Directed by Jessica Landaw
Written by Liz W Garcia
The 1994 suicide of Trevor Dawson is reinvestigated when recovered parts of his suicide note reveal that he was in danger from someone.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: The teacher who is supposed to supervise detention regularly sneaks off to hit the bottle and sleep, to the degree that the students know his routine.
- Broken Ace: Dawn was an overachiever with good grades and a bright future in high school, but she had a Dark Secret—her stepdad was sexually abusive.
- Collector of the Strange: The ex-janitor at Trevor's school collected lots unspecified weird stuff. Trevor's suicide note was among those recovered from his collection after the man died.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Everyone thinks Trevor was. And he almost was—until he fell in love with Dawn and realized how precious life was.
- His friend Boris was almost this. He tried to jump off the school roof, but Trevor, knowing how how precious life could be, tried to stop him, and the ensuing tussle resulted in Trevor falling off.
- Flaw Exploitation: Trevor, Boris, and Raquel knew that the principal was a Dean Bitterman who hands out detentions for the most minor infractions. They let themselves get caught and he becomes their alibi.
- The Heart: Trevor was the only person that Raquel and Boris could befriend. They would not hang out together without him.
- Lecherous Stepparent: Dawn Hill's stepfather is this, to the point where Trevor plots to kill him.
- "Mister Sandman" Sequence: Travis getting detention for putting a photo of Kurt Cobain in his locker.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Trevor was so secretive that even his parents and teachers did not know that he had friends.
- Posthumous Character: Mr. Monti, the teacher who sat in detention, was an alcoholic. He died in a possible DUI in 2002.
- Reformed Criminal: Boris is an ex-con working at a donut shop. He's also the killer.
- Suicide Pact: Trevor made one of these with two friends. He later backed out when he fell in love with Dawn, but ended up dying anyway when he tried to stop Boris from going through with it.
- Wicked Stepfather: Dawn had one of these, whom her boyfriend planned to murder.
