Best TV plot holes of all time

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Eastenders picture

Show generally

Plot hole: Why is it that no-one in the square owns a washing machine. Surely this would mean the launderette would always be crowded.

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Suggested correction: Not true. I just watched a recent episode, and there was a washing machine and dryer in the kitchen.

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Smallville picture

Lucy - S4-E16

Plot hole: In episode 4-16: "Lucy," there is no reason for the criminals to be chasing Lucy on the ski slopes at the beginning of the episode. We learn later that she's been working with them all along; she calls Lois during the chase, and the call is part of Lucy's plan with the criminals. Lucy being chased by the criminals would make sense given the story she gives Clark during the next part of the episode, but it doesn't make sense for what we ultimately learn is the truth. And nobody from Smallville is anywhere near the ski chase, so it also doesn't make sense as any kind of a ruse.

DavidK93

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ER (1994)

ER picture

Show generally

Plot hole: There are always family members right in the room while the doctors are literally cutting into the patients. The family is always creating a fuss or whatever, until someone asks for them to escorted out. A real hospital would never let family members into the room while they are cracking open their loved one's chest.

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CSI: NY picture

The Fall - S1-E17

Plot hole: The CSIs catch a murder suspect putting down a drink can when reviewing security footage of a robbery, and immediately realise they didn't see it at the scene so assume one of the first cops on the scene must have removed it. Thing is though, the murderers shot out the security camera before the actual shooting occurred, meaning there was loads of time off-camera for the killers to take the can with them, but the CSIs never even consider this - they jump to the conclusion a cop took it even though there's no actual evidence for that.

Jon Sandys

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Forever Knight picture

Father Figure - S1-E14

Plot hole: When the two henchmen who break into Nick's loft to kill Lisa are captured, the case is closed. But the two thugs were reporting back to a boss who wasn't caught, and who surely would have sent more hitmen after Lisa. So the case shouldn't have been closed.

Jean G

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Monty Python's Flying Circus picture

The Naked Ant - S1-E12

Plot hole: In the Upper Class Twit of the Year Show, there are five contestants. However, after Oliver runs himself over, in the events that follow there are only four props for the remaining twits (four mannequins, rabbits, and guns); since Oliver's death was unforeseen, shouldn't there be five of each? (This mistake, by the way, is rectified in the film version of this sketch).

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Doug picture

Doug's Shock Therapy / Doug Is Hamburger Boy - S3-E11

Plot hole: Doug recalls previous years (in a flashback, where he was next to Skeeter at the window of the Honker Burger as they looked outside) of seeing the Hamburger Boy when Mr. Dink is confessing that he *was* Hamburger Boy. However, Doug has only been living in Bluffington for one year - this was his first summer there.

redbaron2000

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Ben 10 picture

Be Afraid of the Dark (2) - S3-E12

Plot hole: When the Corrodium Beam is shut down, there is a brief scene of the sky clearing at Mount Rushmore. But on the cliff face all four heads are seen, whereas the head of Theodore Roosevelt got crumbled in "Secrets," and it's too far forward to have been carved into the mountain face, in place (and same position) of the old head, yet again.

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Stargate: Atlantis picture

Home - S1-E9

Plot hole: General Hammond is promoted to 3-star general and command of the SGC is given to General O'Neill before the Atlantis gang even left earth. Why is it, that none of them find it the least bit odd that a 2-star Hammond greeted their return instead of O'Neill?

Grumpy Scot

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Suggested correction: The dream-state induced by the aliens had some ability to stop them from questioning their reality. (One of them takes quite a while to realise that a friend they're partying with died years before they left for Atlantis). It's not infallible or entirely consistent, but it would theoretically explain this.

Anson Gordon-Creed

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Cheers picture

What's Up, Doc? - S7-E18

Plot hole: At closing time, Cliff, Norm and Woody spontaneously decide to go to Cliff's house. Sam then enters the bar after his date at Melville's. Later in the scene, Rebecca asks Sam about the 'Three Stooges', to which Sam sarcastically replies that they went to Cliff's house. But how could he possibly know that since he entered the scene after they had already left.

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iCarly picture

IHave My Principals - S3-E5

Plot hole: Near the end, Sam locks Mr. Howard and Ms. Briggs in a closet. Sam and Gibby then put a heavy desk right against the door and leave them stuck inside. Then later the two teachers are seen frantically controlling the students. How did they escape? They were inside a closet with the door locked on the outside and with a heavy desk against it.

Kaiser Strien

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Suggested correction: It's clear that another teacher or teachers heard the announcement or heard them yelling and let them out... What we should be asking is why no other teachers helped them control to the students.

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The Last Ship picture

Phase Six - S1-E1

Plot hole: After the nuclear missile has overshot the ship and is determined to be heading for land, a map on a computer display gives an indication of the missile's trajectory relative to the Nathan James and western Europe. After the nuclear detonation, an external shot shows the blast is to the port side of the ship, giving the impression the ship is on a southern bearing off the west coast of France. At the time of detonation, the bridge crew shield their eyes while facing the front of the bridge, which would give the impression the ship is pointed right at the blast rather than off the port side. Later, Master Chief Jeter reports that the jet stream is pushing the radiation north-northeast, as if to indicate the ship is currently sitting in the fallout zone, when this would actually be pushing the radiation cloud away from the Nathan James.

solarpilot

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Blake's 7 picture

Weapon - S2-E3

Plot hole: How very perspicacious of the clone masters to create their duplicate Blakes wearing the exact same outfit that the real Blake happens to have on in this episode, considering they have never seen Blake in person. (00:35:35 - 00:38:35)

Jean G

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Frasier picture

A Midwinter Night's Dream - S1-E17

Plot hole: Niles makes up Frasier's couch to sleep in and when he lies down he lets out a yelp - and pulls a plastic pirate's hook from behind the cushions. Earlier Niles had appeared wearing a pirate's costume but at no point did he have a hook, nor did he go near the couch. His overcoat had been on the floor the whole time so it couldn't have come from there. It would have been difficult for it to get behind the cushions unless deliberately shoved there, which we never saw and makes no sense anyway.

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Las Vegas picture

Shrink Rap - S5-E2

Plot hole: The man plays his last nickel and wins the jackpot. You have to play the maximum number of coins to hit the huge jackpot which on that machine states is 5 coins.

Boobra

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House, M.D. picture

Skin Deep - S2-E13

Plot hole: When Wilson does an ultrasound to check for cancer in Alex' ovaries he fails to notice the fact that she doesn't have a uterus. If he mistook her bladder for her uterus, which sometimes happens, she would have appeared to be missing her bladder instead. Yet Wilson doesn't pick up on anything being missing.

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Luke Cage picture

Take It Personal - S1-E10

Plot hole: They only take out the shrapnel from the gut shot - they never deal with the shrapnel in his shoulder at all. (00:04:25 - 00:05:00)

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One Tree Hill picture

What Is And What Should Never Be - S1-E20

Plot hole: How in the world could Keith be hired as a teacher? Not only is he a college drop-out with no teacher training, Dan mentions just an episode or two earlier how Keith is incapable of using modern machinery (specifically saying how every high school graduate will be more qualified than Keith).

Shay

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