After a concert cellist is attacked in her own apartment, detectives discover surveillance equipment invading her privacy.
Tropes
- All Love Is Unrequited: Aimee is obsessed with Terry who is obsessed with Cassie Germaine.
- Bad Boss: Orchestra conductor, Robert Prescott.
- The Bait: In order to flush Terry out, the detectives convince Cassie into playing a concert with her dedicating it to Terry to lure him out into the crowd. Aside from the fact Cassie receives a box with a dead rat in it, it works and they are able to bring Terry in ... only for him to deny that he had anything to do with the assault, damage to Cassie's cello, or the dead rat.
- Blaming the Victim: Aimee, Terry's landlord (and nothing more) is obsessed with him, but Terry has a stalker crush on Cello player Cassie Germaine. Aimee, in turn, completely blames Cassie for "stealing her man", and proceeds to assault her in her own apartment, deface her cello, send her a dead rat, and finally shoot Cassie in the back in hopes of getting her to "stay away" from Terry (Cassie doesn't even know who Terry is). Only when she learns Cassie survived being shot does she turn her attention onto Terry and stabs him to death for choosing Cassie over her.
- Boring, but Practical: While the detectives are going through Prescott's videos of himself having sex with his musician girlfriends, they comment that the man really had a fondness for only one sexual position, as every single video has him doing it the exact same way.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: After Aimee attacks Cassie in her apartment, she writes "WHORE" in blood across her chest. Later, the detectives are notified of another attack, but this time it was a note shoved into Cassie's Cello with "DIE BITCH" again written in what appears to be blood (although this time they do not know who's blood it is).
- Dead Animal Warning: At the orchestra Aimee sends Cassie a dead rat in a gift box in hopes of scaring her off.
- Dissonant Serenity: When the detectives finally catch up with Aimee, she's drying her hair after taking a shower and claiming Terry already left on his own. However, the detectives can tell she's lying since all of Terry's things are still there, so Aimee just starts calmly talking about how she had no choice, she tried to scare the whore (Cassie) off but it didn't work, and when Terry refused to return her feelings, she had to kill him. She says all of this while still drying her hair, as the detectives find Terry's mangled, bloody body in the bathroom.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Terry is not a good nor sane person; after meeting Cassie once in another state he grew obsessed with her, stole her Social Security number to track her down in New York, and stole a dead man's credit card and another man's work order in order to install spy cameras in Cassie's apartment. That being said, in spite of seeing her with at least two different boyfriends Terry never grew jealous or violent towards Cassie, he seemed fine loving her from afar and was honestly aghast when the detectives accused him of assaulting and harassing her (aside from sending her flowers after every single performance). That isn't to say that someday Terry's obsession wouldn't have turned violent, but he was not responsible for the attack on Cassie (at least not directly).
- Identity Impersonator: The detectives think they've found a lead in the case when they found the credit card used to buy the spy cams set up in Cassie's apartment ... only for it to lead to a man who died three years prior meaning it was a stolen card. They try another lead to the man who was supposed to install the security system in Cassie's apartment, only to, once again, find out their real perp stole the work order from the van to pose as the installer.
- If I Can't Have You…: Aimee ultimately stabs Terry to death because he refused to give up his crush on Cassie to be with her instead.
- In the Back: Aimee tries killing Cassie by shooting her twice in the back ... Cassie survives, which is likely what drives Aimee to end up killing Terry, instead, who refused to give up his stalker crush for her stalker crush on him.
- Irony: Terry Willard is a Stalker with a Crush who has his own Stalker with a Crush.
- Karma Houdini: Robert Prescott pretty much gets away with filming his various girlfriends without their knowledge, since he did so in the privacy of his own apartment in a one-party consent state. Maybe they could get him on blackmailing Cassie, but it would be her word against his. It's possible the detectives could get him on something off-screen, but their attention was more focused on finding the person who had assaulted Cassie.
- Meal Ticket: The conductor of the orchestra, Robert Prescott, appears to consider himself one. When he finds a particularly talented musician he will stop at nothing to seduce her; showering her with money and even paying for her New York apartment. However, he typically has several girlfriends going at the same time, as well as records himself having sex with them without their consent. Eventually the girls all end up getting sick of him being a creep and leave, and he ends up blackmailing them. Ironically, he doesn't blackmail them into continuing to sleep with him, but instead in staying with the orchestra claiming he didn't spend all that money on their talent not to see a return on his investment.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Detectives initially suspect the victim's former boyfriend, who has his own history of secretly recording people. Terry, the victim's stalker, also counts since he's not the perpetrator, either.
- Real-Person Fic: Terry keeps a journal written from his perspective of himself meeting Cassie and the two having a very close connection. It proves he's her obsessive stalker, but there's nothing in it about wanting to assault or scare her.
- Revenge Porn Blackmail: The creepy conductor of the orchestra, Prescott, was blackmailing Cassie with the secret video he recorded of them having sex, threatening that if she quit he would show everyone the tape. He was not the person who attacked Cassie in her apartment, however.
- Spy Cam: The theme of this episode, several crimes aside from the actual assault and attempted murder were due to illegal spy cameras. Prescott, the conductor, would film the women he was sleeping with without their consent, and then blackmail them with if the video later if they tried to leave the orchestra. Terry, on the other hand, set up several hidden cameras in Cassie's apartment (in her living room, bedroom, and even the bathroom), and would even edit the film together with background music so he could enjoy watching it in his free time.
- Smoking Gun: Cassie is assaulted but not raped, however the detectives continue treating the crime as a sexual assault because her clothes were ripped off and profanity was written across her naked chest. Because the detectives are only looking for men who could have attacked Cassie (her boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, and her stalker), this allows the actual assailant, Aimee, to keep getting close to her cumulating in Aimee shooting Cassie in the back at point-blank range.
- Stalker Shrine: Terry has quite an impressive one for Cassie, filled with photos, stolen video, and even a life-sized standee of Cassie he had specially made.
- Stalker with a Crush: Both Terry and Aimee.
- There Should Be a Law: When the detectives finally find Terry, he vehemently denies any acts that would have harmed or frightened Cassie, claiming to only be in love with her. In spite of the fact they have evidence that Terry set up several hidden cameras in Cassie's apartment and has a stalker shrine dedicated to her, the only thing they could charge him for is "Burglary" for initially stealing stuff out of the original security company worker's van. They even make a comment that the laws in New York just haven't caught up the technology yet, so they end up letting him go.
- Yandere: Aimee, she's only Terry's landlord, but she's grown obsessed over him, to the point where she piggybacks on Terry's own delusions and assumes the relationship he thinks he has with Cassie is real. She ends up assaulting Cassie, defacing Cassie's cello, sending her a dead rat, and even tries murdering Cassie by shooting her in the back to "make her stay away from Terry" (Cassie doesn't know who Terry or Aimee are). When none of that works and Terry refuses to flee the state with her, she finally flies off the handle and stabs him to death, and the detectives find her nonchalantly drying her hair after a shower with Terry's corpse in the bathroom.
