Charlie and Rex investigate a string of recent deaths at Forest Lawns Retirement Community, a retirement home where Charlie’s aunt Miranda lives, with the latest death being that of the home's pharmacist Neil Kline.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Nobody was really mourning Neil's death after finding out he was a drug dealer who basically murdered over a dozen seniors by replacing their medication with placebos while he sold the real ones on the street, all without feeling any sense of remorse for his actions. The investigation then turns into trying to figure out who Neil could've pissed off enough with his actions to kill him.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Miranda was right about Neil's death not being from a heart attack. He was murdered with a syringe filled with cyanide injected into the back of his neck.
- For the past thirty-six months, sixteen seniors were reported to have died from natural causes. They had initially received clean bills of health within weeks of their deaths and in those same cases it was an aggravation of their underlying conditions that they succumbed to, like they somehow stopped responding to their medication. Miranda, as well as Bob Kippen (whose mother was one of those seniors), suspected foul play, but their accusations went unfounded and ignored. Even Sarah comments on how strange the situation is, as only two or three cases would've been less suspicious. They were right. Neil was stealing medication from his patients and replacing them with placebos made from sugar pills while he sold the real ones on the street, letting all of his victims die from their medical conditions making it look like they developed immunities to their drugs and died of natural causes.
- Cool Old Lady: Miranda. She's very observant and helps Charlie out with the case (whether he wants her to or not) by gathering information for him. She also writes mystery novels and is an amazing cook.
- Elder Abuse: Neil is revealed to have been stealing much-needed drugs from the home's seniors and replacing them with placebos made from sugar pills, with his victims succumbing to their illnesses within weeks while Neil sold the real stuff on the street. All of this had been going on for years and up until Neil was murdered he had racked up a body count of sixteen. Jesus. The head of the retirement home Rachel Hildebrand and even one of Neil's customers are absolutely horrified upon hearing about it.
- Foreshadowing:
- At the beginning, Rex is investigating an Alzheimer's patient named Bradley Linden, who makes several appearances and suddenly disappears without a trace halfway through the episode with nobody knowing where he went. He's actually Bob Kippen, who had been living at the home undercover trying to find proof that his mother's death was not an accident or of natural causes.
- Harold tells Charlie that when he found Neil dead, the lights were out in his office, when they should have been left on if he had died of a heart attack. There was also a syringe found hidden under a cabinet in Neil's office when there shouldn’t have been because all medicines at the home are pills or liquids and injections have to be done at the clinic, and that Neil's autopsy revealed a mark on the back of his neck from being injected with a needle. Finally, the security camera in the office went dead shortly before the time of Neil's death. All of this leads to the revelation that Neil actually was murdered like Miranda theorized.
- Neil was accused by nurse Eloise Benson to be bad at his job as he often gave patients the wrong medication or the wrong dosages. That's because Neil never gave a damn about his patients or their well-being in the first place and was only using them to secure drugs to sell on the street.
- Bob Kippen, the son of one of the recently deceased seniors living at the home, filed lawsuit for medical negligence against the retirement home for his mother's death a year prior, only for it to be dismissed by the court due to lack of evidence. This prompted him to go undercover at the home as Mr. Linden to find out the truth. It led to Kippen finding out that Neil was responsible for his mother's death as well as several other seniors and murdered him for it.
- He Knows Too Much:
- Kippen tries to kill Harold with chocolates laced with cyanide because Harold saw him sneaking out of Mr. Linden’s window out of his disguise one night. Luckily, he manages to survive. Kippen says that he actually never wanted to have to kill Harold anyway and is relieved that he survived, admitting that he jumped the gun there.
- Kippen also tries to kill Miranda at the King's Library when she called him after reading about his failed lawsuit towards the home, with Kippen being paranoid that Miranda figured out he was behind Neil's murder and was going to blackmail him. Fortunately, the SJPD apprehend Kippen before Miranda ever made it to the library at 2:30 due to the home's bus running late, with Charlie being none too pleased at him for trying to kill his aunt, let alone Harold.
- Karmic Death: Kippen killed Neil and covered it up by making it look like he died of a heart attack, just like how Neil made the deaths of all the seniors he stole drugs from, including Kippen's mother, look like it was from natural causes.
- Master of Disguise: Kippen is able to disguise himself to look totally unrecognizable thanks to his experience in undercover operations when he was still a member of the Canadian Bureau of Specialized Police. His disguises include Bradley Linden and another younger persona at the King’s Library.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Neil Kline. Despite being the home's pharmacist, he cared less about the seniors he looked after and more about their prescribed medication, using his position to secretly replace them with placebos and in-turn causing his patients to die within a matter of weeks while he made money selling the real stuff on the street. Karma came back to bite Neil hard when the son of one of his victims discovered what he was doing and murdered him for it.
- Mugging the Monster: Or rather "Mugging the Mother of the Monster". Neil had no idea that the son of one of his victims was an ex-member of the Canadian Bureau of Specialized Police, who was furious when he found out what Neil did to his mother and several other seniors and murdered him for it. Yep, Neil definitely pissed off the wrong guy.
- The Reveal:
- Neil was a drug dealer who stole needed drugs from seniors and replaced them with placebos, letting his victims die from their conditions while he sold their drugs on the street.
- Mr. Linden is actually Bob Kippen, whose mother was one of Neil's victims and went undercover at the home to find evidence that his mother’s death wasn’t an accident, and killed Neil upon discovering that he was responsible.
- Sweet Tooth: Harold Payne, one of the seniors living at the home, tends to sneak out at night past curfew and indulge himself in chocolates inside the home's shed despite his diabetes. Kippen uses this against him by tricking Harold into eating chocolates laced with cyanide (it would be masked because cyanide smells like almonds and Harold would just assume there's almonds in the chocolates). Fortunately, Harold survives. Even Kippen is relieved as he didn't want to have to kill him in the first place. Charlie and Miranda give him a box of chocolates as a gift after the case is solved, although they decide to withhold the fact that they are sugar-free.
- Sympathetic Murderer: You can't really blame Bob Kippen for being angry enough to murder Neil for what he was doing, considering Kippen's mother was one of the sixteen seniors Neil stole medication from and let die. After getting caught, Kippen laments that maybe if he had figured out what was going on sooner his mother's death could've been avoided, although he loses a few sympathy points for trying to kill Harold and Miranda out of paranoia.
