His phone buzzed. A text from his brother: “You coming to Mom’s for Easter or what?”

That hit Sam harder than it should have.

He thought about Doug’s face in the trilogy. In Hangover , he’s the reason they all meet — the golden boy on the rooftop, soon to be married. Then he vanishes for 90% of the movie, stuck on a mattress in the Vegas heat while his friends accidentally adopt a tiger. In Hangover 2 , Doug is barely there — a video call, a cameo. By Part III , he’s not even comic relief. He’s a plot coupon. A human MacGuffin.