Vicky is tired of being lonely and single, so she turns to Palm Dates, a site for virtual speed dating. But finding love is never easy, and she risks falling prey to the Lonely Hearts Killer - a serial killer who uses dating sites to find victims.
Tropes:
- Accidental Adultery: Vicky likes Manny and wants to arrange a date, only for his wife to walk in and threaten her.
- Age Insecurity: Vicky doesn't want to give away her age, and isn't pleased when Norman guesses she is 58.
- Ax-Crazy: Vicky is an unstable, very dangerous serial killer.
- Catfishing: Lesley jokes about how people do this on dating sites, and Norman is concerned that his date might be lying about who she is. In Vicky's case, he had every reason to be suspicious.
- Conspicuous Gloves: The visitor earlier on (who is later revealed to be Jai), wears ominous black gloves. Subverted when he turns out to be a victim rather than the murderer.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Vicky doesn't like being called the Lonely Hearts Killer, which she thinks makes her "sound like a victim."
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Vicky wears a very feminine dress and makeup and serves homemade lasagne for her date with Jai.
- Fingore: The Lonely Hearts Killer chops off their victims' ring fingers. Before being killed by Vicky, Jai sees that she keeps the fingers pickled in her kitchen.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Jai notices the severed fingers in a jar in Vicky's kitchen, moments before she attacks him.
- Flashback B-Plot: We open with Vicky preparing for a date, leading the audience to question who she met via the site. We also see a visitor approaching her apartment. This plotline is interwoven with flashbacks of Vicky going through a Terrible Interviewees Montage in speed dating until she meets Jai, who turns out to be her visitor.
- Forceful Kiss: Jai tries to force a kiss on Vicky in her kitchen but she refuses.
- Foreshadowing:
- Vicky tells Norman that she's had "big, life-changing stuff going on." Ever since her mother's death, she's been killing people. Despite Norman being rude to her, she's still keen to arrange a date - because her chosen victims are unpleasant guys she found on dating sites.
- Before talking to Lesley, Vicky is wearing what looks like a wedding ring, but on her right hand. She is the "Lonely Hearts Killer" and cuts off her victims' ring fingers, so she probably stole the ring from one of them.
- Vicky listens to a radio news report that mentions that a body was found, but not the gender of the victim.
- Freudian Excuse: Vicky kills men out of a desire not to be like her mother, who was abandoned by Vicky's father.
- Gender-Blender Name: Lesley has one, allowing her to trick the site into thinking she's a man so she can be paired with women and try to sell to them.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Lesley is in a scammy marketing scheme and uses Palm Dates to try to find new customers.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Vicky explains that she's spent most of her life as her mother's carer, and never had time for the loving relationship she longs for. Things don't end well for the guys who disappoint her.
- Karma Houdini: Vicky once again kills her date after he disappoints her and presumably keeps getting away with it.
- The Killer in Me: It's only revealed in the Twist Ending that the innocent-looking protagonist was in fact the Serial Killer the police were looking for.
- Lipstick-and-Load Montage: Vicky gets one at the start of the episode as she prepares for a date with Jai.
- Liquid Courage: Discussed. When Jai arrives at Vicky's door with an already-opened wine bottle, she assumes he already took a sip to lower his inhibitions.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Inverted. Manny is an easygoing white man who defers to his aggressive Asian wife.
- Momma's Boy: Norman was one for his mother, and even dismisses Vicky because she doesn't look like his mother.
- Motive Rant: When Vicky starts to get irritated with Norman's questioning, he gets in a rant about how people deliberately misrepresent themselves when online dating.
- Murderer P.O.V.: The camera assumes what seems to be the murderer's POV as he enters Vicky's place. Then the camera angle switches to reveal Jai.
- Off to Boarding School: Norman tells Vicky that his mother abandoned him at a boarding school when he was a child.
- Red Right Hand: While initially played for heartwarming, Jai's facial markings strengthen his presumed villainous nature once he shows up at Vicky's place with Conspicuous Gloves.
- Samus Is a Girl: Vicky is a kindly woman who is a Serial Killer who hunts and kills cheating men.
- Serial Killer: The "Lonely Hearts Killer" is a serial killer who hunts for victims via dating sites. She turns out to be Vicky.
- Shout-Out:
- Jai pretends to have children who use his phone to watch Lazytown.
- The irritating Momma's Boy is called Norman.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Vicky, a plump and kindly-looking middle-aged woman, is the Lonely Hearts Killer.
- Yandere: Manny's wife threatens to hunt down and beat up Vicky, and he mentions that she has really done this to someone else before, suggesting that it was more than once.
- You Are Fat: Manny refers to chatting online with a potential date who made an insensitive joke about his weight. Later, Lesley tries to make Vicky feel bad about her weight in order to sell her weight loss products.
- Zip Me Up: Jai helping Vicky to put on the necklace he gifted her is played for tension rather than Ship Tease because of the way Jai is framed as the murderer. It doesn't help that he uses the opportunity to sniff her hair in a creepy way.
