Getting Even - S4-E3
Plot hole: At the end of the episode, having conned Veronica Powell out of £600,000 - the purchase price of the house and contents they sold her - Danny taunts her by telling her that they did nothing wrong, implying that she has no legal recourse to recovering her money. He's wrong. One of the gang, Billy Bond, bids against her in the auction for the house, boosting her bid from £220,000 to her final offer of £600,000. Bond has no money and no access to any, and no assets that could be realised to cover the bids he made, something that would be easy for a lawyer to prove. It's called shill bidding and it is very illegal indeed. Since Bond and Ash Morgan (who gave Powell false information during the auction, spurring her on to bid against Bond) are both standing next to Danny when he makes his announcement I find it hard to believe that a shrewd, hard-hearted businesswoman like her would not realise that she had been conned and would not get her lawyers and the police on the case on the spot.
The Sinner and the Sandman - S5-E2
Plot hole: Ian Avery-Cooper loses his lottery ticket which is immediately picked up and appropriated by Leonard Corbyn. However, Avery-Cooper immediately reports the loss to the shopkeeper who sold him the ticket. All lottery sales staff are trained in what to do under these circumstances, because it happens a lot - they cancel the lost ticket and issue a new one. Since Avery-Cooper used the same numbers every week this would not pose a problem, but even if he didn't the ticket would be recorded on the seller's computers and could be precisely reconstructed. This would be even easier since Avery-Cooper reports the loss within a minute of it happening and we see that he has the receipt for the sale in his hand. Corbyn's stolen ticket would be worthless and Avery-Cooper would be able to claim his rightful winnings. If nothing else Ian could have simply bought another ticket with the same numbers.
Christmas Special: Part 2 - S3-E2
Plot hole: Lee and Dawn overstay their tourist visa in the US, then fly back to the UK for the Office Christmas party. They then get into a taxi to go out to the airport in order to return to the US. They're kidding themselves. As I know (to my cost) when you overstay a tourist visa, the US Immigration Service finds out when you check in at the airport on departure. They'll be refused reentry, and probably barred from entering the US for up to six years. (I got a three year ban.) Neither Lee nor Dawn could possibly be unaware of this nor think they could beat the system as they would have been arrested when they checked in in Florida on departure (as I was), and they would have remained in small holding cells until the paperwork banning their return had been processed and their passports stamped 'Invalid for U.S. Entry', as mine was. (All this takes about seventy two hours, so they'd have missed the Christmas party anyway.) The mistake is NOT that they were able to leave the USA - that is explained (it's still not possible, but in the context of the show and the suspension of disbelief we are meant to believe it) the mistake is that they are on the way back to the airport to return. That's absurd. They would have been under no illusions as to their banned status re reentry to the USA.
Plot hole: Columbo is in the Pauley's hotel room trying to figure out how the bottle landed upright next to his body after he was shot. Devlin - the murderer - turns up unannounced and uninvited. How did Devlin explain that he knew where the victim was staying when he was murdered? Media reports might have mentioned the name of the hotel but there is no way they would have included the room number.
Be Careful What You Witch For - S2-E22
Plot hole: When teenage Prue has run away with the demon, and Phoebe and Piper find her in the park, teenage Prue is 'killed'. Her sisters drive her home to get Leo to heal her, but shouldn't they have just been able to call to Leo to orb to them when Prue was first hurt, and heal her in the park, and save driving back to the Manor, risking Prue dying?
Suggested correction: I see orbing to the park but he didn't heal her, she was already dead and he can't heal the dead, that's why the genie brought her back - that's what Phoebe wished for.
But if they would have called for him right away - he would have been able to heal her before she died. However at this point in time I don't think they knew how to call for him.
Plot hole: When Zach Young's grandfather died, Zach was said to be the sole heir of the fortune. However, Noah Taylor (the grandfather) had a daughter that appeared several times while Mike Delfino was looking for Deirdre. Where was Kendra Taylor while Zachary Young was spending Noah's fortune on dresses for Gabrielle Solis? Why didn't she claim her share? She simply disappeared.
Plot hole: At the end of the episode McCoy and his team tape a conversation between Melissa Corbin and her mother Lorraine in order to record her admitting to murdering Alan, her first husband. Trouble is, she says nothing incriminating. The closest they get is Lorraine asking her why she killed Alan, and she replies "You didn't have to sleep with him." That means nothing, and in fact Lorraine says absolutely nothing of any legal significance during the entire conversation.
Under & Out - S3-E11
Plot hole: Gretchen, Lincoln, and Sophia were able to visit Scofield and Whistler in Sona without Gretchen being recognized. She was taken in for questioning in episode 9, but she managed to escape and kill General Zavala and one other guard. The other guards knew that she was the one who killed Zavala but she was still able to sign in for visitation.
Mr. Monk and the Astronaut - S4-E14
Plot hole: There is no drug in the world that could render a healthy adult unconscious for two days with a single dose, but let's go with the dramatic licence and allow that there is. Any such drug would be instantly detectable in any one of a dozen toxin screens carried out during an autopsy, and isn't someone going to wonder how a comatose woman hanged herself?
Plot hole: In this episode, the Duboises make such a big deal about Ariel being old enough to finally learn to drive. However, two episodes previously ("Things to Do in Phoenix When You're Dead") Ariel drove to school with Joe, and Joe complimented her on her prowess.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - S3-E1
Plot hole: Can't fault this massive plot hole to the adaptation, but to the source material; the culprit (forgetting the stupidity of writing an incriminating letter detailing the plan to murder someone, and put it in a desk he shares with her) since there are people outside the room that are about to enter, tears the letter in 3 neat vertical strips, rolls them, puts them in the vase on the mantlepiece, and then opens the side door to slip away...instead of simply pocketing the letter and going through that same door. Nobody was going to search him or anything and could have burned it, torn it into confetti, anything, later. It takes way way longer to do what he did, which needed him to stay there in the room increasing the chances of being found out. And of course he and his accomplice do not retrieve the letter after.
Plot hole: A central plot device in this episode is that there is no six letter word made up of the letters EXVIN, so the murdered man cheats at the word game by playing a word he knew to be inadmissible - exvin, a wine connoisseur who no longer drinks. Since he is supposed to be a stone cold killer player at this word game, don't you think he would have thought of Vixen? Sara Sidle points that word out later - why wouldn't a world champion word game player have figured it out, using a safe, common word and avoiding a possible challenge?
Suggested correction: If you watch the episode (timecode 00:36:20), in the flashback it shows exactly why he did not use vixen. There were 2 spaces between the "x" and the "n" on the board, so Adam played a bluff and used the fake word exvin.
Plot hole: In this episode Kes states that she has to decide now whether to have a child or not because Ocampa women can only get pregnant once and deliver one child. If that was the case they would have died out a long time ago, or never even evolved, as two people only getting one offspring would reduce the population to 50% of the original figure each generation.
Suggested correction: It's also possible that it's simply required of Ocampan women to give birth the first time they go through it, and can then experience it again.
Nothing in the dialogue suggest Ocampa's can have additional children. While we can speculate about fictitious species, it's still a plot hole due to writing. Kes states she's going through the "elogium" which is a time of change where her body prepares for fertilization. She then explicit states the "elogium" only occurs once. While the doctor compares it to puberty, the elogium is both sexual maturity and "heat", that is, the time a female is ready for fertilization.
But it doesn't ever state the normalcy of birthing for Ocompans. Perhaps sextuplets is the norm?
Kes frequently used the word "child." If it was normal to give birth to more than one, she would know this and should say "children."
Do not forget that this is all done through the universal translator. For all you know the Ocompan word for child and children is the same so the translator cannot tell the difference.
Plot hole: If the Lady of the Lake walks every night to her room and kills those in her path, why didn't Flora and Miles' parents die in their room by the hands of the Lady in the Lake when they first moved in?
Plot hole: Live 50th anniversary episode, aired December 9th 2010 - When Sally is allowed into the rubble to comfort Molly as the firemen attempt to free her, one of them says they'll get Sally a hard hat. When we see her talking to Molly in the rubble, she has no hard hat on and instead one of the firemen is hilariously holding his hand above her head.
Plot hole: In the episode where Jessica went home to her family's house in season 2, Bill said "someone who lives here must invite me in." In this episode, Russell Edgington's wolf (Coota) invites Russell into Alcide's apartment. Also, in Season 6 Sarah Newlin recinds Jessica's invitation into Jason's house (which only Jason should be able to do).
Dead Freight - S5-E5
Plot hole: Preparing to steal methylamine from the train, Walt, Jesse and Mike measure off a predetermined distance from the railroad crossing, which happens to coincide with a handy arroyo, where they bury their tanks. Problem is that they couldn't have known that distance (calculated by knowing the position of the methylamine tanker car in the train) until Lydia told them. But she didn't call that info in until the night after they'd already buried the tanks.
Suggested correction: They were counting on the tankers being at the back of the train, far enough away and at a curved angle so that the conductors wouldn't see them, and the hoses they were using would have been long enough to reach the tankers on either side of the one they stole from. Their heist hinged on a lot of educated guesses and luck, especially because they would have had to abort if the tanker was at the front of the train, but being lucky doesn't make it a plot hole.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. When they paced off the distance to the trestle over the arroyo, they had a particular number in mind (814). It's not explained whether this number represented knowledge of how far back the tank car would be if the engine stopped at the crossing. But if it did, how could they have known that? Not even Lydia knew until much later. And why would they assume the tank car would be toward the back of the train? Lydia doesn't mention that. When she calls Walt, all she says is, "I've got it." And even if she were to tell him, at that point everything's in place for the heist to happen at the location where the tank are buried.
IIRC the crew contacted an expert on hazardous materials shipping for advice on the scene. Rail guidelines require tankers containing hazardous materials are at a minimum "six-deep", that is, six cars away from the engine. Lydia probably told them in advance how long the train would be in terms of cars, so they had a rough guideline for which three or four tankers could possibly contain the methylamine. From there, it seems like their hoses were long enough to get to any of the other cars.
The 814 feet was to ensure that the spot they chose would be far enough away from the conductors so as to not be seen. And they weren't assuming the tankers would be at the back, they were just hoping they would be. As I mentioned, if the tankers were at the front, they wouldn't have been able to move forward with the mission. Lydia told them they would only have 6 hours to prepare for the heist after she told them where the tanker would be. That wouldn't have been enough time for them to get an excavator out there and dig the holes for their own tanks to transfer the methylamine into, so they had to guess the best spot to do it ahead of time and hope that's where it would end up being.
And Those We Left Behind - S4-E6
Plot hole: The very ending scene where Peter (in this version died in the ice as a boy so Walter's wife never met him) takes off some of the dust covers then picks up a toy airplane. The toy airplane he got as a child from ... Walter's wife when she was trying to placate him in an earlier episode for trying to run "home". This toy airplane wouldn't have been his as a child in this version of the universe. (00:42:00)
Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office - S2-E1
Plot hole: In this episode Tony tells Janice that he has just put their mother's house on the market. In season one, the house had already been sold.
Suggested correction: Tony and others say many things that aren't accurate. While season one gives the firm impression that the house is sold, it's not confirmed on screen. There may have been a deal where the intended buyer couldn't get financing or a closing never took place for other reasons.