Best drama TV plot holes of all time

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Magnum, P.I. picture

The Case of the Red-Faced Thespian - S4-E12

Plot hole: Magnum is incredibly slow to unveil the charade at the base of the episode; he does it based on something marginal (Robin Masters does not do "research" for his novels), but he completely overlooks the key plot point of 1-17 "J. Digger Doyle" was that he does not use a typewriter, but he dictates the novels.

Sammo

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Justified picture

When the Guns Come Out - S3-E6

Plot hole: Raylan has a hunch that Winona took the money again from the evidence room, so checks the locker, finds the empty box, and assumes she stole it. When they returned the money in the previous season, he said "Put it back anywhere except for where you found it", so as to make it easier for someone to assume it had been misplaced, rather than lost. So the locker being empty is hardly a smoking gun for him to assume Winona's taken the cash.

Jon Sandys

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Pride and Prejudice picture

Show generally

Plot hole: In Pemberley, Caroline Bingley refers to an utterance of Darcy ("I should as soon call her mother a wit") that he made after coming home to Netherfield after their first ball in Meryton. Falsely she says he made this expression "after they had been dining at Netherfield". This is a direct quotation from the novel and is not coherent with the film plot in which this utterance is made after the first ball.

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Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman picture

To Have and to Hold - S6-E20

Plot hole: In the ending scene, Mike has a probable concussion from her fall, so Sully keeps her awake to prevent her slipping into a coma. They talk all night, reminiscing as Mike experiences periodic pain spasms. Their talk ends with discussion over them having another child, and then they instantly engage in an intimate moment, which would be impossible, considering her condition, and without further checkup from another doctor. Sometime later she is suddenly feeling 'cured', and they return home.

oprlvr33

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The Magicians picture

The Secret Sea - S4-E12

Plot hole: In the poison room, Zelda is magically knocked unconscious where Everett explains to her, among other things, that there is a secret reservoir of magic. Plover then mentions the reservoir after Zelda awakens, as if he somehow heard the conversation in her head.

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1883 picture

The Fangs of Freedom - S1-E5

Plot hole: When the bandits attack the pioneer's wagons they are chased on horseback by the Captain, Jack and others for quite a distance until Ennis is killed in the confrontation with one of the bandits. In the following scenes Elsa is mourning over his body but her mother and others from the wagon train stroll up and the wagons are in the background-all this after a fairly long chase.

bnemirow

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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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Black Sails picture

I. - S1-E1

Plot hole: Why, of all people on board, would the cook know of a specific entry in the captain's log, exactly where to look for it, and that it contained very valuable information?

Friso94

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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

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

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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Kindaichi shônen no jiken bo picture

Academy's Seven Mysteries Murder Case: File 3 - S1-E3

Plot hole: A corpse has been buried inside the walls of the building for 10 years. It's covered by just a poster, and a poster from a current high schooler. If we assume the first victim was the one who put the poster there, then it means that it was just randomly uncovered by the earthquake from episode 1, which would make the chain of coincidences nothing short than miraculous. She basically one day said "I heard there was a murder here where we all hang out all the time" and the ground by its own accord opened to reveal a skeleton without her doing anything.

Sammo

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The Tripods picture

The White Mountains: November, 2089 AD - S1-E13

Plot hole: The main characters are being pursued by Tripods, mind controlling alien machines. My question is, if the Tripods can turn humans into 1600's puppets, complete with foxhunts, why don't they make some of said mind-controlled humans help with the pursuit?

dizzyd

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The Man in the High Castle picture

Kindness - S1-E9

Plot hole: Under Nazi and Japanese rule the infirm, handicapped, critically ill, and mentally ill are considered sub-human and are executed. Ed's grandfather lives under this dictatorship, but he's rolling around in a wheelchair in his apartment. (00:13:00 - 00:16:56)

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The Prisoner picture

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Plot hole: When Nadia had been held captive in The Village, how did she get word to her accomplice to be ready at the exact time, in the exact location, and with a packing crate ready, and a whole series of transports arranged? Even if Nadia was in on the ruse of conning Number 6, wouldn't he be suspicious?

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The Outer Limits picture

The Light Brigade - S2-E18

Plot hole: WARNING SPOILER AHEAD. The alien impersonating Skokes changed the ship's destination to Earth. This is impossible to have been done, as the first order the captain gave was to lock the course in and "Skokes" admits his security clearance was removed after his rescue from his prison. It also couldn't have been done by another alien spy, as no other survivors beyond the 4 (2 human and 2 aliens) were found and the only other alien spy was unconscious, so he couldn't have helped out in any way.

Mlp1327

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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 Sandman picture

A Hope in Hell - S1-E4

Plot hole: The powerful 'amulet of protection' makes the bullets strike the shooters instead of John. Clearly it works not just against magic and other ethereal threats, but also against physical attacks. So why does he almost get knocked over by a car? True, he isn't seriously injured, but he was thrown to the ground. The amulet should have pulverised that car or bounced it at least two blocks away.

Spiny Norman

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As the World Turns picture

Show generally

Plot hole: On 7/1/09, Paul stole Dusty's laptop and gave Damian's name to implicate him. Dusty then accused Damian of the theft, describing it as having happened that morning. As shown in that episode, Damian had been with Meg throughout the morning, including the entire time during which Paul committed the theft. However, Damian does not offer Meg as his alibi and Meg fails to recognize that Damian was with her at the time.

DavidK93

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The Invaders picture

The Spores - S2-E7

Plot hole: Hal and Roy could not open the spore case with an electric power drill, but later a married couple pops it open with a hammer and chisel, then much later some children acquire the case and easily open it.

Scott215

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Stranger Things picture

Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab - S4-E7

Plot hole: The upside down should be mirrored, i.e. all left is right and right is left. When the team finds a gateway where Chrissy died, they should be seeing a mirror image through the ceiling. Also, all buildings should have been reversed. Directions to get there on the bike would have been confusing and reversed, and when any writing was seen in the upside down, it would have been backward.

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