There are some moments when the characters are badass in this Deconstructive Parody of hacky sitcoms.
- Allison's What the Hell, Hero? speech to Patty in "Live Free or Die". After being treated like dirt for the last ten years, Allison being able to effectively lay into at least one of the people who contributed (or at least enabled and turned a blind eye) to the misery she had to endure and induce a Jerkass Realization and My God, What Have I Done? moment in them is a well-deserved victory for her.
- "New Patty":
- For being something of a dorky milquetoast doormat, Kurt displays some serious self-respect and a good deal of venom when he breaks up with Patty and tells her to "have fun rotting at Kevin's".
- Allison telling off an obnoxious customer for bumping into her and quitting her demeaning job at the liquor store.
- Patty driving Paddy away.
- The ending of "Fixed". Even after their argument, Patty does not hesitate for a second to swoop in and save Allison from being attacked by Neil, even if it means having to smash a beer bottle over her brother's head to do so. Even better yet, this breaks Neil out of Kevin's sitcom world and forces him to face reality.
- "Mrs. McRoberts is Dead": Allison and Neil's venomous exchange. Neil asks Allison if "nagging" at Kevin has ever accomplished anything. It makes her realize that all her attempts at trying to get Kevin to act more reasonably were generally fruitless. Then Allison gives a cutting Armor-Piercing Response to Neil by pointing out that they're both victims of Kevin's abuse in different ways.Allison: Maybe he doesn't care when I "whine", but he laughs when you bleed.
- "Allison's House", the Grand Finale, is chock full of these.
- Pete flatly refusing to tell Kevin the address of Lorraine's apartment when he leaves to move to Florida. Even if he doesn't outright disown Kevin here, it's clear he's not happy with how Kevin's been behaving and he's not going to indulge that anymore.
- Neil breaks off his friendship with Kevin, finally accepting that Kevin was never a good friend to him, and taking the first steps towards living his own life beyond being the Bumbling Sidekick.
- Patty puts her foot down with Neil and tells him pointedly that she's kicking him out of the house. When he asks what he's supposed to do, she flatly replies, "You're thirty-six. You can figure it out."
- The moment the series has been building up to has finally arrived: Allison stands up to Kevin and tells him she hasn't loved him in years, faked her own death to get away from him, and has now returned so she can officially divorce him. That is awesome by itself, but it's made even better by how Allison is confronting Kevin in the sitcom and the studio audience turns against Kevin and cheers for Allison when she makes it clear she's serious about leaving him. After two seasons of Kevin literally running the show, it's absolutely cathartic to watch him losing his once vice grip-like hold on everyone and everything, including his own sitcom-like view of the world.
- Kevin, of course, doesn't take Allison leaving him so well, first trying to gaslight and outright verbally put her down, ranting that she never follows through on anything and will come crawling back to him eventually. And keep in mind, this is Kevin with the sitcom filter taken off, and if you thought he was bad in the sitcom segments, he's downright terrifying here without the veneer of Played for Laughs to make his actions Comedic Sociopathy. But Allison resolutely stands her ground, refusing to let Kevin intimidate or bully her anymore, even when he lunges at her and punches a wall. He then threatens to "destroy" her and Allison simply dares him to try his worst before leaving the house.
