Turnabout Corner

Episode 2: Turnabout Corner is the second case in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and follows on two months after the previous case. It marks the first official appearances of Detective Ema Skye and rock star/prosecutor Klavier Gavin, and Trucy Wright begins to take on the more prominent role of Apollo Justice's assistant. It also formally and fully introduces Justice's ability to perceive witnesses' nervous behaviors.

Prologue
Just as a man is seen pulling a stand, there are little crimes being committed - a hit-and-run, panty-snatching, and the theft of a man's noodle stand - all leading to one bigger crime: murder.

Investigation
Two months after Apollo Justice's first case, he had already lost his job and his mentor, Kristoph Gavin. He had just been invited to come over to the famous Wright & Co. Law Offices, only to find out that it had been transformed into the Wright Talent Agency, run by Phoenix Wright's daughter, a professional magician named Trucy. Although Justice was confused at first, it was explained to him that he was in the right place, and he remembered Trucy as the girl who had given him the bloody ace in his last trial.

The reason Justice called was to meet with Phoenix, who had been taken to the hospital. Racing over to the Hickfield Clinic, Justice found Phoenix, who explained that he had been the victim of a hit and run on his way to a restaurant. A car had come at him, hit him, and driven off. Phoenix wasn't badly hurt, but he still wanted to "hire" Justice to find the guy who hit him. Phoenix did say that he would soon meet a real client, though.

Returning to the Talent Agency, Justice and Trucy met Guy Eldoon, who also had a problem. Someone had stolen his noodle stand. On top of that, Trucy revealed that she too was a victim; last night, someone had stolen her panties. The girl asked Justice to help her recover her stolen underwear. Justice now had three seemingly unrelated cases, not knowing that he would end up realizing that the three cases were not unrelated after all.

Trucy and Justice went to the Kitaki Mansion, where Phoenix had been hit and run by a speeding green sports car. They met the boss's wife, Little Plum Kitaki, who told them that her bloomers had, too, been stolen. They met a young lady by the name of Alita Tiala and Trucy nonchalantly gave her a flyer to the renamed, "Wright Anything Agency".

Returning to the Agency once again, they learned that Tiala wanted Justice to defend her fiancee, Wocky Kitaki, the only son of the Kitakis' head, Winfred Kitaki.

In the end, they learn that the witness, Wesley Stickler, was actually the panty-snatcher. Apparantly he was amazed by Trucy's "Magic Panties" Act in the Wonder Bar. The Victim, Dr. Pal Meraktis, was intending to kill Alita but she killed him instead. The speeding green car that hit Mr. Wright was owned by Dr. Pal Meraktis. After returning to the Clinic, Stickler clogged the victims exhaust pipe. Thus, the car wouldn't run. This led the victim to steal the noodle stand to dump Alita's "corpse". As he was about to throw Alita into the river, he met Wocky, and Alita woke up. She then took out the pistol she stole from her fiancee and shot Dr. Meraktis.

Connections with other cases

 * This case is similar to the case in which Turner Grey was murdered. The victim is a doctor with his own clinic; the murderer was previously a nurse at the doctor's clinic; the murder weapons are a knife and a gun; a car accident is involved; a Japanese-themed family is involved; and both happen in June. Even "Hickfield" makes an appearance here, whereas Director Hotti - a man who either is the same person under a different name, or is just a doppelganger - made his first appearance during the Turner Grey case.


 * If Justice inspects the stepladder in the garage, he will refer to it as a ladder. Trucy will then butt in and correct him. This a reference to a running joke in the Ace Attorney series, during which whenever Wright's assistants called a stepladder a ladder, he would correct them, only to then be scolded for his pedantry.


 * Wocky's relationship with Tiala is comparable to Phoenix Wright's relationship with Dahlia Hawthorne to an extent.


 * While examining the car in the Meraktis Clinic's garage, Justice states that he once read a report about a case that Phoenix Wright worked on many years previously. In said case, there a piece of cloth shoved into the tailpipe of a car that turned out to be a vital clue in solving the case. Justice goes on to say that he is reminded of that case whenever he checks out a car, and hence always checks the tailpipe. This is a reference to Rise from the Ashes from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in which Lana Skye shoved a scarf wrapped around a knife into the tailpipe of Miles Edgeworth's car.


 * This case contains the only two allusions to Phoenix Wright's old assistant Maya Fey in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, neither of which mention her by name. The first is in the Hickfield Clinic, where Phoenix is recovering from his hit-and-run and Justice notes the many children's action hero show DVDs beside his bed, including the Steel Samurai, The Nickel Samurai and Pink Princess. Phoenix then tells Justice that "This "kid" [he] know[s] keeps sending them to [him]". The second instance is when Justice first meets Guy Eldoon, who proceeds to mention that Phoenix often frequented his father's noodle stand with "his assistant" back during "his attorney days".


 * When talking about Phoenix Wright's last case, he mentions that Klavier took the bar exam in Europe and that "they're progressive over there." This could be a reference to two other prosecutors who took the bar exam at very young ages.