Best mystery TV character mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

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.

More 24 character mistakes
Manifest picture

Hard Landing - S1-E15

Character mistake: The Captain mentions that the guards were killed in the robbery, but the guards were tazed and hit (with the door and the other was punched), not killed. The companion thieves were killed by Griffin though. "Perp steals 75million, kills 2 guards..." No he didn't. (00:16:01)

More Manifest character mistakes
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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

More Bones character mistakes
More Homeland character mistakes
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

More Rosemary & Thyme character mistakes
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.

More Foyle's War character mistakes
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

More Luther character mistakes
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

More The Mentalist character mistakes
More Law & Order: Organized Crime character mistakes
Hemlock Grove picture

Lost Generation - S2-E7

Character mistake: When Olivia and Dr Galina are in the bathroom, Galina mentions an umbilical chord, from a baby whose mother died (Nadia), that contained Olivia's mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA comes from the mother, so Nadia's Mitochondrial DNA came from Letha who got hers from Marie, absolutely nothing to do with Olivia.

StephNyikos

More Hemlock Grove character mistakes
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.

More CSI: Miami character mistakes
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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

More South Park character mistakes
More NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service character mistakes
The X-Files picture

Drive - S6-E2

Character mistake: Scully continually addresses the senior police officer as "Captain." But he wears sergeant's stripes. As a law enforcement officer continually dealing with other law enforcement officers, Scully is not likely to make this mistake. More likely a failure to match script with costume.

Necrothesp

More The X-Files character mistakes
Quantum Leap picture

Catch A Falling Star - May 21, 1979 - S2-E10

Character mistake: In the preview for this episode, Charlie has trouble getting his countdown straight. He shouts that Sam is on in 50 seconds, then 47, then 48. In the episode itself, the mistake is corrected with a rather obvious overdub, changing the final number to 43. (00:02:05)

Jean G

More Quantum Leap character mistakes
More The Twilight Zone character mistakes
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)

More Law & Order: Special Victims Unit character mistakes
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

More Twin Peaks character mistakes
More Pretty Little Liars character mistakes
More NYPD Blue character mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.