Season 1
- In "The Boy From 6B", it is revealed that Zoe's death was not caused by Oscar, but by Theo Dimas—on complete accident. At a party on the rooftop of the Arconia, Theo and Zoe were having a pleasant conversation that soon became a heated argument, leading Theo to accidentally push Zoe off the roof of the building. As Theo sees Zoe fall to her death, he runs back into the building to find Teddy, but when he finally does, he's crying too hard to explain what happened.
- "The Sting" opening with Charles frantically rushing his son to help a poisoned Winnie.
Season 2
- "The Last Day of Bunny Folger" is just that: Bunny's last day alive. It goes to show there's more than the Jerk with a Heart of Jerk that Bunny was presented as in Season One. She even repeatedly does nice things to various people throughout the episode, even the trio, who take her Pet the Dog moments with a grain of salt. As the trio record their findings investigating her final day, they still insist on their innocence but mournfully note that they could have perhaps saved her life by inviting Bunny to their victory party. Truly a depressing episode.
- Theo and Teddy's argument in "Here's Looking at You". Teddy furiously tries to tell Theo that he only wants the best for him and is looking out for him, but Theo retorts that Teddy's influence has ruined his life. Note that he says this out loud, his first line not in ASL, and he sounds damn close to tears. A heartbroken Teddy says, "I love you so much. You're all I care about in this world," only for Theo to leave. He then collapses in a chair and begins sobbing. Oliver is very shaken when he witnesses this, and for good reason.Oliver: It was like seeing Darth Vader take off his helmet. I'm still in a total state of shock, and I've never wanted to hug my son more.
- Mabel's Trauma Conga Line in "Performance Review." For starters, she's slandered on Cinda's podcast by a former coworker who claims she attacked him (when in reality she was dodging his inappropriate advances when he fell onto a meat slicer). When staking out the park with Charles and Oliver, Charles reveals that he's been speaking to Jan again, leaving Mabel feeling horribly betrayed and only able to say "she killed my friend" before walking home, brushing off Oliver's attempts to get her to talk about it. When she gets back to her apartment, she finds Alice and some of her friends in the middle of creating an art piece about Tim's and Bunny's murders, with Alice dressed as Mabel. Horrified, she runs to the subway...only to run into the figure in black (and Bunny's probable killer) the trio had glitter-bombed. She's then filmed stabbing them with her knitting needle when they approach her, showing that her reputation as "Bloody Mabel" won't be going away anytime soon. It's a horrible amount of trauma for an already-troubled person to go through, especially over the same 24 hours.
- In the midst of Mabel and Theo enjoying themselves at Coney Island, they find an Emerald Ring in a toy in the claw mechanism, which resembles the one Zoe was wearing the night she died, which ends up dampening the mood. Theo sadly remarks that he doesn't know whether he pushed her or whether she slipped that night, while Mabel admits that she still imagines seeing Zoe's corpse in front of the Arconia on a regular basis.
- As a child, Mabel was not told that her father was dying of stomach cancer, which led her to an angry outburst because he had to go back on his promise to trick-or-treat with her as Mulder and Scully. Throughout the course of the flashbacks he looks progressively sicker and she says that she figured out something was wrong but no one would tell her what until he was actually on his deathbed. Later, when he's moved to hospice care, he reaches out to her and it takes a long time for the audience to learn if she took his hand or not. The final flashback shows that she did, and their last scene together is her curled up on the hospital bed with him.
- Theo's sad expression watching Mabel reunite with Charles and Oliver emphasizes what a lonely life he's had. Though it concludes with a Hope Spot of Theo reaching out to Teddy.
- "Hello, Darkness" shows that even though Oliver is putting on a brave face, he is very traumatized by the prospect of finding out he is not his son's biological father.
- Howard is obviously very lonely apart from his cat, and has apparently never had a date. He finally plucks up the courage to invite over a guy he likes, and they hit it off... but the guy is allergic to cats. The poor guy is crushed. Luckily, the two manage to work it out, and his new date tells Howard not to get rid of his beloved pet on his account.
- Oliver lies to Charles and Mabel, saying he's actually Will's biological father after all, and decides not to tell Will the truth. His pained expression when he talks to Teddy about Will's true paternity makes it clear the revelation is tearing him up inside, and that losing Will would kill him.
- While her murder of Bunny and framing of the trio is indefensible, Becky Butler had a truly miserable life. She endured abuse at the hands of her father, despite her efforts to be a good daughter and take care of him, and was sexually harassed by her boss, the mayor of her small town. When she finally escaped and got a job working for her idol, said idol turned out to be a horrible person who treated her like dirt. Is it any wonder she snapped?
Season 3
- At Ben's funeral, Oliver corners a critic, desperate to keep the play going by having her reveal her review of the previews. She has to break it to him that, even if Ben hadn't died, she had found nothing worthwhile about the play, and she had written for it one of the most scathing reviews of her career. Oliver is so rocked to learn that what was supposed to be his big comeback would have failed no matter what, that he suffers a small heart attack.
- Charles confronts Ben on why he has an issue with him. Ben realizes Charles honestly doesn't remember that Ben's first ever acting job was on Brazzos but Charles didn't like him so got this eight-year-old fired. Ben rails that he never truly got over it and it's obvious how so many of his issues on ego and fame are driven by nearly having his dreams crushed at a young age. Charles tries to brush it off but later confesses to Mabel he's sorry he never made it right with Ben and the guilt on how he did something so horrible to a little kid.
- "CoBro" has several reminders of the human toll each case takes:
- The episode opens with Uma reminiscing about her friendship with Bunny, and how the two would frequently share lunches at the diner. It's eventually revealed that she often takes keepsakes from the people around her, as while people leave, the things they leave behind are there forever. When we cut back to the present, she's alone in her and Bunny's usual booth, still getting a plate for her half-sandwich as she'd done with Bunny.
- During a memorabilia auction at Ben's, Mabel tries to engage with Dickie about the possibility of foul play in Ben's death. He furiously cuts her off, accusing her of being just another person trying to capitalize off of Ben. While she is able to apologize and make things right with him, it's a sad reminder that at the center of all the intrigue there's still a man who's lost his only family.
- The two plot threads cross when Uma is revealed to be the one who took Ben's hanky; when Charles asks for it back she says she'd sold it to "one of the snake nerds upstairs". We later see Dickie, sitting alone on the floor of Ben's apartment, holding the hanky with tears in his eyes.
- While Charles and Oliver make up fairly quickly, it takes a little longer for them to figure out how to reach out to Mabel. When they go to her apartment, they're greeted by the new tenant, meaning Mabel left the building without a word to either of them, or any indication of where she's gone. As they recover from the shock, they both get notifications for a new podcast episode, where Mabel declares a "new era" of OMITB, leaving them even more hurt and confused.
- Loretta's entire backstory is one big tear jerker. She tries for decades to get her big break but it keeps eluding her. On top of that, she got pregnant at a young age and had to give up her son. She watches him grow up from afar and when she finally gets a chance to meet him, he turns out to be a suspect in a murder investigation.
- The ending to “Sitzprobe”. While Loretta rehearses her song (which happens to be about the Nanny trying to protect the triplets from the investigation), Detective Williams and two other officers move to arrest Dickie. Loretta stops the orchestra and confesses to the murder in front of the horrified cast, including Oliver (who had earlier not only told her he wouldn’t press her about the scrapbook, but confessed his love). The stress of the situation leads to him having another heart attack, this time in front of Mabel and Charles.
- During "Thirty" we see both sides of Ben's Jerkass Woobie-ness. We see him argue, yell and insult everyone around him... but also see him desperately trying to hold himself together and failing miserably. The conversation on Tobert's camera is also revealed to be Ben talking to a cookie given to him by Donna (and laced with rat poison, hence his collapse on stage) and that he was the one who wrote "FUCKING PIG" on his mirror in a fit of miserable self-loathing.
- The ending of the season. After years of "doing the hard things so Charles doesn't have to", Sazz enters his apartment while dressed like him, and is suddenly shot in the chest. With everyone else at the opening night party for Death Rattle Dazzle, Sazz bleeds out alone on the kitchen floor of Charles's apartment, struggling with her final moments to write something in her own blood. Most likely (although season 4 will reveal more) she died senselessly in a case of mistaken identity. It's a shocking and sudden ending.
