Best action TV plot holes of all time

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GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka picture

Show generally

Plot hole: During the episode "Superstition", Onizuka thinks he has cancer because the magnetic pain-pads he was wearing created strange blobs in the X-Ray he has taken. However, given the fact that the X-Ray was so strange, doctors would have given him a complete physical, and noticed the pads much sooner. Here, they literally just assume he has tumors, and fail to ever take notice of the pads. Simply impossible, given the gravity of the situation. (Obviously, this is to pay off at the very end of the episode.)

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Secret Invasion picture

Season 1 generally

Plot hole: The Skrull base is inside an abandoned nuclear power plant with enough radioactivity to force any human (like, say, Nick Fury) to constantly pop iodine pills to fight the symptoms of a poisoning that would kill them in less than half an hour. Despite that, Skrulls also detain prisoners, for years in some cases, in rudimentary shackles without any sort of shield or protection against the radiation.

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Iodine pills don't fight the symptoms of radiation poisoning; they prevent the body from absorbing radioactive iodine. It does not protect from exposure to radiation; it won't save you from it. Secondly, it's all an act by Gi'Ah posing as Fury anyway. Thirdly, they are in the reactor control room where Gravik says the radiation is higher. The prisoners are in a low radiation room, which could be extra shielded from radiation. It could also be that the prisoners are fed iodine to block radioactive iodine.

lionhead

We can make up if we want that there's a special, super-secret anti-radiation serum and/or super-effective shielding, helping humans even during an exposure that lasts years (a decade in the case of Rhodey!), but there has to be something in the actual visuals that remotely hints at it. It's hard to headcanon that the dingy area of the plant where they are racked together, strapped to bed nets behind tarps, can be "low radiation", or that they are given anything to counter it. In particular, in the ending, the rescued people leisurely walk around the plant with zero radiation protection, even casually in the open yard where "Fury's" Geiger counter was going mad earlier. And the radiation was not something induced by the Skrulls that just ended when the baddie died. Not only is there no techno-babble justification (one could argue it's simply a pedantic detail not unlike the lack of hair growth or muscle atrophy), there's a direct flagrant contradiction in how the environment of the location - which is the only reason why they picked that site as a base - is deadly to humans only to a dramatic degree only when it's convenient.

Sammo

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The Flash picture

Revenge of the Rogues - S1-E10

Plot hole: During the fight at sundown, Cold gets a hit on Flash and he goes down. Eddie takes a shield and goes to help. But Flash was in the middle of the street with no obstacles around, and it's implausible that Eddie could have gotten to him without Cold or Heat seeing him.

Knever

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Lupin III picture

The Sharpshooter - S1-E4

Plot hole: Eric is supposedly masterful at putting people into a coma, creating the 'living dead', but the old geezer was able to drag himself to the hospital without help and perfectly conscious (he is even conscious on the operating table!).

Sammo

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Power Rangers Samurai picture

The Team Unites - S1-E1

Plot hole: This was the first episode of the series and we see that the rangers are unable to figure out how to properly operate their zords; but in Origins Part 1 (which takes place prior to this) they have no issues with the zords at all.

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Lupin the 3rd picture

Farewell My Beloved Witch - S1-E3

Plot hole: Lupin was captured by chance, and he did not plan for that, nor he seemed to have previous knowledge of Stern's appearance, but he escapes regardless using a Mission Impossible-like perfect mask of him. He also somehow kept his own blazer, tie and shoes underneath the uniform and boots he stole and wore. (00:16:00)

Sammo

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Saint Seiya picture

Cygnus! Hyogen no senshi - S1-E3

Plot hole: The tide of the fight turns when Hyoga revealed that he was never affected by Hydra's poison because nothing can break the defenses of his Cloth. But the claws DO make huge holes, that are then nowhere to be seen by the end of the episode, and yet, a plot point from later in the series, Cloths do not have self repairing abilities - not at that time of the series at least.

Sammo

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Superman picture

The Mad Scientist - S1-E1

Plot hole: The Mad Scientist's lair is on the top of a tall pointy mountain with no real flat areas. But Lois is somehow able to land her 1930's-1940's era propeller plane on the top of this mountain with no runways or flats for her to come to a stop on from flying. Which is physically impossible. (00:04:45)

Quantom X

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Suggested correction: He recognized that there were two Tony Starks in the lobby by the smell of their colognes, and combined with all the other unusual shenanigans going on, he correctly deduced the Avengers travelled through time, though he incorrectly thought it was to prevent his ascendancy.

Phaneron

How exactly do you distinguish the smell of cologne as belonging to two separate people? But besides that, it's pretty wild to jump to a conclusion about time travel when it could be that someone else happens to be wearing Axe.

auroraSLAP

I'm sure he simply recognized his voice.

lionhead

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Kindaichi shônen no jiken bo picture

Hida Mechanical Mansion Murder Case: File 3 - S1-E20

Plot hole: The plot is based on the fact that a certain character was disguised as the presumed first victim. At the same time, the two characters have a different body type (otherwise the gap in the window would be obviously too small), so the turn of events does not make sense. Moreover, supposedly the victim suffered serious burns in a fire, which would be absent in the corpse.

Sammo

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Jonny Quest picture

Pursuit of the Po-Ho - S1-E4

Plot hole: Dr. Quest is speaking through the Dragonfly's speakers to the Po-Hos as they fly over the jungle, telling them he is their air God and is angry the tribe has taken hostages. Quest could have told the Po-Hos to just release the hostages, rather than putting himself in danger later on by getting captured.

Scott215

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Andromeda picture

Show generally

Plot hole: The way slipstream works is wildly inconsistent across the show. Sometimes, they have to travel a significant distance to find the nearest slip point, and other times, when it's required by the plot, there's a slip point conveniently right next to the ship.

wizard_of_gore

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: How is this a mistake? Unless the points are evenly distributed and all close to each other, they are going to be different distances away.

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Black Lightning picture

The Book of Blood: Chapter Two: The Perdi - S2-E6

Plot hole: When announcing the 14 deaths, they make a generic statement to the friends and family of everyone in the pods, without first telling the affected families directly?! There's no way this would be dealt with like that - not least as they all then seem shocked that the parents start a riot/panic about whether their children are dead or not. Anyone with half a brain cell would have seen that coming a mile off. Not to mention that later on we discover one of the parents STILL hasn't been told if his daughter's alive or not. If this was a coverup or otherwise secret they wouldn't have said anything - there's no reason to announce the deaths but not clarify who died.

Jon Sandys

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The New Batman Adventures picture

Beware the Creeper - S2-E10

Plot hole: During Ryder's report, as Bruce and company watch it on TV, the camera suddenly zooms in on Joker standing on a catwalk above Ryder, and none of the crew, especially not the camera man who caught the villain, makes a comment about this. They may have thought the Joker (or rather an impersonator) was perhaps a surprise gag in the show, but since this is supposed to be a serious documentary report, it is still strange that they wouldn't point it out.

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SEAL Team picture

Shockwave - S4-E4

Plot hole: In episode 3 Ray and a CIA agent meet a US Ambassador to Tunisia to discuss placing a Seal team in Tunisia to combat the recent wave of terrorist bombings. The Ambassador was against boots on the ground. In episode 4 when Bravo team arrives to find captured Ray, they land at an airbase in Tunisia and enter a portable type building, on the wall of said building are US Military patches such as 82nd Airborne. Did the ambassador forget America has portables there for their troops?

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Ranma ½ picture

Hone made aishite? Akane koi o fukuzatsu kossetsu - S1-E5

Plot hole: Dr. Tofu is able to tell that Ranma was hit by a softball (he says something about the marks like he actually sees them), but Ranma's wound is still covered by the bandage, that he'll remove in the next episode. This is linked to a larger mistake in the following episode. (00:19:55)

Sammo

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Mr. Sunshine picture

Episode #1.20 - S1-E20

Plot hole: At the end of the previous episode, Ms. Haman is shot by a Japanese soldier. The shot is severe enough to make her collapse to the ground and fall unconscious. But in this episode, she appears perfectly fine without any sign of being shot, and without any injury in sight. (00:07:30)

Casual Person

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Martial Law picture

Deathfist 5: Major Crimes Unit - S2-E15

Plot hole: The whole case is solved because of astronomical coincidences, since the culprit is someone related to the actor, who is teaming up with the investigators for an entirely unrelated reason. Los Angeles is kinda too big for this sort of 'coincidence'. Moreover, had they committed the crime any other day (there was no particular reason) there would have been no connection.

Sammo

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