Line #218 Series/HarpersIsland


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mqdefault_1051.jpg]]
2
3	''Harper's Island'' is a [[MiniSeries limited-run]] horror mystery series that aired on Creator/{{CBS}} from April to July 2009, created by Ari Schlossberg. Its cross between a TenLittleMurderVictims premise and an emphasis on SlasherMovie-style deaths for the murder victims in question drew summaries of "Creator/AgathaChristie [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''Franchise/FridayThe13th''".
4
5	Seven years after psychopath John Wakefield went on a killing spree on the small community of Harper's Island, Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington are returning there to get married. Soon after the guests arrive, someone begins picking them off one by one in a manner reminiscent of the Wakefield murders. The murderer seems to have taken a particular interest in Abby Mills, the daughter of the local sheriff, whose mother happened to be one of the original murder victims.
6	----
7	!!Tropes:
8
9	* AbortedArc: A lot of the early storylines were abandoned when A) a character died or B) when the characters started noticing the murders and (rightfully so) decided that catching a murderer was more important than their personal lives. And as a result of this the show [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]].
10	* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Henry's death was purposefully made extremely sad.]]
11	-->[[spoiler:'''Henry''': Abby... but I love you...]]
12	* AllThereInTheManual: The character pages on their website gives information about the characters you'd otherwise never know about. Such as Lucy going to law school. Likely a way to give otherwise LivingProp characters more depth.
13	* AnyoneCanDie: At least one character per episode. It's amazing no one notices anything is wrong until episode six.
14	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The show claims the island is "37 miles off the coast of Seattle". If you check a map, you will be surprised to find that 37 miles off the coast of Seattle's is... more land. Funny how the Puget Sound works.
15	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Hunter Jennings, Shane, and arguably Malcolm and Richard.]]
16	* ATeamFiring: When the wedding party finally figure out they're being attacked, they break out the guns. How many bullets actually hit BigBad [[spoiler:John Wakefield]]? [[spoiler:Zilch. Zero. None.]] Over the course of the series, [[spoiler:Booth dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Hunter is killed by a rigged gun on his boat and Jimmy is incapacitated by a bullet to the back. They're all innocent. The two killers both die by being stabbed.]]
17	** It looks as though the BigBad has this too. When sniping at the group, he only succeeds on giving Henry [[OnlyAFleshWound a flesh wound in the leg, which is easily patched up]]. [[spoiler:Subverted gloriously: either he was trying to make his accomplice look like a victim, making this a case of ImprobableAimingSkills, or trying to hit/scare Abby next to him, making it a case of AccidentalAimingSkills.]]
18	* AttemptedRape: Subverted. It looks like [[spoiler: Richard]] is about to have his way with [[spoiler: Katherine]], but it then reveals that they were just having a rape fantasy role playing session.
19	* BadButt: JD is one trouble making rebel. Always wearing black, covered in tattoos, and causing chaos and disorder wherever he goes. And by chaos and disorder, I mean he likes to light fire crackers now and then.
20	** He does get in a bar fight with Shane... Even if Shane started it by mocking his attempted suicide.
21	** He also painted a message in blood on Shane's truck. That's not exactly a recipe for making friends.
22	* BecomingTheMask: It is implied that [[spoiler:Henry loved Trish]], even though [[spoiler:the wedding was his ploy to get Abby back to the island]]
23	* BetaCouple: Cal and Chloe, often pulling double duty as the PluckyComicRelief.
24	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Chloe, who jumps to her death rather than let Wakefield kill her.]]
25	* BettyAndVeronica: From the very start of the series, fans were divided over whether they wanted Henry to stay with Trish, the Veronica, or if he belonged with Abby, the Betty. [[spoiler: He chooses Abby. She doesn't accept.]]
26	* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:John Wakefield and Henry.]]
27	* BigFancyHouse: The Candlewick Inn.
28	* BittersweetEnding: Even though good does triumph in the end the vast majority of the characters were killed in the process.
29	** Made all the more heart tugging by the last clip being video camera recordings of many of the characters giving Henry and Trish best wishes and happy thoughts for their wedding day. Just to remind the audience just how much had changed and how many lives were lost.
30	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[Administrivia/NotASubversion Averted]]. [[spoiler:Danny is the third-to-last to die (of the victims, at least), making it to the penultimate episode]].
31	* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Quite a few people get blood on them when [[spoiler:Mr. Wellington]] is killed, but Trish is notably shown with blood splattered on her face.
32	** This appears to be the case with [[spoiler:Henry]] when [[spoiler:JD is killed]], but, in reality, [[spoiler:Henry is the killer]]
33	* BloodSplatteredWeddingDress: [[spoiler:Trish is murdered in her wedding dress: stabbed by her fiancé, no less.]]
34	* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler:The half-siblings, Abby and Henry. Actually, [[{{Yandere}} it's mostly just Henry]].]]
35	* CaliforniaDoubling: The series was shot in British Columbia, not Washington. Though the environment is similar enough that you wouldn't really notice.
36	* CannotSpitItOut: The Sheriff never tells anyone that [[spoiler:John Wakefield was alive. They find out when he appears to them for the first time... after just hanging the Sheriff.]] Also, [[spoiler:Sarah Mills never tells young Henry that she's his mother, which might have averted his love for Abby.]]
37	** Also subverted by JD [[spoiler: as he is dying]]. He tells Abby [[spoiler: that it's all about her]] instead of the infinitely more useful information, like who the killer is. This probably saved her life, considering [[spoiler:he was standing behind her.]]
38	* CassandraTruth: Kelly sees [[spoiler: John Wakefield alive]]. Sadly for her, no one else does and everyone believes she is insane. Turns out [[spoiler:he's alive and dangerous and it's likely she is one of the first to be killed simply because she knows the truth]].
39	* CatScare: No actual cats, per se, but it's in the same spirit. The cat launcher gets used a lot.
40	* CellPhonesAreUseless / CutPhoneLines: For [[HandWave various reasons]], once the murders start ramping up, neither the landlines or cell phones work on the island. On web series ''Harper's Globe'', the murderer has also managed to destroy the island's internet connection. The only way the survivors manage to contact the mainland is [[spoiler:finding a boat house with a radio.]]
41	* CerebusSyndrome: The show was dark from the start to begin with, but the head spade incident halfway through was when things got serious, and the wacky storylines involving blow up dolls and strippers lessened.
42	* CharacterDevelopment: Most noticeably Sully. He starts off as a bit of a {{Jerkass}} and DirtyCoward but [[spoiler:by the last episode, he refuses the chance to escape so he can continue to fight for the others and his death at the hands of his best friend is a TearJerker]].
43	** Not to mention the only reason he didn't leave was to save said friend.
44	* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: [[spoiler:Abby effectively makes one of these to Henry when she is nine and he is eleven. Sixteen years later he tries to hold her to this... by luring her to the island and murdering all third parties. Very romantic.]]
45	* ChickMagnet: Cal. Not only is he the boyfriend of the super-hot Chloe, but the stripper at Henry's bachelor party is also making eyes at him.
46	** DudeMagnet: Chloe, appropriately enough.
47	* ClosedCircle: The killer enforces this through kidnapping and extortion. And then by blowing up all the boats. [[spoiler:Nearly all of them.]]
48	* ClosedDoorRapport: In the finale, [[spoiler:Henry talks to Abby through her bedroom door about his fantasy of a life together on the island. She is terrified.]]
49	* CrazySurvivalist: Cole Harkin.
50	* CreateYourOwnVillain: Sheriff Mills turns his wife's obsessive ex-boyfriend John Wakefield into a murderous psychopath by [[spoiler:having him beaten up and framing him for attempted murder of a police officer. He serves 17 years of a life sentence for something he didn't do]]. Of course, it didn't help that [[spoiler:Sarah Mills gave away their son, Henry]]. They both might qualify for DeathByIrony.
51	* CreepyChild: Madison, almost to the point of {{Narm}}.
52	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: "A series of cramped, dark, unexplored tunnels that the killer is likely using to travel around the island? Let's investigate!"
53	** Chloe had a bad habit of wandering juuust out of sight of the others, and had a low-key morbid interest in the Wakefield murders.
54	* DeadStarWalking: [[spoiler: Creator/HarryHamlin as Uncle Marty. He's traveling with a lot of cash and a gun, which seems to indicate he's going to play some key part in the plot, and is one of the most well-known faces in the cast. He's killed at the end of episode one.]]
55	** [[spoiler: Also, Creator/RichardBurgi (Thomas Wellington) has some recognition with audiences. He gets killed via head spade halfway through the series.]]
56	%%* DeathByLookingUp.
57	* ADeathInTheLimeLight: They were pretty heinous about this with some of the characters, once leading to the organization of a massive search party for a character whose name (Beth) had never been mentioned before, and who only looked vaguely familiar once they found her. It was downright [[{{Narm}} Narmtastic]].
58	** Actually Abby and Sully ''do'' say Beth's name in the pool scene at the beginning of episode three...
59	* DescriptionCut: In episode 12, there are some notable cuts between [[spoiler:Wakefield talking to Abby about his child by her mother]] and [[spoiler:Henry or someone saying his name]]. It's most obvious as a RewatchBonus.
60	* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Henry]] crosses this up on the cliffs, when Abby screams that she doesn't want him, and earlier [[spoiler:Chloe]] crosses it when she sees [[spoiler:Cal murdered in front of her, so she kills herself rather than let John Wakefield do it.]]
61	* DevilInPlainSight: Let's just say that when they want a character to seem suspicious, they aren't subtle about it.
62	* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler: Henry fails at his main goal of getting Abby. In fact, she kills him to protect Jimmy.]]
63	* DirtyCoward: Sully, though he does eventually become less of one. By the end of the series, he refuses a chance to be rescued to go after the killer and save his friends, while convincing the mother of the girl he was originally willing to let die to flee the island to protect her daughter.
64	* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Booth]]. Subverted in that he stays dead despite his death's ambiguous nature.
65	* DoggedNiceGuy: Jimmy, Henry, Cal. [[spoiler: Okay, two out of three isn't bad.]] Lucy's unseen boyfriend Ryan is also implied to be one of these.
66	* DrawingStraws: The groomsmen decide who buries the bag of money by this method. It doesn't work at first since they forgot to cut the straws first. Poor nervous Booth gets the job [[spoiler: and dies in the process]].
67	* DrivenToSuicide: Part of JD's backstory. He made a suicide pact with his girlfriend a few years prior. Henry was able to save him in time, his girlfriend wasn't so lucky. Not to mention [[spoiler: Chloe's final rebellion against John Wakefield.]]
68	* DumbBlonde: subverted. Chloe and Lucy at first appear like this, but it soon shows that there is a lot of depth to Chloe. And WordOfGod says that Lucy had recently started attending law school.
69	* DwindlingParty: One of the defining parts of the show's premise was the fact that there would always be atleast one person killed in each episode. The commercials especially played this up, showing the cast, then removing the faces one at a time to a child-like chorus of ''"One by one..."''
70	* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:Sully and Wakefield, when they are killed by Henry.]]
71	* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Danny]] gets a memo holder through the eyeball.
72	* FallingChandelierOfDoom: [[spoiler:Mr. Wellington]] is killed by one of these. OK, it's with the head spade in it, but it's close enough.
73	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Henry]] in the final episode.
74	** DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler:Abby and Jimmy]] at the same time as the above.
75	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Lots of 'em.
76	* FanService: Hoo boy. The majority of the female cast end up in their undies or bikinis at least ''twice'' before episode five and lots of the men get their shirts off. The fanservice drops considerably post-headspade, but there's still a couple of lingerie scenes past there.
77	* FinalGirl: [[spoiler: Abby, who is clearly sign-posted as this.]]
78	* FlatCharacter: Beth and Danny never really had anything particularly special about them, besides being the extra friend in the bride and groom's respective friends list. Maggie, the wedding planner, has no other traits besides being...well, the wedding planner.
79	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Some hints are given to viewers who are perceptive enough to pick up on them, such as [[spoiler: Henry's poor anger management skills and the fact that several murders would have been difficult to impossible for John Wakefield to have committed.]]
80	* ForTheEvulz: [[spoiler: Henry planted the money on the boat for Malcolm to find just to see what they would do before he would eventually kill them anyways. To top it all off, the money was originally going to be given to Malcolm in the first place.]]
81	* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:Henry's whole reason for going psycho is that he was given up for adoption by his mother... a.k.a. Abby's mother. While this is what sends him completely over the edge, Henry mentions that he had homicidal urges (and that he admired Wakefield) before he discovered Wakefield was his father and Abby's mother his mother.]]
82	* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:Henry's entire scheme to kill off ''everyone'' that could prevent him and Abby from being together on Harper's Island, forever. For a start, the whole plan would have been ruined if Abby simply hadn't accepted the invitation to the wedding, or if she'd had to back out at the last minute.]]
83	* HairTriggerTemper: Henry. Take a drink every time he punches someone or something. [[spoiler:It's an early sign that he's also a bit mad.]]
84	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Uncle Marty]]. Also [[spoiler:Beth]].
85	* HeroicSacrifice / RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Shane, of all people, faces off against Wakefield to give the others time to escape. Also Sully, a former DirtyCoward who refuses a chance to escape the island and stays behind in order to defend his remaining friends, but sadly it's his best friend Henry who end up doing him in.]]
86	* HonoraryUncle: Uncle Marty declares that for the entire week, everyone on the island must call him Uncle Marty.
87	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: [[spoiler:Booth's death. Notable for being the only accidental death in the entire series. Possibly.]]
88	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Crackle. Thwack. Gurgle.
89	** The sounds made in deaths in the episodes, according to Website/TheOtherWiki.
90	* IdiotBall: Abby picks it up for the final third of the series and ''never'' lets it go. [[spoiler: Primarily because the other holders are dead.]] Also Madison, [[spoiler:who does everything Wakefield tells her to even after he's proved himself to be untrustworthy by kidnapping her]].
91	* TheImmodestOrgasm: Trish and Henry, in the first episode; notable in that it's used for a false scare.
92	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Richard, Nikki, Shane, Cal and Henry]].
93	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler: The writers felt they couldn't kill off Madison on a network show -- or everyone she knew, so they saved her mother too.]]
94	* InTheBack: [[spoiler:Henry]] literally and figuratively stabs both [[spoiler:Sully and Trish]] in the back. Unusual in that [[spoiler:he does this just ''after'' revealing his betrayal to them.]]
95	* IOweYouMyLife: Spoken by Abby when she remembers how [[spoiler: Jimmy saved her from John Wakefield seven years ago when he was about to kill her.]] [[spoiler: Jimmy]] never told her because he didn't want to make her think she owed him anything.
96	* JackTheRipoff: If the killer isn't actually John Wakefield... "Then someone's doing a hell of a job imitating him!"
97	** [[spoiler:Turns out it was John Wakefield after all]].
98	** [[spoiler:But there's also a JackTheRipoff: it's Henry.]]
99	* {{Jerkass}}: Shane.
100	** Hunter Jennings.
101	** Richard Allen.
102	* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Wakefield's philosophy regarding Sarah Mills and his instructions to Henry regarding Abby.]]
103	* LabCoatOfScienceAndMedicine: Dr. Campbell wears one.
104	* LetsSplitUpGang: There were always moments of the wedding party splitting up, whether for wedding games or running for their lives.
105	* LibationForTheDead: [[spoiler: After Jimmy is apparently killed when the marina explodes, Shane drinks a Scotch despite the fact that he obviously doesn't like it. When asked why, he says that it's because Jimmy drank scotch, and he's having a drink for Jimmy.]]
106	* LingerieScene: Part of the FanService. Played straight with most of the female cast, most notably Trish and Chloe who are both overt flirts. Then inverted with Abby in the last episode when [[spoiler:waking up in her underwear, as opposed to being naked, shows that Henry hadn't raped her while she was unconscious]].
107	* LivingProp: If they weren't the main characters, or blatant obvious suspects, then most of the characters sort of just stood around doing nothing until they die.
108	* LocationDoubling: The fictional Harper's Island is played by an island in Canada, with various locations on it in the Vancouver area.
109	* LonersAreFreaks: JD and Kelly.
110	* LoveFreak: Uncle Marty, when he wasn't being the wild party animal, constantly reminds Henry about how fantastic love is. And flat out states to Mr. Wellington that he takes pride in defending true love for those that truly deserve it.
111	* LoveMakesYouEvil: John Wakefield [[spoiler:and his son, Henry]].
112	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Wakefield and Henry's back story]].
113	* MamaBear: Shea Allen won't let anyone so much as ''talk'' to her daughter Madison about the goings on, even though Maddy can clearly see what's happening around her (and, furthermore, almost seems to be getting [[CreepyChild quite a kick out of it]]).
114	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Chloe seemed to be this for Cal.
115	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: For the first few episodes it gave off hints that there might be something supernatural on the island, and that Madison might have something to do with it.
116	** Brought to the max in the episode "Bang" where half the plot consisted of a fortune teller freaking out and giving Abby cryptic messages of doom.
117	* TheMedic: Cal, who patches up the others' wounds but tragically turns out not to be a good fighter.
118	%%* MirrorScare: Kelly.
119	* MissingChild: [[spoiler: Madison goes missing soon after Richard disappears and people start getting murdered.]] To make matters worse, [[spoiler: as the guests are leaving, Shea is told that Madison will be murdered if anyone leaves the island.]]
120	%%* TheMole: [[spoiler:Henry]]
121	* MotiveRant: [[spoiler:Henry]] gets a fantastic one, frequently punctuated with YoureInsane comments from [[spoiler:Abby]].
122	* MrsRobinson: reversed with Mr. and Mrs. Wellington; she's roughly the same age as her step-daughters.
123	* NeverOneMurder: [[spoiler: Obviously. The grand total is ''29'' deaths, although one is self-defence, one is accidentally self-induced, and the other is suicide to avoid murder.]]
124	* NeverSuicide: [[spoiler:Kelly]].
125	* NightmareFetishist: Chloe is very fascinated by serial killers, and knows a lot about John Wakefield. She would rather go off to the forest to find his gravestone than go to an open bar with the boys.
126	* NoMedicationForMe: Henry mentions that JD needs to take pills regularly for his mental illness, but sometimes goes without them because it makes him feel foggy.
127	* NotHelpingYourCase: [[spoiler:Jimmy]] may have been completely innocent but he still manages to act in a wildly shifty fashion, most notably when he leaves Trish sleeping alone in his truck while he visits the bluffs to look for a boat. When Trish later falls over the bluffs, completely accidentally, his story to the others sounds unlikely at best.
128	* NotNowKiddo: Maddy tries to warn the adults that the killer is approaching. Their brushoff allows the killer to get the drop on them and cash out [[spoiler:Nikki the bartender]].
129	* NotQuiteDead:
130	** [[spoiler:Wakefield]]
131	** [[spoiler:Shane, after Wakefield stabs him and leaves him for dead, proves to have enough life left in him to go save Trish.]]
132	* ObnoxiousInLaws:
133	** Thomas Wellington is quite your typical wealthy man who disapproves of his future son-in-law. [[spoiler: Going so far as to hire Trish's old flame to try and break up the wedding.]] But in the episode Thwack, he shows to give in and be happy for his daughter.
134	** Of course Henry's family members are pretty obnoxious too, Uncle Marty's party animal nature, JD's pranks, [[spoiler: his dad killing everyone...]]
135	** [[spoiler: Also, Wellington's reason for not liking Henry was apparently that some "instinct" told him Henry wasn't trustworthy. That was spot on, so it's hard to dislike him too much for his belief that Trish shouldn't marry Henry.]]
136	* ObviousVillainSecretVillain: John Wakefield committed a massacre twenty years ago then vanished. So is he behind the copycat crimes? Yes. [[spoiler:But so is Henry, his son who has posed as the loving groom while killing people so he can be alone with Abby, the real target of his obsession.]]
137	* OddFriendship:
138	** Madison and JD share a penchant for nasty pranks, but they do seem to genuinely care about one another as well.
139	** Turns out she also has a friendship with [[spoiler:Wakefield]].
140	** [[DoggedNiceGuy Jimmy]] and [[JerkAss Shane]] are also kind of an odd pair, but their friendship also seems to be genuine.
141	** Jimmy also has a unexpected friendship with Abby's dad. Despite the fact that the sheriff hated him when he was dating her. These days though they have breakfast and chat over coffee every week. Much to Abby's discomfort.
142	* OffscreenTeleportation: Not abused to the extent of ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' and its ilk, but this trope is still there. Justified to some degree by the fact that the killer uses Prohibition-esque tunnels to move unobserved about the island.
143	** And even with that consideration, the trope pops up. At one point the gang, running from the killer, huddle in the church, in a group, in a wide-open area, with all of them clearly visible. Two or three seconds later: "Where's Chloe?" They discover that she'd been snatched into those tunnels; however, the trap door leading to said tunnels has a large pew parked on top. And in Beth's disappearance, the killer takes her into the tunnel system and manages to replace a trolley in front of the door after they've gone.
144	** Also Justified in that [[spoiler:for most of the series there are two people doing the killings]].
145	* OnlyAFleshWound: Subverted with poor [[spoiler: Booth]], who accidentally shoots [[spoiler: himself in the leg and hits his femoral artery, bleeding to death within a minute]]. Played straight later when Henry is hit in the leg and, after being patched up, suffers no ill effects.
146	* OohMeAccentsSlipping
147	** Abby's natural Irish accent is noticeable on a few occasions
148	** Cal's likely more well-spoken than his actor since towards the end he becomes very estuary in his pronunciation as the stress rises.
149	** Creator/MattBarr can't quite keep Texas out of Sully's voice.
150	* OpenMindedParent: Abby's mom allowing her to secretly go off "camping" with Jimmy as a teenager was essentially sending her daughter off to get laid.
151	* PinballProtagonist: Abby, who has little bearing on the events for the first twelve and a half episodes. [[spoiler: Then she kills Henry at the end of episode thirteen.]]
152	* PluckyComicRelief: Cal and Chloe were the amusing light hearted characters that kept the show from getting too melodramatic at first with all the mysterious soap-opera plots going on. [[spoiler: When they both died it was the ultimate symbol of the story being completely dead serious from now on.]]
153	* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Jimmy and Sheriff Mills get one in Episode 5, having previously been credited as guest stars.
154	* RedHerring: at least one per episode, usually more.
155	** Cole Harkin's entire existence seemed to be one big red herring.
156	* RedHerringMole: Only [[spoiler:JD, the Sheriff and Jimmy]] are explicitly made suspects, but the very premise of the show is that one of the 25 main characters is the killer.
157	* {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler:Cal and Chloe]]: "Will you marry me?" [=ghack!=]
158	** Also [[spoiler: the two state troopers, who have about two minutes of established personality before being shot in the chest.]]
159	* RichBitch: Lucy, complete with accessory dog. Although averted somewhat in that she is actually a nice person who gives Trish good advice.
160	* RoomFullOfCrazy: Sheriff Charlie Mills has an attic dedicated to information about John Wakefield, the man who murdered his wife 7 years earlier before being shot, [[spoiler: mainly because the Sheriff knows that Wakefield is still alive.]] It's full of [[TheBigBoard boards]] covered in newspapers clippings and photographs and boxes of police files, and creeps the hell out of Abby when she finds it.
161	* RuleOfScary: Why did someone put Abby's mom's obituary on her bathroom mirror, why did she get those two random calls playing "Ave Maria"? Well... no reason, really. But it sure was creepy wasn't it?
162	* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:Henry, who starts as Wakefield's accomplice but ends up killing him and taking his place as BigBad.]]
163	* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Henry Dunn, who kills his biological father John Wakefield, is complicit in the murder of his step-father Charlie Mills and according to WordOfGod murdered his adoptive parents Frank and Karen Dunn.]]
164	* SerialKiller: John Wakefield [[spoiler:and his son, Henry]].
165	* SeriesContinuityError: [[spoiler:Henry]] claims to have murdered Reverend Fain. This would have been difficult, given that [[spoiler:he was licking chocolate off of Trish's neck at the time.]]
166	* SexSignalsDeath:
167	** [[spoiler: Chloe and Cal die fairly shortly after their last make-out session.]]
168	** [[spoiler: Trish dies almost immediately after having wedding dress sex with Henry.]]
169	* TheSheriff: Charlie Mills.
170	* ShirtlessScene: A few of the hotter guys get a few of these. Most notably Jimmy, Sully, and JD.
171	* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler: After Cal and Chloe die]], it's pretty much a given that there will be no more light hearted moments from here on out.
172	* SmugSnake: Richard
173	* {{Soaperizing}}
174	** DevelopingDoomedCharacters
175	* SleightOfTongue: [[spoiler:Abby slipping Jimmy a pin to pick the lock on his handcuffs during their supposed goodbye kiss.]]
176	* SoundtrackDissonance: During the end of Thwack, cheerful organ music playing the bridal chorus goes on while it shows [[spoiler: the police pulling out the dismembered body parts of Reverend Fain.]]
177	* SpannerInTheWorks:
178	** [[spoiler:Jimmy]]'s uncanny knack of surviving NoOneCouldSurviveThat situations.
179	** [[spoiler:Sully's CharacterDevelopment was not part of the plan, allowing Shea and Madison to escape.]]
180	* SpottingTheThread: Abby realises that [[spoiler:Henry]] is lying when [[spoiler:he claims not to have seen Sully, when Abby knows that the pair spoke to the coast guard together over the radio.]] Sadly, it's a bit late at that point.
181	* StabTheScorpion: The show used this trope nonstop all the way up until the last episode. And it only stopped by then because they ran out of characters to fool us with.
182	* StalkerWithACrush:
183	** Hunter Jennings appears to be one, but he's really just a jerk out for money.
184	** [[spoiler: Henry.]]
185	* TarAndFeathers: Sully gets covered in honey at a spa and promptly coated in feathers as a prank in one of the first episodes, causing him to run after the assailants wearing only the feathers.
186	* TattooedCrook: JD who is covered in spooky tattoos all over his body. To a slightly lesser extent, Kelly, who has several tattoos about John Wakefield as a sign that she is unstable.
187	* TemptingFate:
188	** [[spoiler:Maggie the wedding planner]]: "He's after ''you'', it has nothing to do with me!" [=urk=]
189	** Also Sully ("Life's too short to be guarded!"), although his hasn't caught up with him yet.
190	* TearsOfFear: Chloe, who despite her fascination with serial killers and John Wakefield, becomes one of the first to lose it when things go down.
191	* TheTease: Chloe likes doing some suggestive dancing with Uncle Marty, and she is frequently almost-flirting with Sully during early episodes, but she is still absolutely devoted to her little Englishman.
192	* TenLittleMurderVictims: ''In bikinis'', to correct ''Magazine/RadioTimes'' reviewer Alison Graham's description of the show as "Poirot in bikinis" (Poirot's not in that novel).
193	* TheyWereHoldingYouBack: [[spoiler: Henry to Abby. She's not impressed.]]
194	* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Sully says this in episode 11. Generally, it's the reaction everyone has to everything.
195	* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Cal and Chloe]].
196	* TokenWholesome: While the other women don't go out of their way to sleep around, Abby is clearly this.
197	* TragicDream: [[spoiler:Oh Henry, no. However many of her friends you kill, Abby is not going to want to get all "[[BrotherSisterIncest Flowers in the Attic]]" with you.]]
198	* TrophyWife: Katherine Wellington. She even admits it.
199	* UnusualEuphemism: Apparently "going camping" with someone is teen-speak for sex amongst the younger islanders.
200	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Madison Allen, who gets several people killed by going along with what Wakefield told her to do, which is [[spoiler: lie that the Sheriff kidnapped her]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that she's only nine and can be expected to be a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter.
201	* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Sheriff Charlie Mills, who covers up the fact that John Wakefield is alive and leaves information in his attic that leads everyone to suspect Jimmy.]]
202	* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Trish knew Henry since they were little kids. They dated through out all of high school. And now they are having a fairy tale wedding in their childhood town. [[spoiler: Only it turns out Henry had his eyes on his OTHER childhood friend, Abby, the entire time.]]
203	* {{Webisode}}: Harpers Globe is a series of small videos made to show some of the weird goings on before and during the official episodes. It’s also shown that [[spoiler: likely most - if not all - the island locals were killed too (the finale mentions, in addition to the four main survivors, a couple of locals survived as well).]]
204	* WeHardlyKnewYe:
205	** Cousin Ben will not be forgotten for all he supplied to the show... when we can think of what exactly that was, we'll stop forgetting him.
206	** [[spoiler: Uncle Marty, Reverend Fain, Kelly, and Lucy, who all died in the first two episodes of the show]], also apply for this trope.
207	** [[spoiler: Cole Harkin]]. He's given an interesting backstory and has a lot of potential as a character. [[spoiler: in Episode 8, he's given his first real scene with character development and dialogue, and it turns out to be his death scene]].
208	* WhamEpisode: Thwack. Where with all of the crazy things going wrong and the missing guests can no longer be ignored [[spoiler: after Mr. Wellington is killed off in front of everyone.]]
209	** "Snap" and "Gasp" as well. In Snap, [[spoiler: John Wakefield is revealed as the killer]], and in Gasp, [[spoiler: Henry Dunn is revealed as the second killer, which he reveals to Trish seconds before killing her]].
210	** "Sploosh," too. After all the hints that John Wakefield is alive and well and back at it again, Abby and Henry dig up his grave to see once and for all what's ''really'' down there... only to find Wakefield's skeleton, proving definitively that Wakefield really has been dead this whole time and the current murderer is someone all together different. '''Bam'''. End of episode. [[spoiler: Though we later find out that Wakefield actually is the current murderer. Well, one of them, anyways...]]
211	* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "I shot John Wakefield but I never found his body; I buried someone else."]]
212	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
213	** A lot of weird stuff that happened in the beginning wasn't ever clearly explained. Like, who broke all the fine china? Who left the various animal carcasses lying around? Why was Madison so creepy and prophetic in the first two episodes and then suddenly an innocent normal kid again?
214	** [[spoiler: The lack of curiosity after Lucy gets set on fire in the second episode.]] There apparently was going to be a scene explaining why no one seemed to care that she just up and vanished without any warning, which would have actually made sense, but they apparently cut it. However, if you pay attention Beth has several conversations with Malcolm where [[spoiler: she's worried about Lucy not answering her phone, and he mentions everyone thinks she's on the mainland with a guy and will be back for the wedding, much like Uncle Marty.]]
215	* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief:
216	** The director, when asked how Cousin Ben could have been harnessed to a boat propeller with no one noticing, admitted it's just easier to accept it than try to explain it.
217	** Also, how on earth [[spoiler:Henry managed to carry Jimmy and Abby to the island house, which is by his account "miles away from anyone", before legions of police arrived on the helicopter]].
218	* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Henry. The whole ''plot'' is because of this. Also Wakefield, proving that it runs in the family.]]
219	* YouRemindMeOfX: When [[spoiler: Wakefield first]] appears to Abby, just after hanging [[spoiler: her father, he]] says "You look so much like your mother". [[spoiler:Given that he dated and fathered a child with Sarah Mills,]] this is incredibly creepy.

Context Series / HarpersIsland