Directed by Alex Zakrzewski
Written by Veena Sud & Liz W Garcia
Tragedy struck when the head of the Jacobi family shot his wife, his children, and himself. The daughter survived, however, and was in a coma. She wakes up months later and tells the police that her father did not massacre their family.
Tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When introduced, Ed seemed to just be a kind nurse taking care of Kim after she woke up from her coma. After her memory returns though, he shows his true colors. He was the one who killed her family, and is obsessively in love with her, to the point he holds most of the main cast hostage, fully intent on killing them while displaying just how Ax-Crazy he really is.
- Clear My Name: Adam Jacobi was thought to have committed suicide because Ed shot him in the head. He gets pegged as the killer.
- Cliffhanger: Lilly is shot by Ed and is taken away. She says, "Mom?" and the episode ends.
- Dramatic Irony: When Ed shows up to kill Kim's family, Emily tries offering herself to him to protect Kim and Stewart. He derisively says he "doesn't want [her]" before killing her. As Lilly informs him later while Ed is holding the cast hostage, Emily was the one who had been messaging him. She was catfishing him using Kim's pictures, and he was just Loving a Shadow.
- Flashback Effects: The flashbacks are filmed with a camcorder held by the stalker. There are also obstacles in the line-of-sight to indicate that he was hiding behind things.
- Love Makes You Evil: The Stalker with a Crush definitely crossed this line after massacring his target of affection's whole family, including her younger brother.
- Loving a Shadow: As Lilly points out to Ed, Kim doesn't love him, and wasn't even the one messaging him. Her mother, Emily, was catfishing him using photos of Kim to do so. Ed at this point is so insane that he refuses to believe it, and accuses anyone who tells him otherwise of lying to him.
- Nerves of Steel: Stillman barely even flinches or shows signs of distress after he is shot by Ed.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While he's told by the responding officers to stay out of the way, after Ed manages to shrug off a sniper round and shoots Stillman in the shoulder, Scotty rushes up on his own to take Ed down, successfully shooting him after Lily gets Kim away from Ed.
- Stalker with a Crush: Said stalker overlaps with Love Makes You Evil.
- Stalking is Love: Subverted with a vengeance. Kim does seem somewhat flattered by the first few gestures — the ones that could be explained by a classmate taking notice of her troubles and overstepping a few boundaries. When she learns that the “Romeo” took notice of her because her mother unwittingly catfished him, that feeling evaporates immediately. And then the stalker storms in to “free her from her family”…
- 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Kim was shot in the head, but survived, only falling into a Convenient Coma which she woke up from a few months later, none the worse for wear outside of having Easy Amnesia.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Initially, Emily simply wished to connect with some old friends online… and then, she wanted to indulge in some escapism by chatting with an anonymous stranger using her daughter’s pictures. She ends up attracting the attention of a full-fledged Yandere… and by the time he gets creepy enough for her to break off the conversation, it’s too late.
- Wham Episode: The episode ends with Lilly getting shot and sent to the ER in critical condition.
- Would Hurt a Child: Ed has a long list of despicable actions to his name, but one of the worst was deliberately shooting Kim’s younger brother Stewart AFTER he killed their parents, supposedly because he’d contributed to making Kim miserable.
