I Can't Help Saying Goodbye
Libby (Loren Cedar) and her fiancé Max Smith (Brian Benben) notice that people have started dying in the presence of her little sister Karen (Alison Sweeney), and soon after discover that Karen can actually sense when people around her are about to die, doing so by placing her hands on their face and telling them "Goodbye." However, they think she actually induces the fatalities themselves, such as those of her mother Flora and best friend Susie. In a mix of sorrow, anger, and fear, the pair tell Karen to never say "goodbye" to anyone ever again, but Karen ends up saying "goodbye" to Max soon after, leaving Libby to take drastic (and tragic) measures to solve her problem.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Max's death is exceedingly harsh for a man whose only crime was being somewhat hostile towards who he thought was a malevolent child with psychic abilities. It's depressing to watch as he succumbs to an asthma attack, slowly and painfully losing his breath, the color on his face fading, his eyes left in a permanent stare, and his last words being a plea not to die as Libby can only watch.
- Arc Words: "Goodbye.", said to someone in Karen's life just before they die in freak accidents.
- Aside Glance: At the end of the opening act, the sisters' mother Flora tries to light the stove with a match, unaware that the gas is filling the kitchen, and kills herself in the resulting explosion. Libby runs to the kitchen in horror as Karen looks directly at the camera, shedding a single tear after predicting a new death.
- Blackmail: The second act has Karen threatening to say "goodbye" to Max so he and Libby can get her whatever she wants. She only threatens them with it because of her want for childish payback, but she ends up doing so against her will, anyway.
- Blessed with Suck: Karen can predict whenever someone is about to die and apparently can't do anything to stop it, only able to approach the unlucky victim in a trance and tell them "goodbye" before they're snuffed out. It's worse for her because her "victims" include her mother, her best friend, and her older sister's fiance, which drives an even bigger wedge between them. It's implied that she also foresaw the death of her father, having fallen off a building on the day she was born, minutes after she entered the world.
- Break the Cutie: Karen can see Flora, Susie, and Max dying while being able to do nothing to stop it, and she says "goodbye" to them in advance before they do so. The series of events causes her own sister to think of her as a monster for incorrectly causing all the deaths herself, so Libby plans to drown her in a lake to stop her from "killing" again. Karen sees her impending death in her mirror and submits to it, having become a shell of her former self thanks to her power and the episode's events.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Karen either can't or won't reveal the truth about her psychic abilities to Libby and Max, even though it can stop them from seeing her as a malicious monster.
- Character Tic: Karen's habit of putting her hands on peoples' faces and telling them "goodbye", seemingly in a fugue state, seconds before they die in random accidents.
- Chromosome Casting: Max is the only male character present in the episode.
- Companion Cube: Susie's doll, which Karen wants to keep after she dies. She talks to it at one point in the second act, clarifying that she can't make anyone die and clearly doesn't like it when they do so.
- Creepy Child: Karen is painted as one by Max and her own sister for seemingly causing everyone that she tells "goodbye" to violently die. She only predicts the upcoming deaths and says goodbye in advance, and the plot comes about because the latter two jumped to conclusions.
- Death of a Child: Two examples played straight:
- Susie gets her scarf caught in the door and ends up slipping on a patch of ice outside, breaking her neck.
- Libby drowns Karen in the lake by filling her inner tube with sand, having come to hate her for everything she's done all episode.
- Dies Wide Open: Max's eyes remain stuck open after he suffocates from an asthma attack.
- Downer Ending: It's an especially tearjerking ending this time. Even though it isn't shown, Libby (whose bond with her little sister has been permanently broken) ends up killing Karen by taking her to a deep lake for a swimming lesson and filling her inner tube with sand, drowning her in the process. Karen sees herself slowly sinking in her mirror and says goodbye to herself, having been driven to suicidal despair over the events of the episode.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Karen can foretell when someone around her is about to die, but Max and Libby instead assume that she's actively causing the deaths to occur. For whatever reason, Karen is either unwilling or unable to tell them the truth, and at one point threatens to say "goodbye" to Max when Libby smacks her across the face, fueling her paranoid rage.
- Face Death with Dignity: At the end of the episode, Karen foresees her impending murder by her own sister in the mirror. She brokenly accepts her coming fate, having alienated everyone around her with the misunderstandings of her power.Karen: Goodbye, Karen. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
- Foreshadowing:
- Karen recollects how her father died the day she was born via falling off a building, and indicates that she could sense his death within moments of her birth. Over the course of the episode, her ability has her seeing her mother, best friend, and sister's fiance following suit, and ends the episode brokenly seeing her own death.
- While revealing their engagement to Flora, Libby reminds Max about his asthma as he goes into a mild coughing fit. The climax of the episode has him succumbing to a much stronger asthma attack when he drops, and is unable to retrieve, his inhaler.
- In the same scene, Flora notes that she needs to drive Karen to her first swim lesson. The ending has Libby volunteering to teach Karen how to swim in a deep lake, filling her inner tube with sand to drown her and stop everyone around her from dying.
- Yet again, in the same scene, Libby tells her mother that she doesn't care much about sitting down and planning her future wedding by hypothesizing that they "could die tomorrow".
- Four Is Death: Karen says "goodbye" to four people who then die over the course of the episode: Flora, Susie, Max, and herself.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Everyone who Karen says "goodbye" to ends up dying in accidents caused largely through their own actions, such as Flora leaving the gas on and Max absentmindedly throwing his inhaler in the garbage.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Karen, who is wrongfully convicted of all the deaths, has such eyes to emphasize herself as a Creepy Child.
- Jerkass: Max gets snippy with Karen and Susie when their singing at rehearsal isn't 100%, and demeans Karen as a freak for her ability. His way of thinking rubs off on Libby, who he proposes to, prompting her to get rid of her so long as the couple can stay together.
- Kill the Ones You Love: The ending has Libby deciding to kill Karen after realizing that she can't stop her ability of causing death. What really makes this tragic is that the viewers already know that Karen isn't causing the deaths, just foreseeing them.
- Last Note Nightmare: Karen's final declaration of "Goodbye." echoes over the closing shot of the episode.
- Made of Explodium: Flora accidentally blows herself up via the stove, as she leaves the pilot light on when she gets distracted by Max and Libby's engagement announcement. The kitchen subsequently fills with gas and the match she was trying to use for a light ignites.
- Madness Mantra: Karen ends the episode brokenly repeating "Goodbye." to herself when she learns that her sister is going to kill her.
- Neck Snap: Susie is killed when her scarf gets caught in the front door and breaks her neck when she slips on the icy porch.
- Not Helping Your Case: Karen pleads with her older sister and her fiance that she isn't actually causing everyone around her to die, but when Libby smacks her in the face, Karen snaps and pettily threatens to say "goodbye" to Max as well. It's a common and instinctive sort of rebuttal for a kid her age, but it fuels Libby's theories that Karen is responsible for everything.
- Oh, Crap!: Max has one when he's hyperventilating and Karen slips into a trance to say "goodbye" to him.
- Parental Substitute: Flora compares Max to a father figure for Karen, since her real father passed away on the day she was born, but Karen is quite wary about having another parent enter the household.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Karen is thought by Libby and Max to actively cause the deaths of everyone she says "goodbye" to, when she only predicts when the people kill themselves through coincidental accidents.
- Poor Communication Kills: Libby and Max jump to conclusions by thinking that Karen is actively killing everyone she says "goodbye" to. Karen is only foreseeing the deaths and is unable to actually cause or stop them, but whether because she doesn't want to or physically can't, she's unable to tell the pair that she isn't actually responsible for any of the deaths. She even impulsively threatens to say "goodbye" to Max after Libby slaps her, fueling Libby's drive to get rid of her.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: The second act has Max become one to Karen after she threatens to say "goodbye" to him, offering her whatever she wants so he can desperately keep sucking air longer.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never concretely proven what triggers Karen's trances and saying "goodbye" to her unlucky victims, but it's likely narrowed down to certain words that relate to death, or perhaps implications of her own upcoming death.
- Running Gag: A mystical, melancholy synth tune plays whenever Karen goes into a trance and says "goodbye" to someone.
- Seers: Karen has the ability to view the future, but only the imminent deaths of nearly everyone around her.
- Single Tear: Karen sheds one at the end of the opening act, just after Flora blows herself up.
- Tempting Fate: After proclaiming the day of her engagement to be the best day of her life, Libby loses her mother in a freak explosion.
- Title Drop: Karen states the title to Libby and Max regarding her powers, as they angrily confront her when Susie dies. She does so again after Max dies, and Libby yells at her for likely wanting her to die, too.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Because Libby and Max pick what is revealed to be an inopportune time to announce their engagement, Flora blows herself up and starts giving the couple ideas that Karen caused the accident, and the ones that later take the lives of Susie and Max, after she said "goodbye" to them.
