- Vocal Adrenaline egging Rachel is a Tear Jerker since she finds out Jesse lured her to the parking lot for this reason and they mock her for being vegan. What is Nightmare Fuel is that when she recounts it to the Glee Club, she said she could hear baby chicks giving little "cheeps" while it was happening.
- The episode "Furt", where we already know that Karofsky is gay and has feelings for Kurt, but the way he stands really close and does a glary/smile thing, along with winking. It looks a little perverse and Kurt is left feeling a little violated.
- Everything about the bullying storyline in general. At first Kurt is picked on the way the rest of the Glee kids are - with slushies and stray insults. But then Karofsky starts to hone in on him in particular - shoving him into lockers and just generally making his life miserable. Kurt tries to endure it since the school administration aren't helping much, then a supportive text from Blaine gives him the adrenaline rush to confront Karofsky directly the next time it happens. Kurt is probably thinking he might be able to get Karofsky to back off when he first demands a concrete answer to what Karofsky's problem is, then breaks it apart as best he can (the whole 'you're [Karofsky] not my type' bit), and it might actually work this time...right up until Karofsky grabs Kurt and kisses him. In that moment, everything gets worse for Kurt - now he knows that not only is Karofsky in the closet, but he now has empathy and knows he can't really say much beyond 'Karofsky threatened/insulted me' without outing him, and given the above moment from 'Furt' he's likely VERY worried about Karofsky escalating to violence, sexual violence or both. In the end, the school board does try to help when Karofsky threatens to kill Kurt, but when the decision is reversed Kurt feels his only option is to leave the school. The whole storyline is very much a Truth In Television look at bullying and homophobia and its effects - Karofsky's campaign of terror leaves Kurt losing weight, anxious and unable to concentrate at school because he feels like an outsider who could be the victim of violence the next time he runs into Karofsky.
- Take note of the extra in the background when Kurt is shoved into the locker and his phone shoved to the floor by Karosfky. She looks genuinely shocked/worried. It's a small window into why other characters like Santana were so hesitant to come out, because Karofsky's behaviour has a silencing effect on all the other closeted students.
- Everything about the bullying storyline in general. At first Kurt is picked on the way the rest of the Glee kids are - with slushies and stray insults. But then Karofsky starts to hone in on him in particular - shoving him into lockers and just generally making his life miserable. Kurt tries to endure it since the school administration aren't helping much, then a supportive text from Blaine gives him the adrenaline rush to confront Karofsky directly the next time it happens. Kurt is probably thinking he might be able to get Karofsky to back off when he first demands a concrete answer to what Karofsky's problem is, then breaks it apart as best he can (the whole 'you're [Karofsky] not my type' bit), and it might actually work this time...right up until Karofsky grabs Kurt and kisses him. In that moment, everything gets worse for Kurt - now he knows that not only is Karofsky in the closet, but he now has empathy and knows he can't really say much beyond 'Karofsky threatened/insulted me' without outing him, and given the above moment from 'Furt' he's likely VERY worried about Karofsky escalating to violence, sexual violence or both. In the end, the school board does try to help when Karofsky threatens to kill Kurt, but when the decision is reversed Kurt feels his only option is to leave the school. The whole storyline is very much a Truth In Television look at bullying and homophobia and its effects - Karofsky's campaign of terror leaves Kurt losing weight, anxious and unable to concentrate at school because he feels like an outsider who could be the victim of violence the next time he runs into Karofsky.
- Brittany's throwaway lines sound an awful lot like she was raped, including being visited by aliens.
- When Blaine and Kurt visit Scandals, Kurt is left feeling insecure by Sebastian's obvious attempts to hit on Blaine. So far, so normal relationship drama - up until Kurt is taking a drunk Blaine outside to go home, and Blaine attempts to force himself on Kurt in the backseat of the car. When Kurt turns him down and points out Blaine's total disregard for his feelings, Blaine gets angry and walks off. Thankfully Blaine wises up and apologises the next day, but it's a sudden scary swerve, especially with the viewer intially being left to wonder - as Kurt is - if the drunk Blaine will even manage to find his own way home.
- Santana mentions having been roofied in "Previously Unreleased Christmas".
- Santana being outed after some girl overheard her argument with Finn in the hallway—where he tells her to come out the closet—and the girl told her uncle, who is running against Sue for the Congress seat and targeted Santana's lesbianism in a smear ad against Sue. For many a closeted teenager, being outed is bad enough, but for it to happen on TELEVISION in front of millions makes it nightmare fuel.
- Not just that, but look at and listen to Finn in that scene. You can tell he really enjoyed making her squirm. Regardless of how you feel about the whole sequence, there's something genuinely disturbing about the way Finn put the screws to Santana.
- He was actually trying to be mean, because anyone hearing Santana call him fat won't care, won't believe it, and think she's a bitch - it doesn't in any way reflect badly on him. And if he didn't know that it was a terrible thing to do in the circumstances then he's really stupid. To think that one of your glee club friends would want to hurt you in such a fashion (and then come up with some shit about wanting her to be herself) is also terrifying. Santana actually liked the club, thought it was the best part of her day and where her only real friends were, so it was probably a little harmful to her mental state to consider that maybe they don't like her at all.
- That last sentence only replace Santana with Rachel and consider that Santana did that exact same thing to Rachel. Even then outing her was over and above unreasonable of Finn.
- EVERYTHING about Karofsky's storyline in On My Way. Hey, being outed not bad enough for you? How about your homophobic classmates spamming the Internet with hate-speech about you until you hang yourself? And even that wasn't good enough for them- they wrote on his Facebook wall- "Better luck next time"!!! And just in case you could sleep, have Karofsky's dad finding his near-dead body and screaming in anguish. And even while in recovery, his mom thinks that he's mentally ill for being gay and his best friend Azimio cuts contact.
- The car crash scene at the very end of the same episode. Of course, she turned out to be fine in the next episode. But still, a lot of fans thought Quinn was dead
- The effects of Bulimia on Marley. She spends her first five episodes looking warm and bright and cheerful, but once Kitty gets in her head and makes her start vomiting all her meals up she gets less energetic, more pale, and more frail. It all comes to a climax during the Gangnam Style performance: the music starts to cut out near the end, the camera is at weird angles, parts of the song speed up or slow down, and at the end Marley is so malnourished that she collapses onstage. The worst part is the insight to the skewed priorities she's developed, and how such a simple line can become really disturbing.Marley: I'm so hungry. But at least I fit into my dress.
- For added points, when they lose Sectionals due to Marley fainting, Tina promptly blames her for them losing.
- "Feud": It's supposed to be played for laughs, and is never mentioned again, but Sue putting 30 credit cards and a house loan in Blaine's name, singlehandedly ruining his parents' credit, simply because he wouldn't join the Cheerios is quite disturbing.
- "Shooting Star". A gun goes off at the school. Most of the club is holed up in the choir room, but Brittany is stuck alone in a washroom and Tina is outside the school and can't contact anyone. Marley tries to text her mom, but Millie can't answer because her phone is too far away and she can't risk grabbing it - and Marley starts assuming the worst.
- The eerie silence during that scene just makes the whole thing worse. If you weren't spending that entire scene on the edge of your seat, wondering when the shooter would burst through the choir room door, gun in hand, then congratulations, you have Nerves of Steel.
- The metronome going the whole time gave the atmosphere a whole new level of scary.
- Kurt getting gay bashed in "Bash".
- Sue has a Room Full of Crazy dedicated to all the people she hates. A large portion of it is dedicated to the New Directions and Will personally. This would be funny, but we see the words "Missing" in a couple of places. We knew Sue hated the Glee Club, but she also might be more than a little unhinged.
- This also includes a life size doll of Al Roker, which seems plain ol' crazy and weird until you remember that back in "I Do", not only do Quinn and Santana know about him, but Quinn starts the conversation by outright naming him as maybe the only nice guy in the world. It's disturbing to think what that doll may have been used for before or since.
- It might be considered irrelevant now due to Cory Monteith's death, but really try to look at Kurt's season 1 actions towards Finn through Finn's eyes. Way back in Preggers, Finn thought that Kurt was asking him out and politely declined. (quote "Thanks, but I already have a date to the prom. I'm flattered you asked, though, I know dances are important to gay teens.") To which Kurt said he wasn't gay. (remember, this is the fourth episode ever.) Subsequently, Kurt sings a love song while looking intently at Finn the whole time, plots to break up his relationship with the girl they both think is pregnant with his child, and works to ruin his opinion of Rachel, who Finn genuinely does have a connection with. It rapidly becomes an open secret in the whole Glee club not only that Kurt's crushing on Finn, but that it's so one-sided Clingy Jealous Girl Quinn doesn't even bother giving Kurt a single verbal warning. Finn finds out that his Mom is dating Kurt's dad when she tells him they're all moving in together (he knew she was dating someone, but not Kurt's dad), but not until after Kurt asks his opinion on interior decorating, for what Finn doesn't yet know will be their shared bedroom. Go back and watch that 'breaking the news' scene again objectively; Kurt really looks like he's just waiting for Finn to carry him over the threshold. Kurt has been known to go to some fairly extreme lengths, especially back in season 1. (Remember Rachel's 'Sandy in the final scene of Grease makeover'?) Finn's 'faggy' reaction to Kurt's full-on interior design mockup is a very bad word choice, and Kurt's right to be angry at Finn. But no one ever seems to consider that not only does Finn has a genuine right to be upset at the situation in general - everyone (even Rachel, the Official Love Interest who's already run afoul of Kurt's schemes to turn Finn his way,) acts like Finn's honest concern for his personal space (maybe even safety) from the guy who's rampantly crushing on him (and long ago stopped bothering to hide it) is simply Homophobia and loudly condemns him for it. It takes Kurt's dad to give his son a lecture about boundaries, kindly telling him that his hitting on Finn was extremely creepy, for Kurt to get the message.
- In "Child Star", Sue goes into one of the trademark rampages that ends with her slapping a random student for no reason.
- Throughout the show, there are a disturbing number of implications that Santana is bulimic. Made worse by the show passing them off as jokes and the episode dealing with Sue making the Cheerios basically live off of super unhealthy shakes that seem to actively encourage eating disorders.
- In season 4, where Marley Rose is bullied into developing an eating disorder (no thanks to Kitty). "I'm so hungry, but at least I fit into my dress." And yes, it's every bit as disturbing as it sounds.
- The in-universe explanation for the entirety of the seasons 4-5 new kids (aside from Kitty) being Put on a Bus? That Sue basically tortured them all until they were forced to transfer schools, only sparing Kitty because she was needed for the Cheerios. Keep in mind that several of those kids were known to be poor, which would undoubtedly make it difficult to just make a transfer, and Marley's mother even worked at the school.
- In "Mattress", When Will finds out that Terri is not pregnant is very scary. From his constant glaring, quiet voice, to even throwing the pregnancy pad you wonder if Will is actually going to hurt Terri.
- Finn's death. Nothing Is Scarier since we don't know how he died.
