The team reinvestigates the 1979 murder of Libby Bradley, after her jacket is discovered twenty miles away from where her body had been found. Deeper diving reveals that Libby was searching for satisfaction outside her dying marriage.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Although she's never formally identified as such, Alison is downing martinis (and pills, apparently) pretty regularly during most of the flashbacks. It's implied that she does so to cope with her miserable marriage. Unsurprisingly, she's sober and generally more put together in the present since she and Bill divorced.
- Awful Wedded Life: Both Libby and her husband Carl, and their neighbors Bill and Alison, which is why Libby and Bill started an affair.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: After Bill ended their affair at Helen’s Sweet Sixteen, Libby tried to get back at him by dancing sexually with his teenage son Jed in front of everybody, including Helen and her friends. It ended in disaster, and Helen was so upset and embarrassed she was almost driven to suicide.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. Jed is clearly very uncomfortable with the sexual way that Libby is dancing with him and everyone else watching is absolutely horrified. Ironically, despite her behavior, Libby herself is genuinely horrified when Jed makes advances on her, having come to her senses and citing how wrong a relationship would be given his age.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Helen tried to kill herself because she was angry and humiliated by her mother’s affair and Libby’s behavior at her birthday party.
- The last witness willing to testify against Coach Fitz for pedophilia, prompting Scotty to push his brother to testify.
- Everyone Has Standards: Joe, the supposedly sleaziest one in the group who got the key party thing started, turns out to have respectfully accepted Libby's "No" to his advances, is genuinely concerned at her drunkenness at Helen's party and was equally concerned by Carl's manhandling of her, explicitly telling him, "Let her go, you're hurting her."
- Evil Tainted the Place: The woods where Libby was found dead had become infamous as a haunted place. Her belongings where found by a bunch of tourists who went there to be scared.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Libby's hair is initially tied up in a bun. She lets it down when she starts swinging. In the epilogue when her ghost is seen, she has gone back to her conservative attire but her hair is still down.
- Face–Heel Turn: Bill seems genuinely enamored with Libby in their first two flashbacks. By the third, he's dancing with another woman, having realized that there are other options for him and cruelly rebuffing her.
- Harmful to Minors: Bill and Alison host the key party in their house with their underage son Jed present (though it doesn't seem that any actual sex takes place there). Jed is later seen serving alcohol at another party, something which could have gotten his parents in serious trouble.
- Hope Spot: Libby and Carl have a breakthrough and are possibly taking steps towards reconciling when she's killed the next day.
- Hot for Teacher: Jed towards Libby, who was his former schoolteacher. Libby made moves at him during a party, and thus he got the wrong idea, and kills her in anger when she tries to break it off.
- Housewife: Deconstructed. Libby followed the social norms at the time by marrying at eighteen and starting a family in her twenties. But this has left her empty at the time of her murder, as she feels unfulfilled, like she has missed out on really getting to live.
- Hypocrite: Carl has been cheating on Libby for years, to the point of being blatant about it and not caring about humiliating her by bringing her to a party where he's hoping to nail the wife of one of their friends, yet he's stunned when Libby is the first to pick a key and outraged when she begins a blatant affair of her own.
- Irony: Carl brings Libby to the key party to fulfill his needs—he's hoping to get a chance to bed the much-younger new wife of one of their friends. Libby gets back at him by being the first to choose a key and embark on an affair of her own.
- My Greatest Failure: Scotty saw his older brother Mike get molested by his coach when he was young, but said nothing. That’s why he pushes so hard for Mike to testify when the only other willing witness commits suicide.
- Parents as People:
- Libby started acting out because she was unsatisfied, having married young and never taken the time to learn about who she was or what she really wanted until it was too late. This behavior had a negative impact on her daughter, Helen, who was embarrassed by her mother's obvious affair and new lust, which caused Bill and Libby to realize how their marital problems were affecting her. Libby explains that she never got to find out who she was outside of other people, but that Helen was the most important thing to her, and promised her afterwards that she would be better.
- In a similar vein, Bill and Alison are so consumed with their own issues and desires that they neglect their son Jed, leading him to develop a crush on Libby while giving her driving lessons since she's the only one who pays any real attention to him.
- Parting-Words Regret: The last time Libby ever saw her daughter, the girl was pushing her away for her scandalous behavior. The next time Helen sees her, Libby’s body is lying dead on the forest floor.
- A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: Libby’s problems and eventual downfall were kicked off when her husband brought her to a key party without telling her what it was. A key party was a party when men put their car keys in a bowl, and women picked from them. Whoever’s key she picked, she would go home with them and they would sleep together. Libby got back at Carl by being the first one to pick.
- Red Herring: Carl isn't Libby's killer, despite being her cuckolded husband.
- Sexless Marriage: Bill sheepishly confesses this to Libby about himself and Alison shortly before they themselves have sex. Carl also snidely comments to Libby that "it's been a frigid winter", suggesting that the same applies to them.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Libby starts out the episode in a typical frumpy '70's outfit and hairstyle. By the very next flashback, she's in a halter top jumpsuit with a Navel-Deep Neckline, makeup, and has literally let her hair down, all representing her newfound sexuality.
- Stepford Suburbia: Libby is stunned to learn that Bill and Alison's marriage is just as miserable as hers and Carl's when he reveals that they haven't had sex in several years, and wonders just how many of their other friends' relationships and home lives are equally so despite seeming happy on the outside.
- That One Case: Det. Jeffries made the mistake of promising a heartbroken Helen that he would find the killer when the case first started. Rookie mistake, he calls it now.
- Tragic Villain: Poor Jed just wanted to be treated as a normal kid instead of witnessing his parents' meltdown. His need for affection leads to a fatal attraction to Libby. After he is arrested, it's unclear if his parents even care.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Carl just wanted to have fun when he dragged his wife to a key party without telling her. Too bad he set off the chain of events that would end in him becoming a widower.
