As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- When Heather Duke says in "Yo, Girl" that Martha was "Just another geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably", that might also refer to Veronica who didn't want to get harassed and joined the Heathers as a geek trying to imitate popular people.
- Ich lüge (that's a u with two dots/an Umlaut) means "I lie" in German, and JD was lying about non-lethal bullets, but if they did exist their whole purpose is to make unconsciousness look like a suicide. In essence, lie about what's actually happening. Ich lüge... Genius. note
- Another thing Veronica probably should have picked up on: the mass suicides in response to the Battle of Berlin weren't faked with tranquilizer. But then, you remember Veronica singing about the Huns invading Rome, a sign history may not be her strong suit.
- There is also the real pistol type Luger (that's a normal u), which is coincidentally just one letter away from Lügner (Liar).
- J.D. also mispronounces "lüge" in the first place.
- In the musical, J.D. tells Veronica's parents she's suicidal after she breaks up with him. While it makes sense that he's setting the scene for her "suicide" so he can kill her for leaving him, it seems a bit short-sighted for him to talk to her parents. After all, most parents' response to hearing that would be to keep a closer eye on their daughter, making it much harder for J.D. to get her alone — and, sure enough, Veronica's parents are concerned and her mother checks in on her after she runs up to her room. But then you remember what J.D. has for a father. It's entirely likely that the idea of Veronica's parents keeping her close and being deeply worried about her well-being honestly didn't occur to him.
- Chandler says "Shut UP, Heather!" to both of the other Heathers multiple times before her death, but she does it under different circumstances for each. Heather MacNamara gets told to shut up when she's trying to be helpful (such as in Big Fun, when she's giving Veronica instructions), and Heather Duke gets told to shut up whenever she tries to take over Heather's role (such as when she tries to sing the chorus in Candy Store). This foreshadows who both of them end up becoming without Chandler there to shut them up- MacNamara is actually friendly without Chandler's toxic influence, while Duke ends up becoming the new mythic bitch.
- In the original version of the musical, there was a noticeable pattern that all of Heather Duke's solos were reprises. Now recall what Veronica said about Heather Duke having "no discernible personality" among the Heathers...
- Veronica Sawyer’s name comes from Betty and Veronica as well as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. This contrasts with Betty Finn, whom she has grown more distant from since joining the Heathers. Veronica and Tom were more selfish and mischievous ones. Additionally, when Veronica accidentally bumps into her while walking with Heather at the beginning of the movie, Betty then shows her photographs of them when they were younger. In one, Betty is dressed up as an angel while Veronica is a witch. All these hints as Veronica being the less moral of the two, as proven when she’s with the Heathers for social status and even missed Betty’s birthday party for a “big date.”
- It’s been established that Heather Chandler’s color is red to represent her power. In the bathroom scene when she spits at her reflection, she is wearing all red but is surrounded by the contrasting blue. This makes her look out of place and highlights her discomfort with the whole situation. Her main color was actually used against her to emphasize her powerlessness in that situation. Moreover, Heather wears the least amount of red when she dies, dressed in a pink robe with her signature scrunchie. Pink is the lighter version of red, indicating that Heather’s power is severely weakened.
- There’s a fire burning each time a relationship between the characters is destroyed. First when Heather Chandler and Veronica argue at the Remington party. Then when Heather Duke burns the envelope when talking to JD. It was JD’s influence that convinced Duke to take the red scrunchie and take over as Alpha Bitch. Duke and Veronica were previously presented as having a cordial relationship but this makes them grow apart. Finally, the lit candles at the dinner table right before Veronica’s mother learns of her faked suicide. Just earlier JD has come to kill her if he couldn’t convince of his plan to blow up the school. In this moment is when Veronica is completely against him and actively tries stopping him.
- As shown under Alternative Character Interpretation on the YMMV page, in the original movie, it’s ambiguous as to whether Veronica was genuinely unaware of and unwilling in JD’s plots to murder Heather Chandler and later Ram and Kurt or if she genuinely wanted to kill them but was in denial. The musical takes the former interpretation, with Veronica being legitimately surprised and horrified by JD’s murders and consumed by guilt. The television series runs with the latter interpretation, with Veronica willingly joining in on JD’s murders, even eventually revealing that Veronica killed someone as a child, years before meeting JD as well as having Veronica actually follow through with JD’s plot to blow up the school.
- In the musical, Veronica sings “Fight the urge to strike a match and set this dump ablaze” when describing her desire to survive high school and go to college. Given what happens later with J.D., it’s evident that he couldn’t.
- The Heathers enjoy, ahem, hooking up as one of the privileges of their station, more explicitly so in the musical. However, while Chandler and McNamara are noted to have casual sex, this is never really confirmed for Heather Duke. This might be because she's bulimic; people with eating disorders often have difficulty with intimate contact.
- In the musical there's an early throw-away line about how many times Martha's seen The Princess Bride saying she's a sucker for a happy ending. Perhaps a little accidental, but the book had more of a Bolivian Army Ending with the kingdom's army after them, Inigo's injuries worsening, Wesley going catatonic again, and Buttercup's horse losing a shoe. The movie ends on a happy and uplifting note, but the source material, "reality" if you will, is a messier ending. Quite appropriate for Martha's development through the musical.
- Why did JD tell Veronica to shoot Kurt even though he was at the better position of doing so at the time when he chased him back to the meet up spot in the woods? So that Veronica directly has blood spilled on her hands, meaning that if she were to break up with JD and decided the best way to get revenge was by reporting him, she’d be reporting herself too. Regardless of the story she gives to the police about being unaware that the bullets were real, she still literally killed someone so she’d face some pretty damaging consequences alongside JD.
Fridge Horror
- J.D. is shown greeting Martha, and later mentions having some in-depth conversation with her (to the point that Martha reveals that she and Heather Duke used to be Best Friends). Martha's next scene has her attempting suicide. What did J.D. say to her?
- Martha’s way of attempting suicide itself is that she walks into traffic with the intent of getting hit and killed with a car. While she, fortunately, survived the hit and had the suicide note on her person (both of which spares the driver who hit her from legal and even more emotional damage than they have) it still must have been a very traumatic experience for the driver who hit her, being almost forced to murder someone. Even worse, Martha did this at school, meaning that it was likely a teenager who hit her and is now dealing with the guilt, mistrust, terror and trauma of that experience.
- Another Martha-related Fridge Horror. Heather Duke is bulimic and implied to also suffer from a starvation-related eating disorder of some kind. Heather Duke was also childhood friends with Martha, who Duke now participates (with the other Heathers as well as the rest of the school) in bullying Martha entirely due to her weight. Heather Duke's bulimia is heavily implied to be at the very least worsened—if not outright caused—by Heather Chandler's verbal abuse of her. All of these things come together to paint a pretty dark picture.
- Martha’s way of attempting suicide itself is that she walks into traffic with the intent of getting hit and killed with a car. While she, fortunately, survived the hit and had the suicide note on her person (both of which spares the driver who hit her from legal and even more emotional damage than they have) it still must have been a very traumatic experience for the driver who hit her, being almost forced to murder someone. Even worse, Martha did this at school, meaning that it was likely a teenager who hit her and is now dealing with the guilt, mistrust, terror and trauma of that experience.
- Veronica asks if J.D. has "done this before" when writing Heather C's fake suicide note. While it's unlikely that he's written a fake suicide note, considering his crappy home life and his mother's death, it's quite possible that he has written suicide notes before, but never gone through with it. This is even more likely for J.D. in the musical, who is a Tragic Villain through and through.
- According to Christian Slater, J.D. faked his death in the movie. But in the musical, however, he actually does blow up. The school isn't in danger anymore, but just think about what a lovely sight J.D. must have left behind after that. Even worse, he blew up right in the middle of the football field. There's no way people won't notice.
- Listen to J.D.'s line during "I Am Damaged": "And once I disappear, clean up the mess down here..." We don't know if Veronica disposed of his remains or not, but it's possible she did.
- In the musical, JD manages to fight back against Kurt and Ram and win without a struggle (well, the first time anyways), and he later states that he has been through ten high schools, so it’s pretty safe to assume he’s had experience with kids beating him up before.
- In the musical, the phrases Heather McNamara imagines Heather Duke singing to the former as she attempts to kill herself ("Your ass is off the team; go on and bitch and moan; you don't deserve the dream; you're gonna die alone") are a direct mirror of the phrases the Heathers sing to Veronica during 'Candy Store' about life with the Heathers vs life without them ("You can join the team, or you can bitch and moan; you can live the dream, or you can die alone"). This makes Heather M. seem even more tragic since it implies that literally the only thing she felt she had going for her in life was the fact that she was a Heather. Which also implies that her breakdown would come sooner or later regardless of any of the other events of the musical.
- If Veronica hadn’t stopped Heather McNamara in time, how would Heather Duke react, knowing the closest person she had as a friend killed herself after what she said to her?
- Will there actually be any changes at Westerburg after Veronica's class graduates? The problems seem to be endemic, given that students were copying their peers' and their parents' behavior. Even if Veronica manages to fix things during her tenure as the new sheriff in town, once she's escaped to Ivy League, everything might go back to right where they started.
- Towards the end of the film, JD tried to be like his dad, but ended up like his mother.
