As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
- When Peter takes a chance and agrees to meet Stephanie at Pasquale's, he can't even make it across the parking lot before Max Jagerman and his cronies surround him. Pete attempts to stand up to Max, which only encourages Jagerman to beat the shit out of him even more viciously. The next time we see Peter, he's hiding in the men's room at school, still nursing a black eye.
- Max Jagerman's death proves to be surprisingly tragic, given the circumstances. After the prank against him goes wrong, instead of retaliating against the nerds, he expresses gratitude and claims that it's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for him. There's a brief sense of hope that Max could change for the better... and then the floor beneath him collapses, sending him three stories down and impaling him on a piece of debris. In his final moments, believing the nerds to be responsible for his death, he regresses to his bully persona and threatens to kill them all, sealing his fate as the villain of the show.
- It's apparent Max's fellow Jerk Jocks are victims of his too, just in a less overt and violent way. Jason seems willing to be friendly with the nerds until Max browbeats him back in line, and Kyle didn't dare pursue a girl he really liked, despite her obviously returning his feelings, solely because Max forbade it. If Max decides who is or isn't cool at Hatchetfield High, then that means his friends are prone to being thrown under the bus at any moment—and thus are threatened with being treated the way Max treats the nerds. The fact that Jason and Kyle become Lovable Jocks instantly after Max's death solidifies that they're likely basically-good kids who are being bullied, with Max also encouraging and enabling their worst impulses to make sure things at school stay the way he likes it. Even worse is that Jason preemptively apologies to Richie for the fact that, if Max comes back, they'll probably start bullying him again.
- Richie's death. For context, Richie is finally starting to feel like he belongs at Hatchetfield High, only for his former bully to return with the intent of killing him. Max does not make it quick either, tormenting Richie physically and mentally until he is begging for his life. Even if it was a Foregone Conclusion, seeing such a lovable character die in such a cruel manner is still painful.
- Just For Once, an in-universe song from the Barbeque Monologues about a middle-aged housewife's dead dreams and under-appreciated domestic life, pulling double-duty as Ruth's "I Want" Song. All Ruth wants is to be valued as a person with her own dreams and hopes beyond being "thirsty as hell". Making things worse is that right at the song's crescendo, the instrumental breaks out into a brief reprise of the recurring "I'm not a loser" leitmotif from Cool As I Think I Am - Ruth finds her confidence, and there's a brief Hope Spot that she can starting working through her anxiety and start reaching for what she wants, only for her to suffer a humiliating death not two minutes later.Ruth: Just for once I'd be the center of attention, just for once remember what a life could be...
- While the three remaining protagonists are hiding from the police, Grace Chasity proposes yet another batshit plan when Stephanie finally lays into her; rightfully pointing out that she has no idea what she's doing and has only made things worse for them all. Grace...actually agrees and breaks down into a crying mess. She laments how this all started when she started feeling sexually attracted to Max despite her best efforts at being chaste and how she actively went on to betray even more values she cherished. It's a sobering look at how psychologically damaging forced abstinence towards anything even tangentially sexual can be to teenagers. Of course, lest we start feeling too sorry for her, Peter starts to comfort Grace only for Steph to bluntly remind him (and perhaps us the audience as well) that she's a fucking weirdo who chopped up a corpse. But this small moment of vulnerability from Grace shows that she's ultimately, at least partially, just as much a victim of indoctrination as she is a perpetrator of it.
- Upon realizing that she would have to kill Peter to gain help from the Lords in Black, Stephanie initially refuses. She instead tries to simply keep running from Max, permanently if need be. Peter, though? He reveals that he knows what the Lords want, and he's willing to go through with it.
- After a heartbreaking reprise of "Cool As I Think I Am", the two prepare themselves for what seemingly must be done. Before Stephanie pulls the trigger, Peter asks one last question: Would Stephanie have liked to go to homecoming with him? She answers yes while fighting tears, and Peter simply says "cool" before informing her that he's ready.
