The team looks into the death of Mia Romanov, a circus acrobat aerialist whose death was ruled accidental when she fell out of her silk wraps in 1971.
Tropes:
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Biggie and Lester are introduced with a dynamic akin to George and Lennie, with Biggie being the tough and smart little guy and Lester being his slower and gentler big guy. Lester deliberately encourages this interpretation specifically to stop people from suspecting he's the one actually in charge.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lester Smith. He pretended to be the mentally handicapped goonie of "Big Bad" Biggie who was threatened into silence about Mia’s murder, but in reality, it was the other way around. Lester was The Chessmaster who killed Mia and coaxed Biggie into silence.
- The Chessmaster: Lester posed as Biggie’s powerless minion suffering from cerebral gigantism, all while running the circus and scamming patrons when everyone thought Biggie was in charge.
- Circus Episode: Much of the action & flashbacks take place behind the scenes and during the performances of a travelling circus. The victim is a budding aerialist.
- Danger Takes A Back Seat: Hank Butler sneaks into the back seat of Moe Kitchener’s car and then shoots him in the head from behind.
- In the Blood: Mia’s parents were also aerialists, so when the circus is failing, she decides to start her own act, determined she can do it quickly since “it’s in [her] blood”. She’s right — she nails her new act in a short time.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Moe Kitchener’s finally expires when he’s murdered by the devastated and vengeful father of the girl whose murder he helped cover up.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Sheldon was Mia’s godfather and raised her after her parents died.
- Manipulative Bastard: Lester masterminded the scamming behind the circus, murdered Mia, and got away with it for almost 40 years, all while pretending he was mentally incompetent and making it look like Biggie was the Big Bad and he was his helpless minion.
- Neck Snap: What killed Mia, originally thought to be from her fall. It turns out Lester did it with one simple grasp when she was going to expose his scam.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Lester is faking being mentally challenged and is actually quite erudite when he drops the act:Seen that fear in your eyes all my life. But when those cake eaters would step into ten-in-one, looking at me. Laughing. Pointing. They thought I was on exhibit. But I was studying them.
- Papa Wolf: Kate’s father shoots Moe in the head for helping her murderer cover up the crime.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When Mia confronted Biggie over the scam, Biggie said she had no room to complain since she was leaving them for a bigger circus. Mia told them she'd reject the offer but learning about the scam made her change her mind.
- She Knows Too Much: Mia was murdered because she found out the circus was using charities to scam people into buying tickets and planned to tell the other circus members.
- Spotting the Thread: Mia's death was written off for years as a simple accident. That was until someone in the audience brought up a book of photos of other fatal falls by performers and realized every one of them was somehow preparing for the fall in mid-air, but Mia's body was limp. The cops realize this meant she was dead before she ever fell.
