Best TV plot holes of all time

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

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends picture

Pop Goes the Diesel - S2-E12

Plot hole: When Duck and Diesel leave the shed, Diesel follows Duck instantly, but the tracks they are on both lead to the turntable. As they are on different tracks to each other, it would be impossible for Diesel to follow Duck that quickly as the turntable could only be set to one track at a time.

More Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends plot holes
Agatha Christie's Poirot picture

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - S3-E1

Plot hole: Can't fault this massive plot hole to the adaptation, but to the source material; the culprit (forgetting the stupidity of writing an incriminating letter detailing the plan to murder someone, and put it in a desk he shares with her) since there are people outside the room that are about to enter, tears the letter in 3 neat vertical strips, rolls them, puts them in the vase on the mantlepiece, and then opens the side door to slip away...instead of simply pocketing the letter and going through that same door. Nobody was going to search him or anything and could have burned it, torn it into confetti, anything, later. It takes way way longer to do what he did, which needed him to stay there in the room increasing the chances of being found out. And of course he and his accomplice do not retrieve the letter after.

Sammo

More Agatha Christie's Poirot plot holes
Limitless picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Plot hole: Brian calls Rebecca after he has been shot. She asks him "Where is the bullet? Is it in your leg still?" Brian never mentioned he was shot in the leg. (00:30:20)

More Limitless plot holes
Justice League picture

Fury (1) - S1-E14

Plot hole: Hippolyta tells Hawkgirl of Aresia's background of being born in the outside world, the war in her country and right up to her drifting to the shores of Themyscira. It would be impossible for her to know anything of Aresia's background as in part two, it's explained that the captain of the ship who saved Aresia died shortly after reaching Themyscira and therefore would not have been able to tell Hippolyta anything.

More Justice League plot holes
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation picture

Bad Words - S4-E19

Plot hole: A central plot device in this episode is that there is no six letter word made up of the letters EXVIN, so the murdered man cheats at the word game by playing a word he knew to be inadmissible - exvin, a wine connoisseur who no longer drinks. Since he is supposed to be a stone cold killer player at this word game, don't you think he would have thought of Vixen? Sara Sidle points that word out later - why wouldn't a world champion word game player have figured it out, using a safe, common word and avoiding a possible challenge?

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

Suggested correction: If you watch the episode (timecode 00:36:20), in the flashback it shows exactly why he did not use vixen. There were 2 spaces between the "x" and the "n" on the board, so Adam played a bluff and used the fake word exvin.

More CSI: Crime Scene Investigation plot holes
Star Trek: Voyager picture

Elogium - S2-E4

Plot hole: In this episode Kes states that she has to decide now whether to have a child or not because Ocampa women can only get pregnant once and deliver one child. If that was the case they would have died out a long time ago, or never even evolved, as two people only getting one offspring would reduce the population to 50% of the original figure each generation.

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

Suggested correction: It's also possible that it's simply required of Ocampan women to give birth the first time they go through it, and can then experience it again.

Greg Dwyer

Nothing in the dialogue suggest Ocampa's can have additional children. While we can speculate about fictitious species, it's still a plot hole due to writing. Kes states she's going through the "elogium" which is a time of change where her body prepares for fertilization. She then explicit states the "elogium" only occurs once. While the doctor compares it to puberty, the elogium is both sexual maturity and "heat", that is, the time a female is ready for fertilization.

Bishop73

But it doesn't ever state the normalcy of birthing for Ocompans. Perhaps sextuplets is the norm?

Kes frequently used the word "child." If it was normal to give birth to more than one, she would know this and should say "children."

Bishop73

Do not forget that this is all done through the universal translator. For all you know the Ocompan word for child and children is the same so the translator cannot tell the difference.

More Star Trek: Voyager plot holes
The Haunting of Bly Manor picture

Show generally

Plot hole: If the Lady of the Lake walks every night to her room and kills those in her path, why didn't Flora and Miles' parents die in their room by the hands of the Lady in the Lake when they first moved in?

More The Haunting of Bly Manor plot holes
Victorious picture

Prom Wrecker - S2-E5

Plot hole: In this episode all the students say Hollywood Arts has never had a prom before. But in the first episode, 'Pilot', Rex says to Cat after she runs out to tell Tori, Robbie, Andre and him that Sikowitz wants them to come back into the classroom, "Just like you wanted a date to the prom last year."

danmcgahan

More Victorious plot holes
Coronation Street picture

Show generally

Plot hole: Live 50th anniversary episode, aired December 9th 2010 - When Sally is allowed into the rubble to comfort Molly as the firemen attempt to free her, one of them says they'll get Sally a hard hat. When we see her talking to Molly in the rubble, she has no hard hat on and instead one of the firemen is hilariously holding his hand above her head.

THGhost

More Coronation Street plot holes
True Blood picture

Show generally

Plot hole: In the episode where Jessica went home to her family's house in season 2, Bill said "someone who lives here must invite me in." In this episode, Russell Edgington's wolf (Coota) invites Russell into Alcide's apartment. Also, in Season 6 Sarah Newlin recinds Jessica's invitation into Jason's house (which only Jason should be able to do).

More True Blood plot holes
More SpongeBob SquarePants plot holes
The Blacklist picture

Berlin: Conclusion - S1-E22

Plot hole: At the end of this episode Red takes off his shirt revealing his burned back, which leaves us to think that he might be Elizabeth's dad. However, this particular mark should have been noticed and written down in Red's prisoner file when he was taken into custody the first time (Episode 1). In that case Elizabeth would already know that Red is burned and could have asked some questions about it.

More The Blacklist plot holes
Breaking Bad picture

Dead Freight - S5-E5

Plot hole: Preparing to steal methylamine from the train, Walt, Jesse and Mike measure off a predetermined distance from the railroad crossing, which happens to coincide with a handy arroyo, where they bury their tanks. Problem is that they couldn't have known that distance (calculated by knowing the position of the methylamine tanker car in the train) until Lydia told them. But she didn't call that info in until the night after they'd already buried the tanks.

Rattletrap

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

Suggested correction: They were counting on the tankers being at the back of the train, far enough away and at a curved angle so that the conductors wouldn't see them, and the hoses they were using would have been long enough to reach the tankers on either side of the one they stole from. Their heist hinged on a lot of educated guesses and luck, especially because they would have had to abort if the tanker was at the front of the train, but being lucky doesn't make it a plot hole.

Phaneron

I'd have to respectfully disagree. When they paced off the distance to the trestle over the arroyo, they had a particular number in mind (814). It's not explained whether this number represented knowledge of how far back the tank car would be if the engine stopped at the crossing. But if it did, how could they have known that? Not even Lydia knew until much later. And why would they assume the tank car would be toward the back of the train? Lydia doesn't mention that. When she calls Walt, all she says is, "I've got it." And even if she were to tell him, at that point everything's in place for the heist to happen at the location where the tank are buried.

Rattletrap

IIRC the crew contacted an expert on hazardous materials shipping for advice on the scene. Rail guidelines require tankers containing hazardous materials are at a minimum "six-deep", that is, six cars away from the engine. Lydia probably told them in advance how long the train would be in terms of cars, so they had a rough guideline for which three or four tankers could possibly contain the methylamine. From there, it seems like their hoses were long enough to get to any of the other cars.

The 814 feet was to ensure that the spot they chose would be far enough away from the conductors so as to not be seen. And they weren't assuming the tankers would be at the back, they were just hoping they would be. As I mentioned, if the tankers were at the front, they wouldn't have been able to move forward with the mission. Lydia told them they would only have 6 hours to prepare for the heist after she told them where the tanker would be. That wouldn't have been enough time for them to get an excavator out there and dig the holes for their own tanks to transfer the methylamine into, so they had to guess the best spot to do it ahead of time and hope that's where it would end up being.

Phaneron

More Breaking Bad plot holes
Fringe picture

And Those We Left Behind - S4-E6

Plot hole: The very ending scene where Peter (in this version died in the ice as a boy so Walter's wife never met him) takes off some of the dust covers then picks up a toy airplane. The toy airplane he got as a child from ... Walter's wife when she was trying to placate him in an earlier episode for trying to run "home". This toy airplane wouldn't have been his as a child in this version of the universe. (00:42:00)

juarlita

More Fringe plot holes
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Tony and others say many things that aren't accurate. While season one gives the firm impression that the house is sold, it's not confirmed on screen. There may have been a deal where the intended buyer couldn't get financing or a closing never took place for other reasons.

More The Sopranos plot holes

H2O (2006)

More H2O plot holes
More Friends plot holes
Heroes picture

An Invisible Thread - S3-E25

Plot hole: If Noah could be brought back from the dead with Claire's blood why couldn't they bring back Nathan? Was turning Sylar into Nathan really the first thing they could think of?

More Heroes plot holes
Seinfeld picture

The Hot Tub - S7-E5

Plot hole: When Elaine is searching for Jean Paul in the streets, one of her verbal flashbacks is of Jean Paul saying, "I trust Elaine, she is my friend." However, Jean Paul made this remark to Jerry, and Elaine was not there to hear it. How could she have a flashback of it?

More Seinfeld plot holes
More Family Matters plot holes

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.