Best crime TV character mistakes of all time

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24 (2001)

24 picture

Day 4: 10:00 P.M.-11:00 P.M. - S4-E16

Character mistake: 23rd minute. Jack meets the female assassin in Anderson's apartment. She demands that he show his credentials. Jack says he's with CTU on a provisional basis and therefore he has no badge. The agent that came with Jack confirms that. Yet, in the 13th episode (minute 14) when he enters the sports shop with Audrey's husband, he shows his CTU badge to the owners in order to prove that he in fact is a federal agent.

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Suggested correction: With Zack's kids, Hodgins was referring to the 40 cousins and nephews that Zack has, and sees every Christmas.

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Walker, Texas Ranger picture

In Harm's Way: Part 2 - S8-E1

Character mistake: Trivette hands the man in yellow a bullet recovered from the plane Walker and Alex were traveling on, which was shot down by an assassin flying a P-51 Mustang. This man, and later Trivette, mistakenly refer to the round as a "50mm," when in reality, Mustangs were equipped with M2 Browning .50 Caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns. (00:30:25)

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Luther picture

Episode #1.3 - S1-E3

Character mistake: Luther and Ripley pretend they have not been on the boat and did not find the victim's body as they do not have a search warrant and do not want to compromise the case. However, under English law a police officer may legally enter any premises without a warrant in order to save life, prevent injury or protect property. Since they have a reasonable belief that the victim is being held prisoner on the boat and her life is in danger (as far as they know at that time she is still alive), they don't need a warrant. As experienced police officers, they are bound to know this.

Necrothesp

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The Mentalist picture

Green Thumb - S6-E10

Character mistake: When Kim is trying to convince Lisbon to help the FBI on their case, she says Jane stopped the ten-year reign of a mass murderer. Red John was a serial killer, which, by the FBI's definition, is a criminal behavior distinctly different from mass murder; he may have had a large number of victims, but he killed them either one or a couple at a time, with a cooling-off period in between, not all at once.

Cubs Fan

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Rosemary & Thyme picture

The Cup of Silence - S3-E1

Character mistake: When Angus is found dead, he left a word, "murder", in steam on the mirror. Daisy cleaned off the word before anybody, except Laura, could see it. Later, Daisy said that Laura was annoyed with her because she had wiped the words, plural, off the mirror. But it was only one word.

kh1616

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Foyle's War picture

Broken Souls - S6-E2

Character mistake: At the very end of the episode, a chess board is set up wrong, the initial position must have the white queen on the white square (d1) and the black queen on the black (in this case red) square (d8). They set up all the other pieces correctly except the kings and queens should be reversed.

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CSI: Miami picture

Bunk - S1-E13

Character mistake: Horatio writes the symbols for sulfuric acid, H2SO4, on a clear board. Both numbers should be subscripts but he writes the 4 as a coefficient (which precedes the name of the acid but he writes it after), suggesting a lack of basic chemistry knowledge.

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Suggested correction: Butters is always shown as being a bit dim and slow. As a kid it's easy for him to make a mistake in thinking that there was only 132 episodes.

Ssiscool

That's why it's called a "character mistake"; also, Butters is certainly naive, but he's hardly what I would call "dim and slow."

zendaddy621

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The Sopranos picture

Nobody Knows Anything - S1-E11

Character mistake: When Tony tells Dr. Melfi he feels as though a safe might fall on his head, she replies, "a feeling of pending doom." A woman of her intellect and education should know the proper word is "impending." "Pending" means something awaiting a conclusion. "Impending" means about to occur.

djm

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Chicago P.D. picture

Buried Secrets - S7-E19

Character mistake: When Ruzek and Voight are questioning Wade Henslow (the father of missing girl) at the station, after finding out he lied and set up his own security to find his daughter Adam looks at Wade Henson but addresses him as "Mr. Larson" which is actually the last name of one of the kidnappers they found DOA who got into the gun fight with his security guy, the ex-cop Kenny. (00:21:26)

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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit picture

Lead - S10-E15

Character mistake: Elliot Stabler is interrogating a suspect and he says "Well maybe he got pissy because of the 2.2 you blew into the breathalyzer." He said two-point-two but he meant point-two-two because a 2.2 BAC is like 5 times the lethal limit, so a 0 .22 BAC makes more sense. (00:20:10)

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Hawaii Five-O picture

The Clock Struck Twelve - S5-E12

Character mistake: After distracting the guards, Danno tosses a grappling hook onto a ledge and climbs the side of the building. He then goes about his business, carelessly leaving the hook and rope dangling from the ledge for all to see. For a seasoned 5-0 team member, that's pretty sloppy covert operations. (00:22:40)

Jean G

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Twin Peaks picture

Episode Sixteen - S2-E9

Character mistake: At the Roadhouse Cooper states that the second victim (Maddy) was found dead two days ago. It has been less than 24 hours since the body was found: he likely means she was murdered two days ago.

pinkwafer

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The Sweeney picture

On the Run - S3-E13

Character mistake: When Mrs Haldane is giving her statement to Regan she tells him that Cook was wearing dark glasses when she saw him outside her neighbour's house, but Cook wasn't wearing any glasses.

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Ashes to Ashes picture

Show generally

Character mistake: Series 1, Episode 3: When Alex tells Ray she will re-trace his steps for clues linking to the murder of a girl, he says, "Don't worry, lads! Wonder Woman's here!" Alex replies, "FYI DI Carling." Ray is a DS, not a DI.

JayAnnie

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