After a severed human hand is found in a box of frozen cod, the team must uncover the identity of both the victim and the killer behind the grisly crime.
Tropes:
- Amicable Exes: Evan Barrett, Kadi's ex-husband whom she divorced after their marriage fell through because of his drinking problems. In spite of this, he still helps out with Honest to Cod's operations and remains on good terms with Kadi, although the relationship between him and Toni is somewhat rocky.
- Blackmail: How Archie forced Craig to help him cover up Kadi's murder, threatening to turn him in for his tax frauds if he didn't.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Archie Parsons. Contrary to belief, he did not take losing his hotel contract to Honest to Cod at all. Hellbent on getting back what he deemed rightfully his, he threatened Kadi multiple times into selling her business to him, then eventually killed her when she refused to submit to him. For extra cruelty, Archie decided to sever one of Kadi's hands to ship to Toni over in Jamaica to send a message to stay off what he considered to be his turf, all the while forcing Craig to help with the cover-up and organizing things so that Craig would take the fall for everything.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When cornered by Charlie, Archie tries to get in a fistfight with him in a last-ditch attempt to escape arrest. The detective decks him in one blow and proceeds to slap handcuffs on him.
- Dude, Not Funny!: During Charlie's initial conversation with Craig, the latter tries to excuse Kadi's firing of him over his tax frauds as a misunderstanding related to her being bad with numbers, and has to gall to tell Charlie "you know how bad women are with numbers". Charlie isn't amused, as he is quite aware from experience how good women actually are with numbers. Craig promptly admits that remark wasn't funny.
- Engineered Public Confession: After convincing Craig to try and make up for the role he played in Kadi's murder, Charlie and Jesse set him up with a wire and organize a meeting with Archie in a public place to get a confession out of him with Rex acting as Craig's new guard dog. While Archie almost immediately figures out what's going on, he doesn't account for Rex also wearing a wire and recording the entire conversation.
- Excellent Judge of Character: After Archie's interrogation, while Charlie and Donovan argue over whether Archie should be considered a suspect since his connections could cast a bad light on the SJPD, Toni assuredly tells them that he killed her sister Kadi. Her rationale being that Archie shook her hand and complimented her fingers while claiming that he's looking forward to working with her, which she identified as a threat. While an arrest couldn't be done due to lack of evidence at the time, Toni was ultimately proven correct about Archie being behind Kadi's murder. Downplayed, since Toni is initially distrustful of Evan, and understandably assumed that SJPD could abandon the case by being bribed, but is thankfully dissuaded of those notions.
- Family Business: Honest to Cod is a saltfish company founded and run by a pair of sisters from Jamaica, Kadi Barrett and her sister Toni London, with help from Kadi's ex-husband Evan. They had been doing well to the point where they recently managed to secure a contract for supplying saltfish to a Jamaican hotel chain up until Kadi's sudden disappearance and the discovery of the hand shipped overseas in one of their crates. However, the investigation reveals Kadi to have been receiving anonymous threats and apparently never told Toni about it for reasons unknown, suggesting that whoever it was is also the culprit behind the shipped hand. It's implied that Kadi chose to keep Toni in the dark about everything as a way to protect her from Archie.
- Finger in the Mail: The episode's plot revolves around the discovery of a severed human hand belonging to an unknown woman in a box of frozen saltfish shipped from Newfoundland to Jamaica. The Major Crimes team work to try and to figure out who it belongs to and whoever is responsible for the crime itself. It turns out to belong to Kadi Barrett, one of the co-owners of Honest to Cod. Sadly, she is presumed dead due to the initial analysis determining her hand to have been severed postmortem, with the investigation then focusing on trying to find the rest of her.
- Frame-Up: What Craig claims to be the victim of after Rex discovers signs of blood cleanup in his house and Kadi's body buried in his backyard. Charlie isn't quick to believe him due to the overwhelming evidence that suggests otherwise. However, when there are signs that Craig is protecting the person implied to be the real culprit behind Kadi's murder and expresses guilt over the role he played in it, the detective offers him a deal so that Craig can potentially get off on a lighter sentence for his involvement in everything if he confesses everything he knows.
- Kick the Dog: Wow, does Archie love doing this. After killing Kadi, he decided to sever one of her hands and ship it over to Toni in Jamaica. Then when he meets Toni in person, he basically brags about his crimes to her by offering fake condolences and for her to give him a call when she's ready to sell Honest to Cod while mentioning that she has "elegant fingers" when he ends their conversation with a handshake. Toni is not pleased with any of it to say the least.
- Manipulative Bastard: Craig was talked into setting up a meeting with Kadi by Archie to try and talk her into selling Honest to Cod under the promise that Archie would make him his new CFO if he was successful. Unbeknownst to both Craig and Kadi, it was actually all a trap so that Archie could murder Kadi while her guard was down and have Craig take the fall for it while blackmailing him into helping with the cover-up.
- Nervous Wreck: Craig is notably stressed out, as indicated when he repeatedly tries to justify his supposedly bad reputation with Kadi over his tax frauds, is wracked with guilt over his role in Archie's plan to kill Kadi, abhors the idea of going to jail, and Charlie himself notes that he has a weak stomach.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Archie was less than thrilled at the idea of being upstaged in the line of work he hand his family had been a part of for generations by a young female owner not from the same country as him, with racial slurs being amongst the numerous threats he had been sending to Kadi trying to bully her into selling her business to him.
- The Rival: One of Honest to Cod's rivals is a long-time saltfish company run by Archibald "Archie" Parsons, whose family has been in the business for generations, although their success is rumored to partially stem from shady dealings and connections. Toni suspects him of being involved in Kadi's murder as Archie used to own the hotel contract Honest to Cod recently acquired. Archie however insists that things were fine between them and was stated by the hotel chain owner to have taken losing his contract surprisingly well. Nope. Archie was actually furious about it and resorted to threatening Kadi into selling Honest to Cod to get the contract back, then eventually killed her after she refused to back down.
- Slashed Throat: Kadi's cause of death, her carotid artery having been completely severed with a knife from behind by Archie.
- The Sociopath: Archie ticks off quite a few boxes. He's shown to be very self-absorbed, is superficially charming, has a penchant for manipulating others into helping him achieve his goals, has zero empathy or remorse for his actions, and is willing to go to any length, even murder, to get rid of anything or anyone that slights his ego or challenges his power in any way. Fortunately, he's also arrogant enough to think that he can't be fooled by anyone, which Charlie disproves using a wire secretly attached to Rex acting as Craig's guard dog during Craig and Archie's meeting.
- Stealing from the Till: Craig Fields, Kadi's former accountant whom she fired for skimming money from her tax rebates. He's suspected of having involvement in Kadi's disappearance and murder when surveillance footage shows him leaving her car in the airport parking lot and Kadi's cellphone trail going to and from his house, his situation worsening when signs of blood cleanup is found in Craig's house and Kadi's body turning up in his backyard. However, when Toni mentions that Kadi never held much of a grudge against Craig and wasn't even sure she was going to report him since it was only a couple thousand dollars that he took, it makes Charlie suspect that Craig's claims of being framed for Kadi's murder might be true. They are, if only partially. While Craig did have a hand in her murder, it was only because he was manipulated by Archie into setting everything up.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Part of the reason why Archie killed Kadi was because he couldn't stand the idea of being outshone in the business he and his family had been a part of for generations, much less by a young up-and-coming female owner who wasn't even from the same country as him.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The A-plot focuses on Charlie, Rex, Donovan, and Sarah working on a case to find the missing (later dead) Kadi, while the B-plot involves Jesse and Karma going on a stakeout to find Kadi's ring after it goes missing from the SJPD forensics room.
- Unwitting Pawn: What Craig was to Archie, having been tricked into setting up a meeting with Kadi so that Archie could slit her throat from behind and force Craig into helping cover it up and make him take the fall for it. When Charlie notices that Craig expresses remorse over the part that he played in Kadi's murder, he offers him a chance to try and do right by her and Toni by helping with arresting Archie.
- Villain Has a Point: Archie isn't completely wrong about Craig having nobody but himself to blame for the situation he's currently in, as the only reason Craig is even involved in Kadi's murder is because he had already dug a hole for himself by deciding to steal from her, Archie's, and his other clients' tax rebates.
