Recap / Film Reroll: Memento

Two lost souls, bound together by the dice of fate.^note Picture by Quirderph

Memento hurtles towards its evitable beginning! Aram joins a parade! Lisa reads someone’s diary! Steve eats scrambled eggs! Alex calls himself pontoon!

Episodes 93-99 of Film Reroll. Based on the 2000 thriller.

Leonard Shelby has a problem. Ever since his wife was murdered he has been suffering from anterograde amnesia, leaving him unable to retain any new memories for long. Still, he’s been determined to track down the supposed killer, Jimmy Grantz, to get his revenge. However this is all in the past, as our story starts with Leonard waking up in a hospital bed with severe injuries, and soon meets up with Anne Summer, a woman who claims to be his wife and that Leonard has already gotten the hit on Grantz. Is Jimmy really dead? Is Anne telling the truth? And just how did she get that ring?

To replicate the effect of Leonard’s condition, DM Paulo Quiros had him played by no less than twenty actors, who were not informed of what their predecessors had done. Their segments were then released in reverse order, showing the listeners How We Got Here. This technically manages to make it both the first single-player campaign since Labyrinth, and the campaign with the largest cast by far. Every player to have ever appeared in a Film Reroll episode (and then some) show up at some point in the story.

Consisting of seven episodes, Leonard’s story is one of the longest campaign in the show’s history, only matched by Halloween 3, and being over taken by Rogue Two's eight.

Starring a bunch of people^note Specifically: Carolyn Faye Kramer, Jon Miller, Mirirai Sithole (First Appearance), Kara Strait (credited as “Pitr Strait”), Paige Patterson (First Appearance), Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer, Lusia Menzen (First Appearance), Andy Hoover, Scott Aiello, James D'Amato (First Appearance), Courtney Alana Ward, Brian McManamon (First Appearance), Timothy "Tim" Nolan, Daniel Kibblesmith, Jon Miller (again), Aram Vartian (First Appearance), Lisa Kopitsky, Steve Jackson (First Appearance), Alex Demers (First Appearance), Andy Hoover (again), Lane Moore, Kara Strait (again; same crediting), Carolyn Faye Kramer (again), Jonathan West, Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer (again), and Scott Aiello (again) as Leonard Shelby and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.

Followed by The Searchers.

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Tropes:

• Abduction Is Love: Anne Summer falls in love with Leonard after he kidnaps and interrogates her, which even he is very bothered by. Granted, by that point he has completely stopped antagonizing her and made it clear that he would prefer to be on her side.
• Action Prologue: Because the story is told backwards, it starts off with a somewhat dramatic Sequel Hook before going right into the climax, where Leonard has a shootout against Chris Manfield in a dark cave.
• Accidental Misnaming: Scott Aiello — the first chronological Leonard — mishears “Jimmy Grantz” as “Jimmy Gantz” and writes it down as such, creating much confusion for later players regarding the character’s actual name.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The story now ends with Leonard getting a new, comparatively benevolent manipulator in the form of Anne, who might be able to give him some closure and help him move on with his life. Paulo Quiros describes this as just about the happiest ending he could have gotten, given the circumstances.
• Adaptational Explanation: DM Paulo Quiros mentions that he doesn’t necessarily enjoy doing this when the ambiguity was the whole point of the original story, even when said explanation is resigned to his private worldbuilding notes and not actually revealed in-story.
• Adaptational Heroism: While his actual morality varies from player to player, there are little to no cases of Leonard pulling Memory Gambits on himself here. Generally, he’s either being manipulated by others, or misinterpreting his own earnest notes.
• Adaptational Villainy: Unlike in the film, Teddy ouright refers to Catherine’s death as a murder, and never implies that it was an accident (or a suicide by proxy). Depending on whether his story is true or not, this trope either applies to the culprit, or to Teddy himself.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Teddy does not go fully into the details of Catherine’s death, assuming the explanation he gave in the film was even true to begin with.
• Adaptation Name Change: There is no indication that Teddy’s name is an (sort-of) alias.
• Adapted Out: Natalie never appears, with Anne generally filling the same role as the enigmatic, manipulative love interest. This was a generally well-recieved change, as it created a new mystery to solve even for people who had seen the film.
• After-Action Healing Drama: After shooting Teddy in the chest and grilling him for information, Johnathan!Leonard can't bring himself to kill Teddy outright. Instead, after Teddy passes out from blood loss, he opts to rush him over to the hospital (after getting severely lost on the way).
• Air-Vent Passageway: Used by Andy!Leonard to break into the bank. For Lusia!Leonard, leaving the bank that way is far trickier.
• Ambiguously Evil:
  • Anne is introduced in a Big Damn Heroes moment, saving her beloved Leonard, which leads into the supposed Happy Ending. However, the more we learn about their backstory, the more clear it becomes that she's manipulating him for some unknown purpose.
  • That said, she is shown to be extremely loyal to Leonard, even diving into a sewer to save him despite having no obvious way back up. She also tries to rescue three dogs which attacked them moments earlier.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • We never really learn for certain just how bad the Our Lady of Good Harbour church is. Many of its members are former criminals (and possibly unprosecuted, given how easily they accept "Brother Pontoon" despite him coming straight from a gunfight), but most of the creepy culty stuff turns out to have simple explanations. Michael accuses them of killing Sister Lily, but finds no evidence for this. Even the finger cutting may or may not just have been an accident.
  • In the final episode, Teddy drops the bombshell that Jimmy Grantz didn’t kill Leonard’s wife, and that numerous criminal organizations have been exploiting his amnesia for years by using him as their perfect assassin. Jonathan West rolls interrogation on Teddy to get this information out, but he and DM Paulo Quiros deliberately don’t tell the listeners how well he rolled...
  • This carries over into the following (and last) segment, where Scott!Leonard fails his detect lies roll on Grantz when he claims to have never killed anybody, much less Leonard’s wife.
• Amnesiac Hero: Leonard, of course. Though the "hero" part may be somewhat debateable...
• And the Adventure Continues: The story ends — chronologically — with Leonard and Anne escaping both the police and their criminal pursuers and driving off into the sunset, supposedly to find Anne's lost sister.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The Church of Our Lady of Good Harbour welcomes all forms of atoning sinners, including thieves, drug dealers and lawyers.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: When Jonathan!Leonard starts grilling Teddy about the truth over what they're doing and why he had to kill Jimmy Grantz, the first question he asks is how they got there.^note Now, while it's clear he meant why they got to the point of needing to kill a man, Teddy interprets it literally.
  Teddy: We drove!
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • Played With. Carolyn!Leonard is a terrible liar, and the police officer questioning him doesn't remotely buy his excuses for his gunshot wounds. On the other hand, she ''also'' doesn't buy that he has a hard time remembering things because of his amnesia, which is in fact entirely true.
  • After shooting John, Joz!Leonard fails to fake crying, then fails to fake an Evil Laugh, then succeeds at going dead silent. It does convince the other gangsters that Leonard is completely insane however. Even Arthur Kane is creeped out.
  • Mirarai!Leonard's attempt at deceiving the thugs on the beach doesn't go much better, though it does confuse them long enough for him to make a getaway.
  • Aram!Leonard however does a pretty good job with his acting rolls, managing to both fake a sudden Heel Realization mid-fight — which was at least enough to momentarily put his opponent off guard — and later tricking the congregation into thinking that they're surrounded by the FBI.
  • Jonathan!Leonard does a pretty good job tricking some random construction workers into thinking that Teddy was shot by street thugs and not by him, but he doesn’t have nearly as much luck with trying to explain his gun away to the police (which amounts to lying about being an undercover cop) leading to his arrest.
• The Bartender: Kevin, who helps Jon!Leonard find Jordan the Fisherman (and is probably a retired biker).
• Bedsheet Ladder: Subverted. Carolyn!Leonard is happy to not have to use one for his hospital escape, as Anne was forward-thinking enough to bring a rope.
• Beware of the Nice Ones: James!Leonard is one of the nicest Leonards of the campaign, but he can be an absolutely brutal Soft-Spoken Sadist if the situation calls for it, as Kevin Kane can attest to.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Arthur is a manipulative mob boss who doesn't hesitate to have people killed, but he still comes across like a Reasonable Authority Figure compared to his rival The Fox, who comes across like an outright psychopath.
• Bond One-Liner: After hitting Kevin Kane in the head with a winebottle, James!Leonard leans in towards him and quotes Edgar Allan Poe while stabbing him in the throat, staring the man in the eyes as he dies. It's creepy enough that Bestozo thinks Leonard himself might be a demon.
  James!Leonard: May he rest in peace.
• Book Ends:
  • Downplayed: Carolyn is the first person to play Leonard in the first and last episodes of the campaign, but she isn't actually the first chronological Leonard.^note While Carolyn started Part 7, Scott was the one to start the campaign itself.
  • Both the beginning and the ending of the campaign each has a different character give the exact same speech to Leonard.
    We're a good team, you and I. If you put your mind to something you’re unstoppable. Sometimes, you just need a little help getting where you're going.
• Brain Uploading: Averted. Paulo assures both Carolyn and the audience that he hasn't uploaded his consciousness to the Internet and created a hyper-realistic deepfake simulation for video calls.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: James!Leonard is a Talkative Loon and a Large Ham, but he still gives Anne a thorough explanation of what it feels like to have his condition, and is one of the only Leonards to point out how messed up their relationship actually is.
• Call-Back:
  • King Eru's riddle ^note We are little airy creatures, all of different voice and features. One of us in glass is held. One of us, you'll find in felt. The third is locked away in tin. The fourth is in a box within. The fifth you'll find inside a cup. If you'd pass, than hurry up. Tell us our collective name. Else return from whence you came. previously appeared in Labyrinth. This doesn't make it any easier for Tim Nolan to solve it, though.
  Tim!Leonard: Is it bubbles? ^note The correct answer is "vowels."
  • Lisa Kopitsky gets DM Paulo Quiros to once again play the guitar, which is Lampshaded.
• Car Fu: Kara!Leonard engages in this with Chris Manfield, which ends up utterly wrecking both cars.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Anne doesn't quite believe that Leonard is telling the truth about his condition until he wakes up and remembers nothing about the day before. After that, she's enthrałled by the concept, comparing him to a super hero, which Jon!Leonard has a hard time agreeing with.
  • Neither does Brother Michael, who treats it like a stupid cover story. Though since he is an undercover cop who believes Leonard to be one as well, it comes across more like Constructive Criticism than anything.
  • Travis Field doesn’t quite trust Leonard’s story either, but rolls with it anyway due to being intrigued by the adventure he’s being taken on.
• Co-Dragons: Arthur and his brother Kevin present themselves as such in regards to Mr. Big. As it turns out, they are actually The Man in Front of the Man.
• Concealing Canvas: Jon!Leonard finds a certain ring hidden in a safe behind a painting in The Jewel, an abandoned brothel turned homeless residence.
• Corrupt Cop:
  • The detectives interrogating Carolyn!Leonard agree to let him go and destroy the incriminating evidence in exchange for the stolen money (which Leonard was legitimately trying to turn in as stolen loot). They suspect him of being an assassin sent by the Russian mob, which they really don’t want to mess with.
  • There is also Teddy, who is perfectly happy talking Leonard into assassinating a drug runner and stealing the aforementioned fortune in his trunk.
• Creator In-Joke: "Pontoon" — the somewhat odd alias Alex Demers has Leonard Shelby use — was originally his nickname for Andy Hoover (who did incidentally play the character later, among many others).
• Creepy Souvenir: Before leaving the church ceremony, Aram!Leonard makes sure to grab his own, cut-off finger. He throws it away once he gets to a motel in the evening, though.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Anne claims to have had one, spending two years in a cult and God knows how long in a bad relationship.
• Daydream Believer: Seems to be the case with the flamboyant King Eru, who sits on a throne in an empty warehouse, wearing two garish bathrobes, surrounded by papier-mâché servants.
• Dead All Along:
  • Chris Manfield claims that this is the case with Jimmy Grantz, something later backed up by Leonard’s notes. Eventually confirmed when his dead body is discovered.
  • The concept is also mocked by Teddy, who claims that Leonard would probably believe him if he said that he was a vengeful wraith of a man who had died ten years earlier.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Leonard manages to win Morgan and Bestozo over to his side after killing their boss Kevin. While this is initially based on intimidation, Bestozo especially comes to form a genuine friendship with him.
• Designated Monkey: Jordan the Fisherman, a seemingly homeless man who has not only — much like Leonard — lost his wife, but also gotten the anchor of his boat stolen and nearly become an innocent casuality in a gunfight.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Doubles as Killed Offscreen: While at "Cannery Mill", Teddy gets into a gunfight with several associates of The Fox that Leonard had mistakenly gotten involved with, only to get shot and begin bleeding out; Leonard winds up fleeing the warehouse, only to lose focus after getting shot in the shoulder by Chris Manfield. When Leonard comes to, he hears Teddy in the distance trying to get him to stay, but he instead leaves the warehouse. Since this is the last time Teddy is acknowledged in the campaign (narratively; technically, this is Teddy's first scene), it can be inferred that Teddy died soon after.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Elias explains to Lusia!Leonard that he has to rob safe 366 without touching the floor, lest the alarm will be triggered. Unfortunately, while he doesn't personally touch it, he still drops objects down to the floor, alerting the police and forcing him to make a quick getaway.
• Dragon Their Feet: Chris Manfield — a thug hunting Leonard for personal reasons — serves as the Final Boss of the campaign, as The Fox is injured and his fellow gangsters are too afraid of the police to do anything.
• Enforced Method Acting: The character of Leonard is recast repeatedly throughout the campaign to give the actors a sense of what it would be like to constantly find yourself in new situations without knowing how you got there. The players were also told to not watch (or rewatch) Memento beforehand, just to make it even more believable.
• Epic Fail: The Fox manages to critically fail his punch, somehow breaking his hand after hitting Leonard, who doesn't even flinch.
• Everyone Has Standards: Tim!Leonard feels very bad about having to fight King Eru's dog Michelangelo, and does what he can to not injure the animal.
• Failed a Spot Check: Both Carolyn!Leonard and Jon!Leonard take quite a while to notice their severe hand injury.
• Fake Faith Healer: While The Reverend is a former doctor — even a competent enough back alley kind — he still uses faith healing and — in spite of Anne's protests — encourages the rest of the congregation to not take Brother James to the hospital, fearing that it would uncover some of the darker sides of the church.
• Friend on the Force: Deconstructed in regards to Teddy, a Manipulative Bastard Corrupt Cop whose partnership with Leonard eventually results in his death.
• The Gadfly: Anne has shades of this, playing with the urinals in the men's washroom, and admitting that she would screw a demon if she could.
• Gender-Blender Name: Joz!Leonard briefly takes on the alias of "Whitney", the name of the person who owned the car he stole.
• Gender Flip:
  • An unintentional example. Morgan, one of Kane's cronies, was named after a Patreon supporter who has since come out as a transwoman.
    • Incidentally, cast member Kara Strait would also come out as the same while this campaign was ongoing. Though given how bad the Schedule Slip was, maybe this isn’t quite as big of a coincidence as it sounds.
• Genre Blind: With a dash of Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality. While trekking through the sewer, James!Leonard fears that he and Anne might run into demons, like in the film As Above, So Below, which he aleady knows about because he used to be the screenwriters' roommate. Paulo Quiros admits that this is something he would do, and regrets not coming up with it.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Teddy outright tells Kara!Leonard to not have the drug dealers meet him at the hospital, but rather stall them so he has time to clear up the mess our protagonist made. Of course, Leonard immediately loses his memory and takes them to the hospital anyway.
• Handicapped Badass: Teddy, an undercover cop who — despite having broken his arm and walking with a cane — still (unwillingly) comes along for a dangerous heist-turned-shoot-out. He doesn’t make it through alive, however.
• Have a Gay Old Time: Being German, Lusia Mensen was unfamiliar with the term "strip mall" ^note  a building consisting entirely of stores, with no other interior, all entered from the street leading to DM Paulo Quiros assuring her that it has nothing to do with that.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Subverted. Alex!Leonard tries to "steal" a car... only to realize that he already had the keys to it.
• Herr Doctor: The doctor who treats Andy!Leonard's injuries has a German accent.
• Hidden Depths: Joz!Leonard realizes that he is a numismatist — a lover of old currency — and can easily identify all the coins in the loot from the bank. They are quite valuable, but Arthur Kane is only interested in the contents of vault 366, which turns out to be a box containing a single gun.
• His Name Is...: Played With. Leonard shoots Chris Manfield himself before he can give up his own name, as he saw that the man was about to shoot Anne.
• Hot Pursuit: Averted. After the bank robbery Joz!Leonard casually drives away and doesn't catch the attention of the police.
• Human Sacrifice: Lisa!Leonard fears that The Church of Our Lady of Good Harbour are going to do this to him. Turns out that they "only" cut off his pinky finger, and even that may not have been intentional.
• Human Shield: During the shootout at the warehouse, Alex!Leonard takes Jordan the Fisherman hostage and uses him as one, apologizing profusely later.
• I Am Who?: A constant problem for Leonard, especially his Jon Miller incarnation, who is told by Chris Manfield that he's involved in organised crime and should have many lives on his conscience.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Steve!Leonard confuses Anne and Cynthia for one woman, and questions just how she can move about so quickly. Also counts as Dramatic Irony, as the listeners are well aware of what's going on by this point.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: John Bestozo tries to appeal to Joz!Leonard, begging him not to shoot him while claiming to be his old friend. Leonard doesn't know if he's telling the truth or not, and thus shoots him in the right lung, a place which looks lethal but isn't neccessarily, and doesn't make it obvious that he wasn't trying to kill him.
• I Meant to Do That: Tim!Leonard claims that he burned down the building in which he met with Jordan the Fisherman deliberately. Not because he tried to kill him, mind you. He just really hated the place. As we see later, this is blatantly untrue.
• In Medias Res: Due to the Anachronic Order, the whole campaign is basically a series of these.
• Jerkass Woobie: In-Universe, Brother John considers Brother James to be one. Yes, he did lash out against Leonard with little justification, but this was because he was unwittingly wearing (gender-neutral) clothes belonging to Sister Lily, who left both James and the church two weeks earlier.
• The Klutz: Daniel!Leonard, who — during his brief tenure — falls down the same trash compactor twice and accidentally lights a building on fire.
• Knife Fight: Aram!Leonard ends up facing off against Brother Ian in an alley, defeating him with a Groin Attack.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Inverted Trope. Anne claims to not know much about jazz, but actually has quite encyclopedic knowledge about the subject. James!Leonard encourages her to not have such a low opinion about herself.
• Lighter and Softer: While the setting is still full of crime and corruption, Leonard does receive more support than in the film, and there is some hope for a relatively happy future for him.
• Locked Out of the Loop: While naturally a given due to how Paulo structured the campaign, the fact of the matter is that every person who played Leonard wound up with absolutely zero context for what had transpired before their go. But, to list some noteworthy examples:
  • The very opening scene of the campaign sees Carolyn!Leonard wake up in a hospital bed, having been repeatedly shot, and having to learn from Anne that they're married.
  • Kara's second go as Leonard starts with her locked in a trunk; not only that, but there was a corpse in there with him, something Leonard only learns when he sees it dumped into the ocean.
  • Not only does Alex!Leonard unknowingly abandon Teddy to bleed to death in the warehouse, but when going through his notes, he decides to throw most of them away due to not understanding them.
• Lost in a Crowd: Leonard hides from the Our Lady of Good Harbour church in the crowd at a parade. He does look rather conspicuous, but there are enough people there for it to work, anyway.
• Loveable Rogue: Scott!Leonard presents himself as such, encouraging Bestozo to take him to The Man Upstairs and knock out his henchmen by framing it as a great opportunity.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: Aaron Woodward turns out to be another amnesiac who spends his days watching cartoons, blissfully unaware that the Kane brothers are holding him prisoner, have stolen his money, and are now carrying out illegal activities in his name.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The One Ring seems to be portrayed this way. The Fox's obsession over it could just be part of his own unhingedness, and Leonard seeing it glowing could just be a stress-induced hallucination.
• Medium Awareness: James!Leonard is quite aware that he's an RPG character, and — along with Anne — makes several remarks about the session itself.
• Meet the New Boss: Anne and Cynthia used to be members of a nasty cult, only to leave it and join the also somewhat cult-like church Our Lady of Good Harbour. Anne's admiration of Leonard is also rather cult-like in and of itself.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Michael joined Our Lady of Good Harbour to investigate them for tax fraud, only for Sister Lily to disappear, turing it all into a murder investigation. However we never learn for certain if any of them are guilty or if Lily is even dead.
• Mission Control: Elias Mord serves as such during the bank robbery. As does Anne Summer, but only because she nicked John's earpiece.
• Mistaken Identity: Chris Mansfield briefly mistakes Carolyn!Leonard for Jimmy Grantz when he pulls up in the latter’s car. He becomes furious when realizing his mistake, concluding that Leonard likely killed Jimmy.
• Mistaken for Badass: Leonard has elements of this. While he is a legitimate badass, his condition only lets him remember his latest deeds, and basically forced him to make everything up as he goes along. There are several moments where he essentially has to impersonate himself and pretend to remember more than he actually does.
• Mistaken Identity:
  • Half delirious from gunshot wound, Jon!Leonard believe Anne to be his dead wife Katherine. She just thinks it's some cover name he's made up for her.
  • It's also heavily implied that Brother John had nothing to do with Katherine's murder, and that his suspicious behavior — which ended up getting him stabbed by Lisa!Leonard — was a case of Not What It Looks Like.
• Mundane Utility: In the Cannery Mill hangar, Andy!Leonard uses his pistol to shoot a hole through the wall in order to... get a reading light, in the middle of a violent gunfight!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Finding himself smelling strangely in a room full of rainbows, one of which is burning, Tim!Leonard panics and throws his improvised torch to the ground. It ends up catching another rainbow — and eventually the whole building — on fire.
• No Indoor Voice: The Reverend of Our Lady of Good Harbour calls out his eccentric deacon — a quite familiar-sounding man named Jeff for yelling in a church.
• Noodle Implements: Both Aram!Leonard and Anne are confused as to why there are a pair of fishes and an anchor in the former's car. Only later do we learn that these items were placed there by Jordan the Fisherman.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Scott!Leonard tells Aaron Woodward that they have more in common than either of them would wish, as they both have the same condition which prevents them from moving on with their lives, and both end up being exploited for it. Of course, because of their amnesia, neither of them remember even this conversation afterwards.
• Off with His Head!: Andy Hoover jokes that had he critically succeeded on his break-in roll, he might have been able to decapitate Jimmy Grantz from three blocks away without realizing it.
• Only Sane Man: James!Leonard is a polite-to-a-fault Nice Guy who actually understands how self-destructive his life is, tries to get treatment for his condition, and attempts to improve Anne's situation, whether by being a better boyfriend or by suggesting that she find someone better for herself.
• Outrun the Fireball: Courtney!Leonard finds himself in a burning building, and only manages to escape it — along with another man, his three dogs and Anne — at the last second.
• Playing Both Sides: The Society of the Sleeping Heart is doing deals with both local crime gangs and the Russian mob, who are otherwise at war with one another.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Anne Summer becoming Leonard's love interest turns out to have been the result of a long series of coincidences. To wit, it only happens after Aram!Leonard picks up her sister's diary before leaving the chapel, runs past said sister in the way out, hears her shouting that the book is hers, holds onto the diary despite not knowing if it's important and finally decides with a coin flip to go back and question her. It almost makes Anne's claim that God sent her to look after Leonard sound plausible.
  • At the end of the campaign (which is the first scene narratively), we see the exact moment the campaign starts to deviate from the plot of the film: Scott!Leonard manages to fast-talk Teddy into giving him a gun when they meet up... but, in turn, he doesn't take a picture of the hotel he started the campaign in, meaning he effectively loses his files on the "case" once he loses focus.
• Punk in the Trunk: The villains put Leonard and the now dead body of Elias Mord in the trunk of their car and drive them to the ocean for disposal.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: invoked Invoked: When Teddy tells Leonard that there's a guy in Chinatown that gave Leonard all of his tattoos and notes, he points out that it isn't actually that impossible to imitate his handwriting. "You think that's fuckin' sci-fi technology?!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Teddy gives Kara!Leonard one over the phone, calling him a cross between Mr. Magoo and Cape Fear.
• Red Baron:
  • The Fox, the Big Bad crime boss.
  • Aaron Woodward, also known as "Mr. Big" and "The Man Upstairs", though he really doesn't live up to his reputation.
• Red Herring: When chewing Leonard out over his severe amnesia and how he doesn't know himself anymore, Teddy tosses out three "explanations" that he immediately points out are bullshit: Leonard actually died long ago and is now a vengeful wraith, Leonard is actually a Mafia hitman that's the best in the business, and Leonard actually has a daughter that he didn't know about.
• Rhymes on a Dime: As the delusional King Eru speaks only in rhyme, Paulo Quiros had to actually pull this off to play him, impressing Tim Nolan greatly, though he did have a hard time coming up with a rhyme for "Cerberus".
• Sacrificial Lion:
  • Arthur Kane has Morgan shot dead just to show that he means business.
  • There’s also Travis Field, a Nice Guy former coworker of Leonard who is completely out of his depth in the criminal world our protagonist pulls him into, and ends up paying for this with his life.
• Sadistic Choice: At the headquarters of the Fox, Paige!Leonard runs into a hostage who just happens to be an old coworker of his, and has to choose between saving him and continuing his mission. He chooses the latter.
• Secret Test of Character: Arthur Kane has Anne Summer threatened with a gun to see if Leonard's memory really is as bad as he claims, having pointed out that his condition is easy to fake. He doesn't recognize her as his girlfriend and gives the gangsters the permission to kill her. Rather than going through with it, they simply declare him to have passed the test.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Tim!Leonard grows suspicious of Annie and considers getting rid of her... only to lose his memory — ironically while fighting an actual dog — before he can do anything about it.
• Shaped Like Itself: Lampshaded when Leonard Shelby — protagonist of Memento — mentions his "Memento condition" and Anne asks if that's the technical term.
• Shout-Out:
  • Andy!Leonard wakes up sitting in a small movie theatre, watching What's Opera, Doc?. We later learn that this film was playing by Scott!Leonard's request, as Rabbit Fire was previously being shown.
  • Aaron references The Most Dangerous Game, which is a bit jarring for a character who is otherwise treated like an innocent amnesiac with the mind of a child.
  • James!Leonard brings up the film 50 First Dates, and how the plot of that film is eerily similar to his and Annie's relationship. Unfortunately, DM Paulo Quiros forces him to take it back, as the film hasn't been released yet.
  • James!Leonard references The Cask of Amontillado — a story Anne hasn't read, as she dropped out of school — saying that you shouldn't ruin your life with an obsessive quest for revenge. Of course, this lesson doesn't stay with him once he spaces out and becomes Scott!Leonard...
  • King Eru's challenge involves "Riddles, riddles, riddles in the dark..." Tim Nolan later brings up the book itself (and how he didn't like the corresponding chapter).
• Shrouded in Myth: The Society of the Sleeping Heart is led by The Man Upstairs, a mysterious figure who never interacts with his underlings. It's been speculated that he's Really 700 Years Old, or that he's several people sharing a Collective Identity. Some also say that he doesn't have a name, having been found and raised by mute monks in a monastery. The truth turns out to be something far more simple and tragic.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Jimmy Grantz only appears alive for one scene, but his death and the accusations leveled towards him cast a shadow over the rest of the campaign.
• Soft Water: Played With. Courtney!Leonard and Anne both survive the fall into the Absurdly Spacious Sewer, but The Flamboyant Man and his three dogs Mozart, Wolfgang and Wendigo are unaccounted for, and may have drowned... immediately after Leonard saved them from a burning building.
• Spanner in the Works: Paulo Quiros outright calls Andy!Leonard one ^note  using the American word for spanner; "wrench" without explaining how he ruined the plan.
• Special Guest: Steve Jackson, the creator of GURPS himself, appears in the fifth part, getting his chance to play Leonard Shelby.
• Spotting the Thread: Jon!Leonard correctly deduces that the rundown establishment in Chinatown is in far too fancy a location for it to make sense, and is actually a front for a crime gang made to look like a failing business to throw off suspicions.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Teddy tells the gun-wielding thugs that it wasn’t him but Leonard who killed Jimmy Grantz, Jane!Leonard gets understandably pissed off. Teddy then quickly changes his mind and claims that Grantz was really killed by a one-eyed ranger, which the thugs actually seem to believe.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Lampshaded. Chris Manfield argues that Leonard is a far worse person than him, and the real villain of the story.
• Tap on the Head:
  • Discussed. Andy!Leonard decides to not do this to an innocent security guard, as he fears that might give him lasting injuries similar to those he himself recieved. He chokes the man out instead, hoping that it won't do any permanent damage.
  • However, before/after that, Andy!Leonard had few qualms knocking out Chris Manfield’s not-so-innocent partner-in-crime, with the same crowbar he used to break into Cannery Mill.
• There Was a Door: Lusia!Leonard breaks a window to get out of the Chinese restaurant and reach Anne. Paulo then points out that he could have simply unlocked the door...
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Anne Summer becomes this for Leonard, believing herself to be on a Mission from God to look after him, while also seeing the man as the only protection she has. After he loses his memory again, he becomes dependent on her as his biggest — but sadly not always trustworthy — source of information.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Subverted. Tim!Leonard believes himself to be on drugs because of the surreal environment he wakes up in. Anne has no reason to doubt him and comes to think the same thing.
• Token Good Teammate: Possibly, Jeff, who is treated like an innocent deacon with no involvement in his church's nightly ceremonies. Of course, the rest of the congregation are merely Ambiguously Evil to begin with...
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Anne is shown to be quite manipulative, claiming to be Leonard's wife while previously only saying that she was his girlfriend. She also keeps increasing the time they have supposedly been together, even though only hours pass In-Universe.
  • Arthur Kane also sends him on a mission to take out Jimmy Grantz, while Chris Manfield claims that Grantz has already been dead for some time.
  • DM Paulo Quiros makes it a point that Teddy is likely one, and that he doesn’t see the character’s "The Reason You Suck" Speech at the end of the film as the one explanation for the story, but rather as yet another possibility brought forward by a dubious source. Notably, the equivalent scene in the campaign has Teddy mention supposed facts not stated in the movie while omitting others, making it a bit of a Revision, if not flat-out Multiple-Choice Past.
• Vice City: Los Angeles is portrayed as such. Gang wars are running rampant, the Police Are Useless or corrupt, a charity organization is a front for organised crime, the local church might be covering up a murder, and the basement of a homeless shelter has been taken over by a lunatic. There are very few truly good characters and most of them end up either dead or miserable.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Arthur Kane and — by extension — the entire Society of the Sleeping Heart (also known as The Society of the Waking Heart) which is a mob hiding behind the front of a fundraiser organization.
• The Walls Are Closing In: After failing to jump over a trash compactor pit, our heroes have to climb out of it without getting crushed. Anne gets out pretty fast but Daniel!Leonard falls down to the side of the press and has to escape again before it opens.
• We Hardly Knew You: On a meta level, Brian McManamon lasts only for about twelve minutes — including his intro and outro with Paulo Quiros — before his character loses focus and has to be handed off to another player. Just about the only thing he has time to do is making the decision to Save the Villain, and realizing that he has a quite strange ring on his finger...
• Wham Line:
  • At the end of episode three, DM Paulo Quiros says one sentence which confirms that Leonard has found the ultimate Film Reroll collectible, and he still has it by the end of the story.
  DM Paulo Quiros: The ring on your finger seems to be glowing with some sort of text on it.
  • invoked In Part 7, Teddy explains that he acquired Leonard from a guy in Chinatown who had him severely strung out, and that he is the one who gave Leonard all those tattoos... and all of his notes.
    Teddy: What, you never thought maybe somebody else in the world might be able to imitate your handwriting?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Anne spends much of the campaign worrying about her sister, who is eventually revealed to be a twin named Cynthia, and to have been in the church during the razzia. Anne and Leonard setting out to look for her serves as an And the Adventure Continues ending for the campaign.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: In-Universe. Joz!Leonard asks Anne why she's still with him. She says it's because he saved her life, she needs his help to find her lost sister, and she didn't have much else before meeting him.
• Won't Do Your Dirty Work: As Jonathan!Leonard has gotten suspicious about the whole revenge plot, he refuses to finish off Jimmy Grantz and instead orders Teddy to do the deed, even photographing him in the act.

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