Charlie and Rex sniff out the suspects when the Chief Superintendent of the SJPD dies at a popular restaurant.
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: It doesn't take long for Kurt to go down this road during his fight with Charlie, throwing multiple knives at him and later brandishing swords with the intent of slicing him up.
- Combat Pragmatist: When Kurt proves to be too difficult to best in a straight-on fight, especially once he gets his hands on a pair of swords, Charlie opts to knock him out by throwing a helmet from a decorative armor set while his guard is down.
- Cop Hater: Noel Cameron. The guy has a grudge against the police for falsely convicting people and believes himself to be responsible for Chief Archer retiring due to the death threats he had been sending to him. It says something about how paranoid he is of them when his response to divulging what he knows about Archer's death is hiding underneath the security camera in the interrogation room and whispering it to Charlie.
- Cop Killer: The SJPD's very own chief superintendent Mike Archer ends up being the victim of an unknown assailant, with the major crimes team following every lead they can to figure out who’s responsible and why.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Charlie points out, the events of the episode would've never happened had Kurt just gone to the police about his debt problem instead of trying to erase it by murdering an innocent man.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Kurt claims part of his motive to be because he disliked how Peter made Kurt's mother devote everything to helping keep Good Taste afloat, trying to get the restaurant shut down and cash in on the insurance policy so she wouldn’t have to work there anymore. Charlie however suspects otherwise.
- Everybody Knew Already: The end of the episode has Jesse and Donovan revealing that they already knew Charlie and Sarah were dating, having had suspicions long ago and finding out through the footage from Good Taste’s cameras.
- Family Business: Good Taste is a restaurant owned and operated by Peter Wong, his wife Alice, his daughter Maple, and his stepson Kurt. Their rival Better Taste meanwhile is owned by Peter's former business partner Bill Morrison and his son Liam. Chief Archer was Good Taste's number-one customer up until his death, with Peter believing Bill to have had a hand in it to try and get Good Taste shut down for good.
- Frame-Up: Suspicions fall on Better Taste due to their longstanding rivalry with Good Taste and the murder weapon being found in their trash. Bill however insists he had nothing to do with Archer's death and that the most he would've done to him would've been to try and make him his number-one customer instead. Turns out they really are innocent. Kurt was the one who planted it there to frame them and make it look like it was the result of the feud having gotten out of hand and create fair ground for cashing in on the insurance policy covering acts of malice.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While Kurt may have been the one who killed Archer, he only did it because the people Kurt owed money to put him up to it as an alternative to paying off his debt.
- Insurance Fraud: Jesse's findings reveal Good Taste to have recently took out an insurance policy valued at over three million dollars for acts of malice and vandalism. Because of this, Charlie suspects that the murderer was someone working in the restaurant with intent to cash in on it. Kurt manipulated his mother into taking it out claiming that he was doing it so she wouldn't have to worry about financial troubles once Good Taste gets shut down, although Charlie implies that it was actually because Kurt just got greedy enough to try and profit from Archer's death.
- Lame Pun Reaction: After hearing at the end of the episode that Good and Better Taste have finally reunited, Jesse suggests that they could rebrand as "Best Taste". Charlie, Sarah, and Donovan all consider it to be a terrible idea.
- Mob Debt: Prior to the episode, Kurt borrowed a hundred grand to invest into cryptocurrency and ended up losing it all in the crash. When the loaners refused to give him more time and knew that Chief Archer ate weekly at Kurt's family's restaurant, they offered to eliminate his debt if Kurt murdered him for them. This also gave Kurt the idea to try and cash in on a three-million-dollar insurance policy covering acts of malice and get Good Taste shut down out of resentment towards his stepfather for making Kurt's mother devote everything she had to maintaining the business, with Kurt deeming Archer's death to be "killing two birds with one stone".
- Nothing Personal: Kurt insists that he never had any kind of grudge against Archer, only killing him due to his death being part of a deal Kurt made with his loaners to eliminate his debt.
- Retirony: Chief Archer was set to retire within a few weeks, having planned a lot to do afterwards with his wife. Unfortunately, he ends up the victim of an unknown assailant who spikes his dish with poison.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The cause of Chief Archer's death was from his dish at Good Taste being spiked with wolfsbane, with forensics implying that he was the sole target.
- Tranquil Fury: Charlie is less than pleased with Kurt for causing the death of Chief Archer and trying to profit from it by using it to shut down his family’s restaurant to collect on the insurance under the claim that he did the latter to help his mother, especially when Kurt's debt problem could've been solved easier had he just gone to the police about it in the first place. The detective coldly tells him to get in his cell once he finishes his confession, then closes the door and walks away without a word before Kurt can try to further justify his actions.
- Unwitting Pawn: The major crimes team suspect Archer to have been this, with his death possibly being part of a plan concocted by Better Taste to finally get Good Taste shut down due to Archer being the latter’s number one customer. He was actually this to Kurt's plan to eliminate his debt and get Good Taste shut down to cash in on an insurance policy covering acts of malice.
- We Used to Be Friends: Peter and Bill started Good Taste together before a falling out between them led to Bill starting his own identical restaurant next door and a constantly-escalating feud that their other family members want no part of. Unbeknownst to both of them, Maple and Liam have been secretly dating while working to find a way bring Good and Better Taste together claiming it to also be a financially good decision. They not only manage to succeed after the case is solved, but are given full control of the entire operation.
