Ten years ago Markus Hill's younger sister Kaylah was killed by a reckless driver. Forrest Sutherland - the man responsible for the accident and Markus's high school classmate - evaded justice thanks to the connections of his powerful family and disappeared altogether shortly afterward. Markus leaves too and only returns to his hometown of Southampton ten years later when his parents put their home on the market. But there has been a development in the idyllic, affluent California town: the enigmatic Forrest Sutherland has returned to Southampton once again. With no clue to his enemy's whereabouts except the names of seven other classmates Forrest spoke to at their ten-year high school reunion, Markus Hill sets out in pursuit of Forrest seeking both answers and revenge...
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Organization attacks the Falls in the finale, eliminating most of the Children of the Harvest, including Rayne.
- Anachronic Order: While the story primarily follows Markus's quest in linear fashion, some episodes show other characters' experiences from different points in the timeline, particularly Claire's and Forrest's.
- Arc Words: "Are you listening?"
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: Invoked in-universe by Iris who thinks Markus Hill would be a great name for a 40's private eye.
- Badass Creed: "We are not forgotten. We are not dead. We will rise. In this we devote."
- Big Bad: Forrest Sutherland, who evaded punishment for Kaylah's death and is now playing a sinister cat and mouse game against her brother, acts as this for the first 2/3 of the 10 Year arc. Then comes The Reveal that he has actually been Good All Along and is trying to protect Markus from Iris Nowak, the true Big Bad.
- Big Good: Rayne, leader of the Children of the Harvest and Forrest's twin.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Iris
- Danny, but justified given that he's just trying to protect his troubled wife. Except he's not actually her husband. He is an evil doctor and she is an experimental subject he is trying to control.
- "Kaylah" in the finale.
- The Blank: One of the few details given about the Moncors' appearance is that they lack faces.
- Catchphrase: Greg responds to even the most mundane bit of positive news with an enthusiastic exclamation of "Lifted!"
- Chekhov's Gunman: Iris Nowak and Danny Roberts, who turn out to be the Big Bad and Dragon respectively.
- The woman who Markus nearly hits during Cameron. She turns out to be Claire's friend Talia who immediately alerts Claire to Markus's presence, setting the final act of the story arc in motion.
- A Day in the Limelight: Each of the seven classmates who had contact with Forrest are given their own centric episode in which Markus confronts them.
- Depraved Homosexual: It is implied that before the events of the story Forrest somehow drove his older male lover to suicide. It is eventually revealed that the older man was actually the depraved one and was abusing Forrest.
- Deuteragonist: Claire, who is seen in flashbacks coping with her ongoing trauma from Kaylah's death until her story finally catches up to and merges with that of Markus.
- Double Agent: Greg, who has secretly been working for Forrest even before Markus encounters him.
- The Dreaded: Forrest. Everyone who had contact with him at the reunion is left utterly shaken and seemingly terrified of him.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A Moncor briefly scampers through Markus's room while Markus is distracted answering the door in Episode 5. They do not appear again until episode 13 where they are the greatest threat from that point forward.
- Fake Memories: It turns out Markus wasn't actually in New York all along like he thought he was.
- Faking the Dead: Kaylah, done by the Organization, and then eventually done by Forrest in an effort to escape from them.
- Film Noir: Incorporates numerous aspects of the genre. Markus Hill, the cynic with a troubled past, having failed his attempt to become a police officer, is now hunting down the man who killed his sister. He is prone to using Private Eye Monologue. And his personal vendetta quickly turns out to be part of a much larger conspiracy. Iris even jokes that the name Markus Hill would be great for a 40's private eye.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Kaylah invokes this, initially trying to protect Markus from the sight of their disfiguring injuries. Then it turns out the disfigured form isn't the real one either.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: Occurs from the episode "Claire" up until part one of "Give Me Liberty" as focus moves from Markus's investigation, to Claire processing her grief, Forrest's escape from the Organization, and the Children's growing rebellion.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Organization as a whole, with the full extent of their membership, reach, and history currently unknown.
- Heroic Red Ring of Death: Markus has a condition which causes incapacitating headaches; often at the worst possible time.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Greg throws himself at the enemy and suffers a mortal wound in order to save Claire
- Hidden Depths: Greg is largely there to serve as comic relief to the relentlessly downbeat Markus, but he is actually incredibly sensitive, especially when talking about his dementia-afflicted father. He is also a being known as a Sage: someone who can heal the spirits of the Children.
- I Never Told You My Name: A variant occurs. Markus realizes something is wrong when Cameron steers the conversation toward Markus's time in New York despite Markus not having told him he lives there.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight with Kaylah and Max but other children belonging to the classmates are implied not to have been so lucky.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Moncors, Revenants, and Ghosts are some of the named types of minions that the Organization has at their disposal.
- Properly Paranoid: Alena is beginning to figure out that something is very wrong in the town and forces Markus to take a variety of precautions during their interview.
- Revenge Before Reason: Markus remains enraged at Forrest to the detriment of himself and everyone around him long after the latter has saved his life multiple times and it has become brutally apparent that what is happening around them makes his grievance irrelevant.
- Rock Beats Laser: Serenity informs Forrest that the rock he's carrying will not make an effective weapon. He proves her wrong.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Sutherland family are implied to have gotten away with a great deal of malfeasance in Southampton on account of their vast wealth, up to and including making sure their son Forrest faced no consequences for running a girl over with his car.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Markus returns to the quaint, peaceful town of Southampton after a ten-year absence full of nothing but scorn toward it, seeing it only as a place of privilege and hypocrisy.
- Talking to the Dead: Claire visits Kaylah's grave each year on Kaylah's birthday and talks to her about the milestones she would be achieving at that time were she still alive.
- Town with a Dark Secret: It starts becoming apparent early on that Southampton has a lot more wrong with it than just a reckless driver who evaded punishment a decade ago.
- Trash the Set: Southampton is stated to be utterly devastated by the end of the finale.
- Wham Episode: Episode 11 - Cameron, which reveals that Markus's parents are part of the Organization (Cameron thinks it's a cult but he's wrong,) and that Forrest and Greg are working together.
