"I can't get on the bus."
Series 1
- Episode 3 has several:
- First and foremost, Maeve's abortion. The whole ordeal is given exactly as much weight as such a painful decision deserves, showing Maeve at her most emotionally vulnerable so far in the series.
- Second, Eric's dad walks in on Eric playing dress-up with Lily and watching gay porn, apparently learning for the first time that his son is gay. His response is less-than-stellar, telling Eric that it's time that he "grew up."
- Third, we get the first glimpse at the kind of pressure that Jackson is under: after he wins the race, his mother tells him that he is going to need to work even harder to win the next round, even though the audience just saw the heavy training he's already doing every day and he just set his best time yet.
- "Named and Shamed":
- Maeve revealing that her reputation got ruined by an embittered boy. Also her clear discomfort with the class difference between her and Jackson's family. Under her hardened exterior, she's clearly got some self-esteem problems.
- Conversely, Jackson revealing that he has panic attacks due to the pressure his parents put on him. Under that cool guy exterior, he's got significant problems of his own.
- Eric being beaten up by some thugs on the way home. Later that night, he chews Otis out for leaving him to go do a job with Maeve, leading to a massive fight between them. And Eric's subsequent attempts to "harden up" in a vain attempt to prevent being hurt again.
- In episode 6, we learn how Otis got his paralyzing fear of sex: he walked in accidentally on his father, who was cheating on Jean with a client. That incident is implied to have destroyed his parents' marriage. It's no wonder he can't wrap his head around having sex with someone.
- Episode 7: After it becomes very obvious that Maeve feels something for Otis, Jackson, in a fit of jealousy, reveals how Otis was Playing Cyrano to hook them up all along. Maeve, who does not like being psychoanalyzed, is clearly crushed.
- Also Adam finally snapping and physically assaulting his father."I... HATE... YOU!"
- Also Adam finally snapping and physically assaulting his father.
- Maeve goes to Otis' house and is devastated to the point of tears to see him kissing Ola.
Series 2
- At military school, Adam actually manages to find friends and a place where he belongs. Then he discovers two fellow cadets engaged in mutual masturbation. Although he had no intention of reporting or mocking them over it, they decide to save their asses by planting drugs on him and getting him kicked out. Even when things really aren't his fault, nothing ever seems to go right for Adam.
- Later in the series, he's given a job in the local grocery store and does a decent job, making friends with Ola, and even helps the owner with their untrained dog. However, when he's starting to impress his boss he's given the task of locking up the shop after he leaves, both unaware that the key is broken, leading it to be ransacked and Adam losing his job. When talking with his mom after it, its clear he's terrified of telling his dad he lost his job.
- Jackson self-harming and breaking his hand because he couldn't handle the pressure of all the expectations his Mum puts on him. And then watching him almost do it again.
- After refusing to openly share her "Goals for the Future" essay, Maeve corners Miss Sands and shows it to her, just to prove she did in fact write it. It's about how her only goal in life is to find a house with bigger rooms and windows, because it might make her feel the slightest bit less alone.
- Aimee getting sexually assaulted on the bus. Although at first she brushes it off, throughout the season it becomes clear that it affected her far more than she lets on. First she struggles with panic every time she tries to get on the bus, then she realizes she isn't comfortable having sex with Steve anymore, then she starts worrying about everyone she comes across.
- In the fifth episode, Otis' dad Remi comes back to England to spend time with Otis, or so he says. The camping trip they had planned fails after Remi has a meltdown in the middle of the forest, and after overhearing a phone call Remi made to his new wife, Delilah, Otis realises that his dad didn't come back for him, he came back because he had cheated on Delilah and had nowhere else to go. It's heartbreaking to see Otis losing all hope in the relationship to his dad, and feeling like he doesn't matter to his own father."I really thought he came back to see me this time."
- During his drunken rant at his "small gathering", Otis accuses Maeve of playing with people's feelings as some sort of unconscious preemptive vengeance for letting her down. After the events of the dance, it's the second time she learns of Otis publicly analyzing her against her wishes, and it's the second time she actually tears up in the series.
- In the finale, seeing Maeve have to call Social Services on her mother after her neighbor, Isaac, finds proof that she's using drugs again. Not only does this mean Maeve potentially won't see her younger half-sister anymore, but her mother's reaction to finding out who reported her is heartbreaking."I will NEVER forgive you."
- Otis' confrontation with his dad. All this time, and he still doesn't understand why Remi left him. Remi's answer is less than satisfying.
- Mrs Groff trying to initiate sex with her husband, only for him to brush her off mockingly.
- Maeve waving and blowing a kiss to her little sister as she is carried away by social services. She knows she did the right thing by her but it doesn't stop tears from forming in her eyes as she tries to stay strong.
Series 3
- Mr Groff attempts to reconcile with his wife, only to be told that he misunderstood what she was saying to him. Despite him being a massive Jerkass in season two, it's hard not to feel sorry for him, especially when he gives Adam a sorrowful look.
- During the opening where everybody is having wild sex, Aimee and Steve are the exceptions. She's still traumatised and likely will be for a long time.
- It all comes to a head in the finale, where Aimee is told that she should probably end things with Steve rather than keep him hoping for a miraculous recovery that may never come.
- At the beginning of episode 3, a microwave falls on top of a cat and crushes it to death right in front of its owners. You can even hear it pitifully meowing in pain as it dies.
- Maeve and Aimee's argument after Maeve finds out that Aimee's the one who paid for her so that she could go on the school trip
- Otis breaking down at the hospital when he fears that Jean may die after she suffered complications during childbirth.
- Eric and Adam breaking up at the end of the season.
Series 4
- The trailer for Series 4 confirms once and for all that Jakob wasn't the father of Jean's new baby. Now he's gone and Jean is grieving over the fact that what was likely her final childbirth destroyed her relationship.
- Erin Wiley ultimately dies from a drug overdose. The already discouraged Maeve returns home to handle the funeral proceedings and is devastated to find out that Otis is too guilty to have sex with her as he suspects he may have been physically intimate with Ruby but can't remember it. Sean Wiley acts like even more of a prick than before, but it's obvious the sight of his mother's cadaver shook him up and he admits he's afraid that Erin's fate may very well be his own one day.
- Maeve and Otis finally make love. Unfortunately, Maeve has to go back to America the next morning, meaning after 4 series' worth of romantic/sexual tension, the two can't manage a happily ever after. Upon finding out that Jean was the one who prompted Maeve to leave again, Otis blasts his mother for killing their love story as soon as they'd connected.
- Remembering how tense a long-distance relationship was the first time around, Otis and Maeve agree to abstain from texting each other for the time being. Otis tells Eric he's hoping Maeve will initiate contact, but from the look of things Maeve isn't going to be ready for awhile, if ever.
- The last we see of Maeve, she's back at her dream campus, but unable to sleep so she sits by a window and stares at the moon, looking profoundly lonely.
