As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- In spite of being raised by an emotionally abusive misogynist father, Nick and Margo have had a close and loving bond all their lives. The events of the book - in particular, Margo finding out that Nick has cheated on his wife - not only strains their relationship, but strains it in ways that clearly brings to mind their upbringing. At one point, Nick notes that whenever Margo looks at him, part of her now sees "another worthless man taking up space," and whenever he looks at her, part of him now sees "another petty woman judging him."
- In the book, there's an absolutely devastating scene where, after finding out about Andi and the supposed pregnancy, Go reminds Nick of a game he'd play with their mother as a kid, where he'd ask if his mother would still love him if he did something terrible. Would she still love him if he robbed a bank, if he hit Go, if he killed someone? Then, Go says to Nick, "I'd still love you." When Nick, heartbroken, asks if she really believes he'd killed Amy, she simply responds, "I love you." As Nick puts it, something between them has died.
- Later, when Nick shows her the contents of the woodshed, Go thinks for a split second that Nick is confessing. Nick outright states in his narration that he would always hate Amy for that moment.
- Their relationship is particularly clear in the scene right near the end when Go is having a complete tearful breakdown as she realizes that as much as he hates her, part of Nick really does want to stay with Amy. Her shocked bafflement that her beloved brother does actually intend to "play house with that thing" rather than get the hell out as soon as it's safe is heartbreaking. That she follows it up with a Heartwarming Moment by promising to stand by him anyway does not detract from the tragedy.
- If you're willing to spare a little Sympathy for the Devil, the fact that Amy was initially fully willing to kill herself for the sake of her plan. While it is mostly a Spiteful Suicide to make sure Nick gets convicted, the way she's completely blasé and matter-of-fact about it is a pretty depressing look into her psyche, and how truly empty Amy's life is. Without her and Nick's "perfect" marriage, all she has to live for is punishing him—even if she has to die for it. She even admits to the reader that she's tired of living, and considers herself ready to join her unborn and stillborn older sisters. Being Evil Sucks, indeed.
- In the book, when Amy sees Nick on TV talking about how much he loves her, she realizes that she genuinely misses him and the early, happy days of their relationship. She then says that no one in her life that she's loved, besides Nick, has ever loved back her without an agenda—and the worst part is, it's kind of true. Her parents treated her like a product and Desi just wants to control her. And now, when Amy is finally in love with Nick again, we know he's just trying to lure her home so he can be exonerated. Amy really was desperately unhappy, and was never happy except for the days when she and Nick had the perfect relationship. It's pretty easy to pity Amy in that moment, despite the Laser-Guided Karma.
- Desi may have been totally nuts, but he just looks so shocked and terrified when Amy kills him. It's hard not to feel bad for the poor guy, especially considering he didn't just die right away, but instead bled out (for about a minute, according to Amy in the book), staring Amy right in face as she watched him die in cold blood. As Nick puts it in the book, "A minute is a long time to know you're about to die."
- The reason Nick's father's (blue) house is called "the brown house" by Amy and Nick. When Nick was a child, he used to pretend that the reason his father never saw him and Go and rarely called them was because he was really a secret agent named Mr. Brown that had to pretend he didn't have a family. In his narration, Nick mentions Amy actually tearing up when she hears this story. It's somehow made worse when Nick says he didn't intend for it to be a sad story when he told her — he meant it as a "kids are weird" story, and didn't realize just how sad it was until he told someone else.
- The fact that, out of everything, what really breaks Nick's heart is the realization that Amy was never pregnant, and just made that up as part of the scheme. In spite of all Amy did to him, he genuinely wanted that kid. It's hard not to pity him a little in that moment.
- It's implied that Nick sees Rand as a Parental Substitute, with Go at one point cracking that Nick is jealous that his "father figure" is paying attention to someone else, which Nick admits is true. This bond too is severed when the Elliots come to believe that Nick murdered Amy.
