History Series / SearchParty

** Also [[spoiler: the taser that Drew obtains from his downstairs neighbor, ostensibly to protect himself and Dory from someone who had broken into their apartment. (Turns out, Drew had staged the break-in as a way to deter Dory from continuing her obsessive investigation into Chantal's disappearance). Dory uses the taser to defend herself from Keith when he surprises her at the house in Montréal]].

* SeriesFauxnale: [[spoiler: While the show hasn't yet been renewed, Season 4's finale fits this trope. Season 4's finale entirely plays out like a StockSeriesFinale, commemorating all 4 seasons of the show, characters like Julian and Gail and Dory's parents BackForTheFinale, and providing closure on several character arcs. In the final seconds of the show, after cutting to black on a BookEnds shot of the season 1 opening in the afterlife, a very brief scene plays revealing Dory survived the fire and the finale was a near death experience.]]

* BadJobWorseUniform: Played with and subverted with Drew's job as a costumed character at an amusement park in season 4. He has to wear a GoofySuit that he sweats like a pig in [[spoiler: and gets payed half as much as every other employee due to being part of a criminal rehabilitation program]], but considers all of it to be worth it because of how it allows him to bring smiles to children's faces.

** [[spoiler: The psychopathic conservative news pundit Charlie Feeny is thrown into a coma after getting brained by a stray book dropped by Chantal, and spends the remainder of her life dying slowly and painfully in the hospital.]]

* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Season 3 has Elliott do an interview with the young, blonde and attractive conservative media hostess Charlie Feeny, who's a pretty obvious riff on [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Tomi Lahren]], down to the GenderBlenderName and excessive eyeliner.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Conservative news icon Charlie Feeny is a clear parody of Fox News' Tomi Lahren, right down to the GenderBlenderName.

* KarmaHoudini: Elliott, constantly. Halfway through season one it's revealed he lied about being a cancer survivor and had based much of his public brand on it, and it ruins his life for maybe one episode.

* InbredAndEvil: Near the end of season 4, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Chip's aunt Lyla is also his biological mother]].

** [[spoiler:Chantal is revealed to be so emotionally stunted that even [[TheDitz Portia]] openly calls her actions childish.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler: Season 3 opens with a recording of a disheveled Dory in an unknown location being forced to perform a video confessional, but cuts away before the audience gets to hear all of it. As the rest of the season revolves around her literally getting away with murder, it's natural to assume that the confession is related to her guilt in the crime. It's only in the first episode of season 4 that we learn the "confession" was simply proclaiming that [[LoonyFan Chip]] was her best friend and had nothing to do with the case.]]

* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Season 3 has Elliott do an interview with the young, blonde and attractive conservative media hostess Charlie Reeny, who's a pretty obvious riff on [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Tomi Lahren]], down to the GenderBlenderName and excessive eyeliner.

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: How Chip was conceived]].

* LaughablyEvil: [[spoiler: Dory's stalker Chip is genuinely sinister as well as quite possibly the most deranged character to ever appear in the series, but there's an undeniable humor to him all the same. No matter how terrifying he is, it's impossible not to find a young [[CampGay twink]] parading around dressed as an elderly woman while singing along to "Groove Is In The Heart" over and over again at least a ''little'' bit funny.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Everyone in the gang suffers a bit of this [[spoiler:after Dory and Drew kill Keith and they help to conceal his murder]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Conservative news icon Charlie Reeny is a clear parody of Fox News' Tomi Lahren, right down to the GenderBlenderName.

* SeriesFauxnale: [[spoiler: While the show hasn't yet been renewed, Season 4's finale fits this trope. Season 4's finale entirely plays out like a StockSeriesFinale, commemorating all 4 seasons of the show, characters like Julian and Gail and Dory's parents BackForTheFinale, and providing closure on several character arcs. In the final seconds of the show, after cutting to black a BookEnds shot of the season 1 opening in the afterlife, a very brief scene plays revealing Dory survived the fire.]]

* BookEnds:
** Season 1 opens and closes with a close-up shot of a frazzled-looking Dory.
** [[spoiler: Season 3 opens and closes with a recording of an imprisoned Dory performing a video confessional; the season opens with the beginning of the confession and closes with her ending it. The confession itself is not heard until the first episode of season 4.]]

* CreepyDoll: [[spoiler: Dory receives one in her likeness from her stalker in season 3, complete with hair made from her stolen pieces of her own and dialogue taken from stray recordings of her. Chip, the aforementioned stalker, makes five more based off of Drew, Portia, Elliot, Keith, and April in season 4 as part of a twisted object therapy session he puts Dory through.]]

* NoNameGiven: [[spoiler: Dory's stalker is referred to as "Obsessed Fan" in the credits of season 3. His name is revealed as Charles "Chip" Wreck the following season.]]

* NoNameGiven: [[spoiler: Dory's stalker is exclusively referred to as "The Twink" throughout season 3. He's finally given a name in season 4: Chip.]]
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:The obsessed fan seemingly dies after being hit by a car, but returns in the season 3 finale to kidnap Dory]].

* StokholmSyndrome: [[spoiler: Dory undergoes a variant of this after she fails her attempt at escaping Chip and crosses the DespairEventHorizon, becoming almost sedately calm and much more cooperative toward him. While it's primarily the result of Chip brainwashing her by implanting FalseMemories into her head, it's also implied to be in part due to her subconscious desire to escape the guilt she feels over her past crimes by spending the rest of her life in seclusion with him.

* BornAgainChristian: [[spoiler: Portia becomes one after her friends turn against her for agreeing to testify against them in court. It lasts just long enough for her to record a Christian rock song before she abandons religion rather nonchalantly after narrowly avoiding getting killed at Elliott's wedding.]]

* AdaptationDecay: In-universe. [[spoiler: The biopic adaptation of Dory's trial in season 4 is filled to the brim with this; portraying [[AdaptationalVillainy Dory as a deranged animal-killing psychopath]], [[AdaptationalAttractiveness Chantal as a beautiful model]], and Elliott as a one dimensional GayBestFriend, while also having [[DawsonCasting Portia be played by a much older actress]] [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking and]] [[RaceLift Drew by a black man]]. When Portia attempts to avert this by trying to play Dory as close to the real thing as possible, she's taken off the movie.]]

* DawsonCasting: Invoked. [[spoiler: The film adaptation of Dory's murder case casts a middle-aged actress to play Portia. Portia is understandably displeased when she learns this, while the actress unsuccessfully attempts to claim that they're close together in age. Out of universe, the actress is played by Creator/BusyPhilipps, who is eight years older than Portia's actress Meredith Hagner.]]

** [[spoiler: If you listen closely to the voice telling Drew that Dory's LoonyFan died in the hospital, you can hear that it is actually the loony fan himself putting on a woman's voice, setting up the reveal that he's NotQuiteDead. Viewers with less acute hearing can still figure out the twist using simple logic, as it's highly improbable that the hospital would contact someone outside of the deceased's family to report their death. Elliott actually pieces the latter clue together himself in season 4, which ends up being the decisive evidence needed to make the group realize that Dory had been kidnapped.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: While watching Portia's play late in season 2, Dory hallucinates herself [[LadyInRed wearing a red dress]] and being chased by April and Detective Hartman (two people who threaten to expose her crimes) before plummeting into the Hudson river. In the season 2 finale, she ends up pushing April off a ledge into the Hudson river in a desperate bid to stop her from saying anything to anyone, and does so while wearing the same dress she was in her hallucination.]]

* AdaptationDecay: [[spoiler: The biopic adaptation of Dory's trial in season 4 is filled to the brim with this; portraying [[AdaptationalVillainy Dory as a deranged animal-killing psychopath[[, [[AdaptationalAttractiveness Chantal as a beautiful model]], and Elliott as a one dimensional GayBestFriend, while also having [[DawsonCasting Portia be played by a much older actress]] [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking and]] [[RaceLift Drew by a black man]]. When Portia attempts to avert this by trying to play Dory as close to the real thing as possible, she's taken off the movie.]]

* AdaptationDecay: [[spoiler: The biopic adaptation of Dory's trial in season 4 is filled to the brim with this; portraying Dory as a deranged animal-killing psychopath, [[AdaptationalAttractiveness Chantal as a beautiful model]], and Elliott as a one dimensional GayBestFriend, while also having [[DawsonCasting Portia be played by a much older actress]] [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking and]] [[RaceLift Drew by a black man]]. When Portia attempts to avert this by playing Dory as close to the real her as possible, she's taken off the movie.]]

* GayBestFriend: Played with a bit by Elliott. Sure he's CampGay, Portia's roommate, and a member of the main group, but he's otherwise a manipulative asshole who always puts himself before his "friends".