History BatmanGambit / LiveActionTV

* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeComputerLogicPart2 Computer Logic, Part 2]]": Austin tries to fool the [[{{AI}} Artificial Intelligence program Crossover]] by asking it on what hand he wears his watch on. Crossover, realizing that Austin is right-handed and trying to trick it, responds that it must be on his right hand. Austin then pulls up his sleeves to show everyone that the watch is, indeed, on his right hand.
-->'''Crossover''': "You stand like a righthander. Most righthanders wear their watch on their left hand. You wear yours on your right. Otherwise you wouldn't have asked such an orchestrated question."

* Richard Pryor's "Prison Play" skit involves the play's producer promising [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the warden that]] [[BlackDudeDiesFirst "The Nigger gets killed"]] as LaserGuidedKarma [[FelonyMisdemeanor for daring to fall in love with]] [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt a White woman.]] However, it ends with the father-in-law accepting the suitor and wanting to becoming a paragon of true love. The FauxAffablyEvil Warden [[VillainousBreakdown isn't happy.]]

*** She is elected mayor of Cardiff, allowing her to start work on a nuclear power plant intended to be built atop the NegativeSpaceWedgie running through town, which is designed to fail and tear open the Rift, destroying the planet and giving her getaway vehicle power.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon "Day of the Moon"]], the Doctor defeats the Silence by [[spoiler:scattering his allies, building a prison and cloaking the TARDIS, all to get a Silent to say ''one phrase'']].

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks "Asylum of the Daleks"]], when the Doctor, Amy and Rory were transported to the Dalek asylum planet, they were fitted with bracelets that would ward off the nano-bots in the atmosphere that would otherwise convert them into Dalek slaves. Unfortunately Amy's bracelet was damaged and she was infected by the nano-bots. At one point, while the Doctor attempts to rescue Oswin from the Daleks, he leaves Rory to look after Amy and get her to [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight remember her love for Rory in order to fight the nano-bots]]. [[spoiler:This was ultimately a ruse as the Doctor had slipped his bracelet onto Amy's wrist, believing that his Time Lord physiology could fight off the nano-bots; his real goal was [[ShipperOnDeck to get Amy and Rory to talk about the reasons they were divorcing]]. By the end of the episode, the divorce papers (which they never actually filed) were forgotten.]]
** The entire plot of [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] was one of these, orchestrated by [[spoiler:the Moment as a way to get Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem of ending the Time War without destroying Gallifrey]].
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]], [[spoiler:the immortal Ashildr orchestrates one, at the behest of her mysterious backers, to lure the Doctor to the hidden "trap street" she rules, and then separate him from his TARDIS key and confession dial, before slapping a teleport bracelet on him to whisk him off to parts unknown. The plan involved [[FrameUp framing]] Rigsy, an acquaintance of the Doctor's, for murder, wiping his memory and giving him a mysterious tattoo consisting of numbers counting down, knowing he would call the Doctor and Clara for help, and that the Doctor can't resist a mystery. It goes ''almost'' according to plan, but for one tragic hiccup: Ashildr didn't count on Clara taking on the tattoo, called a chronolock, in an attempt to buy them more time. This leads directly to Clara's death.]]
** The two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] offers up an uber-example. [[spoiler:Following the death of Clara, the Doctor is transported into a world created within a device called a confession dial. There he spends 4.5 billion years repeating the same few days over and over as he gradually chips away (literally) at a wall made of a substance 40 times harder than diamond ''with his fists'', as part of a master plan to return to his home planet, stage a coup against its leadership, and use Time Lord technology to prevent Clara's death.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "[[{{Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace}} Objects in Space]]", River pulls one of these on [[PsychoForHire Jubal Early]], using both his insecurities and the rest of the crew to maneuver him into position to be ambushed by Mal. The only thing she didn't factor in was [[SpannerInTheWorks her brother's]] rather suicidal devotion to her.

* [[Comicbook/{{Hydra}} HYDRA's]] plan in the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E6FracturedHouse "Fractured House"]]. First, they attack the UN [[FalseFlagOperation disguised as]] Comicbook/{{SHIELD}} to convince the governments of the world to hunt down SHIELD agents across the world and then [[spoiler: have the Belgian Foreign Secretary, who's actually a [[MoleInCharge member of HYDRA]], declare his country a safe haven for SHIELD agents, luring agents in from around the world so HYDRA can kill them.]]

-->'''Willow:'''...I really could help with that binding spell.
-->'''Giles:''' [[PullTheThread There is no spell.]]

*** First, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "Victory of the Daleks"]], [[spoiler:they let him declare himself as the Doctor and identify his enemies. This was exactly what the Daleks wanted, as their Progenitor wouldn't recognize their spoiled DNA. They needed their oldest and most powerful enemy to tell the Progenitor who they were, setting off the creation of a new bigger, badder, and [[ColorCodedforYourConvenience technicolor]] Dalek race. NiceJobBreakingItHero...]]

** The two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] offers up an uber-example. [[spoiler: Following the death of Clara, the Doctor is transported into a world created within a device called a confession dial. There he spends 4.5 billion years repeating the same few days over and over as he gradually chips away (literally) at a wall made of a substance 40 times harder than diamond ''with his fists'', as part of a master plan to return to his home planet, stage a coup against its leadership, and use Time Lord technology to prevent Clara's death.]]

** Michael Garibaldi never starts a conversation before first figuring out where it'll lead. As an inversion, he also prepares a bonus for those who manage to positively surprise him (or, if he wants to help the other person, simply for not disappointing him). The implications of having such a mind is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Byron when he mocks Garibaldi by pointing out what a sad, lonely life he must lead. It might have been a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the character, if the fandom had actually liked the character of Byron.

* Richard Pryor's "Prison Play" skit involves the play's producer promising [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the warden that]] [[BlackDudeDiesFirst "The Nigger gets killed"]] as LaserGuidedKarma [[FelonyMisdemeanor for daring to fall in love with]] [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt a White woman.]] However, it ends with the [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments father-in-law accepting the suitor and wanting to becoming a paragon of true love.]] [[FauxAffablyEvil The]] [[VillainousBreakdown Warden isn't happy.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]]: The [[NeverTrustAHairTonic "hair tomic"]] CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Halpen is drinking turns out to be a plot by [[spoiler:Ood Sigma]], who was counting on the dual factors of Halpen's concern about his baldness and [[spoiler:the status of the Ood as BeneathNotice]] to blind him to the possibility that the tonic was anything other than what it appeared to be. [[spoiler:The tonic is actually Ood graft that [[KarmicTransformation turns him into]] one of the Ood.]]

* ''LiveActionTV/TheGoodPlace'': The reveal is that the good place is one big Reality TV Comedy [[RecycledInSpace FROM HELL]] based on this concept. [[spoiler:Michael]] knew that the misfiles [[spoiler:AKA the contestants]] would psychologically torture each other if they were put in a visually good 'paradise' with nothing to actually do but ruminate on how they don't deserve to be here, throw themselves into complete self-denial of their faults and let those faults become BerserkButton to the other misfiles, and/or are forced to live with 95% people that they believe are morally superior (and ludicrously boring / moronic) and 5% misfile assholes that they and said assholes don't actually know are assholes. And they did - [[SpannerInTheWorks but it turns out that assholes can actually give good morality lessons]].

* Gregory Series/{{House}} pulls off a small scale Batman Gambit: when his game in the 4th season ended, he wanted to hire Kutner, Taub and Thirteen. But since Cuddy already hired Foreman, he could only hire two. Solution: hire the two male ones to let the slightly feminist director let him hire Thirteen.

* Done by an antagonist in ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}''. After being arrested for treason, he arranges a murder from prison in order to set himself up as a source of valuable information, intending to use that as leverage to get himself a deal. If he hadn't seriously underestimated his would-be victim, it probably would have worked.

* Used in the ''Series/AshesToAshes'' episode "Traitor". Gene Hunt gives all the suspects a safety deposit box number, along with some bogus evidence. He instructs each person to safe guard their information. Gene then waits outside the post office with his DI - Alex Drake - and arrests the traitor's correspondent as he leaves. Gene then proceeds inside to find that the locker missing evidence was entrusted to [[spoiler: DC Chris Skelton.]]

** Michael Garibaldi never starts a conversation before first figuring out where it'll lead. As an inversion, he also prepares a bonus for those who manage to positively surprise him (or, if he wants to help the other person, simply for not disappointing him). The implications of having such a mind is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by [[TheScrappy Byron]] when he mocks Garibaldi by pointing out what a sad, lonely life he must lead. It might have been a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the character, if the fandom had actually liked the character of Byron.

* In the Turkish miniseries ''Series/Innocent'', talented detective Yusuf is assigned a difficult and personal case. However, [[spoiler:his boss Selahattin is less motivated by a sense of justice than by eliminating Taner, the husband of his lover, whom he suspects is still alive. Directing the intrepid Yusuf to follow the trail (and unleash chaos as a result) is all part of his plan to MurderTheHypotenuse for good... which Yusuf realizes only after all is said and done.]]

* Ditto ''Series/{{Leverage}}''.

** Michael Garibaldi never starts a conversation before first figuring out where it'll lead. As an inversion, he also prepares a bonus for those who manage to positively surprise him (or, if he wants to help the other person, simply for not disappointing him). The implications of having such a mind is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by [[TheScrappy Byron]] when he mocks Garibaldi by pointing out what a sad, lonely life he must lead. It might have been a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for the character, if the fandom had actually liked the character of Byron.

* Richard Pryor's "Prison Play" skit involves the play's producer promising [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the warden that]] [[BlackDudeDiesFirst "The Nigger gets killed"]] as LaserGuidedKarma [[FelonyMisdemeanor for daring to fall in love with]] [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt a White woman.]] However, it ends with the [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming father-in-law accepting the suitor and wanting to becoming a paragon of true love.]] [[FauxAffablyEvil The]] [[VillainousBreakdown Warden isn't happy.]]

* GoneHorriblyRight for Prop Joe during ''Series/TheWire''. After failing to convince Marlo Stanfield to join the coop, he sets up Marlo to get robbed by Omar. The result is Marlo changing his mind and joining the coop, [[spoiler: but it backfires. Marlo Stanfield begins scheming to destroy the coop from within by convincing Prop Joe's main drug contact, The Greek, to do business with him. He turns Prop Joe's nephew Cheese against him, which allows Marlo access to kill him. Afterwards, he disbands the coop and raises the price for the drugs he now controls.]]

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" has Creator/WilWheaton pull off one of these, to win a card game against Sheldon.
** Later Wil returns as a member of a rival bowling team. He talks Penny into dumping Leonard during a vital tournament. Penny leaves in tears, Sheldon's team is disqualified and Creator/WilWheaton is cemented as the MagnificentBastard of the series.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks "Asylum of the Daleks"]], when the Doctor, Amy and Rory were transported to the Dalek asylum planet, they were fitted with bracelets that would ward off the nano-bots in the atmosphere that would otherwise convert them into Dalek slaves. Unfortunately Amy's bracelet was damaged and she was infected by the nano-bots. At one point, while the Doctor attempts to rescue Oswin from the Daleks, he leave Rory to look after Amy and get her to [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight remember her love for Rory in order to fight the nano-bots]]. [[spoiler: This was ultimately a ruse as the Doctor had slipped his bracelet onto Amy's wrist, believing that his Time Lord physiology could fight off the nano-bots; his real goal was [[ShipperOnDeck to get Amy and Rory to talk about the reasons they were divorcing]]. By the end of the episode, the divorce papers (which they never actually filed) were forgotten.]]

---> '''Wil''': You don't really think I'd break up a couple just to win a bowling match, do you?
---> '''Sheldon''': No, I guess not.
---> '''Wil''': ''[grins]'' Good. Keep thinking that.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Ace, do you have any of that nitro-9 I told you not to bring with you?\\

** The Tenth Doctor is pretty fond of this -- [[ObfuscatingStupidity feigning ignorance]] and getting himself captured so he can be brought face to face with the bad guy of the week. Nine plays around with it too -- "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."
** Twice in series 5, [[spoiler: the freakin' ''Daleks'']] pull one on [[spoiler: the Doctor]].
*** First, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "Victory of the Daleks"]], [[spoiler:they let him declare himself as the Doctor and identified his enemies. This was exactly what the Daleks wanted, as their Progenator wouldn't recognize their spoiled DNA. They needed their oldest and most powerful enemy to tell the Progenator who they were, setting off the creation of a new bigger, badder, and [[ColorCodedforYourConvenience technicolor]] Dalek race. NiceJobBreakingItHero...]]

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks "Asylum of the Daleks"]], when the Doctor, Amy and Rory were transported to the Dalek asylum planet, they were fitted with bracelets that would ward off the nano-bots in the atmosphere that would otherwise convert them into Dalek slaves. Unfortunately Amy's bracelet was damaged and she was infected by the nano-bots. At one point, while the Doctor attempts to rescue Oswin from the Daleks, he leave Rory to look after Amy and get her to [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight remember her love for Rory in order to fight the nano-bots]]. [[spoiler: This was ultimately a ruse as the Doctor had slipped his bracelet onto Amy's wrist, believing that his Time Lord physiology could fight off the nano-bots; his real goal was [[ShipperOnDeck to get Amy and Rory to talk about the reasons they were divorcing]]. By the end of the episode, the divorce papers(which they never actually filed) were forgotten.]]
** The entire plot of [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] was one of these, orchestrated by [[spoiler: the Moment as a way to get Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem of ending the Time War without destroying Gallifrey]].
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]], [[spoiler:the immortal Ashildr orchestrates one, at the behest of her mysterious backers, to lure the Doctor to the hidden "trap street" she rules, and then separated him from his TARDIS key and confession dial, before slapping a teleport bracelet on him to whisk him off to parts unknown. The plan involved [[FrameUp framing]] Rigsy, an acquaintance of the Doctor's, for murder, wiping his memory and giving him a mysterious tattoo consisting of numbers counting down, knowing he would call the Doctor and Clara for help, and that the Doctor can't resist a mystery. It goes ''almost'' according to plan, but for one tragic hiccup: Ashildr didn't count on Clara taking on the tattoo, called a chronolock, in an attempt to buy them more time. This leads directly to Clara's death.]]
** The two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]] and In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] offers up an uber-example. [[spoiler: Following the death of Clara, the Doctor is transported into a world created within a device called a confession dial. There he spends 4.5 billion years repeating the same few days over and over as he gradually chips away (literally) at a wall made of a substance 40 times harder than diamond ''with his fists'', as part of a master plan to return to his home planet, stage a coup against its leadership, and use Time Lord technology to prevent Clara's death.]]

* ''Series/TheShield:'' It took nothing more than the promise of total immunity from prosecution and a cushy federal job to get Vic to confess his laundry list of dirty deeds over the reign of the Strike Team. And since he could secure immunity for only one of them, he had no problem serving up Ronnie on a silver platter.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.
** In "Weapon" it's revealed that the Terran Federation has a profession called a psychostrategist whose entire job is to work out these. Unfortunately a minor but essential piece of information isn't reported to him and the entire plan collapses. Thanks to his skill the psychostrategist realizes in advance this will happen and [[YouHaveFailedMe flees before the inevitable punishment]].
** Also happens in the appropriately named episode "Gambit". That plan also fails due to unforeseen circumstances.

* Used in the ''Series/AshesToAshes'' episode "Traitor". Gene Hunt gives all the suspects a safety deposit box number, along with some bogus evidence. He instructs each person to safe guard their information. Gene Then waits outside the post office with his DI - Alex Drake - and arrests the traitor's correspondent as he leaves. Gene then proceeds inside to find that the locker missing evidence was entrusted to [[spoiler: DC Chris Skelton.]]

** The same follows true for Emily's takedown of Conrad in the penultimate episode. She rightly anticipates that Jack will go against Aiden's wishes and release a captive Charlotte, who will then immediately return home and confront Conrad about the David Clarke conspiracy video Emily showed her, prompting Conrad to go into a self-incriminating rant that is broadcast on live TV via Charlotte's jacket.

** The same follows true for Emily's takedown of Conrad in the penultimate episode. She rightly anticipates that Jack will go against Aiden's wishes and release a captive Charlotte, who will then immediately return home and confront Conrad about the David Clarke conspiracy video Emily showed her, prompting Conrad to go into a self-incriminating rant that is broadcast live on national TV via Charlotte's jacket.

** The same follows true for Emily's takedown of Conrad in the penultimate episode. She rightly anticipates that Jack will go against Aiden's wishes and release a captive Charlotte, who will then immediately return home- leaving her bugged jacket on- and confront Conrad about the David Clarke conspiracy video Emily showed her, prompting Conrad to go into a self-incriminating rant that is broadcast live on national TV.

** The same follows true for Emily's takedown of Conrad in the penultimate episode. She anticipates that Jack will go against her and Aiden's wishes and release a captive Charlotte, who will then immediately return home, keep her camera-bugged jacket on, and confront Conrad about the David Clarke conspiracy video she was shown by Emily, which will prompt Conrad to go into a self-incriminating rant which is broadcast on live TV.

** Played entirely straight with Emily's successful takedown of Victoria at the end of Season 3. Emily predicts that Charlotte will leak information to Victoria, that Victoria will believe her and follow Emily to a graveyard, and that the authorities will believe Emily when she tells them that a knocked-out Victoria was digging up Amanda Clarke's grave. It works, and Victoria ends up being institutionalized. ** The same follows true for Emily's takedown of Conrad in the penultimate episode. She anticipates that Jack will go against her and Aiden's wishes and release a captive Charlotte, who will then immediately return home, keep her camera-bugged jacket on, and confront Conrad about the David Clarke conspiracy video she was shown by Emily, which will prompt Conrad to go into a self-incriminating rant which is broadcast on live TV.