Abigail (left) and Melissa (right).
Abigail Grey (Quinn Shephard), a troubled teenage girl, returns to school after she's received treatment for an unspecified mental health problem. She is mocked cruelly over it by other students, with Melissa Bowman (Nadia Alexander) leading them in the bullying. However, in drama class the new substitute teacher Jeremy Woods (Chris Messina) leads them studying The Crucible and he chooses Abigail to play her same-name role given her talent. Abigail begins to shine again with his tutelage, and begins developing feelings for Mr. Woods. Melissa also finds him attractive, and grows increasingly jealous, as the film's events begin to echo The Crucible's.Examples:
- All of the Other Reindeer: Abigail is called a psycho, Sybil (due to the film character with multiple personalities) and mocked generally as a result of her unspecified mental illness. She endures all this stoically.
- Alpha Bitch: Melissa is a popular girl (she's a cheerleader, we find out) and leads other kids in mocking Abigail, who has an unspecified mental illness, plus a quaint dress style. She's less stereotypical than most however, having a punk-like dress style herself and is from a rich family as well. Otherwise though she still fits, with a girl posse who follow her everywhere.
- The Bully: Melissa leads the other kids in mocking Abigail over her mental illness, including writing cruel graffiti on Abigail's locker.
- False Rape Accusation: Near the end, Melissa reports Mr. Woods had raped her, in revenge for (so she thinks) being with Abigail instead of her, due to envy.
- Frame-Up: Melissa uses the fact her phone was taken by Mr. Woods (due to her using it in class) as alleged evidence he'd gotten her to send him risqué photos, since they were still on it. She actually took them for Eric.
- Girl Posse: Sophie and Ellie follow Melissa around, doing as she does at all times. Ellie however abandons her after being wronged by Melissa.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Melissa, who's attracted to Mr. Woods, grows so jealous over him being with Abigail (at least, she thinks he is) that in the end she reports that he raped her in revenge.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Some of the boys chuckle whenever Abigail and Mr. Woods say "come" while rehearsing an intimate scene from The Crucible.
- Jail Bait Taboo: Mr. Woods is attracted to Abigail, his teenage student. He kisses her, but then soon comes to his senses and gently tells Abigail that nothing else can come of it despite clear mutual attraction from her.
- Karma Houdini: Melissa falsely accuses Mr. Woods of rape (though given his obvious attraction to Abigail, he's not completely sympathetic) and seemingly suffers no comeuppance for it. Ambiguous Ending aside, the fact that this is basically a modernized version of The Crucible indicates the unlikelihood she was ever intended to be punished.
- No Ending: The film ends before we learn what becomes of the protagonists and the plot is just left unresolved once Melissa claims Mr. Woods raped her. However, given its parallel with The Crucible the result is probably not good.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Abigail and Mr. Woods grow increasingly close while rehearsing The Crucible, getting to the point that he kisses her. He realizes that it was wrong though, backing away from anything else. Unknown to him though, Melissa also has feelings for him, with her jealousy over this resulting in her plotting against him.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot builds increasingly to a parallel with The Crucible (its start at least), with the play being put on in the story as well.
