The deaths of Jack and Johanna Kimball are reopened when fragments of a bomb were recovered from their former home, proving that they were not killed in a gas explosion.
- The Atoner: Jack intended to go to the police and confess about the group's Accidental Murder of their friend McBride. Sadly, it's what got him killed.
- Bait-and-Switch: After the group freezes at the sight of a picture of their dead friend McBride, the next scene is of Jack's death. Several of the flashbacks indicate that other members of the group are angry at him over McBride's death, especially Sara, who was his girlfriend. All of which suggests that Jack was murdered in revenge for his part in McBride's death. Only for it to turn out that he wanted to confess and was killed to keep his mouth shut. In particular, the fact that Sara was so angry with him leads the cops to think that she's his killer. It turns out that she was a victim along with him and that it's actually JOHANNA the cops have been talking to.
- Bottle Episode: The flashbacks take place over a weekend in the same house.
- Continuity Nod: As Lilly is giving a last look at one of Jack's pictures before putting his closed case box into the archives, Herman Lester's box can be seen on the shelf next to her.
- Dead Person Impersonation: It turns out that Johanna killed Sara and assumed her identity.
- Death Glare: Sara's ghost is seen giving Johanna a murderous look as she is arrested for her and Jack's murders.
- Fatal Family Photo: As Johanna leaves Jack and Sara to die in an impending explosion (there's a bomb rigged to go off at a certain time), the camera closes in on a picture of the friends taken in their college days, smiling and happy.
- Foreshadowing: In the opening sequence, Jack, Johanna's husband, mistakes Sara for her in a photo, driving home how much they resemble each other and explaining how Johanna was able to escape by assuming her identity.
- Sara at one point declares that "If I vanished off the face of the earth tomorrow, no one would even notice." That's exactly what happened.
- Sara also states, "I should have what you (Jack) and Johanna have", referring to their happy marriage, beautiful home, and plans to start a family. At the end of the episode, when we learn that Johanna has been living the good life while posing as Sara, we see that she has taken what Sara should have had.
- Porter calls Johanna a "Manipulative Bitch". He had no idea how right he was (see entry below).
- Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: Although they actually all feel horrible regarding their friend's death, Jack is the only one who feels bad enough to want to go to cops.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Porter and Johanna conspired to kill Jack to stop him from going to the cops. When they're finally arrested 26 years later, they're now on the hook for two additional murders. Even worse, thanks to Johanna's manipulation, Porter has spent this time thinking he killed her and unable to turn her in even if he does figure it out, because he'll have to admit to his own guilt.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Porter murdered Jack at Johanna's request so that he could be with her—and finds himself responsible for two additional murders.
- Manipulative Bitch: Johanna entices Porter into killing Jack so that they can be together. Instead, she leaves him to take the fall thinking that he killed her as well and knowing that he can't turn her in if he ever learns what really happened, as he'll have to admit his own guilt.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: For 26 years, it was assumed that Jack and Johanna's death was due to a gas main leak, until the remnants of a bomb were discovered.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Porter has clearly never stopped resenting Jack for stealing Johanna from him roughly a decade prior and his desire to get her back is the other reason he joins up with Johanna to kill him.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Jack wants to atone for his part in a friend's death. It gets him and the only other person to support him killed.
- Ripped from the Headlines: A combination of the Sarah Jane Olson case
(a former leftist militant on the run with a new identity) and the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion (an explosion at a leftist militant hideout initially believed to be a gas explosion, but was later discovered to be caused by a poorly assembled dynamite, although accidentally rather than deliberate). - Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Lilly confronts the killer about what they've done, Johanna tries to claim that she loved her husband. Lilly retorts that she sure had a funny way of showing her love.
- Something Only They Would Say: The cops realize that Johanna has been posing as Sara when one of the friends mentions hearing young Johanna say something very similar to what the older version of "Sara" told them.
- Stepford Smiler: Jack accuses everyone in the group of being this regarding their guilt over their accidental murder of McBride.
- With Friends Like These...: Jack's WIFE Johanna immediately runs to his best friend Porter after he insists that he's still going to the cops (despite the group having voted "No" on doing so) and the two quickly decide to kill him to ensure his silence. To make matters worse, Johanna also has no problem killing her friend Sara and stealing her identity.
- Yuppie: Someone in the group notes the irony that a bunch of 70's anti-war radicals are now the epitome of this, right down to having voted for Reagan.
