History HeelFaceRevolvingDoor / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': After being firmly on the bad guy's side in Season 1, [[spoiler: Grant Ward]] spends most of Season 2 bouncing back and forth between helping Coulson's team and hindering them. [[spoiler: However, the season finale seems to have cemented him as a villain, though a version of him in Season 4 ends up squarely on the side of good thus proving both his FreudianExcuse and the circumstances around it being the major contributing factor to his actions]].

* ''Series/{{Krypton}}'': The Cythonnites have fairly heroic goals but sometimes ruthless methods and go back and forth from helping Seg and his allies to threatening or double crossing them multiple times, depending on whether they share a common goal at the time.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lionel Luthor starts off ''moderately'' evil, becomes/[[RetCon is retconned to be]] completely evil, goes to prison, [[FreakyFriday temporarily switches bodies with Clark]] and thereby absorbs some of his strong moral fibre (making him into a good guy), is convinced to readopt his villainous ways by an EvilTwin of Lex Luthor, and then spends several seasons stumbling drunkenly along the line between good and evil out of lust for Martha before temporary possession by Jor-El converts him to the side of good [[spoiler: until Lex throws him off of a building and he dies]].
** Tess Mercer wasn't much better in Seasons 8 and 9, going back and forth between hero worshipper, WellIntentionedExtremist, and TheBaroness. She finally settles on Face and ultimately [[spoiler: dies protecting Clark's secret from Lex]], [[InTheBlood just like her father]].

** Volume 3 ''[[spoiler:Sylar]]'', of all people. Just to show how crazy it's gotten: [[spoiler:First, he was standard "killer" Sylar. Then he joined Angela Petrelli and tried to reform. Then he joined Arthur Petrelli against Angela Petrelli and tried to reform in a different way. Then he betrayed Arthur Petrelli and skipped town with another character. Then they go BACK to Arthur Petrelli. And then he becomes a serial killer again and goes AFTER Arthur Petrelli. After that, he gets split into a friendly "empty slate" body (which occasionally [[MindRape thinks it's Nathan]]) and unwanted [[IncrediblyLamePun dark passenger]] in Matt's head. When he finally manages to get body and mind back together, he is suddenly "impotent (sic)" at killing people and [[FanService gets really nice and cosy towards Claire]]. Because, as we are learning, he wants to become socially accepted again. After being rejected by Claire, he is then trapped in his worst nightmare by Matt only to be saved and brought out by Peter Petrelli (he had a dream that Sylar would save Emma), after they were both trapped in his head for what seemed like years (but was actually only hours). Because of his near-endless torture experience from his nightmare, he turns good AGAIN and teams up with Peter.]]

** The two main villains of the series, Gul Dukat and Kai Winn. One of the writers said that, especially in Dukat's case, this was intended to make them better villains, showing that they had the capacity to be good, decent people- they just consciously chose not to be.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': In the seventh season, [[spoiler:Tony Almeida]] made this trope into a true artform: [[spoiler:He joined a mercenary group while working with Bill and Chloe to expose a massive web of corruption while actually working for an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness in order to get to Alan Wilson the Ultimate [[TheManBehindTheMan Man Behind The Man]] in order to execute a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for the death of Michelle.]] The ''Live Another Day'' epilogue ''Solitary'' continues to suggest the possibility of [[HeelFaceTurn a full turn when the time comes]].

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': After being firmly on the bad guy's side in Season 1, [[spoiler: Grant Ward]] spends most of Season 2 bouncing back and forth between helping Coulson's team and hindering them. [[spoiler: However, the season finale seems to have cemented him as a villain]].

* ''[[Series/KamenRiderFaiz Kamen Rider 555]]'': Kiba Yuuji switches back and forth between helping and hating humankind several times during the story.
* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': Kouta/Gaim's rival, Kaito Kumon, believes that having power is the only way to not get oppressed in this world so he doesn't care much for morality. During the story, Kaito would switch from being a power-seeking jerkass who is apathetic to the heroes' problems to a helpful ally who wants to destroy the powerful villains and vice versa as long as it suits his goal.
* ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'':
** Ace/Geats’s rival, Michinaga Azuma starts off an abrasive player in the DGP, mellows out a little bit before getting eliminated and finding himself on the Jyamato side, only to wide up in an EnemyMine with Ace to take down the DGP, after which he goes on to become a player in Ace's DGP, albeit an extremely ruthless and only [[HeroWithAnFInGood nominally heroic one]].
** Ace/Geats’s foil, Keiwa Sakurai starts off as Ace's ally and FriendlyRival until the final game of the JGP—when he learns of Mitsume's nature as the Goddess of Creation and the role she indirectly played in his parents' deaths, he believes they were unjustly sacrificed to give birth to Ace. This puts him and Ace at odds during the Desire Royale—when Ace starts opposing the DGP to save Mitsume, Keiwa chooses to preserve it to grant his ideal world and make Mitsume pay for her sins. After the failed Grand End he ends up joining Ace's DGP, though he remains bitter about Mitsume; when Sara dies, Keiwa cooperates with the DGP management, Beroba, and Kekera to kidnap Tsumuri and turn her into a Goddess of Creation to exploit her powers and grant his wish of reviving his family. Ace gets through to Keiwa with one last battle between the two of them, which leads to Keiwa rejoining Ace's DGP and fighting alongside him to help create a world where everyone can be happy.

* * ''Series/{{Krypton}}'': The Cythonnites have fairly heroic goals but sometimes ruthless methods and go back and forth from helping Seg and his allies to threatening or double crossing them multiple times, depending on whether they share a common goal at the time.

** Boomer: [[spoiler:First she's a Cylon sleeper agent, then she doesn't want to be one, then she fails to overcome her programming and shoots Admiral Adama. Then she tries to make peace between Cylons and humans and, failing that, she tries to kill her counterpart's daughter and betrays her model number, causing a civil war. Then she has a change of heart and escapes with the Final Cylon when the others want to surgically remove her brain. Then, faced with execution for causing the Cylon civil war, she knocks out another Cylon to take her place in the brig while abducting Athena's baby to use as a hostage in her escape plan which ultimately ''cripples the battlestar''. Then she starts having second thoughts after bonding with Hera. Make up your damn mind, woman! If you weren't so flaky maybe more people would like you. At least Athena [[RedemptionEqualsDeath killed her]] after she returned Hera before she had the chance to change her mind again.]] To be fair, though, her constant mind-changing isn't entirely unjustified. [[spoiler: if you flew all the way to some middle of ass nowhere planet to bond with the humans, only to have them start suicide bombing you, and then, on top of that, the man you love has married and is having a baby with the girl who shot you, then, well, you'd probably be a little peeved too.]] It's also worth noting that at least one set of those Heel Face Turns was faked ([[spoiler:Rescuing Ellen was entirely a front so that she could kidnap Hera.]])

** In Seasons 1-3, [[spoiler:Sherry Palmer is another example. She begins the series as a Face, happily married to the BigGood David Palmer. However, as the first season goes on, her paranoia about the Palmer family's reputation causes her to resort to increasingly unethical means to cover up the family's mistakes. Not to mention TheReveal that she helped cover up an accidental murder committed by Keith Palmer before the start of the series, which David Palmer was unaware of. David Palmer's strict adherence to HonorBeforeReason and determination to go public with the information puts a major wedge between them, and due to Sherry's increasing [[EvilIsPetty pettiness]] toward her husband, she ends up undergoing a FaceHeelTurn and becomes the main political BigBad by the end of the season. [[ManipulativeBitch This culminates in her attempting to manipulate him into having an affair to create legitimate dirt on him]] but David sees through it and the two divorce. [[HeelFaceMole She fakes a Face turn at the start of Season 2, but this is a ruse]]. However, she has a genuine HeelFaceTurn at the end of the season when [[EvenEvilHasStandards there is threat of]] WorldWarThree, and she selflessly puts her life at risk for the good of her husband and her country. She is still a Face as of the start of Season 3 but does another FaceHeelTurn once she [[TokenEvilTeammate murders David Palmer's rival]]. This obviously recreates the rift between them, and due to her death at the end of the season she ultimately ends her time on the show as a Heel]].

** In Seasons 1-3, [[spoiler:Sherry Palmer is another example. She begins the series as a Face, happily married to the BigGood David Palmer. However, as the first season goes on, her paranoia about the Palmer family's reputation causes her to resort to increasingly unethical means to cover up the family's mistakes. Not to mention TheReveal that she helped cover up an accidental murder committed by Keith Palmer before the start of the series, which David Palmer was unaware of. David Palmer's strict adherence to HonorBeforeReason and determination to go public with the information puts a major wedge between them, and due to Sherry's increasing [[EvilIsPetty pettiness]] toward her husband, she ends up undergoing a FaceHeelTurn and becomes the main political BigBad by the end of the season. [[ManipulativeBitch This culminates in her attempting to manipulate him into having an affair to create legitimate dirt on him]], but David sees through it and the two divorce. [[HeelFaceMole She fakes a Face turn at the start of Season 2, but this is a ruse]]. However, she has a genuine HeelFaceTurn at the end of the season when [[EvenEvilHasStandards there is threat of]] WorldWarThree, and she selflessly puts her life at risk for the good of her husband and her country. She is still a Face as of the start of Season 3, but does another FaceHeelTurn once she [[TokenEvilTeammate murders David Palmer's rival]]. This obviously recreates the rift between them, and due to her death at the end of the season she ultimately ends her time on the show as a Heel]].
** In Seasons 4-8, [[spoiler:Charles Logan is yet another example. He begins Season 4 as a Face, brought in as a PresidentBuffoon way in over his head during a nuclear crisis due to the actual president's incapacitation. [[TheMillstone Although he proves to be more of a hindrance than a help]], he is ultimately on the side of good throughout the season. At the start of Season 5, he appears to still be on the side of the heroes. However, he is revealed to have undergone a FaceHeelTurn between seasons, and ultimately turns out to be the BigBad of Season 5. [[MoralEventHorizon This is because of trying to cover up not only his involvement in selling incredibly dangerous weapons to terrorists, but the completely unnecessary murder of two of Jack Bauer's best friends.]] At the end of this season, his treasonous actions are uncovered and he is put under house arrest. In Season 6, he genuinely attempts a HeelFaithTurn to atone for his actions during Season 5. Although he does help, he ultimately finds himself in a HeelFaceDoorSlam when his ex-wife, who he had previously abused, stabs him in a fit of rage. Although he is in a state of UncertainDoom at the end of that season, he ultimately has an UnexplainedRecovery and returns in Season 8. Unfortunately, he now no longer cares about his genuine HeelFaceTurn and decides to just focus on repairing his reputation by getting involved in another cover-up, so he undergoes another FaceHeelTurn and ends up as the BigBad a second time. Then he is DrivenToSuicide and once again left in a state of UncertainDoom. Logan's role certainly turned out very cyclical.]]

** He's topped however by Sark, who describes himself as having "flexible loyalties" and in the finale outright states he doesn't care who's side he's on, as long as its the winning side.

*** Just to detail Lindsey’s allegiance switches, he [[spoiler:begins as the secondary villain in the very first episode, representing Wolfram & Hart (the BigBad organization of the series) as they assist the episode’s main villain, the MonsterOfTheWeek. Then, after a short absence, he returns as part of a trio of Angel’s recurring foes throughout Season 1, with Lilah and Lee. This is until Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Blind Date”, where he is asked to represent a villain in court who WouldHurtAChild (would kill three children, in fact), and he realizes that BeingEvilSucks when it comes to his conscience. So he pulls a HeelFaceTurn to help Angel stop the villain he was supposed to represent, even fighting alongside Angel as a BadassNormal in the episode’s ending battle. Unfortunately, between Angel still treating Lindsey poorly despite his turn to good, and his former boss Holland Manners offering him a pay raise to return to the villains, Lindsey ultimately pulls a FaceHeelTurn and returns to Wolfram & Hart in the following episode, this time powering up the MonsterOfTheWeek as Angel fights it. He then continues to be a recurring villain throughout Season 2, first assisting Holland and then competing with Lilah for Holland’s job after his death. This is until one of the last episodes of the season, “Dead End”, where Lindsey learns about the horrific experiments Wolfram & Hart has been doing, particularly to one of his old friends, and, because EvenEvilHasStandards, he once again pulls a HeelFaceTurn to help Angel take them down, fighting alongside him as a BadassNormal again as they raid the facility. After this he is PutOnABus at the end of the episode. Quitting Wolfram & Hart for good but not wanting to work with Angel either, he simply leaves town to start a new life. But then he returns in Season 5, undergoing yet another FaceHeelTurn because, due to Angel’s takeover of Wolfram & Hart, his jealousy gets the better of him. After all, [[HardWorkHardlyWorks Lindsey had to work hard to make his way up their ranks while Angel was simply handed the CEO position,]] which he couldn’t ignore. This time their battle ends on a sword fight (because Lindsey got a PowerUp during his absence to put him on Angel’s combat level) to celebrate the show’s 100th episode, ending with Lindsey banished to a demon dimension by Wolfram & Hart’s Senior Partners. Then, because Angel needs his help in the series’ final battle, Angel’s group frees Lindsey and convinces him to join their side once again, causing him to pull a third HeelFaceTurn. It is at this point that Angel is GenreSavvy enough to have Lorne kill Lindsey before Lindsey could pull another FaceHeelTurn and oppose him again after their team-up. Lindsey’s dying words seem to confirm that he was in fact considering yet another FaceHeelTurn down the road, since he claims [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou that Angel was the only one worthy of killing him]], but then again his lines shortly beforehand indicated that GoodFeelsGood and he seemed completely sincere about that, so who really knows.]]

** Harmony. One of the best examples of HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, because she remained clearly the same person throughout and her switching sides fit into her conformist character. At the end, Angel tells her that he knew all along that she'd go back to Heel, because she has no soul.
** Faith went from thinking being a Slayer was awesome, to discovering she really enjoyed killing and hurting people, to wanting Buffy to kill her in order to bring Buffy down to her level, to being freaked over Buffy almost killing her and wanting revenge for killing her father figure, to a HeelRealization, undergoes a full HeelFaceTurn in the last part of Buffy Season 7, to TheResenter in the comics, to a kinda sorta reformed Slayer, after attempting to kill Buffy [[RunningGag again]]. At last count she's playing watchdog for Series/{{Angel}}.

** Boomer: [[spoiler:First she's Cylon sleeper agent, then she doesn't want to be one, then she fails to overcome her programming and shoots Admiral Adama. Then she tries to make peace between Cylons and humans and, failing that, she tries to kill her counterpart's daughter and betrays her model number, causing a civil war. Then she has a change of heart and escapes with the Final Cylon when the others want to surgically remove her brain. Then, faced with execution for causing the Cylon civil war, she knocks out another Cylon to take her place in the brig while abducting Athena's baby to use as a hostage in her escape plan which ultimately ''cripples the battlestar''. Then she starts having second thoughts after bonding with Hera. Make up your damn mind, woman! If you weren't so flaky maybe more people would like you. At least Athena [[RedemptionEqualsDeath killed her]] after she returned Hera before she had the chance to change her mind again.]] To be fair, though, her constant mind-changing isn't entirely unjustified. [[spoiler: if you flew all the way to some middle of ass nowhere planet to bond with the humans, only to have them start suicide bombing you, and then, on top of that, the man you love has married and is having a baby with the girl who shot you, then, well, you'd probably be a little peeved too.]] It's also worth noting that at least one set of those Heel Face Turns was faked ([[spoiler:Rescuing Ellen was entirely a front so that she could kidnap Hera.]])
** It's mentioned several times by other Cylon models that this is a characteristic of the Eights, in that they're easily swayed. Even Athena calls them on it. In fact Athena's fanatical devotion to the Colonial cause may be an attempt to compensate for this perceived weakness in herself. That and the fact that the slightest indication of treachery would get her thrown out an airlock.
** Gaius Baltar was even worse. The plot kept jerking him around from TheAtoner to LesCollaborateurs. Not entirely his fault, since he had a phantom cylon in his head for most of the series, but still, would it have killed him to show some backbone once in a while? Signaled by his recurrent BeardOfEvil: clean-shaven, he was TheAtoner, sometimes even TheWoobie. With stubble, he was a DirtyCoward, and usually a SmugSnake as well. On rare occasions when he actually ''groomed'' his beard, [[ManipulativeBastard watch out]].

* Dr Dean Archer from ''Series/ChicagoMed''. He consistently works to heal his patients but he's prone to ethical breaches if he deems it necessary. Depending on the episode he serves as an ally of foil to the other doctors.

* From season 3 onwards, ''Series/CobraKai'' becomes a series of quickly-changing allegiances as a number of the students bounce back and forth between Miyagi-Do and the titular dojo. This is further complicated by the creation of [[spoiler: Eagle Fang, Johnny's own dojo when he loses Cobra Kai, and the students loyal to Johnny leave after seeing how off the deep end Kreese and his students are. At the end of season 3, Daniel and Johnny seemingly put aside their differences and join forces, but their egos and differing ideals cause Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang to come to blows and eventually separate once more, causing fractures between the students working together against Cobra Kai and forcing them pick which of the two dojos they will stand with.]]

* ''Series/DarkOracle'': [[SmugSnake Omen]] suffered badly from this, due to a bad case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder combined with a desire for {{Revenge}} and an unfortunate tendency towards partnering with those who were stronger and more evil than him. He's a villain at first, manipulating Cally as part of a plot for revenge on Doyle. He then tries to help Cally get rid of the comic book (partly out of a crush on her and partly out of a desire to hurt her EvilTwin, Violet) and gets trapped in comic world for his trouble. He returns, and helps BigBadWannabe Vern trap Lance in the comic world, pretends to help Cally get him out while secretly working for Lance's EvilTwin Blaze whom he actually frees, and then ''finally'' pulls a HeelFaceTurn and [[spoiler:dies helping Cally free Lance and get rid of Blaze and Violet]]. Jeez man.

*** The Master takes this trope to its absolute extreme at the end of Series 10 of the revival, to the extent that it even puts a unique spin on the trope itself. [[spoiler:The Saxon Master, ArchEnemy of the Tenth Doctor, crosses into the timeline of the Twelfth Doctor, at which point he has already regenerated into the Missy Master. This leads to the first-ever team up of multiple incarnations of the Master. Both the Saxon and Missy Masters had their turns through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor already, making them both WildCard characters in terms of allegiance. It culminates with Missy settling on Face and Saxon settling on Heel, and then doing a MutualKill on each other! In other words, the Master pulled a double-suicide on him/herself specifically because of their confused morality. While the Saxon Master is guaranteed to survive by means of regenerating into Missy, and is heavily implied to do exactly that immediately following the events of the episode, the Missy Master is stated to have been KilledOffForReal.]] In Series 12, [[spoiler:this did not stick. The Master turned up in a new incarnation and was firmly back in the Heel camp again, due to discovering that the Doctor was “the Timeless Child” and therefore [[GreenEyedMonster more special than he was.]] So, to recount between the three incarnations, the Master went from Heel to Face to Heel as Saxon, started as Heel then went through several HeelFaceRevolvingDoor turns as Missy before finally settling on Face, and then came back as a Heel again as the “O” Master. Quite the moral journey!]]

%%** Puck and Santana do this in varying degrees.

* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': Kouta/Gaim's rival, Kaito Kumon, believes that having power is the only way to not get opressed in this world so he doesn't care much for morality. During the story, Kaito would switch from being a power-seeking jerkass who are apathetic to the heroes' problems to a helpful ally who wants to destroy the powerful villains and vice versa as long as it suits his goal.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Due to the aggressively gray morality of the show, somebody either does a full 180, or is set up to look like they have, in almost every episode. The worst offender is probably Ben, with Sawyer running a close second, especially in the first few seasons.

** Rumplestiltskin starts out as a fully evil character, whose unresolved personal issues and guilt over his chronic cowardice, trying repeatedly to redeem himself with Belle, who becomes his MoralityPet. Over the course of the first season, he eventually ends up as more or less a [[SympatheticVillain Sympathetic]] AntiVillain. [[spoiler: After her memory is returned]] in the second series, his focus returns solely to [[spoiler: finding his son]]. After finding out that [[spoiler: Henry is his grandson, making a good majority of the main cast his family as well]], his motives and intentions become increasingly more ambiguous. In the first half of Season 3, he travels with Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, and Hook to rescue Henry from [[spoiler: his father,]] Peter Pan, and later takes him down, [[spoiler: killing himself in the process]]. In the second half, he is brought back by Neal and is controlled with the dagger by Zelena, who uses him to do her bidding, before marrying Belle in the season finale. In Season 4, he puts on an act of being changed, while really conspiring to cleave himself from the dagger, which would cost several lives to do so. After his plan is discovered, Belle uses the dagger to force him to leave town, but he later returns, and works with the queens of darkness to turn Emma, the savior, dark while trying to find the author of the book to write a new story in which villains get a happy ending. It turns out this was all to prevent the darkness from taking him over completely. The Apprentice removes it, but it leaves him in a coma, and the darkness breaks free, trying to take over Regina, before [[spoiler: Emma uses the dagger to force it to take herself as the new host, becoming the new dark one]].

** [[spoiler: Regina]] enters the revolving door in Season 2, desperately trying anything to win back [[spoiler: her surrogate son]] only to constantly be met with obstacles and [[ReformedButRejected scorn]]. In the Season 2 finale, she firmly commits to the Heroes side, but spends a good portion of Season 3 as the TokenEvilTeammate and TheFriendNobodyLikes. However, as of the Season 4 finale, she is undeniably a hero now, even if somewhat of an AntiHero.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Nate Walker [[spoiler: or Jason Neville]]. He saved Charlie's life in the episode [[Recap/RevolutionS1E1Pilot Pilot]]. In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E2ChainedHeat Chained Heat]]", Charlie manages to get the drop on him. In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E4ThePlagueDogs The Plague Dogs]]", Nate helps to save Charlie's life from Ray Kinsey. In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain Soul Train]]", Nate gets captured by Team Matheson and refuses to talk. He escaped and told Tom Neville what he knew, but he also helped Charlie to escape from Neville. In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E6SexAndDrugs Sex and Drugs]]", he reported to Monroe that Aaron had one of the pendants in his possession, but he left out a number of details in his report. In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand The Stand]]", he decides not to help Tom Neville in bringing an air strike on the rebels, gets thrown out and warns Charlie about the air strike. The "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame The Song Remains the Same]]" has Nate officially join up with the rebels. Unfortunately, his past allegiances come back to haunt him in the episode "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E18Clue Clue]]" and nearly gets him killed when they think he's still working for Monroe. In the first season finale "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower The Dark Tower]]", [[spoiler: Jason Neville seems to join up with his father when Tom Neville successfully takes over the Monroe Republic. However, there are already signs that things will break down between them sooner rather than later]].

** Lionel Luthor starts off ''moderately'' evil, becomes/[[RetCon is retconned to be]] completely evil, goes to prison, [[FreakyFriday temporarily switches bodies with Clark]] and thereby absorbs some of his strong moral fibre (making him into a good guy), is convinced to readopt his villainous ways by an EvilTwin of Lex Luthor, and then spends several seasons stumbling drunkenly along the line between good and evil out of lust for Martha, before temporary possession by Jor-El converts him to the side of good [[spoiler: until Lex throws him off of a building and he dies]].

** Teal'c was originally the most trusted [[TheDragon right hand man]] of the series' BigBad, then he defected to the side of Earth, and then he was captured and his mind altered to make him think that his defection was part of a (very stupid) long term GambitRoulette to gain the trust of the heroes (bear in mind the heroes ''kill'' the BigBad many times over during this period, and [[BackFromTheDead less reversibly]] they destroy the vast majority of his military power). The heroes, under the guidance of [[BigBrotherMentor The Mentor]], then gave him a quick NearDeathExperience to fix him up again. ObstructiveBureaucrats see it as this trope instead of the much simpler truth (A pure HeelFaceTurn interrupted ''once'' by {{brainwashing}}.)

*** Dukat in particular was loyal mostly to himself, and was willing to side with whoever offered him the most power. Occasionally he does the right thing, but ultimately his desire for power wins out every time.

** In Season 9, Gadreel's allegiance is all over the place. He starts out as a guardian in Heaven, then he lets Lucifer inside the Garden of Eden and is punished for his crime. After his unexpected release he tries to atone by [[spoiler:helping Dean save Sam]], only to be convinced by the conniving Metatron to join his new army. He joins the Winchesters again, but [[spoiler:the vengeful Dean is [[HeelFaceDoorSlam having none of it]]. Gadreel eventually helps Castiel infiltrate Heaven but fails and commits suicide, by creating an explosion that will break open the walls to Castiel's prison cell, in a final act of atonement.]]

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': Max did this is one episode, taking Justin's side, then Alex's side, then back, depending on who looked most likely to win the weekly conflict at that exact moment. He also announced to both siblings when we was doing this.

*** The original “Delgado” Master from the Third Doctor’s tenure was actually like this most of the time as well. His modus operandi was typically to start a BigBadDuumvirate with the MonsterOfTheWeek, have him realize partway through the serial that this was going to hurt him in some way too, and then make an EnemyMine with the Doctor to stop the threat that he started. He also had a few moments of showing genuine concern over the Doctor’s well-being. He reveled in hurting him but also seemed to generally not want to go far enough to kill him. In fact, he was supposed to go through an actual HeelFaceTurn in his last serial if not for the [[ActorExistenceFailure death of his actor, Roger Delgado]], preventing this incarnation from ever actually doing so.

** In Seasons 4-8, [[spoiler:Charles Logan is yet another example. He begins Season 4 as a Face, brought in as a PresidentBuffoon way in over his head during a nuclear crisis due to the actual president's incapacitation. [[TheMillstone Although he proves to be more of a hindrance than a help]], he is ultimately on the side of good throughout the season. At the start of Season 5, he appears to still be on the side of the heroes. However, he is revealed to have undergone a FaceHeelTurn between seasons, and ultimately turns out to be the BigBad of Season 5. [[MoralEventHorizon This is because of trying to cover up not only his involvement in selling incredibly dangerous weapons to terrorists, but the completely unnecessary murder of two of Jack Bauer's best friends.]] At the end of this season, his treasonous actions are uncovered and he is put under house arrest. In Season 6, he genuinely attempts a HeelFaithTurn to atone for his actions during Season 5. Although he does help, he ultimately finds himself in a HeelFaceDoorSlam when his ex-wife, who he had previously abused, stabs him in a fit of rage. Although he is in a state of UncertainDoom at the end of that season, he ultimately has an UnexplainedRecovery and returns in Season 8. Unfortunately, he now no longer cares about his genuine HeelFaceTurn and decides to just focus on repairing his reputation, [[WhatAnIdiot by getting involved in another cover-up]], so he undergoes another FaceHeelTurn and ends up as the BigBad a second time. Then he is DrivenToSuicide and once again left in a state of UncertainDoom. Logan's role certainly turned out very cyclical.]]

* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Chris Keller. Is he inherently evil? Is he trying to be good? Is he too psychologically damaged to know what he's doing? Is he loyal Beecher? Is he working for Schillinger? Is he trying to get help from Sister Pete? Is he trying to screw with her mind? It alternates.

%%* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Chris Keller.

** Boomer: [[spoiler:First she's Cylon sleeper agent, then she doesn't want to be one, then she fails to overcome her programming and shoots Admiral Adama. Then she tries to make peace between Cylons and humans and, failing that, she tries to kill her counterpart's daughter and betrays her model number, causing a civil war. Then she has a change of heart and escapes with the Final Cylon when the others want surgically to remove her brain. Then, faced with execution for causing the Cylon civil war, she knocks out another Cylon to take her place in the brig while abducting Athena's baby to use as a hostage in her escape plan which ultimately ''cripples the battlestar''. Then she starts having second thoughts after bonding with Hera. Make up your damn mind, woman! If you weren't so flaky maybe more people would like you. At least Athena [[RedemptionEqualsDeath killed her]] after she returned Hera before she had the chance to change her mind again.]] To be fair, though, her constant mind-changing isn't entirely unjustified. [[spoiler: if you flew all the way to some middle of ass nowhere planet to bond with the humans, only to have them start suicide bombing you, and then, on top of that, the man you love has married and is having a baby with the girl who shot you, then, well, you'd probably be a little peeved too.]] It's also worth noting that at least one set of those Heel Face Turns was faked ([[spoiler:Rescuing Ellen was entirely a front so that she could kidnap Hera.]])

** Although Castiel is unarguably trying to be the good guy, he appears to have been trapped in this revolving door since his first appearance. He starts out as the angel that rescued Dean from Hell, but then it's revealed the angels have plans for Dean and expect him to do exactly as they say even when their plans are morally ambiguous to say the least. Castiel starts to have doubts and sympathize with Dean, eventually twisting the rules to help Dean. But then he gets dragged off to Heaven and forced back into line, betraying Anna and setting Sam free to go start the Apocalypse, before he betrays Heaven for good and sides with Dean a couple of episodes later. He spends most of the fifth season on the Face side of things, with the exception of his TemporarilyAVillain role in "I Believe The Children Are Our Future", but appears to have jumped back into the revolving door as of Season 6. [[spoiler:He makes a deal with Crowley, but he does so in order to fight Raphael and prevent the apocalypse from re-starting. In order to carry out his plan though, he is forced to lie to and manipulate the Winchesters while carrying out some pretty morally ambiguous schemes. He undoes some of the worst ones though rather than risk the Winchesters, but ultimately finishes the season on a Heel note, having absorbed millions of souls from Purgatory and declared himself the new God. He seemed to come back to himself within an episode or so of the seventh season and asked for forgiveness only to be taken over by Leviathans who then, a few episodes later, appeared to liquefy him. About halfway through the season, he turned up again with amnesia. He got his memory back and took the broken wall in Sam's mind onto himself, effectively bringing Sam back to normal, but landing himself with an incredibly messed up head. As of the end of Season 7, he seems to be on the Face side, having made a HeroicSacrifice. As of the middle of Season 8, he's apparently back to Heel, being BrainwashedAndCrazy for Naomi. In the episode "Goodbye, Stranger", he leaves both sides behind and goes off on his own. Expect this section to expand continually.]]

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': In the Seventh Season, [[spoiler:Tony Almeida]] made this trope into a true artform: [[spoiler:He joined a mercenary group while working with Bill and Chloe to expose a massive web of corruption while actually working for an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness in order to get to Alan Wilson the Ultimate [[TheManBehindTheMan Man Behind The Man]] in order to execute a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for the death of Michelle.]] The ''Live Another Day'' epilogue ''Solitary'' continues to suggest the possibility of [[HeelFaceTurn a full turn when the time comes]].
** In seasons 1-3, [[spoiler:Sherry Palmer is another example. She begins the series as a Face, happily married to the BigGood David Palmer. However, as the first season goes on, her paranoia about the Palmer family's reputation causes her to resort to increasingly unethical means to cover up the family's mistakes. Not to mention TheReveal that she helped cover up an accidental murder committed by Keith Palmer before the start of the series, which David Palmer was unaware of. David Palmer's strict adherence to HonorBeforeReason and determination to go public with the information puts a major wedge between them, and due to Sherry's increasing [[EvilIsPetty pettiness]] toward her husband, she ends up undergoing a FaceHeelTurn and becomes the main political BigBad by the end of the season. [[ManipulativeBitch This culminates in her attempting to manipulate him into having an affair to create legitimate dirt on him]], but David sees through it and the two divorce. [[HeelFaceMole She fakes a Face turn at the start of season 2, but this is a ruse]]. However, she has a genuine HeelFaceTurn at the end of the season when [[EvenEvilHasStandards there is threat of]] WorldWarThree, and she selflessly puts her life at risk for the good of her husband and her country. She is still a Face as of the start of season 3, but does another FaceHeelTurn once she [[TokenEvilTeammate murders David Palmer's rival]]. This obviously recreates the rift between them, and due to her death at the end of the season she ultimately ends her time on the show as a Heel]].
** In seasons 4-8, [[spoiler:Charles Logan is yet another example. He begins season 4 as a Face, brought in as a PresidentBuffoon way in over his head during a nuclear crisis due to the actual president's incapacitation. [[TheMillstone Although he proves to be more of a hindrance than a help]], he is ultimately on the side of good throughout the season. At the start of season 5, he appears to still be on the side of the heroes. However, he is revealed to have undergone a FaceHeelTurn between seasons, and ultimately turns out to be the BigBad of season 5. [[MoralEventHorizon This is because of trying to cover up not only his involvement in selling incredibly dangerous weapons to terrorists, but the completely unnecessary murder of two of Jack Bauer's best friends.]] At the end of this season, his treasonous actions are uncovered and he is put under house arrest. In season 6, he genuinely attempts a HeelFaithTurn to atone for his actions during season 5. Although he does help, he ultimately finds himself in a HeelFaceDoorSlam when his ex-wife, who he had previously abused, stabs him in a fit of rage. Although he is in a state of UncertainDoom at the end of that season, he ultimately has an UnexplainedRecovery and returns in season 8. Unfortunately, he now no longer cares about his genuine HeelFaceTurn and decides to just focus on repairing his reputation, [[WhatAnIdiot by getting involved in another cover-up]], so he undergoes another FaceHeelTurn and ends up as the BigBad a second time. Then he is DrivenToSuicide and once again left in a state of UncertainDoom. Logan's role certainly turned out very cyclical.]]
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': After being firmly on the bad guy's side in season 1, [[spoiler: Grant Ward]] spends most of season 2 bouncing back and forth between helping Coulson's team and hindering them. [[spoiler: However, the season finale seems to have cemented him as a villain]].

* ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'': [[FemmeFatale Selena Coombs]] certainly seems to be riding one of these, or perhaps a seesaw. Aside from the moments when we see the weakening of her evil resolve and the good heart shining through (particularly the episode "Potato Boy"), the last several episodes of the series involve her repeatedly switching sides. It's hard to tell exactly who she's lying to at any given moment--Buck, Dr. Peele, or Caleb.

** Also Darla (though that one tended to have more logical reasons - whether she was a vampire or not, had a soul or not...)

** Throughout the series, Spike would switch between attacking the Scoobies and reluctantly joining forces with them for his own needs, even after becoming a somewhat ally in season 4. Heck, even when [[spoiler: he got his soul back]] the final season had him murdering people again, [[spoiler: though it turns out the First Evil was controlling him against his will]].

** An even better example now is [[spoiler:Chuck's mother]] in season 4. We had 5 episodes ambiguously building her up to be possibly good and working undercover, or possibly working for the bad guys. The sixth episode of the season has her appear and swear her innocence, seeking help to stop a dangerous weapon from getting out, only for her to betray everyone. Except, it turns out all of this, including [[spoiler:shooting Chuck because she assumed he was wearing a bulletproof vest]], was part of her {{plan}} in order to fool the bad guys. Casey then tracks down evidence that her entire cover story is a lie and she really did join the villain years ago. In the seventh episode, she once again claims she can prove her innocence and sends Chuck on an episode-long mission to find the proof. [[spoiler:Except, this was all part of an even more brilliant gambit, as she was in fact tricking Chuck all along in order to bring herself and her boss to Orion's base and blow it up with Chuck and Sarah inside. ...AND THEN SHE SECRETLY HELPS THEM TO ESCAPE.]] That's at least six trips through the revolving door in two episodes, and nobody's entirely sure whose side she's on.

* ''Series/Kingdom2019'': Beom-pal throughout seasons 1 and 2, continually shifting allegiance to his clan, the prince, and himself, before finally settling on Prince Chang after realizing how monstrous his clan has actually become once told to execute innocent civilians.

** Rumplestiltskin starts out as a fully evil character, whose unresolved personal issues and guilt over his chronic cowardice, trying repeatedly to redeem himself with Belle, who becomes his MoralityPet. Over the course of the first season, he eventually ends up as more or less a [[SympatheticVillain Sympathetic]] AntiVillain. [[spoiler: After her memory is returned]] in the second series, his focus returns solely to [[spoiler: finding his son]]. After finding out that [[spoiler: Henry is his grandson, making a good majority of the main cast his family as well]], his motives and intentions become increasingly more ambiguous. In the first half of season 3, he travels with Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, and Hook to rescue Henry from [[spoiler: his father,]] Peter Pan, and later takes him down, [[spoiler: killing himself in the process]]. In the second half, he is brought back by Neal and is controlled with the dagger by Zelena, who uses him to do her bidding, before marrying Belle in the season finale. In season 4, he puts on an act of being changed, while really conspiring to cleave himself from the dagger, which would cost several lives to do so. After his plan is discovered, Belle uses the dagger to force him to leave town, but he later returns, and works with the queens of darkness to turn Emma, the savior, dark while trying to find the author of the book to write a new story in which villains get a happy ending. It turns out this was all to prevent the darkness from taking him over completely. The Apprentice removes it, but it leaves him in a coma, and the darkness breaks free, trying to take over Regina, before [[spoiler: Emma uses the dagger to force it to take herself as the new host, becoming the new dark one]].

** Emma in season 5. [[spoiler: After becoming the Dark One, she repeatedly bounces back and forth, making it a mystery even to the Storybrooke residents if she's good or bad, and what her end game is]].

** As of season 4, we have Mona: The reveal that [[spoiler: she's the BigBad of seasons 1 and 2 at the end of the latter]] puts her on the Heel side, then she's sent to Radley where she [[BlatantLies "reforms"]] and is integrated back into society in the second half of season 3. She tries to convince everyone that she's made a HeelFaceTurn now, and yet no one trusts her, still believing her to be evil. [[spoiler: They were right, she was working for the second A.]] However, after [[spoiler: almost being burnt to death]] in the season 3 finale, she tells the Liars that they're "all in this together", and joins them to try and unmask A. We have yet to see how much this will last though...

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Garak tends to do these at least twice per episode. He's a bastard, he has some really compelling characteristics, he's really amazingly... no wait, he's a bastard again. End credits. However, Garak rarely turned against the main cast - [[WellIntentionedExtremist he usually just did things]] [[TokenEvilTeammate that they considered morally objectionable]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo on their behalf]].

** Although Castiel is unarguably trying to be the good guy, he appears to have been trapped in this revolving door since his first appearance. He starts out as the angel that rescued Dean from Hell, but then it's revealed the angels have plans for Dean and expect him to do exactly as they say even when their plans are morally ambiguous to say the least. Castiel starts to have doubts and sympathize with Dean, eventually twisting the rules to help Dean. But then he gets dragged off to Heaven and forced back into line, betraying Anna and setting Sam free to go start the Apocalypse, before he betrays Heaven for good and sides with Dean a couple of episodes later. He spends most of the fifth season on the Face side of things, with the exception of his TemporarilyAVillain role in "I Believe The Children Are Our Future", but appears to have jumped back into the revolving door as of season 6. [[spoiler:He makes a deal with Crowley, but he does so in order to fight Raphael and prevent the apocalypse from re-starting. In order to carry out his plan though, he is forced to lie to and manipulate the Winchesters while carrying out some pretty morally ambiguous schemes. He undoes some of the worst ones though rather than risk the Winchesters, but ultimately finishes the season on a Heel note, having absorbed millions of souls from Purgatory and declared himself the new God. He seemed to come back to himself within an episode or so of the seventh season and asked for forgiveness only to be taken over by Leviathans who then, a few episodes later, appeared to liquefy him. About halfway through the season, he turned up again with amnesia. He got his memory back and took the broken wall in Sam's mind onto himself, effectively bringing Sam back to normal, but landing himself with an incredibly messed up head. As of the end of Season 7, he seems to be on the Face side, having made a HeroicSacrifice. As of the middle of Season 8, he's apparently back to Heel, being BrainwashedAndCrazy for Naomi. In the episode "Goodbye, Stranger", he leaves both sides behind and goes off on his own. Expect this section to expand continually.]]
** Crowley is Castiel's opposite; he [[BigBadWannabe desperately wants]] to be the BigBad, but circumstances and greater threats keep forcing him into [[EnemyMine Enemy Mines]] with the heroes. When we first meet him in season 5, he helps the heroes fight Lucifer because he [[spoiler: correctly]] believes that once humanity is destroyed, Lucifer will turn on the demons. Once Lucifer is dealt with, however, he declares himself the King of Hell and spends most of season 6 as an antagonist. But once season 7 rolls around the new threats of [[spoiler: Castiel]] and the Leviathans force him to reluctantly aid the heroes again for a return to the status quo. But of course, as soon as ''that's'' dealt with, he immediately betrays them and goes back to being a bad guy for season 8. Season 8 ends with [[spoiler: Crowley's humanity being partially restored and Knight of Hell Abbadon announcing her plans to usurp Crowley's throne]], so it wouldn't be surprising to see him back on the side of good (or at least as close to the side of good as he ever gets) for season 9.

*** Just to detail Lindsey’s allegiance switches, he [[spoiler:begins as the secondary villain in the very first episode, representing Wolfram & Hart (the BigBad organization of the series) as they assist the episode’s main villain, the MonsterOfTheWeek. Then, after a short absence, he returns as part of a trio of Angel’s recurring foes throughout Season 1, with Lilah and Lee. This is until Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Blind Date”, where he is asked to represent a villain in court who WouldHurtAChild (would kill three children, in fact), and he realizes that BeingEvilSucks when it comes to his conscience. So he pulls a HeelFaceTurn to help Angel stop the villain he was supposed to represent, even fighting alongside Angel as a BadassNormal in the episode’s ending battle. Unfortunately, between Angel still treating Lindsey poorly despite his turn to good, and his former boss Holland Manners offering him a pay raise to return to the villains, Lindsey ultimately pulls a FaceHeelTurn and returns to Wolfram & Hart in the following episode, this time powering up the MonsterOfTheWeek as Angel fights it. He then continues to be a recurring villain throughout Season 2, first assisting Holland and then competing with Lilah for Holland’s job after his death. This is until one of the last episodes of the season, “Dead End”, where Lindsey learns about the horrific experiments Wolfram & Hart has been doing, particularly to one of his old friends, and, because EvenEvilHasStandards, he once again pulls a HeelFaceTurn to help Angel take them down, fighting alongside him as a BadassNormal again as they raid the facility. After this he is PutOnABus at the end of the episode. Quitting Wolfram & Hart for good but not wanting to work with Angel either, he simply leaves town to start a new life. But then he returns in Season 5, undergoing yet another FaceHeelTurn because, due to Angel’s takeover of Wolfram & Hart, his jealousy gets the better of him. This time their battle ends on a sword fight (because Lindsey got a PowerUp during his absence to put him on Angel’s combat level) to celebrate the show’s 100th episode, ending with Lindsey banished to a demon dimension by Wolfram & Hart’s Senior Partners. Then, because Angel needs his help in the series’ final battle, Angel’s group frees Lindsey and convinces him to join their side once again, causing him to pull a third HeelFaceTurn. It is at this point that Angel is GenreSavvy enough to have Lorne kill Lindsey before Lindsey could pull another FaceHeelTurn and oppose him again after their team-up.]]