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| 4 | [[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slasherseries.jpg]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ->''"Everyone in this town has a past. Not everyone has a future."'' |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ''Slasher'' is a Canadian television horror anthology series. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The show tells the stories of people being hunted down by masked killers, the identities of whom are unknown. As the people try to solve the mystery of who the killer is, dark secrets start to be unraveled, and trusting others becomes a challenge. Also, every season has a brand new story to tell, similar to Series/AmericanHorrorStory. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Season one, ''The Executioner'' (2016), follows Sarah Bennett (Creator/KatieMcGrath) who moves back to the town where her parents were murdered on the night of her birth, coinciding with a string of grisly murders done by a copycat killer, the titular "Executioner". |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Season two, ''Guilty Party'' (2017), follows a group of camp counselors who return to the site of a murder committed by them, only to find the corpse they'd hidden has vanished, while a mysterious killer hunts them down one by one. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Season three, ''Solstice'' (2019), follows a group of neighbors who are targeted by a mysterious killer, "The Druid", apparently seeking revenge on them for their complicity in not saving a murder victim the previous year. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Season four, ''Flesh & Blood'' (2021), follows a wealthy family gathering for a reunion on a secluded island, when a masked killer starts picking them off. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Season five, ''Ripper'', follows Basil Garvey (Creator/EricMcCormack), a charismatic tycoon from the late 19th century as he oversees a killer stalking the mean streets, but instead of targeting the poor and downtrodden like Jack the Ripper, The Widow is meting out justice against the rich and powerful. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ''Slasher'' was originally produced by and for the Canadian network Super Channel, in association with the US cable channel Chiller, who both aired its first season in their respective countries. The series later moved to Creator/{{Netflix}} for its second and third seasons, and then streaming service Shudder for its fourth and fifth seasons. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!This series provides examples of: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:The Entire Series]] |
| 30 | * AnyoneCanDie: Anyone of the people who started off as a main or supporting character may die. |
| 31 | * AssholeVictim: Given that it's a slasher series, one can expect at least a handful of victims to be deserving of their deaths. This trope is played entirely straight in ''The Executioner'', deconstructed in ''Guilty Party'', zig-zagged in ''Solstice'', had only a few aversions in ''Flesh & Blood'', and comes back in full force in ''Ripper''. |
| 32 | * BittersweetEnding: |
| 33 | ** Season 1 -- [[spoiler: The true Executioner, Cam, is dead. Sarah and Dylan have reconciled but sell the former's old house because of what transpired. Robin survived his stabbing from Cam and bids farewell to the couple. However, the ending shows Robin selling a house to a couple with a young daughter... and said daughter is a budding serial killer]]. |
| 34 | ** Season 2 -- [[spoiler:Peter pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Keira. Dawn also survives her injuries from the killer, Judith. A few months later, Keira and Dawn meet up at the police station, with the latter ready to admit her and the other counselors' role in Talvinder's death and blaming said death on Owen, thus giving closure to Talvinder's family. However, Judith has yet to be caught and watches from a distance with the ghost of her dead son. They decide to wait until Dawn is released to kill her]]. |
| 35 | ** Season 3 -- [[spoiler:Saadia and Dan survive the night. The Druid, who was Connor and Jen, are dead, and Wyatt is imprisoned. And before Jen's death, Saadia admits to having reposted the insensitive tweet her and Connor's mother made of Kit's murder. And needless to say, the whole ordeal has left both survivors scarred]]. |
| 36 | ** Season 4 -- [[spoiler: Liv survives the night, wins the inheritance, and is set to have a decent comfortable life with her unborn child free from the ties to her sociopathic predecessors. The Gentleman is dead, as well as Spencer Galloway, leaving no one to repeat this action directly. However, Liv's mother is dead, as is literally ''everyone else'' that was at the competition. And the ending is ambiguous enough to hint that Liv carries some psychological trauma from everything and may yet become a bit more like the Galloways than she would've liked.]] |
| 37 | ** Season 5 -- [[spoiler: Every one of the Widow's targets are dead, but she and her followers earn their happy ending, free from Basil Garvey's corruption. However, it's still clear [[HeWhoFightsMonsters how much the experience changed them to be no better than Garvey and his associates]] and it's uncertain if they might ever continue their crusade.]] |
| 38 | * BlackAndGreyMorality: No character in any of the seasons are saints and have done reprehensible and morally questionable behavior. However, there are a few people who stand out as more amoral and disgusting. |
| 39 | * BlackDudeDiesFirst: {{Averted|Trope}} in ''The Executioner''. Sarah's husband Dylan survives all the episodes and [[spoiler:helps Sarah finally defeat the killer]]. [[spoiler:{{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Guilty Party''. Peter is the last of the main cast to die, and he dies by his own hand]]. [[spoiler: Also {{inverted|Trope}} in ''Solstice''. Connor and Jen turn out to be the killers, but they both die at the end]]. [[spoiler:In ''Flesh & Blood'', Jayden isn't the first one to be killed by the Gentleman, but he's the first death the rest of the family witnesses.]] [[spoiler: Averted in ''Ripper'', while Dr. Israel dies in the antepenultimate episode, Detective Rijkers survives to the end, but becomes one of the Widow's followers.]] |
| 40 | * ContrastingSequelAntagonist: |
| 41 | ** Season one had the Executioner. They are a serial killer that is extremely religious, wears a dark, personalized outfit and is something of a legend in the town. They kill people who can be blamed by one of the SevenDeadlySins and the deaths they causes are based on the punishment for each of them in hell. [[spoiler:His real identity, Cam, is Sarah's closest friend and supposed LoveInterest in the show, who turns out to be a PsychopathicManchild with no particular reason for the killings, except crazy fanaticism.]] |
| 42 | ** Season two had the parka wearing killer. Unlike the Executioner, they bother much less with the theatrics of death, only really interested in killing off the characters and getting rid of them in painful ways. They also do not have any unique nickname like the other killers and the first antagonist to [[spoiler:[[KarmaHoudini get away with their crimes]]. Her real identity, Judith, turns out to be more pitiful than the main characters, who indirectly cause the death of her son and is taking personal revenge on them for it.]] |
| 43 | ** Season three had the Druid, which is much more violent and theatrical than the killers before them. They have a tendency to kill people in ironic ways just for the sake of offing them in the worst possible way for them. Unlike the previous two, they also actually bother with covering up some of their kills and hiding bodies, as the police is more active this time around and could track things back to them otherwise. [[spoiler:Jen and Connor are the first killer to be two people working together, rather than alone, and they also have sympathetic reasons, in that they are avenging their mother's suicide and harassment from their neighbors. Compared to their predecessor, Wyatt, who only sought revenge on Kit and Noelle for petty reasons.]] |
| 44 | ** Season four has the Gentleman, who combines the Druid's theatrics and the Parka Killer's penchant for pain and lack of being a CopycatKiller. They kill people in vicious ways without bothering to try and cover up the evidence. In fact, this individual has a penchant for killing people in such a way that others inevitably ''will'' find the victim, just as a method to terrorize them. This, and the Gentleman seems rather content to sit back and let the backstabbing family tear itself apart in the stress. [[spoiler: Her real identity is Dr. Trinh, who's the first killer who seems to die early on as a way of hiding. She's also the first one who was already a psychopathic serial murderer even before the season's events and was hired by Spencer for that very reason so that she would kill the "weak" family members.]] |
| 45 | ** Season five has the Widow. This is the first of the killers to be explicitly called female by default despite their gender being unknown for most of the season since they wear WidowsWeeds. This person is one of the most violent murderers, killing people in ways that aren't just creative but immensely torturous and painful with deliberate intent to reduce them to begging for their lives. They also revert to the practice of leaving bodies to be discovered in gruesome ways unlike the previous two killers. They are also the most vigilante-like of the killers and the second killer [[spoiler:[[KarmaHoudini who gets away with their crimes]], and even gets others to join their crusade of revenge. Her real identity is Regina Simcoe, and her reasons are also sympathetic in that she seeks revenge for her mother's torment, and the first revenge crusader who doesn't suffer from MisplacedRetribution, in that all of her targets were in fact people who victimized her mother.]] |
| 46 | * CreateYourOwnVillain: Throughout the series, it's shown that at least one character's actions have led to create the killer. |
| 47 | ** Rachel and Bryan Ingram [[spoiler:took advantage of Tom Winston's feelings for the former and blackmailed him.]] In response, Tom created the Executioner to take revenge on them, scarring Alan Henry in the process. [[spoiler: Alan then became a priest to cope with his trauma, becoming a UselessBystanderParent to his wife's abuse of their son, Cam. The abuse, combined with his father's religious teachings, pushes Cam to take up Tom's mantle as the new Executioner.]] |
| 48 | ** Talvinder Gill's bullying of the Camp Motega counselors provoked them to murder her [[spoiler: and frame Owen Turnbull for it. As a result, Owen was falsely arrested and committed suicide, but not before messaging his mother, Judith Berry, about what happened. Judith became the Camp Motega killer and lured the counselors back to the camp by starting a commune there to take vengeance for what they did to her son]]. |
| 49 | ** Kit Jennings [[spoiler:cheated with Noelle Samuels on her boyfriend, Wyatt.]] The latter became the Druid and killed Kit [[spoiler: for stealing her away from him. Kit's death later spurned a viral hate tweet started by Saadia Jalalzai against Justine Rijkers, prompting her to commit suicide. Her death begins her children's StartOfDarkness, driving them to take up the Druid's mantle and murder everyone involved]]. |
| 50 | ** While the Gentleman, [[spoiler: A.K.A Persephone Trinh, was always a killer, she was hired by Spencer Galloway to murder his family since the death of his beloved wife Annette drove him to become ruthless. While also gathering information on the family members' secrets, the Gentleman had presumably found out that Spencer's second wife, Grace, murdered Annette for his money and told him, causing him to set up one last game for his inheritance to make Grace suffer for killing his wife]]. |
| 51 | ** The Widow comes about because [[spoiler: Basil Garvey, the elder Botticelli sisters, and numerous other people participated in the ''vicious'' torment, eventual murder, and bodily desecration of Margaret Mehar. Her daughter, Regina Simcoe bore witness to most of it, and was taken and trained by a fellow worker who took her in. She comes back twelve years later, seeking revenge against everyone involved in Margaret's fate and Andrew May Sr.'s wrongful execution.]] |
| 52 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: All over the place, really. There are almost no killings that ''aren't'' brutal in some way. |
| 53 | * DarkSecret: A common theme present in all of the seasons is that all or most of the characters in each season have a secret of some kind, and absolutely none of the secrets are pleasant, with some outright painting the characters as worse than the serial killers that are hunting and killing them. |
| 54 | * EveryoneIsASuspect: This ''is'' a slasher series. Each season so far has the killer's identity hidden until the last few episodes, and it usually turns out to be one of the characters we've been following. |
| 55 | * FinalGirl: Every season is expected to have one. It's not called ''Slasher'' without a female survivor, after all. |
| 56 | ** The Executioner: While Sarah is this, the creators made her to be more than the stereotypical final virgin survivor and be more Literature/NancyDrew like. |
| 57 | ** Guilty Party: [[spoiler: Dawn and Keira]] survive to the end of the season, although [[spoiler: it's '''strongly''' implied that Judith will still attempt to kill Dawn in the near-ish future]]. |
| 58 | ** Solstice: [[spoiler: Saadia. After Angel dies from killing the Druid, she manages to kill the accomplice, saving herself and Dan in the end of the season]]. |
| 59 | ** Flesh & Blood: [[spoiler: Liv]] is the only survivor of the Galloway family. |
| 60 | ** Ripper: There are two women who fit the build, the first being Regina who becomes Kenneth's love interest and assistant for most of the series, and Verdi who is the traditional sweet and virginal style of final girl. [[spoiler:However, Regina turns out to be the killer and Verdi not only joins her in the end, but she also commits a murder of her own in the penultimate episode.]] |
| 61 | * HardTruthAesop: Everyone has secrets, and you can't expect to know everything about another person, even those closest to you. |
| 62 | * MalevolentMaskedMan: Typical of the tradition of Slasher Movies, each season so far depicts the killer as wearing some form of disguise covering their face; the Executioner wore an executioner hood, the killer from Guilty Party protection gear, the Druid a black mask with blue neon features on top of it, the Gentleman a simple white mask over a black ski mask, and the Widow a mourning veil. |
| 63 | * PlotTriggeringDeath: |
| 64 | ** Season 1 has the death of Sarah's parents, which was the Executioner's first crime and would lead into the whole story of the series. |
| 65 | ** Season 2 had the death of Talvinder Gill, whose body the main characters try to hide to get themselves rid of evidence. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed there's a second one. Talvinder's death was pinned on a boy that would go on to kill himself in jail. The killer is really his mother avenging his death.]] |
| 66 | ** Season 3 had Kit Jennings. He was a member of the building that was often causing trouble by consuming a lot of drugs, having orgies, having sex in public and cheating on his partners and was killed well in the view of everyone in the building, and the murders start on the anniversary of his death, with the Druid's motive presumably being to tie up loose ends. [[spoiler:This, however, turns out to be a bit of a RedHerring. Jen and Connor's mother, Justine, made a tweet talking trash about Kit after he died. When the post went viral and the harassment affected her and her family greatly, Justine killed herself, again, to the view of everyone in the building. The killers are avenging ''her'' and have little to no connection to Kit. However, his death still triggered the DisasterDominoes that triggered the season's events, so his death still applies as this.]] |
| 67 | ** Season 4 had Annette Galloway. By her own admission, she was TheHeart of her family. It was she who kept the family together, kept the business running efficiently, and kept her husband's darker side, of which she was fully aware, in check. As she lay ridden with cancer, she feared that her death would cause the family to spiral downwards out of control without her. [[ProperlyParanoid She was right]]. After her death, [[spoiler: which was actually a murder at Grace's hands]], the family spiraled downwards into total insanity, something clear from the very first episode. |
| 68 | ** Season 5 had Margaret Mehar and Andrew May Sr. The former was murdered 12 years ago with the latter being executed for it not long after. The Widow's actions based on their notes tie back mostly to Margaret, but Andrew May Sr. is referenced a lesser number of times for ostensibly being framed for her death. [[spoiler:Margaret's the primary catalyst, as Regina is her daughter who is seeking revenge. She ends up giving Andrew May Jr. some closure by going after Enid for helping to make it seem like Andrew May Sr. was Margaret's killer.]] |
| 69 | * RecurringElement: The killer's identity is always revealed to the viewer in the penultimate episode each season. The final episode has the characters figuring out said identity and playing up the DramaticIrony that several characters are interacting with the killer while happily oblivious. |
| 70 | * SlasherMovie: It's in the title. One of the few TV series based on the genre, and one of even fewer examples that doesn't focus on teenagers. |
| 71 | * SpellMyNameWithAThe: Every killer except the second one. |
| 72 | * TooDumbToLive: A lot of bad decisions and deaths are based on this. Season 2, in particular, is prone for having the characters constantly finding excuses to go outside alone when they ''know'' a killer is out to get them. |
| 73 | * ViolenceIsDisturbing: Even when the kills are against {{Asshole Victim}}s, the violence brought from the kills to the characters never ceases to be extremely disturbing to see. |
| 74 | * WorldOfJerkass: As it's typical of the slasher genre, the wide majority of the characters in each season either start out as horrible people or turn out to be so later on as more is learnt about them. And they manage to get worse with every season. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Season One: The Executioner]] |
| 78 | * {{Bookends}}: Two ways: The season begins and ends with Sarah and Dylan hearing something on the radio and voicing their snarky tone about how they need a new radio. The second way is a lot darker: [[spoiler: First episode shows the murder of Sarah's parents at the hands of Tom Winston, the eighth episode shows the murder (or in this case ''execution'') of Cam at Sarah's hands for how he killed people based on his judgement, including her grandmother and his father]]. |
| 79 | * ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: Sarah goes full in with this once she has the Executioner, her childhood friend Cam, at her mercy. She stabs him with his own enormous knife multiple times throughout his torso, before slashing his throat to finish him off, all while he's begging her not to kill him.]] |
| 80 | * ConsultingAConvictedKiller: Tom Winston is the one who murdered Sarah's parents in 1988 and advises Sarah on the new Executioner's murders in the present day. |
| 81 | * CrapsaccharineWorld: Aside from a double murder thirty years prior, Waterbury is by all appearances an idyllic little town, but as the season progresses, it becomes apparent that the place is '''Fucked. Up.''' To wit... |
| 82 | ** Back in TheSixties [[spoiler:Brenda Merritt tried to kill a romantic rival and ended up turning her best friend into a vegetable.]] |
| 83 | ** Back in TheEighties [[spoiler:Sarah's parents were running a pornography/extortion racket.]] |
| 84 | ** Also around that same time [[spoiler:Verna [=McBride=] killed her husband and hid the body in the woods.]] |
| 85 | ** [[spoiler:A whole family is forced off their land by a greedy developer and die squatting.]] |
| 86 | ** [[spoiler:The chief of police kidnapped a teenage girl and kept her as a sex slave in his basement for 5 years.]] |
| 87 | ** [[spoiler:The publisher of the local newspaper manufactures evidence against the father of a missing teen, which leads him to kill himself.]] |
| 88 | ** Someone donning Tom Winston's Executioner outfit starts a murder spree, violently killing people in accordance with sins. Said someone is [[spoiler: Cam Henry, one of the town's own police officers.]] |
| 89 | * DarkSecret: |
| 90 | ** The Executioner is killing people based on hidden sins they committed, which caused pain to others, including [[spoiler:killing, manipulation, raping, kidnapping, captivity, etc.]] |
| 91 | ** Victims aside, part of the point made is that everyone has one of these. [[spoiler:Dylan met Sarah with the intention of investigating the original Executioner, the priest is into hardcore BDSM and is a client of a Dominatrix]]. |
| 92 | * DeathByPragmatism: After the Executioner stalked Sarah inside her own house, [[spoiler:Brenda]] wisely insists they leave the house and town as soon as possible and is later revealed to have brought a gun in case the killer would follow. [[spoiler:She is, of course, dead by the end of the third episode.]] |
| 93 | * DeathByWomanScorned: |
| 94 | ** Implied with [[spoiler: Verna [=McBride=], who most likely killed her husband for cheating on her with Rachel Ingram. This gets her targeted by the Executioner for her sin of wrath]]. |
| 95 | ** Inverted with [[spoiler: Tom Winston. He was in love with Rachel Ingram and committed infidelity with her to convince her to give up her and her husband's porn extortion scams. However, Rachel and Bryan reveal they took advantage of it to blackmail him into leaving their crimes alone. Heartbroken, Tom did ''not'' take it well and murdered them both for playing with his heart and to cover up his job as priest]]. |
| 96 | * ADeathInTheLimelight: Most of the Executioner's victims will have the episode focus on them before their deaths. |
| 97 | * DeusExMachina: Sarah looking through some photos from camp, pausing to examine the photo of Cam and finding out [[spoiler: Cam's drawing was the same as the ones the killer drew, and figuring out he's the killer just as he had all but gotten away with it and managed to pin it on Dylan and get him arrested]] would certainly qualify. |
| 98 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Some of the victims truly deserve their deaths, but most of them really don't deserve to die so horribly. |
| 99 | ** The first victim is punished for the sin of wrath by being dismembered alive. [[spoiler: This person is Verna [=McBride=], and she's killed because (it's at least theorized) she discovered her husband Peter was cheating on her and killed him in a fit of rage. While that's no excuse to murder due to her overreacting to it herself, being cheated on is something that most people would be rightfully angry about. So while she certainly needed to face consequences for what she did, being tied up and chopped apart alive was far too much.]] |
| 100 | ** The victim for envy is punished with drowning. [[spoiler: Whie Brenda never paid for the crime that led to Ada's permanent hospitalization, she has been consumed by guilt since that day, not to mention that Ronald Edwards never took his own responsibility for getting her pregnant in the first place. On the top of that, she had to endure her own daughter's violent murder. Since the Executioner knows very well how much she cares for Sarah, they could have easily played on Brenda's fear of losing her as well, forcing her to confess her crime without resorting to murder.]] |
| 101 | ** The victim for sloth is thrown into a pit of snakes, [[spoiler: and the second sloth victim is paralyzed so that to be EatenAlive by animals. These people are Trent [=McBride=] and June Henry respectively. Their sin was not helping Ariel Peterson when they saw her on the side of the road the night she disappeared. While leaving a drunk teen on the side of the road is a bit of a dick move, they ''did'' at least stop to give her some tips on how to handle the alcohol and made sure that she was mobile enough that she could make it home. The cruel deaths they suffered were far worse than they really deserved. Ironically, Nancy Vaughn is arguably worse than Trent and June, since she was an AccompliceByInaction for her husband's sin, yet she is never targeted]]. |
| 102 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only season where the FinalGirl is established from the first episode. Later seasons would not establish who the FinalGirl is until much later into the season. |
| 103 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: |
| 104 | ** The only characters in the whole series thus far who really got a happy ending through their struggles are [[spoiler: Ariel and Heather Peterson. After five years of being a captive sex slave, Ariel survives and reunites with her mother, along with the son she genuinely loves. Heather was driven to insanity by Ariel's disappearance and the subsequent suicide of her husband after Allison forged evidence against him, but ultimately finds a light in the darkness when she's brought to Ariel. This family is the only one in the season, and the series, that has received anything close to a happy ending.]] |
| 105 | ** [[spoiler: Downplayed with Sarah and Dylan. Despite all they've been through, they both survive and reconcile, ending the season ready to start a new life. It feels more bittersweet than the previous example because Sarah has lost the rest of her family and has personally killed the Executioner, but at least she finally seems at peace with her past.]] |
| 106 | * EnfantTerrible: In the final scene of the season, Robin is showing the house to potential new buyers. [[spoiler:Their angelic looking daughter snaps a cat's neck before coming back into the house and saying she thinks it's perfect.]] Maybe the house is cursed after all... |
| 107 | * FingerInTheMail: Sarah receives an actual finger in the mail from the Executioner, belonging to [[spoiler:Verna [=McBride=]]], his first victim. |
| 108 | * FrameUp: By the end of the season, [[spoiler:Dylan]] is framed as the Executioner by the real culprit. Sarah eventually figures out the truth, however. |
| 109 | * TheGameNeverStopped: After episode 7, even when all of the seven sinners have died, there's still one episode left, and Sarah is confident that the Executioner isn't done even though they left the costume out in the open at the end of the episode. She's right. |
| 110 | * HollywoodOld: Assuming that the events take place in 2016, Sarah is supposed to be 28 years old, but her grandmother Brenda (who should be pushing 80) is played by an actress who would be far more convincing as her mother (who is already dead within the show's PresentDay storyline) or aunt, as Wendy Crewson was barely 60 while filming and she looked even younger. |
| 111 | * HomePornMovie: Sarah discovers a home-filmed porn movie in the basement featuring her dead mother and a man from the neighborhood whose jealous wife killed him over the affair. It later turns out that her parents were part of a major underground porn operation in the town and were using the tapes to extort various people. [[spoiler:This included the original Executioner, who is Sarah's real father.]] |
| 112 | * {{Irony}}: Pride and envy are classically seen as the worst among the deadly sins, while lust is considered the most forgivable one. [[spoiler: Tom and Brenda are the only two victims who manage to obtain some measure of redemption and sympathy with their deaths, while Vaughn stands out as the greatest AssholeVictim of the season, and possibly of the series.]] |
| 113 | * JackTheRipoff: The SerialKiller is replicating the work of an imprisoned murderer by dressing like him as a medieval-style executioner and killing "sinners". |
| 114 | * LaserGuidedKarma: Some characters didn't profit from their sins and had in fact a miserable outcome to deal with before their deaths. |
| 115 | ** Tom Winston [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty didn't find satisfaction in killing Sarah's parents]] and never had a chance to connect with [[spoiler: his daughter]] for years. |
| 116 | ** [[spoiler: Verna [=McBride=] killed her husband]] only to live the rest of her life as a lonely, spiteful woman. |
| 117 | ** [[spoiler: Brenda's [[MurderTheHypotenuse attempted murder of her romantic rival]]]] resulted in her best friend being hospitalized for life instead and her never getting the man she longed for. When she meets him again after years, she's disgusted by him and brushes him off. |
| 118 | ** [[spoiler: Trent and June didn't pick up a drunk Ariel off the side of the road]] and ended up with a strained relationship despite their previous swing. |
| 119 | * LukeYouAreMyFather: |
| 120 | ** [[spoiler:It turns out that Sarah's real father is Tom Winston, the man responsible for killing her parents, since he had an affair with her mother Rachel. He already knew, but she figured it out on her own before confronting him with this information.]] |
| 121 | ** [[spoiler:It also turns out that the mayor of Waterbury is Sarah's biological grandfather.]] It only factors into the story when she needs leverage to get him to pressure Vaughn. |
| 122 | * PoliceAreUseless: Cam Henry, Iain Vaughn, and Shrama are the prominent members of the police force. There are just a few problems with two of them. |
| 123 | ** [[spoiler:Cam supposedly goes to try and save the victims, when he's secretly the one killing them.]] |
| 124 | ** [[spoiler:Vaughn is one of the seven sinners, and when his DeathInTheLimelight appeared, this time he's actively becomes a villain, attempting to kill and hinder several characters, including a heroin addict with the revelation of his rape of Ariel.]] |
| 125 | * RewatchBonus: Look carefully at the timing of [[spoiler:June's]] abduction by the Executioner. [[spoiler:She doesn't vanish until after her husband Cam leaves Sarah at her art store.]] |
| 126 | * SelfDefenseRuse: Dylan holds the killer, [[spoiler:Cam, down while Sarah stabs him multiple times in the stomach and across the body while he's begging her not to kill him. She then slashes his throat and escapes any punishment because she claims it was self-defense... despite his many injuries that contradicted this. More likely than not, given what had happened directly to her, the authorities decided that she wasn't worth prosecuting, especially since she was ''heavily'' targeted and traumatized by Cam.]] |
| 127 | * SevenDeadlySins: Each seven ([[spoiler:now eight]]) of the Executioner's victims are targeted because their past actions are representative of one of the seven sins, and they are killed in the applicable manner laid out by [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante]]: |
| 128 | ** Wrath: [[AnArmAndALeg Dismemberment]]. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Verna [=McBride=]]] - [[spoiler:tied to her bed, hands and feet cut off]]. Reason: [[spoiler:She killed her husband on finding out he had slept with Rachel Ingram.]] |
| 129 | ** Gluttony: [[ForceFeeding Force-fed rats]], snakes and toads. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Justin Faysal]] - [[spoiler:secretly fed rat poison.]] Reason: [[spoiler:He forced a family off their land so he could buy it and build a luxury house there. The family later squatted in an abandoned house and suffocated on the fumes of the propane heater they were using to keep warm.]] |
| 130 | ** Envy: Drowned in ice-cold water. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Brenda Merritt]] - [[spoiler:[[CementShoes tied to breeze blocks]] and dropped into the lake to drown.]] Reason: [[spoiler:attempting to hurt or kill the girlfriend of her lover back in TheSixties, and accidentally putting her best friend in a coma.]] |
| 131 | ** Sloth: Thrown into a [[SnakePit pit of snakes]]. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Trent [=McBride=] and June Henry]] - [[spoiler:chased into a pit, left there with snakes, including the Eastern Brown Snake, second most venomous snake on Earth (Trent); drugged and left in a field covered in honey, luring mice to be EatenAlive (June).]] Reason: [[spoiler:left Ariel Peterson wandering the streets drunk on the night she disappeared, because they were clocking off and didn't want the extra work.]] |
| 132 | *** [[spoiler: Subverted with Nancy Vaughn: She knew that her husband is holding Ariel hostage and did nothing to rescue her and her ChildByRape. However, she later atoned for her sin by helping the police arrest Iain and is able to reunite Ariel with her mother.]] |
| 133 | ** Greed: [[DeepFriedWhatever Boiled in oil]]. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Allison Sutherland]] - [[spoiler:head cut off and deep-fried at the local diner.]] Reason: [[spoiler:fabricated evidence in the Ariel Peterson case to keep her paper going, but which lead to the suicide of Ariel's father, Benny.]] |
| 134 | ** Lust: Covered in fire and brimstone. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Iain Vaughn]] - [[spoiler:[[MurderByCremation burned alive in a crematorium.]]]] Reason: [[spoiler:raped and kidnapped Ariel Peterson and held her captive for five years, even fathering a son with her.]] |
| 135 | ** Pride: Broken on the wheel. Victim and death: [[spoiler:Tom Winston]] - [[spoiler:offered himself to fall on a saw blade instead of Sarah.]] Reason: [[spoiler:killed Sarah's parents because they tricked him, a priest, into being videotaped having sex with Rachel. They used the tape to blackmail him into allowing their pornography operation to continue.]] |
| 136 | *** [[spoiler: Averted however with Sarah: She was also intended to be killed as the sin of Pride due to her failed attempt at suicide, but Tom's offer changed this and caused the Executioner to spare her]]. |
| 137 | * StealthPun: While Tom Winston is explaining the sin of Pride (which is also known as hybris[[note]]Most people nowadays say "hubris"[[/note]]), the scene cuts to Trent [[TaxidermyIsCreepy sewing together the skins of different animals]] he has hunted -- in other words, he's making a ''hybrid''. |
| 138 | * ThisIsReality: When Sarah tries to convince the Chief to take the new Executioner seriously, he brushes her off by saying that "real life isn't a mystery novel". |
| 139 | * VictoriousChildhoodFriend: For the first part of the season finale, [[spoiler:Cam and Sarah become this despite Sarah still married to Dylan. Then again, Dylan was just arrested for being the Executioner. Then again, Dylan's not the killer, Cam is]]. |
| 140 | * WhamShot: Episode 5 "Ill Gotten Gains": [[spoiler:Police Chief Vaughn gets home unlocks a door, revealing not only has he been keeping Ariel captive for 5 years, but he has a son with her]]. |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:Season Two: Guilty Party]] |
| 144 | * TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:By the end of the season, Judith has pretty much succeeded at what she intended to do, having killed all the counselors but Dawn (who it's heavily implied she ''does'' intend to kill in the future) and [[KarmaHoudini got away scott-free]]. Admittedly, [[AssholeVictim most of her victims were deserving]], but that's hardly any consolation.]] |
| 145 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: [[HypocriteHasAPoint As Talvinder herself points out to her bullied victims]]: [[spoiler:Susan dated another woman in secret, then outed and shamed her until she committed suicide; Dawn slept with stepfather to spite her mother; Alex was willing to cheat on Andi; and Andi is a drug dealer (and eventual murderer). Noah didn't initially have any dirty secret but turns out to be willing to rape Talvinder out of spite. They are all also willing to frame someone else for her murder.]] |
| 146 | * BreakTheHaughty: Most of the characters start as a confident person, but as the killings start, they begin to lose their cool. |
| 147 | * BottomlessMagazines: The gun [[spoiler:that Dawn brought with her]] is fired something like twenty times. Canadian gun laws set the maximum magazine size on handguns fairly low, and the gun changes hands many times without ever being reloaded. |
| 148 | * ChainsawGood: [[spoiler: Gene's death in episode one.]] |
| 149 | * ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:Renée subjects Glenn/Benny to this, with a boxcutter.]] |
| 150 | * {{Cult}}: The "We Live As One" Commune is compared to a cult by more than one person. But they don't appear to be up to anything bad. |
| 151 | * DeadlyPrank: PlayedWith. [[spoiler: At first, it turns out that Talvinder will just get pranked, but then the scene cut to her beaten up and covered in blood...]] Since episode 1, this is the event that orchestrate the killings in the season. |
| 152 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Talvinder was surely wrong to try and sabotage Noah and Dawn's relationship to placate her own fears, and having a relationship with Peter behind Andi's back, and the trial itself wasn't wrong (although, as both her and Peter point out, she shouldn't have taken the blame for both while him, who was actually in a relationship, got away for free). However, not only Susan's plan to follow that by leaving her scarred and endangering her was already pushing too over the edge, but it gets even worse when [[spoiler: Noah sexually assaults her, and then she is beaten up and left to die.]] |
| 153 | ** Susan's whole reason to instigate the others against Talvinder? She just doesn't like her. That's it. Andi and Dawn have concrete reason to be upset with Talvinder, but the flashbacks seem to indicate she sincerely wanted to be her friend, but she refused to reconsider her biases, and jumped at the chance to present her as a bigger monster than she actually was. |
| 154 | ** Noah's aformentioned [[spoiler: sexual assault. What prompts it? She makes fun of him saying she finds him insignificant, and he reacts trying to rape her.]] |
| 155 | ** Owen was a bit obsessive in pursuing Talvinder. And for that, he gets to be framed as her stalker and killer. |
| 156 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Despite their utter ruthlessness when they killed Talvinder, [[spoiler:the counselors were horrified when Noah tried to rape her out of spite.]] |
| 157 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Dawn jokes that one of the campers she's teaching archery reminds her of [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]. [[spoiler:The killer's motive is revealed to be reminiscent to that of [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 Mrs. Voorhees]]. Judith's son, a disliked counselor named Owen, hangs himself in prison when he's accused of being responsible for Talvinder's disappearance, and Judith believes he's talking to her and pushing her to kill those responsible for their deaths.]] |
| 158 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Implied to be the reason [[spoiler:the killer murders some of the commune members; Renée, in particular, had discovered in the counselors' files that Owen was Judith's son]]. |
| 159 | * HopeSpot: |
| 160 | ** Toward the middle of the season, an alpinist named Megan looking for shelter passes by, and, despite shaky beginnings, agrees to help the protagonists escape the house once the situation got explained to her. [[spoiler:She is poisoned and dies before she can do so]]. |
| 161 | ** The last episode has [[spoiler:Gene's girlfriend Janice showing up with a snowmobile and agreeing to take Dawn to safety. Judith promptly catches up and fatally shoots both of them, though Dawn manages to survive.]] |
| 162 | ** The ending has [[spoiler:both Keira and Dawn get out alive]], only to reveal [[spoiler:Judith still is following and is planning to kill Dawn once she gets out of jail]]. |
| 163 | * IAteWhat: [[spoiler: Glenn vomits when he realizes that the meat he's eating was taken from Antoine's body.]] |
| 164 | * IfItsYouItsOkay: [[spoiler: Antoine and Renée respectively are gay and lesbian, but there was enough chemistry between them that they loved each other and married.]] |
| 165 | * IncestSubtext: [[spoiler: While nothing explicit was shown between Judith and her son Owen, Judith developed a split personality/imaginary lover named Wren, which was Owen's nickname and has his likeness. Doesn't help that Judith describes the loss of her son as "losing the love of my life"]]. |
| 166 | * KarmicRape: [[spoiler: Noah being raped by Glenn is at first portrayed as horrifying and sympathetic... then the next episode reveals that he [[AttemptedRape attempted to do the same]] with Talvinder in a fit of rage]]. |
| 167 | * ManipulativeBitch: The first few episodes present Talvinder as such. While she is far from being without failings, Susan is more fitting for the role, as she takes the chance to exaggerate her flaws and turn the other against her, leading to her demise. |
| 168 | * MisplacedRetribution: Lampshaded in the final episode, when [[spoiler:Peter]], being confronted by the killer, points out the various people they gruesomely murdered had absolutely nothing to do with [[spoiler:Owen's death]]. |
| 169 | * NeverMyFault: Susan. When Andi finds her with her new family, she bluntly tells her she just doesn't think about Talvinder's death, and after that she keeps denying her role in her death, despite being the one who instigated the others against her. |
| 170 | * OnceMoreWithClarity: The first episode starts with the group of counselors driving to the wilderness having fun, and there is quite a MoodWhiplash, when they suddenly turn on one of them. The last episode starts with the same scenes but adds brief shots showing how the others were faking their joy. |
| 171 | * PoorCommunicationKills: A mix of this and taking it out on the wrong people causes the whole Talvinder accident: after Peter shows to be exitant to dump Andy, Dawn enthusiasm about her bludgeoning relationship with Noah causes Talvinder to fear she will be abandoned. Rather than clearing it up, she tries to sabotage the relationship. At the same time, rather than discuss it with her, Dawn talks to Susan, who brings her own bias into the mix, and it goes downhill from there. |
| 172 | * PrisonsAreGymnasiums: [[spoiler: Through episode 5 of Glenn's flashbacks.]] |
| 173 | * RedHerring: Throughout the season, it was assumed that the killer was trying to [[spoiler:punish the counselors for the death of Talvinder]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:she]] is actually [[spoiler:trying to avenge her son who they framed for Talvinder's murder.]] |
| 174 | * RewatchBonus: As with the other seasons. |
| 175 | ** Look carefully at Wren. [[spoiler:You'll notice that ''nobody'' else ever really acknowledges him besides Judith, and no one ever responds to the things that he says.]] |
| 176 | ** Renée finds the files on the original counselors of Camp Motega, and she's visibly horrified when she finds out that [[spoiler:Wren]] was one of the counselors, implying that this person is the killer. However, [[spoiler:Wren is not actually real, but Judith's hallucinatory dissociative identity. Renée's actual horror is realizing that Judith is Owen's ''mother'', meaning that Judith has a connection to the counselors.]] |
| 177 | * SadisticChoice: The killer, [[spoiler:Judith]], offers one to [[spoiler:Peter]], forcing [[spoiler:him]] to choose [[spoiler:between committing suicide to atone for what the counselors did, or get away scot-free at the cost of Keira's life. He chooses the first option, allowing Keira to escape alive]]. |
| 178 | * SaunaOfDeath: PlayedWith. [[spoiler: Poor Gene only died in one, but the weapon is [[ChainsawGood different...]]]] |
| 179 | * ShirtlessScene: [[PrettyBoy Wren, Noah]], and [[ManlyGay Glenn]] all get respectively shirtless in episodes 1, 3, and 4. |
| 180 | * ShownTheirWork: The physical results of [[spoiler: Noah's rape]], while not overtly shown, are disturbingly realistic. |
| 181 | * SlashedThroat: [[spoiler: Andi at the end of episode 1, by the killer, and Glenn in episode 5, by Renée.]] |
| 182 | * TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: [[spoiler: Megan, in episode 4, is killed by white baneberry berries hidden in her soup.]] |
| 183 | * ThisIsADrill: [[spoiler: Antoine is killed by an auger, in episode 3.]] |
| 184 | * TortureIsIneffective: The InterrogatedForNothing variant. [[spoiler:Renée, still thirsty for revenge after Antoine's murder, proceeds to viciously torture Glenn/Benny in an effort to make him confess. Benny, despite his own crime, ''isn't'' the actual killer, and all Renée's torture accomplishes is extracting a fake confession from him to make the pain stop, but then she kills him anyway.]] |
| 185 | * VomitIndiscretionShot: [[spoiler: Glenn at the beginning of episode 4 and Megan just after she got poisoned.]] |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Season Three: Solstice]] |
| 189 | * ActionSurvivor: Saadia, Angel, and Dan. [[spoiler: Angel and Dan take on and kill Connor, one of the two Druid killers, at the cost of Angel's life. Saadia is able to escape the chair that Jen had tied her to, and later is able to take several knife slashes and a stab wound to her shoulder, and ''still'' manages to kill Jen.]] |
| 190 | * ArcWords: "Too good", which is said to Saadia all the time. |
| 191 | * AssholeVictim: Played straight by numerous victims but deconstructed by Saadia when she [[spoiler: says to Jen that people being assholes is ''not'' a reason to murder them. She even says that them being involved in the harassment that drove her mother to suicide doesn't make killing them right. She even calls them innocent people, because as bad as they were, most of them weren't so bad as to be actual murderers like Jen and Connor are.]] |
| 192 | * BookEnds: Saadia's EstablishingCharacterMoment is her leaving for school when she encounters the local racist Dan drunkenly struggling to unlock the wrong door, and she chooses to help him when she doesn't need to, nor would anyone blame her if she chose not to, and against her parent's teachings. [[spoiler: She ends up doing the same thing in the last episode, choosing to come to Dan's rescue against the Druid (Jen), when she could have escaped and ensured her own survival, as her parents would have done.]] |
| 193 | * BystanderSyndrome: The season rips apart this trope and spends its time ripping into people not getting involved in situations like it, but also showing that when people ''do'' get involved, it can and often leads to far worse situations [[spoiler: This is what prompts Jen and Connor to take on the persona of the Druid and kill the residents of the buildings for their involvement before and after their mother's suicide]]. Saadia's parents even enforced this on her, much to her disgust, especially since a flashback shows that they deliberately didn't allow her to save Kit from the Druid when he was begging for help. |
| 194 | * CallingParentsByTheirName: Jen and Connor call their stepmother Amber by her name, as is not unheard of in real life stepparent-stepchild relationships. |
| 195 | * ChekhovsGun: Saadia remembers the smell of burning bodies from what happened to her back in the Middle East. [[spoiler: She recognizes the very same scent as Connor is burning the bodies of their victims as it seeps through the ventilation shafts.]] |
| 196 | * CommonalityConnection: Dan and Angel end up bonding over the fact that, for all that they are complete opposites in every way, they are both deeply disappointed in the world and in themselves. |
| 197 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: Pretty much the Druid's M.O. This season has some of the most graphic deaths in the entire show. Examples include: |
| 198 | ** [[spoiler: Cassidy is killed by having her face repeatedly dipped in acid until she dies from that melting.]] |
| 199 | ** [[spoiler: Xander has a broken glass coffee bean dispenser shoved in his mouth and boiling water poured down his throat.]] |
| 200 | ** [[spoiler: Kaili is vivisected on a table in her own classroom.]] |
| 201 | ** [[spoiler: Joe gets stabbed in the crotch by the Druid after Violet refuses to do the deed]]. |
| 202 | ** [[spoiler: Charlie has a giant piece of metal shoved in his throat and then yanked out]]. |
| 203 | ** [[spoiler: Both detectives are brutally murdered via a shattered blender and smashed in the face with an ax]]. |
| 204 | ** [[spoiler: The Druid (Connor) gets his upper half burned alive in a furnace along with Angel.]] |
| 205 | * DeathByIrony: |
| 206 | ** The Druid is fond of inflicting these. Among others, he kills [[spoiler:Cassidy (a notorious school bully) by dunking her head in a toilet filled with acid, Xander (a coffee maker) with his own instruments, and Violet (an AttentionWhore blogger) while forcing her to post a final video about it]]. |
| 207 | ** It should also be noted that some of the deaths have ironic symbolism. These include: |
| 208 | *** [[spoiler:Frank Dixon's]] decapitated head is mounted on his car while his headless body sits in the driver's side of the front seat. The irony here is that Frank's job involved cars, and his head being mounted on the car is symbolic of his job. |
| 209 | *** [[spoiler:Cassidy's]] face melting from acid in a toilet bowl. The irony here is that she is beautiful on the outside, yet ugly and rotten on the inside. Her melting face symbolizes the ugliness being shown in full detail. |
| 210 | *** [[spoiler:Xander's]] blood being made for coffee instead of regular coffee beans. The irony here is that he scams his customers by using cheap ingredients while charging extra. For example, he says the coleslaw is "handcrafted", but in reality, it isn't. Another example is that he says to use kopi luwak coffee beans, but he could be using standard coffee beans. The coffee/blood is symbolic of his scam and lies. |
| 211 | *** [[spoiler:Kaili]] is very open and forthcoming of herself, always trying to reach out and open up to people who she hopes will open up to her in turn; being seen as a loving figure in the classroom; but completely unlucky in her own love life. She dies by vivisection in her classroom and her organs are removed much like the frog from the exams earlier that day. She's also found the following morning completely emptied out inside, referencing how empty her own personal life is, and how she tried to fill it with other people. |
| 212 | *** [[spoiler:Amy]] getting her forehead pierced by a drill until it reaches her brain. The first irony here is that virtual reality is drilled, figuratively into her head and doesn't want to escape it. The second irony is that she tried to commit suicide but ultimately decides against it. The Druid drilling a drill into her forehead, literally, is symbolic of her getting something drilled into her head against her will and the drill hole almost resembles a bullet hole. |
| 213 | *** [[spoiler:Charlie]] gets killed quite violently through the mouth because he was being a violent creep that never, ever shuts the fuck up. In addition, the repeated thrusting can reference the threat of sexual violence that he made on Saadia before he's overwhelmed and killed off by the druid, much like he tried to do to her in the bathroom. |
| 214 | *** [[spoiler:Violet]] being forced to make a final video while ultimately being killing at the end. The irony here is that she's been using Kit and Justine's death, and the pain of others to make her videos and try to boost her popularity. Her death on camera is symbolic of her getting the fame to her head. |
| 215 | *** [[spoiler:Joe]] is stabbed multiple times. The irony isn't in the death itself, but in how it's quickly mentioned in Violet's final speech while Joe's body is out of focus: while never actively participating, he kept providing his wife with everything she needed for her blog, acting as an enabler, and even his death get used to add for her content. Though the Druid couldn't have predicted it, bonus point for it happening right after Violet decided to use Joe's bisexuality to get more content. |
| 216 | ** Fittingly, this also apply to [[spoiler:the Druid, both of them: Connor is pushed by Angel and Dan in the very furnace he used to dispose of his victims, while Jen gets killed by her own blade when she tries to attack Saadia, the one person she believed to be innocent]]. |
| 217 | * DisasterDominoes: Despite Kit's murder not being the motive for the new Druid's murder spree, his death does set off a chain of events that eventually lead to the Druid being reborn, starting a new killing spree. Here's how it all played out: |
| 218 | ** Kit Jennings is murdered by the [[spoiler: past]] Druid [[spoiler: [[WomanScorned for sleeping with his girlfriend]]]]. |
| 219 | ** Justine makes an offensive tweet, mocking Kit's death, saying he deserved it. |
| 220 | ** [[spoiler: Saadia reposts the tweet, criticizing Justine for mocking Kit after his passing]]. |
| 221 | ** Justine receives death threats, and her life spirals downward as she's fired from her job, ostracized from the community, which culminates in strain in her marriage. |
| 222 | ** The stress takes its toll as Justine [[spoiler: commits suicide with gasoline, [[KillItWithFire burning herself alive]]]]. |
| 223 | ** [[spoiler: Jen and Connor then team up to kill everyone in the building for their wrongdoings against the family. Dan was the obvious example with his bigotry and sexism; but other such examples include like starting a petition to kick Justine's family out (started by Xander), refuse to delete the offensive post to prevent more damage (supposedly could have been fixed by Amy, but she refused, even though in her defense it's impossible to completely erase something online), or use Justine's death and the pain and suffering of Jen and Connor as a gateway for popularity (Violet falls under the radar with Joe just being collateral as a result), taking out their anger against a system that failed to do anything to stop the harassment, much less help the kids (Det. Roberta). However, as time passed and potentially due to Saadia's influence among them; their targets spread to include a teacher who can't leave situations alone (Kaili), a creepy perverted racist in class who refused to shut up (Charlie), an AlphaBitch (Cassidy) daughter of another racist (Dan), and a spouse who was partially insane in trying to reign the children in (Amber)]]. |
| 224 | * DisproportionedRetribution: Threefold, and all connected. |
| 225 | ** Kit was a dick, but Justine was out of line celebrating his death. |
| 226 | ** Facing death threats, harassment, losing her job and facing threats of eviction, in the same way, was excessive. |
| 227 | ** [[spoiler: Connor and Jen going after all the people in the building who felt had a part in it was definitely pushing it too far. This is true even for people like Charlie, Cassidy and Violet, who were horrible people and took advantage of the situation, but is even worse for people like Angel, who just pointed out that the noise complaints were legitimate, Amy, who could actually not have erased a post on the internet, and Kaili, who the siblings simply felt wasn't doing enough.]] |
| 228 | * ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire season took place over the course of one day. Each episode takes place over three hours of said day. |
| 229 | * FireForgedFriends: [[spoiler: Angel and Dan are locked in a room together in the cellar of the apartment building. After overcoming their differences, they come to work together to get out, and end up finding all the dead bodies of the apartment residents. They end up bonding through this time, and it helps Dan overcome his AngryWhiteMan nature. He even ''cries'' over Angel's dead body.]] |
| 230 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 231 | ** Jen's mother mentions in a flashback that she doesn't know how her post became so popular as she has almost no followers. [[spoiler:The very ending reveals that Saadia was the one to make her post viral, when she shared her post to criticize her for calling Kit a druggie slut, and it was that sharing that kickstarted everything.]] |
| 232 | ** For most of their murders, the Druid is methodical and pragmatic, striking their victim when they are alone and seizing them by surprise in situations where they have little room to escape. By contrast, their attempt to murder Jen is done in broad daylight and in public with zero subtlety, from a long distance and running after her before suddenly abandoning the pursuit. [[spoiler:This is because he never ''intended'' to kill her- Jen is his accomplice, and this murder attempt was done to make her appear innocent]]. |
| 233 | ** When Connor asks Saadia what the worst thing she's ever done, Saadia looks awkward before changing the subject. [[spoiler:It's then revealed that Saadia was the one to make his mother's post public, which is what would make her kill herself later.]] |
| 234 | ** Almost all the victims are horrible people, however Kaili is genuinely trying to help her students, and even her flashbacks reveal nothing worse than having an unlucky love life or failing to show Kit how broken his life is, [[spoiler: but shortly before her body is found Jen talks to Saadia trying to convince her that Kaili was actually horrible. This hints at Jen being the Druid, as she is trying to make Kaili fit the profile.]] |
| 235 | ** A mentally unstable Amber gives Saadia a DeathGlare and tells her "she did everything and she did nothing". Saadia claims that Amber's right about it, because for one, she did "nothing" because she didn't step up and should have asked her parents to be better neighbors instead of [[BystanderSyndrome not getting involved]]. [[spoiler: Amber's also right about Saadia doing "everything" because Saadia was the one who reposted Justine's insensitive tweet, accidentally causing it to go viral and initiate the downward spiral of their lives.]] |
| 236 | ** In a flashback, Saadia is seen being the one trying to convince Amy to erase Justine's post from the internet. [[spoiler:It turns out that she isn't simply nice, but also feeling guilty, since she is the person who reposted it and started it all.]] |
| 237 | ** Early on, Saadia and Jen investigate where Saadia's new phone might have ended up on and look for Cassidy to find it. [[spoiler: The phone is shown to be with Cassidy in the vent where her body is left to rot, but when it falls out of the vent, the police make no mention of finding it, foreshadowing that Jen went back and took it before they left school.]] |
| 238 | ** As Charlie mentions himself, he doesn't live in the building where the Druid is hunting and had nothing to do with Kit's death. [[spoiler:So, the Druid murdering him anyway]] hints that [[spoiler:whoever is behind the mask would have a grudge against him as well- namely, Connor and Jen]]. |
| 239 | ** During the Solstice Summer party, Saadia mentions one of her most traumatic memories back in her own country was [[spoiler:seeing several people getting killed and burnt alive]]. This is used to establish that [[spoiler:she [[ChekhovsSkill knows what burning corpses smell like]]- and thus figures out by the smell the Druid is burning the bodies of his victims in the building's furnace]]. |
| 240 | * FreudianExcuse: Almost all the characters are horrible to some extent, but all of them are also shown to be fundamentally unhappy people trying to make themselves feel better, albeit usually in very misguided ways. The only exception is Charlie, who doesn't seem to be sad about anything but just really enjoys being unnecessarily horrible to people. |
| 241 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: The Druid's motives are revealed to have one hell of a FreudianExcuse behind them. However, [[spoiler: Saadia immediately calls out Jen and Connor, saying that even if the residents of the apartments were horrible people, it doesn't mean make murdering them right. That doesn't even factor in the murders of innocent people like Joe, who had nothing to do with Violet's online blog, and Kaili, the teacher who was guilty of little more than attempting to fill a void in her lonely heart.]] |
| 242 | * FurnaceBodyDisposal: [[SerialKiller The Druid]] uses the apartment buildings furnace to dispose of their victims' bodies. Deconstructed, as it ends up proving to be their undoing. Their regular use means the buildings heating systems are still on in the middle of summer, tipping off the protagonists that something's wrong, and the fact that burning corpses has such a distinctive smell causes Saadia to realize what's happening. In the end [[spoiler: one half of the Druid is pushed into the furnace and [[DeathByIrony killed by one of their would-be victims]].]] |
| 243 | * HiddenDepths: Far away from being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Kit is nonetheless shown to have some positive qualities, like actually caring for Angel and respecting his decision to be just friends, or respecting Amy's asexuality far more than her own husband (and actually being the one who made her realize it) and showing genuine curiosity about trying to understand her. In the ends he comes off better than characters like Cassidy, Violet or Xander, who show few to none redeeming qualities and no empathy for others. |
| 244 | * InsultBackfire: After yet another of her hookups, Dan callously calls his daughter Cassidy a whore, only for her to snarkily retort that she whores get at least paid, but she just has sex for fun. |
| 245 | * InsultOfEndearment: [[spoiler: As Dan and Angel bond, some of Dan's insults towards him turn into this. The most prominent example being after Dan and Angel's faces are glued together, and when they pry apart, a chunk of Angel's face goes with it. He asks Dan how his face looks. Dan's response? "It's always looked bad to me".]] |
| 246 | * MurderByInaction: Most of the tenants within the apartment building did absolutely nothing to save Kit from the Druid, some with more understandable reasons than others. Detective Roberta calls them all out on it. Only Saadia's father averts this... because he had to take action to prevent his daughter from opening their door to save Kit, something that still haunts her, and she didn't really forgive her father for. [[spoiler: Justine even admits how callous she was to make fun of Kit's murder in her final moments when she and her family suffered the same way he did before committing suicide]]. |
| 247 | --> '''Justine''': You all watched that boy get killed and none of you did a ''fucking'' thing! |
| 248 | * NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: |
| 249 | ** When Kit dies, Justine posts an insensitive tweet about it. People across the internet go viciously ballistic on her for demeaning him in death, and they end up bullying her, and her life is completely derailed as a result. It leads her to commit suicide by burning herself alive. |
| 250 | ** It comes full circle with Justine herself when people across the internet chastise Violet for reposting a video showing Justine's suicide, and a student at school gets punished greatly for mocking Justine's death ''in front of Jen''. |
| 251 | * NotQuiteTheRightThing: Saadia's [[spoiler: [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom post that started the whole thing]] was meant to take a principled stand against [[DoNotSpeakIllOfTheDead hate and incivility]]. Unfortunately, while her post was reasonable and wasn't cruel, once out on the internet, it quickly got picked up by people who didn't hear "don't be hateful to anyone" but only "let's go be hateful to this ''other'' person!"]] |
| 252 | * PartingWordsRegret: [[spoiler: Implied for Dan when he identifies his daughter's body in the morgue. The last time they interacted was when he called her a whore and said she disgusts him and finally smashes her phone. He was already showing how unhappy he was with this ''before'' he learned of his daughter's murder.]] |
| 253 | * PoliceAreUseless: PlayedWith; unlike in season 1, the police are genuinely ''trying'' to solve the murder and putting genuine effort to it this time, and they do get some moments of being competent. Unfortunately, these efforts prove overall ineffective in the grand scheme of things; their only real accomplishment over the course of the season is to [[spoiler:successfully catch and arrest Wyatt, the original Druid]] (which [[spoiler:they do one year too late and proves pointless as another Druid is behind the new murders]]), and they fail to stop even a single of the murders. [[spoiler: It's one of the reasons Connor ''hates'' Detective Roberta over not doing anything before and after Justine's suicide. Him beating her to death with the axe is him releasing frustration over her refusal to take action against the building residents for their involvement in Justine's suicide. Never mind that by law, Detective Roberta ''couldn't'' do anything, and with the murders happening so fast, the police barely had any time to react to the murders, let alone stop them. In addition, after less than 24 hours, Roberta discovered the body disposal area, she just didn't have the chance to call it in.]] |
| 254 | * RedemptionEarnsLife: The majority of the people living in the apartment complex are terrible people, to one degree or another. [[spoiler: Dan is a vile racist for most of the season, but begins to change once he's forced to work alongside Angel to escape their imprisonment and fight for their lives. After Saadia is wounded helping save him from the killer, she tells Dan to leave her and go for help. Instead, Dan states that Saadia came back for ''him'' [[HeelRealization in spite]] of everything he'd done to her over the years. He refuses to leave her behind to save himself, and the pair are able to finish off the killer and survive the night]]. |
| 255 | * RedHerring: When it seems that the Druid is killing the neighbors to cover up loose ends, it turns out that [[spoiler: it's not the same Druid, and the new Druid is actually two people avenging their mother's suicide against their neighbors for doing nothing to stop her]]. |
| 256 | * RewatchBonus: Watching the entire season after a first viewing completely changes the way the Druid's kills are seen. [[spoiler: You can often tell who is killing who. For example, it's clear that it was Connor who killed Frank Dixon and Kaili. For Frank, it's because of the strength needed to swing the axe hard enough to behead him. For Kaili, Jen was with Saadia at the time. In another, you can tell that it's Jen who killed Violet and Joe because the Druid violently stabbed Joe numerous times identically to the way that Jen kills Amber later.]] |
| 257 | * SchoolBullyingIsHarmless: One of the teachers this season sees the violent confrontation between Saadia and Cassidy to be little more than typical teen girl drama. Thankfully, Kaili doesn't see it like that. |
| 258 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The Dixon family packs their bags by the end of the day after Frank's death, realizing the apartment is awful and they are probably risking their lives by staying. [[spoiler: They were right, because Jen and Connor were murdering everyone in the apartments for their various actions and inaction that led to their mother's suicide, though the surviving Dixons didn't seem to be one of their targets, only Frank]]. |
| 259 | * SlippingAMickey: Amber tells Saadia at one point that she believes Jen and Connor are doing this to her. Jen confirms it, saying that they spike Amber's tea with her prescription medication so that she'd sleep. Otherwise, she'd be up for days in a scatter-brained craze. [[spoiler: Jen does this to Saadia when she starts having a panic attack upon smelling burning bodies coming from the vents. Jen only intends to help Saadia sleep, but it ends up preventing Saadia from escaping when she realizes that Connor is the Druid]]. |
| 260 | * SexSignalsDeath: Kit and Cassidy both are the most promiscuous characters in the season. Kit is the very first character to die, while [[spoiler:Cassidy is the new Druid's second victim]]. |
| 261 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: |
| 262 | ** [[spoiler:Wyatt]] isn't remotely afraid about going to prison, as he is confident that [[spoiler:being the Druid who murdered Kit Jennings]] will make him a legend and get him respect [[spoiler: [[GreaterScopeVillain for also creating the second Druid]]]]. Detective Roberta is quick point out to him that [[spoiler:this is much more likely to get him killed, as people will want to make a name for themselves by killing the "so-called legend" and also would make him the primary target of the new Druid. Ironically, he is still alive by the end of the season, though possibly only because the season ends before he is put in jail]]. |
| 263 | ** While the Druid [[spoiler:(Connor and Jen)]] is very careful about [[spoiler:cleaning the blood to cover their tracks, the smell of the cleaning product is still sticking around, which Roberta easily notices since the cleaners do not come by that often in the building]]. Moreover, [[spoiler:the blood doesn't disappear that easily, and all Roberta has to do is use some luminol to find traces again]]. |
| 264 | ** The Druid's method of [[spoiler:disposing of the bodies by throwing them in the building's furnace]] might ''seem'' like a good idea at first, but [[spoiler:the smell of burnt corpses is very different from charcoal]], and anyone who knows the difference (in this case, [[spoiler:Saadia]]) will quickly notice. Also, if you going to [[spoiler: stoke a furnace in order to dispose of multiple bodies, the heat would need to go somewhere, especially if it's connected to a building's heating system. The fact the heating is even active during the summer is one of the first hints to Saadia that something weird is happening on site.]] |
| 265 | * TeensAreMonsters: The students in Saadia and Jen's school (specifically Cassidy and Charlie) are horrifyingly racist and violent, openly engaging in a screaming beatdown of Saadia in the hall, mocking the death of Jen's mother in the middle of a class (with a later admission that they think it's ''fun'' to mock people's misery) and expecting no repercussions whatsoever for their actions. [[spoiler: Jen and Connor are no different, and if anything, are ''worse'', because they engage in a violent spree of revenge-motivated murders that devolve into killing even innocent people like Kaili, Joe, and their own stepmother.]] |
| 266 | * VillainWantsMercy: [[spoiler: Connor's]] final words are [[spoiler: him]] desperately begging [[spoiler: Angel]] to "please stop" as [[spoiler: he]] is being pushed in the furnace. |
| 267 | * WokenUpAtAnUngodlyHour: Multiple times in Solstice, the third season. |
| 268 | ** The season three finale takes place between the hours of three and six in the morning. At one point, Amy's cat gets loose, and Saadia brings him back to the owner's apartment, and her friend Jen comments "Hey, it is four in the morning." [[spoiler:The real reason is because Jen already knows Amy is dead, because she and her brother already killed Amy.]] |
| 269 | ** It's also shown that Jen and Connor's mentally unwell stepmother Amber does this all the time, enough that her doctor prescribed her a sleeping medication, as the season premier and finale has her keeping the kids awake into early morning hours. Jen even off-handedly mentions that now Saadia knows why she was always so tired at school. |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Season Four: Flesh & Blood]] |
| 273 | |
| 274 | * AndStarring: Creator/DavidCronenberg as Spencer Galloway. |
| 275 | * TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Despite being denied the peaceful death he asked for, Spencer got everything else he wanted in the end, that is one sole heir (possibly on his same route of ruthlessness) and the entire rest of the Galloway family erased from the world.]] |
| 276 | ** On a similar note, [[spoiler: while the Gentleman gets ultimately killed, she succeeds in her mission of securing an heir and offing every other Galloway.]] |
| 277 | * BigScrewedUpFamily: The Galloways. Spencer was a horribly abusive father, Florence is an outright [[spoiler: murderous]] greedy sociopath, [[spoiler: the disgruntled maid abducted one of the children as payback for their treatment of her]], and that's just ''three'' of the horrible things they've done to each other. |
| 278 | * BreatherEpisode: Not by much, but episode 5 is notably lacking in gore or violence in general. [[spoiler:Subverted by the end, where Florence cements herself as the worst person in the family by taking the last of the oxygen and remorselessly letting her own child suffocate to death.]] |
| 279 | * BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:O'Keeffe is non-binary, uses they/them pronouns (assigned female at birth), and has a girlfriend, while Seamus is secretly gay. Neither of them make it out alive.]] |
| 280 | * CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Vincent and Theodore, respectively. Unlike the biblical tale, the Abel ends up killing the Cain.]] |
| 281 | * ClosedCircle: The mansion is located on an island. [[spoiler: And the guy who drives the boat is the first one killed.]] |
| 282 | * ContinuityCameo: Amber from ''Solstice'' makes a cameo in a flashback, bringing Aphra to meet her adoptive parents. She mentions her [[{{Irony}} good relationship with her stepchildren]] to [[TemptingFate reassure the Galloways that they'll be happy together]]. |
| 283 | * DidNotThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler: Spencer hires Trinh not only knowing, but ''because'' he knows she is a psychopath that killed patients in her care, trusting her for his end of life. Sure enough, she takes the chance to sabotage Spencer's death, turning it into an extremely painful ordeal. Who would have guessed?]] |
| 284 | * DysfunctionalFamily: Let's just say that Spencer had an... interesting idea of how to raise a family. He'd force them to participate in cruel and bizarre games as a test of character, grooming them into {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, always backstabbing each other for their own gain. |
| 285 | * ExactWords: [[spoiler:Vincent theorizes that since the Gentleman seems to specifically target whoever finishes last in each challenge whenever they can, if he, Theo, and Liv refuse to participate in the next challenge, then they'll attack the only person who ''does'' participate. He ends up being right -- the Gentleman attacks and kills Grace next.]] |
| 286 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Even ''Spencer'' is apalled by Florence using Vincent's kidnapping as "art". Although it's not the morals he takes issue with, but putting the family's problems on public display (and the implicit show of weakness). |
| 287 | * EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler:None of the Galloways survive, or more accurately, none of the ones bearing the name, Galloway. This is because Liv deliberately ended the name by killing Theo after he told her how he drove his car into a daycare, and her concluding that the family was just poisoned beyond repair.]] |
| 288 | * {{Fingore}}: |
| 289 | ** [[spoiler: Grace]] bites off [[spoiler: Florence's]] right index finger after [[spoiler: accusing her of murdering Jayden]]. A subsequent contest in the inheritance competition requires the use of rubber bullet guns, leaving them annoyed that they can't squeeze the trigger. |
| 290 | ** A crazed [[spoiler: Aphra bites off chunks of her mother Christy's face and bites off several of her fingers. Some of them are even found with her body, having fallen out after she was sawed in half.]] |
| 291 | * FirstEpisodeTwist: [[spoiler:Vincent, Theodore's twin brother who was kidnapped when they were younger, has returned to compete in the competition for Spencer's inheritance.]] |
| 292 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 293 | ** During the opening scene, Florence remarks that she always thought Grace was just a GoldDigger who only married her father Spencer for his money. [[spoiler:Not only is she right, but Grace also murdered his previous wife, her mother, to be able to do so.]] |
| 294 | ** Dr. Trinh is referred to as an end-of-life specialist, and her job is to assist Spencer Galloway's suicide. [[spoiler: She's also the specialist hired to ''end the lives'' of the various competitors.]] |
| 295 | ** In the first episode, Aphra watches Merle and Grace have sex with obvious interest. [[spoiler:This is the first hint that she's not actually a child.]] |
| 296 | ** Spencer barely react to seeing the Gentlemen, and converse normally. [[spoiler: Because they are working together.]] |
| 297 | ** A big one, but while the first contest is presented and operated by dr. Trinh, all the other ones are automated. [[spoiler: This means that Spencer and Trinh knew she wouldn't be around after the first game, and from this you can deduce both that they are working together and that she is the killer.]] |
| 298 | ** Unlike the previous contests, the winner of the paintball hunt gets to spend the night with a person of their choosing inside of the bunker. The fact that this would make the winner and their family member of choice safe from the killer does not go unnoticed. [[spoiler:It's almost as if Spencer ''knew'' the Gentleman would be on the loose...]] |
| 299 | *** Spencer's attitude so far had been that only the winner deserved anything. The runner-up also getting in the bunker hinted that it was not the prize it looked as a first glance... |
| 300 | *** Spencer also deliberately put one, by pointing out that the winner will be "breathing nice and easy" in the bunker. [[spoiler: Of course, one of the two ends up getting asphyxiated.]] |
| 301 | ** The Gentleman coming after the losers of every context gets eventually noticed in-universe. |
| 302 | ** One of the contests, which only one character participates in, literally is about identifying the killer. [[spoiler: And Grace concludes "the killer isn't one of us". This is the most blatant sign that Spencer not only knew about the killer because [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder his family would be too obvious]], but was an active part of the killer's rampage, namely, hiring her to massacre his family members fighting for his inheritance.]] |
| 303 | ** Aphra has an eating disorder that causes her to try and eat things that are less-than-edible, and usually has to be stopped by her parents before she can swallow them. [[spoiler:When neither of them is around to keep her in check anymore, she eats a mushroom that [[MushroomSamba causes her to start hallucinating]], which directly leads to her death when she blunders into the Gentleman during her high and thinks they're Spencer.]] |
| 304 | ** In the penultimate episode, a ring [[spoiler:Vincent]] is wearing catches Grace's attention. He claims he got it from [[spoiler:Aphra's body]], until Grace reveals that it actually belongs to Merle. [[spoiler:Since Aphra herself took it from what appeared to be Dr. Trinh's remains, this provides a huge hint as to the Gentleman's identity.]] |
| 305 | ** Differently from the previous seasons, the killer's costume is more elaborate than a parka or a cape that can be quickly removed along with the mask, meaning that it would be difficult for someone to wear the outfit and go unnoticed while doing so. [[spoiler: A hint that the Gentleman has found a way to remove themself from the group to act without being noticed.]] |
| 306 | * GladToBeAliveSex: [[spoiler:Theodore and Liv have sex after they're the last two alive.]] |
| 307 | * HardTruthAesop: This season is particularly keen in dishing them out. |
| 308 | ** Some dysfunctional families just can't be fixed and will take a toll on their members' mental and physical health. While few characters try to be a positive influence, they never manage to turn the family around. |
| 309 | ** Blood is thicker than water, [[{{Greed}} but gold even more]]. The Galloways have always backstabbed each other for a shot at the family money and power and seem unable to stop even when chased by a serial killer. |
| 310 | ** Your feelings of empowerment could be self-delusional and/or hypocritical, especially when you are in a privileged position, as Florence refuses to accept when it comes to her "art". |
| 311 | ** If a system is corrupt, the gender of those in power is irrelevant. [[spoiler: Liv gains the inheritance through murder and deception, and there is no assurance that her girl boss shtick will be different from [[ThePatriarch Spencer's]] psychopathic rule.]] |
| 312 | * {{Irony}}: Spencer spends the entire first episode preparing for his MercyKillArrangement, saying that he wants to die peacefully. [[spoiler: The killer ensures that doesn't happen, injecting acid into the IV feeding his heart, killing him in an excruciatingly painful manner. Not ironic enough? The killer is the nurse he brought in to ensure his peaceful demise.]] |
| 313 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Florence. Her piece of "art" about Vincent's kidnapping is nothing but an explotation of Theo's trauma over it, even directly using it to torture Theo, while the extremely performative faces she makes for the screens show she is not putting any emotion of her own into it. [[spoiler: It gets even worse when she sacrifices O'Keefe, her own child, to save her skin.]] |
| 314 | * KarmicDeath: Some characters' demises are quite fitting: |
| 315 | ** [[spoiler:Spencer, a heartless ControlFreak who hired a SerialKiller to snuff his entire family, is killed with an injection of acid that burns through his heart and chest by said employee, while he's in a situation of absolute vulnerability.]] |
| 316 | ** [[spoiler:Jayden, who contributed to tearing apart the family business both by embezzling money and driving Seamus away, ends up quartered in front of his relatives.]] |
| 317 | ** [[spoiler:Birgit is buried alive on the same beach that she allowed Vincent to be kidnapped years before.]] |
| 318 | ** [[spoiler:Florence, who only cares about herself and her "art", is impaled on her own installation.]] |
| 319 | ** [[spoiler:Aphra, who played a role in driving her adoptive parents apart and has mutilated Christy beyond saving by eating chunks of her face and hands, is sawn in half, with the contents of her stomach spilling to the ground.]] |
| 320 | ** [[spoiler: Grace, a GoldDigger who murdered Annette just as the latter was recovering from cancer, is killed with molten gold poured down her throat just as she believes to have won.]] |
| 321 | * KillingInSelfDefense: [[spoiler:Vincent tries to murder Theodore for framing him when they were kids. Despite trying to talk things out, Vincent wouldn't relent, and ultimately, Theodore is forced to slice his head off to save himself.]] |
| 322 | * KissingCousins: [[spoiler:Vincent tries this with Liv, to her revulsion. She ends up going for his brother Theodore, however... and just as a sign of how bad every relationship in the season is, this one is one of the ''least'' unhealthy relationships. Too bad it didn't last.]] |
| 323 | * LoopholeAbuse: When Grace enters the penultimate context behind the other's backs, Vincent points out that Spencer doesn't reward winners, but only punish losers, and running alone would make you the loser by default. [[spoiler: He is right.]] This had also come in place previously, with Liv staying in the competition despite missing a game, since she didn't actually lose. |
| 324 | * MushroomSamba: Literally. Aphra's Pica condition causes her to eat a random mushroom, sending her into a hallucinogenic trance. [[spoiler: This leads to her death at the Gentleman's hands, where they take Aphra into the woods, ties her between two trees, and saws her right in half.]] |
| 325 | * NoodleIncident: [[spoiler: We never actually learned what Trinh and Spencer had on Liv, only that it was a "cover up" when she was downrange.]] |
| 326 | * PetTheDog: In general, everyone in the family either treats Christy with kindness or ignores her, a huge improvement from how the Galloways treat each other, mainly because she reminds them of their dead matriarch. |
| 327 | * PolarOppositeTwins: Theo and Vincent are twins that are presented in a CainAndAbel dynamic, with the former being Abel and the latter being Cain. [[SubvertedTrope However, as the series progresses, it's clear that Theo isn't as different from his twin]]. For one, [[spoiler: he faults Vincent for things that aren't his fault, and also let Vincent take the blame for things that earned him severe beatings at his grandfather's hands.]] He gets at his worst when he reveals that [[spoiler: he drunkenly crashed his car into a daycare center that Spencer got him off on. He claims he's horrified with what he did, but by that point, Liv decides that he went too far.]] |
| 328 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In a flashback, Florence gets one from a gallery curator that tells her off for being a spoiled, narcissistic woman with a false belief that she is actually an artist. |
| 329 | * RewatchBonus: Seamus's HeelRealization. Seeing it again after Episode 6 makes it clear that [[spoiler:forcing his beliefs onto his wife [[TheBeard isn't the only thing he feels guilty about]].]] |
| 330 | * ShowerOfLove: [[spoiler: Liv and Theo have one of these. He had just killed Vincent in self-defense and is ''drenched'' in blood. After Liv cleans him up a bit, they kiss in the shower, and it segues to them having sex.]] |
| 331 | * SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: Liv is shown pregnant with Theo's daughter in the dénouement.]] |
| 332 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Florence and Vincent are convinced that Liv and her mother are the killers. At one point, Vincent attacks Liv and fights her... and swiftly loses because she's a trained military combatant and he's just a regular guy. |
| 333 | * ThisIsUnforgivable: |
| 334 | ** Theo, and most of the others, immediately and understandably decide that [[spoiler: Florence allowing O'Keeffe to die]] is something that can never be forgiven, and marks [[spoiler: Florence]] as a complete monster. [[spoiler: Most of them don't really care that Florence is left outside, tied to her own art, and in fact, many of them think she's the killer after this.]] |
| 335 | ** Liv decides that [[spoiler: Theo drunkenly driving his car into a daycare and presumably killing numerous kids, is one thing too much. She immediately kills him for it right after he tells her about it. She was already a bit wary of him after witnessing him decapitate Vincent, and after he becomes too insistent on marrying disregarding her doubts and opinions.]] |
| 336 | * TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: The {{Token Good Teammate}}s of the Galloways are brutally murdered in the most horrendous ways, betrayed by people they trusted and/or loved. Christy Martin's face and fingers were bit off by Aphra, and she pleaded for a MercyKill which was granted to her. Annette Galloway was killed by Grace, her live-in nurse, who murdered her so that Grace could marry Spencer for his money. O'Keeffe, the only Galloway by blood to be a decent person, is left to asphyxiate on carbon monoxide by ''their own mother''.]] |
| 337 | * TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Mocked -- Florence shows off one of her sculptures to the family and cracks a pair of eggs on it, and Spencer promptly bursts out laughing at how pretentious it is. |
| 338 | -->'''Spencer:''' ''(cackling)'' What the fuck was that?! |
| 339 | * WhamLine: Vincent hears Birgit singing a lullaby to Liv and confronts her about it. When Liv defends her mother, Vincent reveals why he's so alarmed by the song. |
| 340 | --> '''Vincent''': [[spoiler:My kidnapper]] sang it to me. |
| 341 | * WhamShot: While Aphra is sleeping, Christy consoles herself [[spoiler:following Seamus's death]] by going through her phone for old photos and videos of them. [[spoiler:Then she finds photos of Aphra taking selfies with all of the dead bodies, which is ''then'' followed by a video revealing that she's actually an adult who's been manipulating the family for as long as they've known her.]] |
| 342 | * YouMonster: O'Keeffe drops this on Florence when she tells Theodore that [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead he should've been kidnapped instead of Vincent]]. [[spoiler:Their accusation just rings truer as the season goes on.]] |
| 343 | [[/folder]] |
| 344 | |
| 345 | [[folder:Season Five: Ripper]] |
| 346 | * TheBadGuyWins: EvilVersusEvil is in play, so this was almost unavoidable. [[spoiler: The Widow, revealed to be Regina Simcoe, not only gets away with her murder spree killing everyone involved in her mother's death except for Viviana, who is going to rot in prison after being framed for the murders, but she also converts all of the surviving characters to her way of thinking, including Detective Rijkers, Verdi, Gladys, and Andrew, all of whom were entirely heroic characters for the majority of the season.]] |
| 347 | * BestServedCold: The Widow is dishing out payback to those who were involved with the murder of Margaret Mehar and the wrongful execution of Andrew May Sr. twelve years after the fact. Many characters lampshade this and are puzzled by it. [[spoiler:It's because the Widow herself, Regina Simcoe, was a child when her mother was killed. She took years to train as a fighter and ingratiated herself into the city's elite inner circle to learn exactly what happened to her mother before beginning her rampage.]] |
| 348 | * BludgeonedToDeath: The Widow murders [[spoiler:Eddie Jacobs]] with a sledgehammer, making a deliberate point to do so slowly and painfully. |
| 349 | * BreakingOldTrends: This is the first season [[spoiler:that lacks a definitive FinalGirl, instead having five survivors including the Widow, revealed to be Regina Simcoe, along with two men.]] |
| 350 | * BullyingADragon: A few examples: |
| 351 | ** In the past, Margaret Mehar attempted to blackmail mob boss Basil Garvey in a desperate attempt to improve her life. He immediately used his power to make her life even worse. |
| 352 | ** In episode 3, Basil threatens and talks down to his muscle Eddie Jacobs. Except for all of Basil's power, he has no real physical strength, so Eddie promptly demonstrated why that was a bad idea. |
| 353 | * DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Enid Jenkins is killed by her own printing press]]. |
| 354 | * DecapitationPresentation: |
| 355 | ** [[spoiler: Salomé cuts off Terrance's head after impulsively killing him and then presents it during his act, to make it look like the Widow killed Terrance and left him there to be found.]] |
| 356 | ** [[spoiler: Georges]] is decapitated after his death, and his head is mailed to Basil. |
| 357 | * TheDogBitesBack: Verdi eventually pays back her sisters for their torment of her by [[spoiler: arranging to have Venetia killed during Georges's magic show and frames Viviana for it]]. |
| 358 | * DramaticUnmask: An InUniverse case the Widow uses to shock the final victim after their identity has already been revealed. [[spoiler:Regina reveals herself to Basil Garvey by pulling off the veil on her outfit.]] |
| 359 | * EvilGloating: Played with. In the season finale, [[spoiler:The Widow visits Viviana in prison specifically to gloat]]. It has all the traits of this, except the person being taunted is so much worse. |
| 360 | * EvilVersusEvil: VillainProtagonist mob boss Basil Garvey taking on the season's main killer, the Widow. [[spoiler:The Widow turns out to be ALighterShadeOfBlack and wins against Basil]]. |
| 361 | * FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Regina, revealed to be the Widow, ultimately chooses not to kill Viviana, instead leaving her to rot in prison.]] |
| 362 | * FrameUp: |
| 363 | ** Andrew May Sr. was framed for the murder of Margaret Mehar, and then hanged for it. |
| 364 | ** [[spoiler:Salomé]] kills [[spoiler:Terrence]] in anger and tries to pin it on the Widow. [[spoiler:Salomé is dismembered alive in the brothel for it.]] |
| 365 | ** [[spoiler:Verdi]] sets up the death of [[spoiler:Venetia during Georges' magic act]], and then hides the evidence on [[spoiler:Viviana]]. |
| 366 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: When Kenneth fights the Widow for the second time, he gets a hit in on their arm. [[spoiler:You can clearly hear that the grunt the Widow makes is that of a mature woman's.]] |
| 367 | * HardTruthAesop: |
| 368 | ** RevengeIsNotJustice, but in the absence of any true or even possible justice, vengeance is the only available arbiter. [[spoiler:Regina, after Kenneth figures out that she's the Widow, leaves a note for him admitting that justice would render vengeance unneeded, but its absence meant the only to give out payback for Margaret's torment and murder was revenge.]] |
| 369 | ** Justice is decided by those in power. |
| 370 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: ZigZagged. [[spoiler:Verdi, Gladys, Andrew May Jr., and Kenneth Rijkers are all decent people for most of the season. However, the end of season sees Verdi setting up one of her sisters' deaths and pinning it on the other, and all four of them deciding to side with the Widow and kill Garvey. It's unclear just how much of this has really changed them, but it's clear that it has, though Rijkers still expresses some visible discomfort with it all.]] |
| 371 | * IAteWhat: Episode 4 opens with Basil Garvey, Melanda Israel, Isaac Kashtinsky, Viviana Botticelli, and Salomé enjoying a meal and discussing the Widow. Their meal ends with meat pies, which have [[spoiler:Eddie's]] teeth in them, cluing them into what the meat was. |
| 372 | * KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Basil Garvey has his face torn apart by every character he has hurt throughout the season.]] |
| 373 | * KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The Widow is revealed to be Regina and she gets away with it thanks to Rijkers allowing her to. Verdi also planned the murder of one of her sisters and framed the other and also gets away with it.]] |
| 374 | * TheKillerWasLeftHanded: Rijkers comes to this conclusion while studying one of the victims. [[spoiler:It's also how he determines that Terrence was killed by Salomé, as Terrence's killer was right-handed.]] |
| 375 | * LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Once Verdi frames Viviana for murder and has her arrested, she ends up brutalized by the prison matrons the same way she treated Verdi and countless servants beforehand.]] |
| 376 | * MenAreTheExpendableGender: Downplayed. [[spoiler: Dr. Melanda Israel and Enid Jenkins]] are the only women personally murdered by the Widow, and three others die at the hands of different characters. |
| 377 | * PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The season takes place in the very early 20th century, but even so, there is little discrimination thrown against Dr. Melanda Israel for being a black female doctor. |
| 378 | * RecycledPremise: It's easy to miss, but ''Ripper'' follows a similar premise to ''Guilty Party''. A woman gets murdered by a group who then frames an innocent man for it who dies afterwards, the villain is seeking revenge for one of the said deaths, [[spoiler: Jefferson Brown's character gets killed off by the end of the premiere, Paula Brancati's character survives to the end and imprisoned, and the killer gets away with everything]]. |
| 379 | * RevengeIsNotJustice: As Kenneth figures out that the Widow is targeting people who victimized Margaret Mehar, he says that while he understands what the person is doing, killing them is the wrong way to do it. [[spoiler:The Widow herself, Regina Simcoe, agrees that justice negates the need for revenge, but the city is so corrupt and horrible that revenge is the only thing she has left, and Kenneth ultimately agrees.]] |
| 380 | * RewatchBonus: |
| 381 | ** You might notice that the shots involving the Widow usually frame them in to look tall in the shot, and they are in fact quite a tall person. You might then realize that it was no coincidence that shots of [[spoiler:Regina Simcoe]] were framed in the same way. |
| 382 | ** When Basil Garvey is jailed after he pays the Botticelli sisters to let him have Verdi (not connected), Verdi immediately decides she wants to leave while she still can. However, the door is locked, and his head maid Gladys stops her, advising her that Basil would chase her down and wouldn't be happy after he got her again, but still gives her the key. On first, viewing this seems like a BrokenBird of a maid trying to keep the future Garvey matriarch away from Basil's dark side. On a rewatch, [[spoiler:she was actually trying to keep Verdi from unintentionally derailing the Widow's plan for Basil by keeping her, and by extension, him in the city.]] |
| 383 | ** Hand-in-hand with the above, Verdi's sudden behavior to make Basil happy after contemplating leaving him takes on a new meaning. At first, it seems like she took Gladys's advice to stay on his good side and have a semblance of a decent life. [[spoiler:It turns out that she was actually filled in on Regina's plan for Basil, as well as the truth about the kind of man he is and is playing along with their plan.]] |
| 384 | ** The Widow chooses to spare Melanda Israel while she's performing surgery to save Andrew May Jr. but stays to watch the operation. Afterwards, Dr. Israel herself is kept in the hospital to keep her in and the Widow out. [[spoiler:She's murdered not long after. The only other person who was present there was Regina herself; the Widow was already in. She wasn't sparing Melanda, she was making sure that she was actually saving his life, and waited until Andrew's recovery was in motion before killing the town's best surgeon.]] There's also the fact that [[spoiler: Regina was the one who insisted on Melanda being the one to do the procedure despite the fact that she was in prison at the time.]] |
| 385 | ** Verdi showing such an intense interest in [[spoiler: how Georges saw trap works takes on a different meaning when you realize that she's asking so she can think of a way to sabotage it.]] |
| 386 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Shanika decides to leave town in the penultimate episode due to the murders. This leaves her as the only major surviving character not to be present for the climax. |
| 387 | * SonOfAWhore: Basil's DarkSecret. |
| 388 | * ATasteOfTheLash: Among their other cruelties, the Botticelli sisters whip Verdi. |
| 389 | * ThereAreNoCoincidences: Various characters comment on how it is quite a coincidence that the murders started shortly after Georges Rondeau returned to town. On the other hand, he could also be a potential victim. [[spoiler:He is, and the killer Regina Simcoe waited for him to come back before embarking on her vengeful quest.]] |
| 390 | * TokenGoodCop: Detective Rijkers is a good man and capable at his job, while his boss, the main beat cop under him, and TheCoroner are all corrupt to varying degrees. |
| 391 | [[/folder]] |
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