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Nightmare Fuel / Veronica Mars

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The Series:

  • When Aaron Echolls beats the crap out of his daughter's abusive boyfriend, it starts off as a Moment of Awesome (given the guy left Trina with a black eye and literally limping from a beatdown he gave her) before crossing the line into this. The sheer unbridled brutality of the attack is only made worse by the fact that it is paired with "That's Amore" by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Not to mention, being an early indicator of what Aaron is actually capable of.
    • The first time it's revealed that he beats Logan qualifies too. Logan is seen calmly picking out the belt that Aaron then beats him with and pulling off his shirt as Aaron closes the door. Offscreen, we hear each blow Logan is dealt while Logan's mother drinks wine in the next room over with an equally calm expression. The naturalness about all of this indicates that they've all been through this routine many, many times.
  • The child abuse episode. The ending where Sheriff Lamb appears to hate it, but also can't do anything about it, almost seems realistic.
  • "Leave It To Beaver": Veronica gets locked in a refrigerator and then SET ON FIRE by the man who killed her best friend. For the first time in the series, we see the normally calm Veronica completely break down in terrified tears as she can only scream for her father. Recognizing the fact that she may actually die.
  • "I am God": Veronica constantly hallucinates the bus crash students, both in an underwater grave or crashing through the air in an endless white smoky tunnel. Plus, during the phone message left to one of the survivors, you can hear panicked and horrifying screams from the soon-to-be-dead kids.
  • "Not Pictured": Cassidy blows up a plane while Veronica can only watch from on top of a building nearby; a plane she believes her father to be on. Then Cassidy tries to kill her, only to fail and Veronica comes dangerously close to actually killing him; listing off how he murdered her father, the kids on the bus, and raped her. Logan barely talks Veronica out of actual murder and she breaks down in tears. Then, in one of the most heartbreaking moments on the show, Cassidy proceeds to jump off the roof (after Logan can't come up with a reason why he shouldn't).

The Film:

  • The revelation that Gia and Cobb aren't having a consensual affair; he's been blackmailing her for routine sex for nearly a solid decade, and can assume control of her life anytime he feels like it, having taken the apartment opposite hers so he can watch her every move. The last line of her reveal - "I'm not even allowed to have curtains" - is incredibly creepy, not to mention a real Tear Jerker. She was raped for 9 years and then murdered by him the moment she stepped out of line.
    • Worse given that as this blackmail starts, she's only - at best - JUST getting past the trauma of learning about her father being a child molester. She would have just been in the process of piecing her life together again when she's effectively turned into a sex slave.

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