Charlie is hospitalized after being caught in a bombing caused by a serial arsonist known as the Green Bottle Bomber, and the SJPD must track down the criminal before he strikes again while Charlie performs detective work from his hospital bed.
Tropes:
- Calling Card: The green bottles used to create the Molotov cocktails used by the Green Bottle Bomber, which came from the Rouge Hill bottling plant that Malcom Wild’s late father worked at.
- Dead All Along: Malcom Wild is actually dead. He was killed by Asher who went on to impersonate him and frame him for the bombings. Charlie and Sarah figure this out when they find charred human remains in one of the burned buildings. Charlie ends up being right in that the remains belonged to Malcom.
- Dirty Cop: More like Dirty Firefighter in this case. A firefighter named Bud Yearwood who was Asher Browning’s partner lost his life in the Green Bottle Bomber’s second fire, and all payments to his family were frozen because Bud was under investigation of possible corruption. Bud and Asher were involved in a conspiracy with DeAngelis who made an offer to the two firefighters to help him legitimize his insurance scams. Bud refused and because the department froze payments to his family, Asher was left to take care of them. Asher agreed with Bud at the time, but he got so tired of being a crutch to Bud and Sharon that he broke down and decided to work for DeAngelis to burn down buildings to collect on the insurance money. This also means that Asher is directly responsible for Bud's death in addition to Malcom's.
- Distressed Dude: Charlie is hospitalized with an injured leg from being caught in one of the Green Bottle Bomber’s bombings and has to do detective work from his hospital bed. He ends up in even more distress when Asher arrives to kill him under orders from DeAngelis.
- The Don: Frank DeAngelis, a mafia boss trying to build establishments on top of the buildings the Green Bottle Bomber destroyed. He’s actually in league with him as he’s destroying buildings to collect on the insurance money and build his projects on top of their ruins.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Wild family was largely dysfunctional; the mother owned a flower shop before it closed down and she developed a gambling habit. Malcom ratted her out to his dad and the former was pretty much disowned by his mother, who then went on to move to the states to franchise her business. Malcom’s dad wound up dying in a fire at the Rouge Hill bottling plant that he worked at, and the same plant’s green bottles were used to make the bombs used by the Green Bottle Bomber.
- Evil Gloating: Asher smugly tells Charlie how he will stage the latter’s death and that he will give a toast to him in his honor. Then he says he’ll take good care of Rex; however, Charlie backhands the last statement by saying it will be Rex who will take care of Asher. He’s quickly proven right when Rex stops him from igniting the fuel and is then knocked out by Jesse.
- Fiery Cover-Up: When Sarah and Asher are investigating the burned remains of one of the Green Bottle Bomber’s targets to locate any clues pertaining to the bomber’s motives. They end up finding charred human remains revealed to belong to Malcom Wild, which eventually leads to the revelation through additional evidence that the bomber is actually Asher Browning.
- He Knows Too Much: DeAngelis orders Asher to kill Charlie because the SJPD called him back for further questioning due to Charlie figuring out what’s going on, or else Asher will be the one getting killed.
- Insurance Fraud: The whole plot was conceived by Frank DeAngelis to collect insurance money from the buildings burned down by the Green Bottle Bomber with help from Asher Browning.
- Pyromaniac: The Green Bottle Bomber, a serial arsonist who has been torching buildings all over St. John’s. His identity is suspected to be a Heritage University chemistry dropout named Malcom Wild. He’s actually Asher Browning, who killed Malcom and assumed his identity to frame him.
- Thieving Pet: Played for Laughs. Charlie gets Rex to steal an extra brownie for him while the nurse checking his medical charts isn’t looking.
