People really don't respect their elders these days.
On their way to work, Gloria bumps into the player in the destroyed Landmark Park, and so they decide to take a shortcut capable of taking them through the park. However, work evidently comes to them when they find the body of Sam Chey, an elderly man who was shot multiple times in the chest while sitting on a bench.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Evil: The Higher Truth joins the long list of ambiguous enemies the police department has when you discover their followers have been donating their entire life savings and material possessions to the cult to supposedly reach "the higher truth." However, it's not left clear if said followers are willingly giving away their entire money, or are being forced/brainwashed into doing so.
- Bad Date: During the Additional Investigation, Jasper's planned date with Amir at the park goes quite wrong when he drops the picnic basket on his way over, puts their blanket over an anthill, and his anniversary card for him written with invisible ink is, well, invisible. Fortunately, you help him fix the card and give Amir a pretty good gift, so not all's lost.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Edith Bradley, the nurse at Shady Hollow, is a Nightmare Fetishist who enjoys painting the asylum's patients dying of natural causes because she sees it as the way life is, leaving clear her job is not to make the elderly's lives better, but just ease their suffering until they die.
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Subverted. Despite its rather bleak name, Shady Hollow, the retirement home the victim lived in, isn't shown to be a bad place to live.Gloria: I'll admit, the name "Shady Hollow" sounded ominous for a rest home, but this looks rather cozy.
- Brutal Honesty: Edith, the Battleaxe Nurse at Shady Hollow, leaves this clear during her interrogation.Edith: My job is to help dull the suffering until life finally releases its stranglehold.
Gloria: I can't say I've ever heard someone in your position put it in quite those words...
Edith: Here at Shady Hollow, we take pride in having an open and honest approach to elderly care! - The Bus Came Back: Margaret Littlewood returns after being arrested back in Case 31 of Season 1, having been admitted to Shady Hollow after being diagnosed with dementia.
- Call-Back: Grayson Rosewater, who made a minor appearance in the previous case, appears during the Additional Investigation.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: As a result of working as a nurse in a retirement home, Edith is shown to have become quite desensitized with death, which is demonstrated when you inform her of Sam's murder.Gloria: I don't mean to be rude, but you don't exactly sound bereaved.
Edith: Well, I say if one has to go, better quick than slow.
It may disturb you, but it's true. Life itself is slow death. I see it with my own eyes every day. It can't be ignored in a place like this. - Contrived Coincidence: During the investigation, Margaret runs off to a tailor shop looking for prize-winning blue ribbons, prompting Edith to request you help her fetch Margaret. Said tailor shop, however, also happens to be a place the victim frequently visited, and whose owner ends up being the killer of this case.
- Deadly Euphemism: During their confrontation at the tailor shop, a scissor-wielding Jack tells Basil he'll "give him extra pockets" if Basil doesn't confess helping Sam cheat in bingo by adding extra pockets to his suits.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Martine tells the player how her great-grandfather Arnaud François-Gaspard Meunier was shot by a waiter for putting salted butter on a croissant.
- During the investigation, Jack threatens to cut up Basil with a pair of scissors if he doesn't admit he helped Sam cheat on bingo by giving him extra pockets to hide fraudulent bingo cards.
- Distress Call: At the end of Chapter 2, Basil urgently calls the player for aid after Jack storms his tailor shop and threatens him with a pair of scissors.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: Jack Cannity, the victim's best friend, sometimes put Sam's dentures into his mouth as a practical joke, something Gloria and Amir find disgusting.
- Food Slap: The killer threw Hot Toddy (a cocktail made of whiskey, honey, and cinnamon) to the victim's face before shooting him to death.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that, in Chapter 2, you find the victim's dentures in the trash at Basil's shop despite nothing indicating the killer went there after murdering Sam should be your first indication that Basil himself is the culprit, way before his arrest in Chapter 3.
- Games of the Elderly: Fittingly for a case that deals with the murder of an old man living in a retirement home, one of the killer's traits is that they play bingo. Surprisingly, none of the other elderly residents end up being the killer.
- Love Hurts: Back in the 50s, Sam and Margaret were in a relationship before Sam left her waiting at a firefighter's ball, breaking her heart. The pain was so bad, in fact, this seems to be the only thing Margaret remembers about the victim, believing it happened just a few weeks ago.
- Malicious Slander: The killer's motive ends up being this. After his father died and left the family tailor shop to Basil, he noticed profits suddenly started plummeting, and it didn't take long for him to discover Sam had been badmouthing his business to other people so they wouldn't go shop there, leading to Basil murdering him to stop his slander.
- Mortality Phobia: Sam apparently was suffering from this according to Edith, hence why he always took walks to the park in an effort to maintain himself active. Sadly, these walks on the park led to his death when the killer ambushed him there.
- Multiple Gunshot Death: Sam was shot seven times at point-blank by his killer. During his arrest, Basil confesses he was so angry at Sam he couldn't stop after squeezing the trigger once.
- Nemesis as Customer: Sam became this for Basil after he inherited his father's tailor shop, since he became an Unsatisfiable Customer that asked Basil for ridiculous clothes then started badmouthing him to other clients to they would stop going to his shop. This eventually led to Basil killing him.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Edith enjoys painting portraits of the residents at Shady Hollow dying (of natural cases, of course), since she's been Conditioned to Accept Horror and accept death is part of life.
- Parting-Words Regret: Dara, Sam's daughter, sent a him a bouquet of dead flowers with a card telling him to rot, since she discovered he'd given his entire inheritance to The Higher Truth and had left her out of the will. However, she's shown to regret this when you confront her about it, crying over the fact the last thing she did before he died was send him a bunch of dead flowers.
- Passed-Over Inheritance: The Higher Truth recruited Sam and even convinced him to put them on his will, leaving his entire life savings to the cult and his daughter with nothing, which understandably made her extremely angry. Fortunately, you help Dara recover her inheritance during the Additional Investigation by confronting Grayson at The Higher Truth's headquarters.
- Punny Name: Jack Cannity is always seen carrying a can.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: As a result of her dementia, Margaret has become prone to talking with no stop about mundane stuff not related to the interrogations.Gloria: Okay, <Player's Name>, I'm back! Boy, once Mrs Littlewood starts talking, she doesn't stop!
- Red Herring: Edith Bradley is a Nightmare Fetishist Battleaxe Nurse who enjoys painting the elderly residents of Shady Hollow dying, admitting she's desensitized about death and even thinking it may be better for them since it stops their suffering. And, as a bonus, not only she's modeled after Myra Hindley, but also carries a similar surname to Ian Brady, two real-life Serial Killers responsible for the Moor murders
. Seems like a pretty obvious killer, right? Wrong. In the end, Edith turns out to be completely innocent for the murder. - Scam Religion: The police department suspects The Higher Truth might be this, since you discover they've been convincing their followers that giving up all of their material possessions is for the best if they want to reach the higher truth. However, Grayson, the cult's second-in-command, tells you donations to the cult are accepted, but not enforced, and that their cause is completely genuine.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Margaret has become this as a result of being diagnosed with dementia. Some examples of her antics include mistaking the Sam you're interrogating her about for a dog, believing Sam and her only broke up a few weeks ago and she's still 19 years old, and believing herself to be a prize-winning dog owner who is obsessed with blue ribbons.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: Gloria and the player decide to take a shortcut through Landmark Park to reach the police station, only for said shortcut to give them the victim's body. At least they arrived to work earlier in a way...
- Shout-Out:
- The case's title comes from No Country for Old Men.
- Edith Bradley resembles Myra Hindley, and her surname comes from Hindley's partner, Ian Brady.
- Basil Cavendish resembles Hugh Laurie.
- One of the killer's traits is taking a medication called Larzanafex, a parody of Zanaflex.
- In the Rest Home Lounge scene, there is a poster for a character called "Super Girl", but she looks more like Wonder Woman.
- Shady Hollow is a parody of Sleepy Hollow.
- Blueberry Tart is a parody of Raspberry Pi.
- Jasper calls Amir on his anniversary card as "The Spy Who Loved Me"
- Spy Cam: During the Additional Investigation, you and Cathy help fabricate one of these in the form of a bow tie for Jasper, who is planning to give it to Amir as an anniversary gift.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: The victim became this for Basil's tailor shop after he inherited it from his deceased father, asking for ridiculous requests then badmouthing him to other clients when Basil refused.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gloria berates Edith after Margaret lefts Shady Hollow and runs off to the tailor shop by herself, since her job it's supposed to take care of her.
- Would Harm a Senior: Basil was willing to kill Sam to protect his business he was badmouthing.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Basil calls Sam's death dreadful news, citing that Sam had been a client at his tailor shop ever since Basil was just a child helping his dad. Of course, this is just a charade, as he's the killer.
