BIG spoilers below.
- The 40th Floor. It starts with a Regent being tortured to death by an artifact that graphically burns the victim alive. Then, while its effect isn't all that graphic in execution, one artifact featured was from Unit 731. Finally, we've got the sight of a man spraying the inside of his mouth with a corrosive spray paint artifact, complete with convulsions, anguished gurgling and on-screen disintegration. If there last one wasn't bad enough, we get to see two more victims meet a similar end.
- Claudia's scream/ Big "NO!" when she sees Steve's dead body. Crosses over big-time with Tear Jerker.
- Ms. Fredrick dying. She rapidly desiccates in front us, pretty much being reduced to a mummy.
- The three young archeologist's death in the first part of the season 2 finale. They end up being mummified alive one by one.
- The young woman we see getting turned into a glass statue.
- "Don't Hate the Player" is, all in all, a very lighthearted episode with lots of nerd humour in it. You can imagine the Mood Whiplash, then, when the game starts exploiting the players' fears via its neural interface and we're suddenly "treated" to the sight of Claudia strapped to an asylum hospital bed, shrieking in abject terror as a doctor is about to apply a giant set of rusty electrodes to her head. The subsequent "Myka to the rescue" moment was sorely needed and could've happened a bit sooner. Allison Scagliotti is truly a gifted actress as, while Claudia's previous breakdowns were heartrending in their subtlety and understatedness (see S2 finale, scene near the end with Artie bandaged up), pulling out all the stops isn't a problem for her either - no Narm to be had here, just an all-too-believable portrayal of someone's worst fear putting them through the wringer. It doesn't help that the other fears were either played for laughs, introduced In Medias Res, or applied to one-off guest characters who didn't have much involvement. This one they showed in its entirety, and they lingered on it a bit too long for comfort.
- What adds to the fear factor, as well as making it a massive Tear Jerker, is that her worst fear wasn't 'just' being trapped by a scary doctor, but the idea that her life up to this point is a delusion and she's still in the mental institution she grew up in. Imagine thinking that, that your whole life is just a figment of your imagination, and the idea that you can't tell reality from madness.
- "A New Hope" has Claudia trapped in a small dark space with no light and no way out and her legs are buried under rubble. She manages to have the presence of mind to tell the others to never mind about her because they're chasing after a giant reset button that'll make it so that she never got trapped in the first place. Followed up shortly by Pete's "I won't remember dying" discussion with Artie. HOLY CRAP. I've never been so grateful for a reset button.
- Near the end of "Personal Effects", only five of the six loose artifacts were shown. The unseen one was a waffle iron whose waffles made your skin melt.
- Evil!Artie. Imagine MacPherson, only even more evil with a personal knowledge of the entire cast and a willingness to use all their faults against them.
- Bronzing. Particularly the reveal that you're conscious the entire time.
- Similarly, it's later revealed that before Paracelsus refined the technique, bronzing only lasted a few hours before the subject slowly began to crumble into dust. Imagine feeling yourself fall apart and being unable to do anything to stop it?! Talk about A Fate Worse Than Death!
- The downside of the levitation artifact in "The Sky's the Limit". It can levitate anyone, but the last person it was used on flies up into the sky to either asphyxiate or fall to their doom. We even see one character rocket into the stratosphere while he screams helplessly. To anyone even mildly phobic of heights this scene can be...difficult to watch.
- Mrs. Frederic choking Leena in "Time Will Tell". After the commercial break we find out it was to disconnect her from the Pearl of Wisdom, but the first time you see it there's no way to know. It's quite frightening.
