is a civil war that occurred in hell, in which the Demon Queen was usurped by rebels and getting imprisoned. The queen's supporters have resurfaced, going after artifacts that act as the keys to her seal.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Despite not being a member of the Supernatural Hunters, FBI Agent George Mathison starts helping the team from the third district onward after his own awakening with the supernatural world. This includes doing a couple of analysis for you, giving the team valuable information, lifting certain restrictions imposed by the authorities, and even becoming the player's investigating partner in the final case of the East due to him being the only one with access to the crime scene.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Almost everyone involved in the ritual that cost Abigail Riley's life ends up being possessed by her and then thrown in jail for murder. The sole exception is R.J. Fielding, who is instead lured to his death by Riley's lover.
- In Case 16, Dan Kelly ends up killed by the golem he created to replace the wife he murdered.
- Morgana Blackhawk's plan to kidnap kids to eat them on Walpurgis Night is what causes her to lose her powers after said kids are able to break free thanks to Felix.
- Humans Are Bastards: While supernatural creatures are considered dangerous, throughout the season the team encounters situations where normal humans are depraved and malicious enough to do just as much, if not more damage than the creatures and spirits do. Many of the supernatural beings lampshade this, as not many Hunters are pacifists like the main team and just kill any supernatural creature, good or bad, which taints their view on humanity.
- Interface Spoiler: Hope's suspect bio lists her as 25 years old. This gives away the fact that she's linked with Bob Nelson during the fifth district, and to the death of Lily.
- It Was with You All Along: The Hunters comb the East coast trying to trace Rathimael's past to find the final key he made to the demon queen's prison. While Rathimael was a long-Posthumous Character, it was revealed in that district's finale that the final key is the Hunters' tech expert, Hope Newman.
- Karmic Death: Safe to say this season as a few notable cases of this, when you find out who some of the victims were really like it and some of their killers telling you what they done to them, the murder goes from tragic to comeuppance in a snap.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Case 21's killer, Muriel Cove, had a crush on sorority president Vanessa Sadler and decided to murder her boyfriend, Eric Prynce after the Kraken had turned her into a human.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons play a large part in the plotline. They are summoned from the Netherworld, which has been torn by a civil war and lack of resources, disguise as humans, and owe their powers from their imprisoned queen. In addition, demons slide between Dark Is Not Evil, as shown by Arthur Darkwood and Dark Is Evil, such as Zeke Davis.
- Product Placement: One of the clues in Case 27 is that the killer plays a game called Criminal Chase. Apparently the murders in said game are even more gruesome than the ones the hunters deal with.
- Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: For the most part, most of the vampires encountered are rather affable, such as both Dr. Aculus and Pierce Cromwell, the latter even briefly dating Gwen. Even Bathsheba is relatively peaceful despite her deranged mindset. Meanwhile, Eric Zwart turns out to be the Arc Villain of the West, but his actions were more or less driven by being rejected by Aculus.
- Stepford Smiler: The victim of Case 16, Dan Kelly, but more so his wife Alice. Invoked, because it turns out that Alice is actually a replicated golem created after she was killed for not being submissive enough for him.
- Surprise Santa Encounter: Case 11 reveals that Santa is in fact real, and is well aware of the Supernatural Hunters and what they do.
- Valentine's Day Episode: Case 18 (released just the day before) takes place during February 14th, where Love Goddess Cupid makes an appearance as a suspect in charge of a Valentine's Shop and Luke falls in love with Fabien after ingesting a Love Potion.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: While the Supernatural Hunters are a pacifistic team, its made clear throughout the season that several other hunters think nothing of the supernatural creates they hunt.
- In particular, Ruth Wu is willing to go as far as threatening Priya's life for simply being a werewolf, and gets murdered later for having killed an innocent cub.
- Gwen's mother, Dolores, disowns her for not sharing her extremist views, while also attempting to indoctrinate her other children, despite the fact that she is really a witch.
- Wham Episode: In general, the whole season could count as one for the entire series, as it not only confirms that supernatural creatures and occurrences do indeed exist in the Criminal Case universe, but also that most of them have the ability to pass completely unnoticed and pretend to be normal, everyday people. Who knows what other characters in previous seasons were in reality vampires, werewolves, witches or demons in disguise?
- Case 3: The murderer turns out to be a ghost possessing a human being into doing the heinous act, showing the player that the framing of innocent people and making them commit murder against their will can happen in the game. It also serves as a Foreshadowing of what's about to come in the next Story Arc.
- Case 5: Dr. Aculus, a seemingly plot-important character that has been helping you through the region, is messily killed by none other than previously Nice Guy Eric Zwart, who turns out to be the vampire they have been chasing across the district. As such, this not only confirms that not even important or recurring characters are going to be safe from dying without warning in this season, but also that anyone apparently nice or human could turn out to be a supernatural, bloodthirsty evil killer.
- Case 23: after finding the ring of Rathimael, Hope is weirdly interested in it and tries to steal it from the team. When Jacob and the player confront her, she gives the ring back and angrily quits the team, a sudden turn for a case that isn't even a district finale.
- Case 25: The demons trying to free their queen seems to be a Foregone Conclusion, but the real wham? The final key the Hunters have been looking for this whole time...is Hope Newman. And that's not even getting to the identity of the queen herself...
- Case 27: It is revealed that Falcon had been in cahoots with Rathimael to seal the Demon Queen away, and the two had masterminded Lily's murder. As it turns out, Lily was actually a fairy, and the only being who could be an appropriate vessel for the queen. After learning this, Chief Arrow suddenly drives off, leaving the team to chase him down before he does anything reckless.
- Wham Shot: The ending scene of Case 25: The demon queen reveals herself, and it's Lily Arrow, Chief Jacob's thought-deceased wife.
- Wicked Witch: Despite being rather attractive, Morgana Blackhawk counts. She's completely willing to kidnap and eat children, collaborate with demons, or have her sister eliminated for the sake of consolidating her own power. Her profile description in Case 28 is this.
