Harsher In Hindsight / Regular Show

• In "Meteor Moves" The Guardian of the Friend Zone warned Mordecai that he took too long to start a relationship with Margaret and that they are most likely going to just be friends now, while he does give Mordecai another chance, his words do ultimately come true that they are only just friends when "Steak Me Amadeus" comes because Margaret just got accepted into her college Milten University. If only Mordecai asked Margaret to be his girlfriend sooner, maybe they could have been Boyfriend and Girlfriend for real, or maybe until Margaret got into her college.
• The "Go Viral" episode which has a Warden trying to police the web. After that episode, there were quite a few bills that did try to do that such as SOPA, CISPA, and PIPA. Thankfully, none of them passed after massive protests.
• The fact that Death somewhat resembles Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead is this since Lemmy's death in late 2015.
• Everything related to Pops' death:
  • Watching the parts of the montage where Pops' birth and childhood are depicted can come off as pretty chilling once you see the finale, since it gives off the vibe that we've seen his entire life all the way to his death.
  • Speaking of the finale, Muscle Man thinking he almost killed Pops in "Prankless" is even more heartbreaking.
  • In an incredibly creepy example of foreshadowing, or just one heck of a coincidence, Pops, in the fourth Halloween special, is sacrificed to a giant hole in his own scary story. In addition to this, in his segment, he's dressed as the sun. In the finale, he dies via incineration by a star.
  • Possibly intentional example from "Cheer Up Pops." The joke of Pops being horrified when his friends cut into a cake (which oozes red filling) that resembles his head? Darkly humorous upon watching initially. After watching the finale, though? Quite possibly the most morbid joke in the series.
  • Pops' continuous association/fascination with butterflies could be seen as this, seeing as how he's the only character to permanently die by the end of the series, and there's an entire trope about this.
  • In the episode "Rap It Up," Pops recites a rather sweet, charming poem about hugs. It's cute upon watching initially, but rather sad after watching the show's final episode. In the finale, Pops dies hugging Anti-Pops, and in their last moments, Anti-Pops gives him a hug back.
  • The short mini-episode "Fun Run" ends with Pops getting carried off to the sky towards the sun by a flock of seagulls. In the show's final episode, Pops dies by incineration when he's flung into a star. What was at first just a very surreal joke ending is now a lot creepier in hindsight.
• The ending to "Dumped At The Altar" takes an even more bitter turn when you realize that's literally CJ's last major appearance in the show. While she still makes a couple of cameos afterwards, she seemingly never actually makes up with Mordecai. And of course not helped that Word of God states that CJ cut ties with Margaret, Eileen, Mordecai, and Rigby, arguably due to how her relationship with Mordecai was screwed up beyond repair.
• Death Punchies shows a Played for Laughs montage of Rigby losing in a game called punchies, capped off with Skips sending him to the hospital. In Over The Top, Skips kills Rigby in a game of arm wrestling.
  • Also in the same episode, when Rigby goes completely nuts with the Death Punch, one moment is shown where he punches Pops into the sun. Now, how does Pops die in the finale?
• The End of Muscle Man, Muscle Man makes everyone in the park think he's going to die because of his declining health, but this ends up being a fake out. (He wanted to kill off his Muscle Man persona for Starla, because he thought it would be better to put his wildness behind him and just be Mitch for when they finally get married.) In the finale, Anti-Pops really does end up killing Muscle Man, along with High-Five Ghost. Thankfully, they come back in the end thanks to Pops' Heroic Sacrifice.
• "Don" bears some similarities to the series finale. Just like Pops, Rigby has to hug his brother to prevent everything from being erased.
• In the Regular Show movie, Rigby tells Mordecai that if he dies saving the world, that he wants Benson to build a bronze statue of him in his memory at the park, because "that would be really cool." Pops died in the final episode, and Benson erected a statue in his memory at the park.