Due to the plot of Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony coinciding with this game, Late Arrival Spoilers for both games will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The Almighty forgives. The Lost don't.
"A brother might stab you in the back - a woman certainly will... but a bike will never let you down."
—Johnny Klebitz
Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned, released on 17 February 2009, is the first of the two Episodes from Liberty City DLC expansion packs made for Grand Theft Auto IV (the second being The Ballad of Gay Tony).
The story focuses on Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of The Lost Motorcycle Club. He has been the club's unofficial leader ever since their President, Billy Grey, was put in court-mandated drug rehabilitation, and has forged a truce with their arch-rival, the Angels of Death. The game begins with Billy being released from rehab, resuming his leadership position and creating tension with Johnny by trying to resume the war with the Angels of Death.
Since Johnny is an experienced biker, he can actually stay on his bike (and survive crashes) at speeds faster than walking (something Niko in GTA IV is notoriously bad at), although his corresponding dislike of cars means his four-wheel skills aren't as fancy as Niko's. He seems to have no trouble flying helicopters, though, despite his canonical lack of experience with aircraft.
TLAD is also the first GTA game to feature full-frontal nudity. Male nudity. Take that, Jack Thompson.
The game is available either online through PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, requiring a copy of GTAIV, or as retail packed with Gay Tony in the Episodes from Liberty City two-pack, which is a standalone game. The Steam version was also part of the standalone EFLC pack, but both the vanilla game and the Episodes were combined into one single game as the Complete Edition in 2020.
The Almighty forgives, the Tropes don't:
- Acoustic License: You frequently participate in conversations with your fellow gang members while cruising down major roads and even highways on motorcycles. They're not even yelling at the top of their lungs. In real life, the noise of the motorcycles plus the wind would make this impossible.
- Johnny even lampshades this as a comeback to one of Brian's insults during the first stage of the Action/Reaction mission.
- Affably Evil: Despite the crimes he commits, Johnny is very caring and responsible, and does what he does due to his extreme loyalty towards the Lost MC. He also manages to make friendly conversations with his MC brothers.
- There's also his friend, Jim, who's by far the most friendly and likable member of the Lost.
- There's also Thomas Stubbs. A corrupt, yet genuinely nice individual, who proclaims himself to look out for those who help him and despite Johnny's dislike of him, does so at the end of the game when he reveals Billy's betrayal of the club and facilitates their attack on Alderney State Correctional Facility in order to end their former president.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: Downplayed and played straight with the Lost MC, which are a true "One Percenter" motorcycle club but are more akin in imagery and quotes to the real-life rivals of the Hells Angels, the Outlaws MC (The quote "The Almighty forgives, the Lost don't" is a direct paraphrase of an Outlaw saying). Then there's the Angels of Death, which play this trope straight and are Expies of Hells Angels.
- Ambiguously Brown: Jim
◊ looks like he is of Hispanic descent, though the issue of his ethnicity is never really answered. It is possible his appearance was based◊ on that of legendary Hells Angel Sonny Barger, who is ethnically Caucasian but looks very Hispanic. - Ambiguously Gay: Malc, maybe. The
Ho Yay between him and Johnny doesn't help. Key parts of this theory are the fact that he disparages women anytime they are brought up in conversation while also comparing Johnny and the Lost's attire to that of gay BDSM fetishists.- Also a contender is Brian who is mocked by Johnny for never having a girlfriend. In response, he states all the "hole" he needs is back at the clubhouse but it's left ambiguous if he's referring to the club's female groupies or his fellow MC members.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Compared to GTA IV:
- The game features mid-mission checkpoints so that if the player fails and has to redo the mission, he no longer has to replay entire missions, which often begin with a long driving sequence.
- It is possible to hang out with multiple friends at once, thus maintaining your relationships with all of them. Unlike GTA IV, where Niko could only hang out with 1 friend at a time, making maintaining all of his various friendships a time-consuming task.
- Given you're expected to spend more time than usual riding motorcycles, Johnny is noticeably more resistant than other protagonists to being knocked off the bikes when he crashes.
- Arbitrary Gun Power: As players who have had to reload saved games countless times after being slaughtered during gang war battles can attest, most of the bullet-shooting weapons are pretty weak — targets may often require half a clip before they die, making headshots an absolute must to win gang wars. Explosives are more effective, but even then it's not uncommon to hit someone with an RPG round, only to have them get up and attack. On the other hand, it only takes a few shotgun shots to set a vehicle on fire and make it explode. Firing automatic weapons in bursts becomes a necessity for accuracy especially with the Automatic 9mm Pistol that was added in this game.
- Artificial Stupidity: Don't even try to keep gang members alive. They'll just charge ahead of you full speed into a firefight and get shot to death within seconds, unless they manage to find a flaming car or some explosive barrels to take cover behind. The main character allies are smarter though and nigh-immortal to boot. Use both as cannon fodder and to attract gunfire (as well as police attention) away from you; you won't be penalized even as gang member bodies stack up like cordwood (there is a memorial wall in the clubhouse HQ that fills up as you do this, just for a little bit of guilt).
- Anti-Villain: Johnny goes on several killing sprees, to protect the ones he cares about. It's also implied by one of his conversations with Terry and Clay that he had too big of a heart to remain MC President, disparaging them for referring to him as "Prez" and states that he considers all the brothers of the club as equals.
- Anti-Hero: Goes without saying. Furthermore, given that Johnny is the most established among the three IV-era protagonists in Liberty City's underworld, and makes absolutely no attempt to leave it, this borders on Villain Protagonist.
- Anyone Can Die : Let’s see, Billy, Brian, Jason, Jim & the rest of the brothers are dead, only the Lost members remaining are Johnny, Terry, Clay & Angus. Johnny, Ashley, Terry & Clay are killed by Trevor five years later. Angus is probably the only one for the Alderney chapter that’s still alive.
- Assassin Outclassin': This is the objective of one mission after Ray Boccino puts out a hit on Johnny. Calling Terry and Clay for backup in this mission causes them to set up an ambush for you to lure the would-be assassins into.
- There are several other missions in which calling backup actually changes the outcome of the mission through no effort of the player. One of which will prevent Brian's random encounter after said mission because calling for backup leads to Clay and Terry massacring the splinter group of the Lost after Johnny lobs a grenade through their safehouse's second-story window, instead of Johnny shooting his way through the house instead and being given the choice to spare Brian.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Malc's Double T Custom and DeSean's Hakuchou Custom are a pair of unique bikes that you can only nab in certain missions. They both come with snazzy paint jobs, extended swing-arms, and the fastest top speeds for a bike in the GTA IV era. They also fishtail like drag cars and have turning circles that can be matched by most SUVs. All of this is actually acknowledged on the Uptown Riders' in-game website.
- Even if you get the hang of these bikes' poor turning abilities they are so scarce and valuable you won't use them much in anything.
- It isn't motorcycle-related, but the grenade launcher also qualifies for this trope. While grenades launched can go farther and you can carry more grenades than rockets the accuracy is poor due to the wonky physics of the grenade, the grenades don't explode on contact with anything, they take too long to explode (7 seconds starting from the launch) and they let out smoke which lets your enemies know where the bomb is which AI-controlled enemies will actually take notice of and run and finally the loud noise the weapon makes when firing further detriments it in multiplayer. It did however get buffed in Ballad with a shortened fuse and contact explosions if a person or vehicle is hit, making it a better choice there.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Subverted. Johnny's promotion to President is a Field Promotion of the worst type, and fractures the Lost in two.
- Ax-Crazy: Billy Grey...
- Clay also counts, although as an ally, given he states during Gang Wars how excited he is to, quote, "fuck shit up" and will state while hanging out that he's "tweaking his face off".
- Badass Army: The Lost MC already consists of a couple One Man Armies, which together makes them unstoppable.
- Badass Biker: Johnny and his brothers in the Lost MC.
- Also the registers as the Player Image statistic if the player's preferred vehicle is the "Hexer" or any of the fictitious American motorcycles in TLAD.
- Bad Guy Bar: The clubhouse, which is also your save point.
- One mission involves you going to the Angels of Death clubhouse, which serves as this for the opposing gang, and wiping out everyone present before stealing a shipment of heroin from the basement.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Do not expect a happy ending with this one.
- Billy Grey. While he is killed by Johnny, the damage he caused was so irreversible to everyone in his gang that nothing was ever the same again. He caused both, directly and indirectly, all the problems that led the Lost MC to its eventual defeat, and this domino effect is still seen five years later...
- Likewise, Ray Boccino gets away with Jim's torture and murder. He seems to be a Karma Houdini, until he's eventually killed by Niko in GTA IV.
- Brian may have been killed by either Johnny or Clay and Terry but his sycophantic worship of Billy and distrust of Johnny contributed to the Lost's Alderney chapter disintegrating.
- Big Applesauce: The game takes place primarily in Alderney and Liberty City, which are based on New Jersey and New York City, respectively.
- Big Bad Friend: Billy Grey
- Bookends: The first and last cutscenes of the main story each have a scene where the crew rolls Angus out of the clubhouse. However, in the later cutscene there are significantly fewer members following and the clubhouse is in flames by the end of it.
- Boring, but Practical: The Bati 800 is this compared to the other new sports bikes since it has the lowest top speed and the most generic design compared to the Double T and the Hakuchou. However, it has the best handling of all sports bikes in the game, good acceleration and it's easy to get (spawns at safehouses after a small and easy sidequest that shouldn't take more than an hour).
- Brooklyn Rage: A lot of characters qualify for this trope, considering the setting, particularly many of the rival gang members the Lost go up against. The Lost themselves, however, do not quite qualify. See Joisey below.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Brian serves as this to Billy for the brief time Billy's club president anyway. Given that over the course of the story, he's been noted to run away from fights, this may overlap with Cowardly Sidekick.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Congressman Stubbs, all the way.
- BILLY GREY. The man spikes an unwitting prospect's bowl of cannabis with mescaline, brags to his second-in-command that he slept with his ex-girlfriend, sets the same man up to be killed, and then attempts to sell out his entire motorcycle club to the federal government while being arguably worse than the lot of them.
- Celibate Hero: Johnny qualifies in-cutscene and inasmuch as a protagonist of a game that allows you to hire prostitutes can be considered as such. Compared to the other IV-era protagonists, Johnny gets involved in no notable romantic or sexual attachments over the course of the story, and repeatedly rejects Ashley's advances. As if to emphasize this, the episode lacks the Dating Sim-type mechanic seen in the main game, with Johnny only being able to engage with dancers at the various strip clubs and prostitutes if he's driving a 4-wheeled vehicle.
- Chekhov's Gun: Roman's Taxi Company's phone number note is given away in a cutscene, and this can speed up a later mission.
- Civil War: The Lost have one after Johnny becomes president.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Of course. But most notably, during combat, Johnny may scream "Fuck you! Fuck you, fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you!"
- Collection Sidequest: Angus's bike thefts.
- The DLC also has its own unique set of flying rats (seagulls in this game instead of pigeons) that need to be exterminated, like in GTA IV.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All the main characters have uniquely colored bikes; Johnny has a white and blue one, contrasting Billy's black and Brian's red bikes, and Jim has a black and red one to match Johnny's. Clay, Terry, and Jason each have differently colored bikes as well, in colors of purple, blue, and magenta. Additionally, Malc's and DeSean's bikes are green and orange (possibly to signify their removal from the Lost and Angels of Death conflict).
- Continuity Snarl: Where to begin?
- For one, the beginning of the game. The game suggests the story took place a few days after Niko's arrival to Liberty City, which is supported with Jason is well and alive, and goes off on his own to see Faustin's daughter. And then dies once word got out that he was killed by Niko. However, The Lost are able to travel to the main and smaller islands whereas Niko is unable to travel to those islands until the progress requires it. In fact, the opening mission even involves traveling from Alderney to Bohan. This may be explained by Niko being an illegal immigrant and Jason and other Lost members being US citizens, but it isn't elaborated much in-game other than a mention by Roman in the introductory mission about a terrorist threat.
- Elizabeta's missions are another source of this: Johnny is able to do her missions just fine, and then if you see Ashley, then Elizabeta, something is off: For once, Roman's kidnapping occurs once Niko meets the rest of the McReary family and finishes her missions. Johnny is able to see her after Billy gets arrested, and then has to bail Ashley out by kidnapping Roman.For extra context
- TLAD had a big flaw with how they set up the mission "Roman's Holiday". It was set up at a point late in Johnny's story, which would basically force Niko to hold off on starting Playboy X's missions (the second of which is the trigger for "Hostile Negotiation", which is the companion mission to "Roman's Holiday") until later in the game. It's still possible to make it work chronologically, but it throws off the narrative of Niko's story by forcing him to do missions later in the game when it would make more sense and flow better if he did them early.
- Cool Bike:
- Given its subject matter, it's no surprise the game's selection of new bikes embodies this trope. Honorable mentions go to Johnny's "one-of-a-kind" Hexer, Billy's Revenant, Malc's Double T Custom, and DeSean's Hakuchou Custom.
- Inverted somewhat by the NRG 900, which is considered the most powerful bike in GTA IV, but is shown to be virtually useless in the DLC, given its tendency to spinout and its poor turning ability, both of which manifest themselves in the DLC's racing side missions.
- Given its subject matter, it's no surprise the game's selection of new bikes embodies this trope. Honorable mentions go to Johnny's "one-of-a-kind" Hexer
- Corrupt Politician: Congressman Thomas Stubbs III. Various jobs Johnny performs for him include assassinating the man's uncle so that Stubbs gets his estate via inheritance and freeing a Corrupt Corporate Executive friend of Stubbs from police custody and securing their escape from the US.
- Darker and Edgier: While Grand Theft Auto IV was this to the previous games, The Lost and Damned is even darker, with a grittier, more squalid tone and less funny moments overall. It's also literally darker: a grainy filter is placed over the whole game, which can be toggled in the Display options menu. Even with the filter turned off, the screen image still appears darker (even in broad daylight) and there also seems to be a greater incidence of clouds and rain than in GTAIV. The game takes on a borderline monochrome look whenever it starts getting cloudy.
- Dead Foot Leadfoot
- Deadpan Snarker: Johnny and Angus.
- Death Seeker: A lot of Johnny's quotes whilst gunfighting, aside from the regular Trash Talk variety, seem to indicate he's one; screaming "I JUST WANNA DIE " at the top of his lungs is an obvious hint. Ripping off one of Liberty City's mafiosi with little regard for the possible repercussions may also lend credence to this.
- Democracy Is Bad: While the ineptness and corruption of the American government have long since been elements of the GTA series' settings, these become an overarching theme in this episode when the Lost realize their Mob War with the Angels Of Death is a much smaller problem compared to the threat they face from the authorities:
- Johnny and the Lost are blackmailed by a Corrupt Politician into committing acts of violence to further his campaign goals, as personal favors for his colleagues, or for profit. Although in a variation of the typical blackmail tropes, the politician is not the one orchestrating the threat leveraged against the characters being blackmailed, instead taking advantage of the fact that he can stifle said threat in exchange for the protagonist's aid.
- Police and government surveillance is a large concern for much of the game, though it makes sense to monitor the activities of a criminal organization like the Lost. However, Johnny later participates in a scheme orchestrated by Stubbs involving a bug planted on the Deputy Mayor's sports car in order to out the man as gay. This the very same car that was given to Niko in GTA IV.
- Aside from Dirty Cops and the Angels of Death, police informants and criminals who become state witnesses are presented as the lowest of the low from the Lost's perspective, and the club is almost ended when their former leader Billy Grey decides to testify against it.
- Johnny and his friends in the Lost are portrayed as suspicious, disappointed, and angry at the government and law enforcement, and given much of what they experience over the course of the game, rightfully so. They justify their existence as criminals by believing it a proper response to their living condition.
- Terry can at one point while hanging out declare that federal witnesses became irrelevant at the turn of the century now that the federal government can wiretap any phonecall or read any text message.
- Dirty Cop: One of Jim's missions has you luring some into an ambush and killing them with the help of the club.
- Disabled Snarker: Angus' paralysis, which he got in a biking accident, has led him to become even more bitter and cynical than his fellow brothers in the Lost already are, particularly at the man he considers responsible for it. Incidentally, that man is Billy Grey.
- Distracted from Death: Jim gets killed off-screen because Johnny was occupied while fending off threats to his life. Niko kills Jim on-screen in the main plot, during the mission when he chases two Lost bikers down the subway tracks. When Rockstar made TLaD, they updated Jim's character model to match his voice, but failed to do so in the main plot mission.
- Downer Ending: Most of the Lost are killed in the civil war with Brian Jeremy's faction following Billy's arrest; Jim is killed either by Niko or a train in a GTA IV mission, offscreen in the episode; Johnny and the club gun their way into the prison and kill Billy for attempting to turn states' evidence; the Lost breaks up for good afterwards and the final cutscene is the remaining members (Johnny, Clay, Terry & Angus) burning the clubhouse to the ground. There is no alternate ending. The follow-up phone calls aren't exactly upbeat, either; Ashley, despite hinting she would go to rehab, asks Johnny to loan her $40; Johnny announces his plans to leave the club behind and provide for Jim's widow and daughter to Angus; and Johnny finally ends his professional relationship with Congressman Stubbs . And on top of it all, the only safe house left for Johnny to live in is a run-down house that doesn't even have a TV (never mind sexy biker chick dancers performing).
- Downloadable Content: It is, but can also be bought retail.
- End of an Age: Johnny is constantly reminded (in a friendly way by Malc, and a not-so-friendly way by others) that his entire lifestyle is at least 40 years out of date. By the story's end, all-American biker gangs, at least in Liberty City, seem to be gone for good, with the Angels Of Death MC being slaughtered by the Lost over the course of the story, and the Lost themselves being lost forever. It gets even worse when in Grand Theft Auto V we are shown what has happened to them 5 years later. Their leader is a shell of his former self thanks to his Meth addiction, and the Gang, while still showing growth from where it was at the end of the game is in an even more sorry state.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Lost, especially compared to the Angels of Death.
- Face–Heel Turn: Brian and half of the Lost MC turn on Johnny after Billy's arrested (again) and Johnny steps up as chapter president. Meanwhile, while he's behind bars (again), Billy has his own turn when he connives with the FIB to testify against the Lost.
- Face Death with Dignity: Billy Grey remains calm when Johnny finally reaches him and readies himself for the bullet.
- Faux Affably Evil: Ray Boccino describes Ashley as a "good kid" who needs to get off the ice to Johnny, but only hints that their relationship is more than "friends". After Johnny is captured by Ray, he explicitly goes out of his way to rub it in Johnny's face.
"' I fucked Ashley, my friend, and now I'm gonna fuck you! '"
- Final Speech: Lampshaded by Billy Grey, who taunts "What, are you waiting for a speech or something?" before you kill him.
- Foregone Conclusion: I wonder whatever happened to that fat Slavic guy Johnny and Malc kidnapped?
- It shouldn't come as a surprise when Jason turns up dead. You know, the biker banging some Russian chick, who Niko was told to kill in the main game?
- Also discussed in-game. When Johnny talks about his problems concerning Ray Boccino to Congressman Stubbs, Stubbs tells him not to worry, predicting that Ray would either be dead or in jail within a month.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: Also a Deadly Distant Finale. In Grand Theft Auto V, Johnny, Terry, Clay, and the chapter's remaining members have fled to Blaine County and grew addicted to meth supplied by Trevor Philips. Ashley got back together with Johnny but is screwing Trevor for their fixes. When Johnny confronts Trevor over it, he is unable to fight, broken by the years of drug abuse. Trevor proceeds to stomp Johnny's head in and slaughter the rest of the chapter in retaliation. Ashley can either be killed as she weeps over Johnny's body, or spared. If spared, she is later found dead at a crack orgy.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- Involving the memorial wall in the Lost MC clubhouse. Once you've fought so many gang wars and other violent battles that you got more Lost MC club members killed than the wall can handle (and the game actually has to start recycling club members since you've got them all killed), the game will freeze and shut down whenever you approach the memorial wall. Which means you can no longer take the stairs to go from the ground floor to the first floor, or vice-versa. If you still want to access the top floors, you have to get your hands on a helicopter and enter through the door on the roof.
- On the PC version, both this and the second expansion pack that had a bug that requires the player to use their cellphone during missions. The characters will try to call a specific person only for them to hang up and call them again repeatedly, which makes them difficult to finish said missions. One of the few ways of preventing this bug if using a trainer is by displaying messages at 0 in order to get the phone working properly.
- Grenade Launcher: The HK69 makes its GTA-series debut when Billy gives Johnny one to lay siege to the AOD clubhouse. Admittedly, it is of limited use considering that its grenades aren't contact explosives.
- Henpecked Husband: Jim considers himself one, and though, underneath it all, he genuinely loves his wife, his friends in the Lost MC (none of whom have settled down with someone) never stop giving him shit about it.
- Homeless Hero: While other GTA protagonists have a house or apartment to serve as a safehouse and place to sleep, the closest thing Johnny has to a home is the storeroom of the Lost MC clubhouse.
- Semi-averted but also partially played straight later in the story when Johnny gains a safehouse further to the south of Alderney that is little more than a run-down squatters den with power and a heater, but is justified in that the place was already trashed by Brian's splinter-group of Lost that were holed up there before either Johnny or Clay and Terry massacred them, and the mission that rewards you with it involves you either blasting your way through the house or tossing explosives through the second-story window to funnel the occupants out the back door into a kill-zone. Story aside, compared to the clubhouse, the house is a serious downgrade; no TV, no computer, no mini-games, and no occupants other than Johnny. The only holdovers are the weapon spawns earned from Gang Wars and bike spawns outside, although the house seems to only spawn sport bikes in the yard as opposed to the clubhouse having both choppers and sport bikes. Johnny's custom Hexer will spawn at either, however
- Honor Among Thieves: The Lost pride themselves on their sense of brotherhood, and thus, they pretty much consider there to be a special place in hell for brothers who turn snitch. Billy Grey found this out the hard way.
- Honor Before Reason: The shortsightedness of this virtue is a large theme in the game, best seen in Johnny's willingness to help out Ashley because of their past and her affiliation with the Lost inadvertently triggering the chain of events that would lead to Jim's death. This is painfully emphasized when Angus emails Johnny after the clubhouse is burned down at the end of the game, to "End the charade that this gang means anything".
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Johnny serves as this to Billy.
- I Gave My Word: For all his cheerful amorality, Stubbs does indeed remember those who've helped him when he tells Johnny about Billy's betrayal and where to find him.Johnny Klebitz: Hey, one more thing, Stubbs. Why're you doin' this?
Congressman Thomas Stubbs III: I told you I was good for a favor. - Informed Judaism: Johnny mentions that he is of Jewish descent and is repeatedly heckled and discriminated against by Billy and Brian for it, but isn't shown adhering to their practices. His bike's gas tank does have the colors of the Israeli flag, though.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Johnny and Terry are both in their early thirties, while Jim and Clay are both over a decade older than either of them (Clay is actually twenty years older than Terry).
- Joisey: The game focuses on the Alderney chapter of The Lost MC, and much of the action is centered there. There is, however, a Broker chapter to the Lost, and Johnny calls on their aid to steal some diamonds from Gay Tony.
- Karma Houdini: A rather unique example: one of Thomas Stubbs' optional jobs for Johnny is to help a greedy CEO become one of these. Johnny isn't happy about it.
- Kavorka Man: Clay is an aging Army veteran and all-around Scary Black Man. He also unfailingly mentions his latest sexual conquest to the group every time they hang out. On one occasion, he actually laments not being able to get back together with a girl he likes because she's in the Angels of Death.
- Let the Past Burn: At the end, Johnny and his fellow gang members burn down the gang's clubhouse. Considering that they've just killed the gang leader Billy for attempting to turn states' evidence, it can be seen as a symbol of the gang dissolving for good.
- Limited Wardrobe: Possibly the first time this has been played straight in the series' Third-Person Shooter games since III. Johnny wears his gang colors and the same old ratty jeans and boots for the entire game. However, attentive players can find a subtle change to Johnny's jacket at a point in the story wherein a patch changes from "Vice President" to "President". Emphasized by the fact Liberty City's various clothing stores, accessible during GTA IV, are inaccessible during TLAD.
- MacGuffin: The bag of diamonds and a shipment of heroin, which drive part of the plot of all three GTA IV games.
- Male Frontal Nudity: First cutscene with Congressman Stubbs. At first, it appears that the genitalia would remain an off-camera Discretion Shot before subverting that.
- The Millstone: Ashley Butler, Johnny's meth-addicted ex-girlfriend, is constantly trying to force herself back into Johnny's life even though he wants nothing to do with her anymore. Her large debt to Russian mobsters is what forces Johnny to kidnap Roman, and her relationship with Ray Boccino leads to Johnny's involvement in the ill-fated diamond deal, making her indirectly responsible for the death of Johnny's best friend, Jim. The game ends with Johnny swearing off contact with her in a final phone call.
- Mirroring Factions: The Lost MC and the rest of society, even though the Lost claim to be more about independence and freedom. For a one-percent biker gang, the Lost seem to have an awful lot of protocol: bikers have to ride in a strict formation, they can only call for certain degrees of firefight support if they're the President, and so on. This is even discussed in the opening cutscene of "Off Route," when Johnny is asked if fighting "The Man" has made him any happier. Johnny's response?Johnny: There's always a man. He just wears a different uniform.
- Mob War: A gameplay mechanic, as seen in the Gang Warfare minigame. After Billy Grey is incarcerated again, Johnny resumes the Lost's war with the the Angels Of Death anyway, and sparks new conflicts with many more of the city's criminal organizations.
- More Dakka: "Shifting Weight". Johnny rides on the back of a motorcycle, firing an unlimited-ammo, rapid-fire street sweeper shotgun that absolutely demolishes the pursuing police cars.
- Moving-Away Ending: After completing the main story and killing their former president, Billy Grey, Johnny, Terry, Clay and Angus return to the Lost MC Clubhouse to find it ransacked while they were gone. With everything destroyed beyond repair, the four take a brief moment to reminisce and remember the Club's glory days, before Johnny tells Terry to "put the place out of its misery". Johnny, Angus and Clay leave the clubhouse while Terry douses it with gasoline and sets the building on fire, before joining the others outside. The remaining members of the Alderney Chapter watch on as the clubhouse burns to the ground. Years later, the remnants of the gang travel to San Andreas, where they finally meet their ends.
- Ms. Fanservice: Aside from the stock strippers and hookers (common to all three GTA IV games), the Lost MC clubhouse also on occasion has scantly clad biker chicks pole-dancing.
- Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: In contrast to the Angels of Death and even the Lost, the Uptown Riders do not quite fit the "One-Percenter" vibe the other gangs do. They don't deal drugs or otherwise make a majority of their profit through illicit means; the extent of their criminal activity is limited to acting as muscle for other gangs basically as favors or participating in presumably illegal street races which involve baseball bats being used for an advantage.
- Not-So-Abandoned Building: The game's other save point besides the clubhouse, which you get from Brian after you dismantle his faction, and (possibly) kill him. It then becomes the only save point after you burn down the clubhouse at the game's end
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Angels of Death only consists of white members and their symbols contain many subtle and not-so-subtle references to Nazism. Their website claims they aren't racist, it's just that no "members of the inferior races" have ever passed the tests required to join their gang.
- Brian throws quite a few anti-Semitic slurs Johnny's way, and Billy refers to the Triad gangsters as "slopes". He also vaguely mentions being unable to tell Slavs apart when he calls Niko a "Polack".
- Pyrrhic Victory: Johnny slaying Billy's faction nearly wipes out the Lost.
- V reveals that Johnny moved the chapter's operations to Blaine County. This move allowed the club to go national, expand across the Midwest, and gain a significant presence that rivaled even their Glory Days before the events of the game; so significant, in fact, that it attracted the ire of Trevor Philips...
- Sawed-Off Shotgun: Johnny can fire one of these from his motorcycle.
- Semper Fi: Jim proudly recounts serving in the USMC, and by all accounts, it turned him into a pretty tough-as-nails guy, considering the Cold-Blooded Torture he endured on Johnny's behalf. Subverted, however in the Lost MC's founding membership, which was composed of Marines who had come home from The Vietnam War and hadn't had their fill of drugs and violence.
- Serial Killer: Curtis Stocker (aka the "Dine and Dash Killer"), who broke into homes and feasted on the internal organs of people.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In Grand Theft Auto V, Johnny is brutally murdered by one of the game's protagonists, Trevor, Ashley has become a meth head who is later reported to have also died of a drug overdose (assuming the player doesn't kill her after taking control of Trevor), and Trevor proceeds to whittle down the remaining members of the Lost MC, which makes everything Johnny did in this game for naught.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The episode's new loadout encourages you to use shotguns more often. Aside from the aforementioned Sawn-Off Shotgun, there's the Assault Shotgun, whose automatic fire allows you blow stuff across the room. You can't fire it from a motorcycle though, except during the mission "Shifting Weight" (See the Awesome page).
- Clay specifically prefers shotguns in combat and once fully upgraded in Gang Wars he will carry an Assault Shotgun
- Shout-Out: All on this page.
- Show Within a Show: Just as with GTA IV, players can watch an in-game TV network including complete episodes of shows like Republican Space Rangers. TLAD and its companion DLC, The Ballad of Gay Tony feature different TV episodes than those featured in GTA IV.
- Also like GTA IV, players can visit two live entertainment venues: a cabaret and a comedy club. New standup comedy material has been added for the DLC.
- Several hours' worth of new radio station content has also been added for the DLC.
- Smug Snake: Brian Jeremy and, as in the main game, Ray Boccino. Although he's slightly more competent here.
- Soul Brotha: This trope applies to the Uptown Riders' membership and overall image. They seem to gain most of their profit from
selling merchandise themed with their Hip-Hop-based branding. But for the most part, they're really just in it to share the thrill of motorbike racing; one of their items for sale (which can be seen on the in-game Internet) is an instructional video on stunts featuring Malc and DeSean.- Pimped Out Bike: The Uptown Riders' main choice of vehicle is a sportbike of Japanese or Italian make, tuned for drag racing and modified with extended swing-arms and custom wheels. Johnny derogatorily calls them "Jap scrap", "pussy-pads", or "hair dryers", even though these enhancements boost the bikes' top speed, because these have an adverse effect on handling. If you get on one, you'll find that for the most part, he's right.
- Spies In A Sport Sedan: Johnny and Jim quickly catch on that the Lost are under police surveillance when they spot some undercover cops in a high-performance pursuit car staking out a drop-off point for their stolen bikes. They later take advantage of the cops' conspicuousness when they easily spot the car parked across the clubhouse soon after and use the opportunity to lure the cops into an ambush.
- Stealth Pun: Terry is the Lost MC's Sergeant-At-Arms. Outside of club affairs, he's an Arms Dealer, from whom you can purchase weapons at discounted prices.
- The Stool Pigeon: This is what kicks off the finale of the game. After Billy's put behind bars once again for being caught in a botched drug deal, he decides to testify against the Lost in exchange for a pardon. Naturally, the Lost aren't pleased when they find out and break into prison to silence him.
- Those Two Guys: Terry and Clay.
- True Companions: The Lost MC are supposed to be this in theory. Johnny, Jim, Terry, Clay, and Angus are good examples, though.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: There is some between Johnny and drug mule Marta. Unfortunately, a language barrier and Elizabeta totally cockblock him. It's the closest thing to romance Johnny gets in this game (unless the player sends him out to pick up hookers).
- White-Collar Crime: One mission that Stubbs blackmails Johnny into doing involves him hijacking a prison transport containing some colleagues of Stubbs' who have been caught for their involvement in some manner of corporate fraud and setting them free.
- With This Herring: Averted — Johnny can buy some of Terry's gun stock at a significant discount from the start of the game onwards. He can also order bikes for free delivery from Clay.
- Further averted in the final mission, when Terry's "discount" increases to free. Time to stock up (after swearing to yourself for having spent money to stock up before triggering the mission).
- Yes-Man: Brian is such an ass kisser that even Billy's sick of it.
