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* DeathByAdaptation: Christine's Mother who was alive in the book while her father was dead, get's this.
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* DeathByAdaptation: Christine's Mother mother, who was alive in the book while her father was dead, get's gets this.
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Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. Christine has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of an EnfanteTerrible.
to:
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. Christine has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was Rhoda has a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in to her personality that she found which her mother finds very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, strange and horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see realize that Rhoda is the very definition of an EnfanteTerrible.
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TRS cleanup: ZCE
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* ManOnFire: [[spoiler: Leroy's death.]]
* MuggingTheMonster: Leroy thinks it's funny to tease [[CreepyChild Rhoda]]. He learns better...the [[ManOnFire hard]] way.
* MuggingTheMonster: Leroy thinks it's funny to tease [[CreepyChild Rhoda]]. He learns better...the [[ManOnFire hard]] way.
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* MuggingTheMonster: Leroy thinks it's funny to tease [[CreepyChild Rhoda]]. He learns better...the [[ManOnFire hard]] way.
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Examples must explain who it is.
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* VillainProtagonist: Take a wild guess on who it is.
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Dewicked trope
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* AdultFear: Discovering that your daughter is a cold, remorseless psychopath. [[note]] Though nowadays, the use of the term "psychopath" to describe a child would be considered inappropriate in most clinical circles.[[/note]]
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''Literature/TheBadSeed'' was made into a play in 1954 by Maxwell Anderson. This version is the one which was then adapted to film in 1956, and a made for TV remake in 1985.
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. She has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of EnfanteTerrible.
One of the earliest and more notable examples of a child being portrayed as irredeemably evil, and delves into the issue of nature vs. nurture as Christine discovers the truth of her own origins.
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. She has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of EnfanteTerrible.
One of the earliest and more notable examples of a child being portrayed as irredeemably evil, and delves into the issue of nature vs. nurture as Christine discovers the truth of her own origins.
to:
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_bad_seed_1954_playbill.jpg]]
William March's 1954 thriller novel ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' wasmade adapted into a stage play in 1954 by Maxwell Anderson. Anderson later that same year. This version is the one which was then adapted to subsequently made into a [[Film/TheBadSeed1956 feature film in 1956, 1956]], and a made for TV [[Film/TheBadSeed1985 made-for-TV remake in 1985.1985]].
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda.She Christine has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of an EnfanteTerrible.
One As with the source novel, this was one of the earliest and more notable examples of a child being portrayed as irredeemably evil, and delves into the issue of nature vs. nurture as Christine discovers the truth of her own origins.
origins.
The play was nominated for the UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize for Drama, losing out to ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof''. The original Broadway cast included Nancy Kelly as Christine, Patty [=McCormack=] as Nancy, Henry Jones as Leroy Jessup, Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove, and Eileen Heckart as Mrs. Daigle; all would reprise their roles in the 1956 film.
William March's 1954 thriller novel ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' was
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda.
The play was nominated for the UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize for Drama, losing out to ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof''. The original Broadway cast included Nancy Kelly as Christine, Patty [=McCormack=] as Nancy, Henry Jones as Leroy Jessup, Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove, and Eileen Heckart as Mrs. Daigle; all would reprise their roles in the 1956 film.
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Direct link.
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-->'''Leroy''': You ask me and I say you don't even feel sorry about what happen to that poor little boy
-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
to:
-->'''Leroy''': You ask me and I say you don't even feel sorry about what happen to that poor little boy
-->'''Rhoda''':boy\\
'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
-->'''Rhoda''':
'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
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* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Rhoda!
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* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Rhoda!
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* InTheBlood: Christine discovers that [[spoiler: her biological mother was a serial killer and believes that she passed her murderous nature to Rhoda.]]
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* VillainousLineage: Christine discovers that [[spoiler: her biological mother was a serial killer and believes that she passed her murderous nature to Rhoda.]]
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-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry ? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
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-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry ? sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
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** [[spoiler: Christine's [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] is portrayed by a gunshot off-screen.
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** [[spoiler: Christine's [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] suicide]]]] is portrayed by a gunshot off-screen.
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''The Bad Seed'' was made into a play in 1954 by Maxwell Anderson. This version is the one which was then adapted to film in 1956, and a made for TV remake in 1985.
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Made the splitoff for the play, I will do the films as well to get this one up to par with many of the other book/film splitoffs i've done.
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''The Bad Seed'' was made into a play in 1954 by Maxwell Anderson. This version is the one which was then adapted to film in 1956, and a made for TV remake in 1985.
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. She has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of EnfanteTerrible.
One of the earliest and more notable examples of a child being portrayed as irredeemably evil, and delves into the issue of nature vs. nurture as Christine discovers the truth of her own origins.
----
!!It contains examples of:
* AdultsAreUseless: Almost all of the adults buy Rhoda's act; the children in her school know there's something wrong there and usually avoid her.
* AdultFear: Discovering that your daughter is a cold, remorseless psychopath. [[note]] Though nowadays, the use of the term "psychopath" to describe a child would be considered inappropriate in most clinical circles.[[/note]]
* AffablyEvil: Rhoda's always polite and sweet-acting, and only harms people when they have something she wants.
* TheAlcoholic: Hortense Daigle, mother of Claude Daigle ([[spoiler:whom Rhoda killed because she wanted his penmanship medal]]), became addicted to alcohol to dull the pain of losing her only child.
* AntagonisticOffspring: Rhoda
* ArcWords: "What'll you give me for a basket of kisses?" "I'll give you a basket of hugs."
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Leroy]] could be said to have had it coming. Even so...
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Rhoda gets away with everything in the play.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Rhoda, full stop.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Rhoda's a manipulative psychopath, Leroy, who is wise to her evil, is just a bully who acts dumb to get away with what he does, but then we also have [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Monica]] who willfully ignores Rhoda's [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior behavior]], and the most heroic character, Rhoda's mother Christine, is morally conflicted.
* BreakTheCutie: Rhoda's poor mother!
* ChangelingFantasy: Since childhood, Christine has had this thought in the back of her mind that she was adopted, though unlike most examples of this trope, the idea fills her with horror. Her parents (mother in the book, father in the movie) profusely deny this, and her friends assure her that this is a common childhood fantasy. Unfortunately for her, the truth is far worse than she could imagine.
* ChekhovsGun: Rhoda's tap shoes and the wood wool Leroy uses to sleep on.
** The special vitamins and sleeping pills Monica gives to Christine
** Also, Christine mentions her husband keeping an actual gun in the house. [[spoiler: She later uses it to shoot herself.]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mercilessly averted.
* CorruptionByAMinor: Rhoda and Leroy have a relationship that is disturbingly sexual, although they never touch each other.
* CreepyChild[=/=]EnfantTerrible: Rhoda could have been the TropeNamer for these.
* CrustyCaretaker: Leroy.
* DeathByAdaptation: Christine's Mother who was alive in the book while her father was dead, get's this.
* DevilInPlainSight: Rhoda, ''definitely!''
* DespairEventHorizon: For Christine this is [[spoiler: Rhoda's murder of Leroy. She is forced to give up any lingering denial she may have had about Rhoda's evil nature or her, Christine's, inability to control her.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Christine shoots herself after trying to murder Rhoda.]]
* EnfantTerrible: No FreudianExcuse needed. Rhoda was ''born'' evil. Hence the name of the story.
* EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: Patty [=McCormack=], who played Rhoda, curtsies to the audience at the end curtain call.
* EvilVersusEvil: Rhoda and Leroy's confrontations.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Leroy's family is the only reason Monica keeps him on as a caretaker.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In spite of readily admitting he is a mean and uncaring man who likes to get under a little girl's skin just for kicks, Leroy is genuinely disturbed when he realizes that kind of person Rhoda really is. He's a sociopath too, but even he recoils at murder.
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Rhoda, a sweet looking eight year old girl, with the dangerous mind of a psychopathic killer.
* {{Foil}}: Leroy, the gardener, is the only adult who can see through Rhoda's perfect child act, and enjoys teasing her to get under her skin.
* ForTheEvulz: Leroy's motivation for tormenting Rhoda.
* HappilyMarried: Christine and Kenneth, despite Kenneth's job-related absences.
* InTheBlood: Christine discovers that [[spoiler: her biological mother was a serial killer and believes that she passed her murderous nature to Rhoda.]]
* IronicNurseryTune: "Au Clair de la Lune" will never sound quite the same again...
* JerkassHasAPoint: Leroy is correct about a number of the characters: Monica ''is'' an arrogant know-it-all, Christine's kindness ''is'' a bit condescending, and he is is quite right about Rhoda's selfish, coldblooded personality.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Rhoda gets away with everything she's done in the play.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Monica is described as an "amateur psychologist" but clearly doesn't have any ''actual'' expertise in the field. Her advice only serves to distress and upset Christine more and more, but she's totally blind to the fact that Rhoda is a serial killer. [[spoiler: The end of the story even makes it clear Rhoda's planning on killing her next.]] Nicely contrasts her employee Leroy who's a case of ObfuscatingStupidity.
* LackOfEmpathy: When Christine asks Rhoda if she understands the pain Mrs. Daigle must be going through after [[spoiler: discovering his medal that she stole from Claude's body]], she responds, "I guess." Later, she says, "If Mrs. Daigle wants a son so bad, why doesn't she get one from the orphanage?"
* LargeHam: Christine expresses her horror at giving birth to Rhoda via a rather overblown gesture of repeatedly punching herself in the uterus. It gets a bit silly.
* LightIsNotGood: Rhoda, with her blonde hair and spotless white dresses, is a classic example.
* LoveMartyr: A familial example: Christine sacrifices her sanity, integrity, and [[spoiler: in the play, her life]] out of the love she has for her daughter, who when asked if she truly loves her, only replies "You're silly!".
* {{Motormouth}}: Monica Breedlove, Christine's landlady and a prominent figure in the community. A fan of Freudian psychology, she is constantly psycho-analyzing others, diagnosing Leroy as a paranoid schizophrenic, her brother Emory as a closeted homosexual, and herself as having [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous feelings towards him.]] Worse, in the movie, she manages to analyze the reason her marriage failed... based solely on her ex-husband's name.
** In what is meant to be irony, despite her intelligence and insight, she spends so much time talking that she never actually observes what's going on around her, and thus can never apply her knowledge to a real situation. Rhoda has her wrapped around her little finger and she doesn't even realize it.
* ManOnFire: [[spoiler: Leroy's death.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Leroy pretends to be a humble simpleton in front of Monica and other adults, while revealing his true mean nature to children. He believes himself to be BrilliantButLazy, but based on his wife's comments and his own actions in the story, this is debatable.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Rhoda's mother tries to do this in the play. She also finds out that her own biological mother, a famous serial killer, murdered her entire family, including her other children and almost killed Christine herself.]]
* PsychopathicManChild: Leroy, who torments Rhoda ForTheEvulz.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The book went into a lot more depth than the play could do, especially concerning the Incomparable Bessie Danker.
** Leroy's dialogue was more vulgar and both he and Monica made a lot of references to sex that would have been unacceptable to use in a film at that time.
** Rhoda's school is run by the three Fern sisters: Burgess, Claudia, and Octavia. This is still the case in the adaptations, but only Claudia physically appears in the play [[AdaptationDistillation to make things simpler]] and most of the plot points involving her sisters are [[CompositeCharacter transferred to her]].
* SchrodingersCast: Chistine's father Richard Bravo is alive and well in the play, but had died before Rhoda was born in the book.
* SerialKiller: By the end of the story, Rhoda has a body count of three: [[spoiler: a neighbor who promised her a snowglobe after her death, Claude Daigle, and [[HeKnowsTooMuch Leroy]].]] With the exception of the last one, they were all for short-sighted and selfish reasons.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Monica. How often do you hear "penurious" and "larvated" in a conversation?
* TheShrink: Monica -- she probably perceives herself as a Type 3 (Awesome Shrink) , but is pure Type 2 (Well-Meaning But Ineffective) all the way. As what goes along with Type 2s, she does not mean to hurt Christine with her psychobabble and only wants the best for her.
* SmugSnake / SmallNameBigEgo: Leroy, who as mentioned before overestimates his intelligence.
* TheSociopath: Rhoda has neither conscience nor empathy and has no issues with killing to get what she wants. Rhoda's personality is encapsulated in this exchange between her and Leroy:
-->'''Leroy''': You ask me and I say you don't even feel sorry about what happen to that poor little boy
-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry ? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
* SoundOnlyDeath: We hear [[spoiler: Leroy]] screaming, pounding on the door, being set loose, and screaming some more, before he dies, but all we ''see'' is Christine's reaction. It's still horrible.
** [[spoiler: Christine's [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] is portrayed by a gunshot off-screen.
* StepfordSmiler: Rhoda, and as she finally catches on, her mother.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Rhoda!
* VillainProtagonist: Take a wild guess on who it is.
* WorthyOpponent: A few lines of dialogue suggest this between, of all people, Leroy and Rhoda once they both discover that [[spoiler: the other is also a sociopath.]]
Christine Penmark, a housewife, moves into a new town with her husband Kenneth and daughter Rhoda. She has always thought her daughter was very peculiar; while always polite, courteous, and charming in public, there was a cold, apathetic, and calculating quality in her personality that she found very disturbing in a child. As Christine notices the strange, horrible things that happen in the proximity of her daughter, she comes to see that Rhoda is the very definition of EnfanteTerrible.
One of the earliest and more notable examples of a child being portrayed as irredeemably evil, and delves into the issue of nature vs. nurture as Christine discovers the truth of her own origins.
----
!!It contains examples of:
* AdultsAreUseless: Almost all of the adults buy Rhoda's act; the children in her school know there's something wrong there and usually avoid her.
* AdultFear: Discovering that your daughter is a cold, remorseless psychopath. [[note]] Though nowadays, the use of the term "psychopath" to describe a child would be considered inappropriate in most clinical circles.[[/note]]
* AffablyEvil: Rhoda's always polite and sweet-acting, and only harms people when they have something she wants.
* TheAlcoholic: Hortense Daigle, mother of Claude Daigle ([[spoiler:whom Rhoda killed because she wanted his penmanship medal]]), became addicted to alcohol to dull the pain of losing her only child.
* AntagonisticOffspring: Rhoda
* ArcWords: "What'll you give me for a basket of kisses?" "I'll give you a basket of hugs."
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Leroy]] could be said to have had it coming. Even so...
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Rhoda gets away with everything in the play.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Rhoda, full stop.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Rhoda's a manipulative psychopath, Leroy, who is wise to her evil, is just a bully who acts dumb to get away with what he does, but then we also have [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Monica]] who willfully ignores Rhoda's [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior behavior]], and the most heroic character, Rhoda's mother Christine, is morally conflicted.
* BreakTheCutie: Rhoda's poor mother!
* ChangelingFantasy: Since childhood, Christine has had this thought in the back of her mind that she was adopted, though unlike most examples of this trope, the idea fills her with horror. Her parents (mother in the book, father in the movie) profusely deny this, and her friends assure her that this is a common childhood fantasy. Unfortunately for her, the truth is far worse than she could imagine.
* ChekhovsGun: Rhoda's tap shoes and the wood wool Leroy uses to sleep on.
** The special vitamins and sleeping pills Monica gives to Christine
** Also, Christine mentions her husband keeping an actual gun in the house. [[spoiler: She later uses it to shoot herself.]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mercilessly averted.
* CorruptionByAMinor: Rhoda and Leroy have a relationship that is disturbingly sexual, although they never touch each other.
* CreepyChild[=/=]EnfantTerrible: Rhoda could have been the TropeNamer for these.
* CrustyCaretaker: Leroy.
* DeathByAdaptation: Christine's Mother who was alive in the book while her father was dead, get's this.
* DevilInPlainSight: Rhoda, ''definitely!''
* DespairEventHorizon: For Christine this is [[spoiler: Rhoda's murder of Leroy. She is forced to give up any lingering denial she may have had about Rhoda's evil nature or her, Christine's, inability to control her.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Christine shoots herself after trying to murder Rhoda.]]
* EnfantTerrible: No FreudianExcuse needed. Rhoda was ''born'' evil. Hence the name of the story.
* EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: Patty [=McCormack=], who played Rhoda, curtsies to the audience at the end curtain call.
* EvilVersusEvil: Rhoda and Leroy's confrontations.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Leroy's family is the only reason Monica keeps him on as a caretaker.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In spite of readily admitting he is a mean and uncaring man who likes to get under a little girl's skin just for kicks, Leroy is genuinely disturbed when he realizes that kind of person Rhoda really is. He's a sociopath too, but even he recoils at murder.
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Rhoda, a sweet looking eight year old girl, with the dangerous mind of a psychopathic killer.
* {{Foil}}: Leroy, the gardener, is the only adult who can see through Rhoda's perfect child act, and enjoys teasing her to get under her skin.
* ForTheEvulz: Leroy's motivation for tormenting Rhoda.
* HappilyMarried: Christine and Kenneth, despite Kenneth's job-related absences.
* InTheBlood: Christine discovers that [[spoiler: her biological mother was a serial killer and believes that she passed her murderous nature to Rhoda.]]
* IronicNurseryTune: "Au Clair de la Lune" will never sound quite the same again...
* JerkassHasAPoint: Leroy is correct about a number of the characters: Monica ''is'' an arrogant know-it-all, Christine's kindness ''is'' a bit condescending, and he is is quite right about Rhoda's selfish, coldblooded personality.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Rhoda gets away with everything she's done in the play.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Monica is described as an "amateur psychologist" but clearly doesn't have any ''actual'' expertise in the field. Her advice only serves to distress and upset Christine more and more, but she's totally blind to the fact that Rhoda is a serial killer. [[spoiler: The end of the story even makes it clear Rhoda's planning on killing her next.]] Nicely contrasts her employee Leroy who's a case of ObfuscatingStupidity.
* LackOfEmpathy: When Christine asks Rhoda if she understands the pain Mrs. Daigle must be going through after [[spoiler: discovering his medal that she stole from Claude's body]], she responds, "I guess." Later, she says, "If Mrs. Daigle wants a son so bad, why doesn't she get one from the orphanage?"
* LargeHam: Christine expresses her horror at giving birth to Rhoda via a rather overblown gesture of repeatedly punching herself in the uterus. It gets a bit silly.
* LightIsNotGood: Rhoda, with her blonde hair and spotless white dresses, is a classic example.
* LoveMartyr: A familial example: Christine sacrifices her sanity, integrity, and [[spoiler: in the play, her life]] out of the love she has for her daughter, who when asked if she truly loves her, only replies "You're silly!".
* {{Motormouth}}: Monica Breedlove, Christine's landlady and a prominent figure in the community. A fan of Freudian psychology, she is constantly psycho-analyzing others, diagnosing Leroy as a paranoid schizophrenic, her brother Emory as a closeted homosexual, and herself as having [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous feelings towards him.]] Worse, in the movie, she manages to analyze the reason her marriage failed... based solely on her ex-husband's name.
** In what is meant to be irony, despite her intelligence and insight, she spends so much time talking that she never actually observes what's going on around her, and thus can never apply her knowledge to a real situation. Rhoda has her wrapped around her little finger and she doesn't even realize it.
* ManOnFire: [[spoiler: Leroy's death.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Leroy pretends to be a humble simpleton in front of Monica and other adults, while revealing his true mean nature to children. He believes himself to be BrilliantButLazy, but based on his wife's comments and his own actions in the story, this is debatable.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Rhoda's mother tries to do this in the play. She also finds out that her own biological mother, a famous serial killer, murdered her entire family, including her other children and almost killed Christine herself.]]
* PsychopathicManChild: Leroy, who torments Rhoda ForTheEvulz.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The book went into a lot more depth than the play could do, especially concerning the Incomparable Bessie Danker.
** Leroy's dialogue was more vulgar and both he and Monica made a lot of references to sex that would have been unacceptable to use in a film at that time.
** Rhoda's school is run by the three Fern sisters: Burgess, Claudia, and Octavia. This is still the case in the adaptations, but only Claudia physically appears in the play [[AdaptationDistillation to make things simpler]] and most of the plot points involving her sisters are [[CompositeCharacter transferred to her]].
* SchrodingersCast: Chistine's father Richard Bravo is alive and well in the play, but had died before Rhoda was born in the book.
* SerialKiller: By the end of the story, Rhoda has a body count of three: [[spoiler: a neighbor who promised her a snowglobe after her death, Claude Daigle, and [[HeKnowsTooMuch Leroy]].]] With the exception of the last one, they were all for short-sighted and selfish reasons.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Monica. How often do you hear "penurious" and "larvated" in a conversation?
* TheShrink: Monica -- she probably perceives herself as a Type 3 (Awesome Shrink) , but is pure Type 2 (Well-Meaning But Ineffective) all the way. As what goes along with Type 2s, she does not mean to hurt Christine with her psychobabble and only wants the best for her.
* SmugSnake / SmallNameBigEgo: Leroy, who as mentioned before overestimates his intelligence.
* TheSociopath: Rhoda has neither conscience nor empathy and has no issues with killing to get what she wants. Rhoda's personality is encapsulated in this exchange between her and Leroy:
-->'''Leroy''': You ask me and I say you don't even feel sorry about what happen to that poor little boy
-->'''Rhoda''': Why should I feel sorry ? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me.
* SoundOnlyDeath: We hear [[spoiler: Leroy]] screaming, pounding on the door, being set loose, and screaming some more, before he dies, but all we ''see'' is Christine's reaction. It's still horrible.
** [[spoiler: Christine's [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] is portrayed by a gunshot off-screen.
* StepfordSmiler: Rhoda, and as she finally catches on, her mother.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Rhoda!
* VillainProtagonist: Take a wild guess on who it is.
* WorthyOpponent: A few lines of dialogue suggest this between, of all people, Leroy and Rhoda once they both discover that [[spoiler: the other is also a sociopath.]]
