Directed by Mark Pellington
Written by Veena Sud
A camcorder containing footage of a mall shooting spree dating back to 1995, where 15 people died before the two shooters killed themselves, is found. The team realizes that there must have been a third shooter as the two known shooters appeared on the film and someone else was holding the camcorder.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Tina was gang-raped by her ex-boyfriend and his posse of Jerk Jocks. Knowing Neal and Cameron wanted to kill, she goaded them on to finally put their money where their mouth was, telling them to “kill them all.” However, she didn’t expect them to continue shooting after the jocks were dead, and she breaks down crying when they take ten more innocent lives and then their own, pleading with one wounded victim to fight for his life.
- Alliterative Name: Cameron Coulter.
- Anti-Villain: Of the three conspirators of the mall shooting, Tina is the only one remotely sympathetic. After being brutally gang-raped by her Jerk Jock ex-boyfriend and his friends, then spurned by her best friend out of hurt and jealousy, she goaded Cameron and Neal into starting their killing spree, thinking they'd only target her rapists. She failed to realize though that the two were misanthrope supremes just waiting for an excuse to kill people, and targeted innocent people too. Tina was haunted by what happened and the people she inadvertently got killed, and kept quiet for 11 years, nearly Driven to Suicide after the case was reopened.
- Asshole Victim: Audiences would have been a lot less repulsed at Neal and Cameron if they had just stopped at the boys who raped Tina.
- Bait-and-Switch: The show opens with Cameron and Neal goofing around with a camera, initially leading the audience to think that one or both of them will be the Victim of the Week as following the usual formula of the show. Only for the two to suddenly take out guns from their bag and start shooting into the crowd.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lilly talks down Tina from her suicide attempt and saves her life, though she is going to be put on trial for her role in the shooting. While Barry and Dayton have rebuilt their lives despite what the tragedy did to them, Davie is still too traumatized to reopen himself to other people and Cameron's parents are still grieving their son everyday.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Cameron's parents loved their son and were clearly broken by his death. In the present, his father tries to downplay Cameron's role in the shooting and put the blame on Dayton, once the possibility of a third shooter is raised.
- Evil Versus Evil: The jerk jocks sans Dayton were asshole victims that remorselessly gang-raped Tina, but Cameron and Neal were no saints either. The two were budding sociopaths just looking for an excuse to go on a murder spree, and Tina gave them the perfect excuse.
- Exact Words: Tina says to Neal and Cameron, “Kill them all. Kill everybody.” She meant just the group of Jerk Jocks who recently assaulted her. But of course, Neal and Cameron were total psychos, so they aimed to kill everyone they could.
- Gone Horribly Right: Tina encouraged Neal and Cameron to commit mass murder, wanting revenge on Zack and his friends for raping her. Unfortunately for her, while her intended targets did get killed, she severely underestimated Neal and Cameron’s psychosis.
- Jerk Jock: Tina's ex-boyfriend and his high school buddies.
- It's All My Fault: Tina blames herself for instigating Cameron and Neal's killing spree and would have killed herself over it if Lilly hadn't talked her down. However, as Lilly points out, the two were a ticking bomb that used Tina as an excuse and would have probably found another one if she hadn't been there, as they considered starting the shooting by killing her in the final flashback.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Tina, Dayton, and Davie all feel like the destruction was their fault because of their mistakes, and are all inconsolable over it.
- Tina was so blinded by rage over being gang-raped, she goaded Neal and Cameron to do what they always talked about and commit mass murder so she could get revenge.
- Dayton couldn’t stop his friends from raping Tina. He finds her during the shooting and says, blood on his shirt, dazed and distraught, “It's All My Fault, isn’t it?”
- Davie stopped giving Tina sympathy when she told him she was with her ex willingly, and even deliberately scoffed that her rape wasn’t a big deal, to hurt her in a moment of spite, prompting her to go to Neal and Cameron.
- Poor Communication Kills: Tina's Fatal Flaw is that she is too much of a Motor Mouth and often says things than can be misinterpreted easily. She told Davie about being gang-raped but she made him think that she wanted it, causing him to lose interest. She then went to Cameron and Neal and told them to "kill everybody" instead of just her rapists.
- Rape Leads to Insanity: Tina goaded Neal and Cameron to kill everyone in her trauma after she was gang-raped.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Of the Columbine High School massacre
, which in real life happened four years later in 1999. - Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: Lewis is portrayed as so pathetic that it's easy for the shooters to convince him to show them the CCTV, which spurs them on in their massacre. He also admits to Tina that he's completely alone. Though Barry becomes permanently injured and traumatized, the shooting allows him to branch out, fall in love, and start a family.
- Smug Snake: Tina’s ex Zack, who flaunts his fling with her in front of all his friends, leads a gang rape of her, and shows zero remorse for either.
- Trauma Conga Line: The day of the shooting was this for Tina. First, she is gang-raped. Then, she is slut-shamed by her friend just before he abandons her. In the heat of the moment, she convinces Cameron and Neal to start their shooting spree in hope of getting revenge against her rapists, only to realize far too late that the boys aren't going to stop with them. During the shooting, Barry is shot in front of her and she pleads with him to survive, getting covered in his blood while trying to help. Then, she witnesses Neal and Cameron shooting themselves in the head and only fully realizes the consequences of what she triggered when she sees that she is surrounded by dead bodies and blood, causing her to break down crying. Poor girl.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- After being assaulted by a group of boys, Tina goes to Neal and Cameron and tells them to kill them all.
- Davie can also be considered one, as his spiteful words about Tina's rape after she declines to go to the police help drive her into approaching Neal and Cameron.
- Wham Line:Tina: "Kill. Everybody."
- Where It All Began: Played for Drama. Tina wanted to end her life in the same mall the shooting took place when the guilt began to be too much after the case was reopened.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Tina pushed Neal and Cameron to finally shoot someone, knowing they wanted to murder, to get revenge on her rapists.
- You Are Not Alone: How Lilly convinces Tina to stop her suicide attempt. She reassures Tina that despite her role in starting the shooting, she isn't only one who is still paying for what Cameron and Neal did.
