”This is the most important part.”
Everything is most certainly not fine.Unmarked spoilers ahead!
- The whole dilemma with Winston. It’s clear that he’s been dead for a while (at least long enough for putrification to kick in, if the flies are an indicator), and the government policy means that Sam and Maggie can’t even properly mourn him and instead have to pretend he’s just being lazy. Eventually, Sam decides to deal with the situation by giving his corpse to a homeless person begging for food, and it’s clear through their body language and tone throughout the next few episodes that Sam and Maggie found it incredibly distressing.
- Maggie sitting on a playground bench all alone in the rain in Swings and Roundabouts. Not only is this an effective way to establish the neighborhood as a Childless Dystopia, it also shows just how much Maggie still misses her own daughter.
- Charlie’s unpersoning for having a Faraday Cage in his basement. He begs Officer Tom to give him any sort of mercy, even invoking the name of his daughter in a desperate attempt to earn sympathy, but Tom isn’t moved in the slightest.
- Bob and Linda being Forced to Watch as their children jump to their deaths. Not helped by their children's final words to them:
- Mom... I'm scared. But I'll be brave for him.
- If Charlie was any indication, this happens to any parent who gets set to Red-Status. And given that the government has seemingly set up a Stepford Suburbia, there’s probably a lot of them.
- Maggie finding Laura’s note. As she’s never going to be able to see her children again due to being the mayor of Lakeview and her husband becoming corrupt before being killed, she has nothing to live for and ends up taking her life.
