Best mystery TV plot holes of all time

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Father Brown picture

The Daughters of Jerusalem - S2-E6

Plot hole: Dinah Fortescue's fingerprints are supposed to be on a teacup but she's wearing gloves in the flashback. So how did they get there? (00:24:35 - 00:33:34)

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Silent Witness picture

Show generally

Plot hole: When Nicky goes into prison in Mexico to give a criminal a shot of insulin, two errors are seen. 1) The needle and syringe are far too big for an insulin shot, which takes a one ml syringe and a small sub-cutaneous needle. 2) When we first see the syringe, there is a small amount of insulin in it, but it grows the more times we see it, until a large syringe is two-thirds full - insulin is enough in a one ml syringe.

kh1616

More Silent Witness plot holes
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

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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
Haven picture

Over My Head - S3-E4

Plot hole: Daphne was able to hurt Duke because his name appears on her cell when he called, but names only show up on a cell phone if the person's number and name are programed into the phone, and Duke has already said he doesn't know her.

brianjr0412

More Haven 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
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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
Dexter: Original Sin picture

Show generally

Plot hole: This series depicts Dexter and Harry working together at Miami Metro. However, the original series established that Harry died before Dexter ever started working at Miami Metro.

Phaneron

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High Potential picture

Partners - S1-E12

Plot hole: The poison is in the dog collar. Anson gets the poison from touching the collar. Why didn't the dog get any poison from the collar?

Leicaman

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

Suggested correction: The poison cannot penetrate the skin as dogs don't have sweat glands on their bodies (except on the paws).

Andy Benham

More High Potential plot holes
Signora Volpe picture

A Deadly Net - S2-E2

Plot hole: S2E2 A Deadly Net Midway through the episode, Sylvia and others in the cast bid people goodnight, offer after-dinner drinks, but the sun is shining brightly and continues to do so for quite a period of time as events continue to unfold.

bnemirow

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Nowhere Man picture

Doppelganger - S1-E19

Plot hole: Tom discovers Claire's body in the wardrobe of his motel room. He leaves the room, and within a minute returns to the room, accompanied by the police. The body has vanished from the wardrobe, but given how little time Tom was away from the room, it is impossible for someone to have moved it, particularly given the weight of a corpse.

swordfish

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Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns picture

The Hong Kong Kowloon Treasure Murder Case File 1 - S1-E1

Plot hole: The plot of the four-parter is complete nonsense even for a kid show. It is tied together by unbelievable pure coincidences; Miyuki is the perfect doppelganger of a missing model, Kindaichi randomly bumps into a high school mate who just happened to be in HK as well (!), and they both equally randomly (so they think) bump into the model who was just chilling on a park bench (so much for disappearing!), he befriends the son of the victim from 20 years before.

Sammo

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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.

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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

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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

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Line of Duty picture

Episode #4.1 - S4-E1

Plot hole: When DCI Roz Huntley kills Forensic Coordinator Tim Ifield the crucial piece of damning evidence is her DNA under his fingernails after scratching her arm. Problem being, at the time of his murder, he was wearing surgical gloves. (00:56:40)

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Project Blue Book picture

The Green Fireballs - S1-E6

Plot hole: Captain Quinn interrogates a Sergeant and presumably he is let go. Yet for no reason and against all probabilities, Captain Quinn keeps the Sergeant's wallet, which among other things contains the Sergeant's ID card, not to mention other personal effects. How is he going to get on the base without an ID? There is no legal basis for the Captain to keep it. Why keep it? So he could rifle through it and discover a rent receipt later in the show? This is a poor way to further the plot. (00:16:40 - 00:17:30)

toroscan

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