Best mystery TV plot holes of all time

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Roswell picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Plot hole: In the lab when Liz makes the slides of her cheek cells and the cells from Max's pencil, the first time she doesn't add stain and the second time she does. If she's going to be a molecular biologist she really ought to learn to apply techniques consistently. (00:07:30)

Phoenix

More Roswell plot holes
American Horror Story picture

Season 1 generally

Plot hole: It's been established that if you die on the property, you remain as a ghost for all of eternity. However, in Season 8, Moira's bones are retrieved and buried in a cemetery so that her ghost can escape and join her mother. However not all the ghost's bones are buried on the property, we know for sure that the Black Dahlia was not buried on the property and it's not likely Tate, Vivian, Ben or some of the others are buried on the property as well so they should not be tied to the house.

ctown28

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

Suggested correction: Tate's victims from the school shooting are ghosts who can move between different locations. There's nothing to suggest that the ghost of the Black Dahlia isn't merely choosing to be in the Murder House rather than being tied to it. The same goes for Vivien and Ben, since Violet is going to stay in the house, so might they.

Tate's victims cannot move around freely to different locations. The only time that they can is on Halloween, when all ghosts can move around freely but then return to their death location at the stroke of midnight. "OP" is a valid mistake.

ctown28

More American Horror Story plot holes
More Psych plot holes
The Twilight Zone picture

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street - S1-E22

Plot hole: The street sign in the beginning is all wrong: it faces the camera rather than the street where the story takes place. In a typical American city, street signs are almost always placed in the direction of the street they are indicating, so drivers on the other street in the intersection know what they are turning onto or passing. In other words, the story is not set on Maple Street! Maple Street is the intersecting street at the end of the road the story is set on.

mirtom

More The Twilight Zone plot holes
Night Gallery picture

The Messiah on Mott Street - S2-E38

Plot hole: No one in Goldman's house finds it at all strange that a mailman arrives at the door with a letter after midnight on Christmas Eve. Nor, a short time later, does the doctor or anyone else passing by at this very odd hour wonder why the same mailman is collecting mail from a street box at dawn on Christmas Day.

Jean G

More Night Gallery plot holes
Dexter picture

Remember the Monsters? - S8-E12

Plot hole: A couple episodes prior, Deputy Marshal Clayton stated that he shared Hannah's picture everywhere after receiving a tip that she may be in Miami. In the same episode, Hannah was spotted at a hospital and Clayton was called in about it. This should have only increased public awareness concerning her, but at the beginning of this episode, she somehow made it through airport security and all the way to her gate before spotting Elway and hiding from him in the ladies room.

Phaneron

More Dexter plot holes
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Intruders picture

Show generally

Plot hole: After Jack's wife disappears for a couple of days, he receives a call from her cell phone from the cab driver who found it. Jack arranges to pick it up from a hotel. After he picks up the phone, its battery dies as he checks it, at 12:13pm. In the next scene with Jack, he's in a bar with the phone plugged into a charger; when it comes on, he checks it - the battery shows 3%, but the time is 9:13pm. He apparently wasted 9 hours when he's in pursuit of his wife's mysterious disappearance before plugging in the phone. A scene later, the time is now just a minute later at 9:14pm but the battery is now charged to 79%. (00:37:25 - 00:40:45)

David R Turner

More Intruders plot holes
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

More Lupin the 3rd plot holes
And Then There Were None picture

Episode #1.3 - S1-E3

Plot hole: The killer is meant to create the perfect crime, but the angle of the shot would make obvious to any forensics examiner that it's a suicide. There is practically no possibility for a person supposedly positioned across a long dining table to kill someone else with a shot under the chin. (00:55:50)

Sammo

More And Then There Were None plot holes
More Tales from the Crypt plot holes
The Event picture

Show generally

Plot hole: Episode 1: All passengers on cruise ships have a passenger card with their name and cabin number imprinted. They are not just identical key cards like in hotels.

Jacob La Cour

More The Event plot holes
The Avengers picture

The Winged Avenger - S5-E6

Plot hole: The bad guy somehow knows what is going to happen (via the sketches) even though the events haven't happened yet, like knowing Mrs Peel was going to show up at Pool's mansion in that catsuit and hat, and that the scenes were going to play out like the sketches.

More The Avengers plot holes
Murder on the Orient Express picture

Episode #1.2 - S1-E2

Plot hole: Contrary to any other version (including the novel), here the mastermind behind the murder realises in timely fashion that burning the letter was a mistake, it was not actually part of the plan. With this change, they'd have still all the time in the world to go back to the compartment and get the burnt remains, but they simply do not.

Sammo

More Murder on the Orient Express plot holes
What's New, Scooby-Doo? picture

A Scooby-Doo Valentine - S3-E3

Plot hole: It's never explained how JC Chasez and the Hollywood extras impersonating the gang gained the super strength they possessed to do things like ripping car roofs open or holding up the Mystery Machine.

Rob245

More What's New, Scooby-Doo? plot holes
More Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns plot holes
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit picture

Her Negotiation - S14-E24

Plot hole: Although William Lewis burns his fingertips in an attempt to avoid identification, the Special Victims Unit could have identified him early on by examining the remaining unburned area of Lewis' hands, and in good police procedure still record the newly scarred fingerprints, as these new scars actually make his fingerprints more unique. His scarred fingerprints would still be at Alice's apartment crime scene, and during the trial at the end of the episode the prosecution would still have a strong argument for placing Lewis at Alice's apartment, even if the DNA evidence is thrown out because of alleged cross contamination.

More Law & Order: Special Victims Unit plot holes
Vega$ picture

The Lido Girls - S2-E16

Plot hole: Michelle and the girls are winning at Baccarat every time due to a system where they know the cards in advance by seeing through them. However, all betting in that game is done before cards start coming out of the dealer's card chute onto the table. So even with their cheating system, they realistically couldn't always win, as the cards are not already face down on the table.

More Vega$ plot holes
Relic Hunter picture

Buddha's Bowl - S1-E1

Plot hole: Sydney is able to surmise from the artwork (we could also say from the writing, but her rival is one step ahead of her for 2/3 of the episode and it is established that he does not know the language) the precise location of the koi in Lumbini. The map is 150 years old, but there's no way even with a big stretch of imagination to buy that they both'd be able to pinpoint with such ease and certainty its location in the basement of a random building in the bustling market center of a town, that surely changed plenty during the past century and that does not bear any special landmark.

Sammo

More Relic Hunter plot holes
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?

More The Prisoner plot holes

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