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* ''Series/CobraKai'' season 5 ends with Terry Silver's defeat, only for everyone to hear the news that Kreese has escaped from prison.
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* Happens in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Clyde Decker is set up at the beginning of the season to be operating a conspiracy by a faction of the CIA intent on destroying Chuck Bartowski, his friends, and his family. Midway through the season it's revealed that Daniel Shaw, who underwent a FaceHeelTurn halfway through the third season and tried to take over the CIA before the team stopped him, has been pulling Decker's strings (via blackmail over Decker's corrupt past) all along. And then ''that'' gets hijacked by Quinn, who it's revealed was behind ''everyone'' Chuck had been dealing with out of spite because Chuck "stole" the Intersect from him (Quinn was selected to be the Intersect agent, but after Bryce stole it and sent it to Chuck, Quinn was sent into the field without it, captured, and tortured. Yes, there was a bit of SanitySlippage involved).
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* Happens in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Clyde Decker is set up at the beginning of the season to be operating a conspiracy by a faction of the CIA intent on destroying Chuck Bartowski, his friends, and his family.family (having claimed in season 4's finale that all the villains they'd gone up against -- FULCRUM, The Ring, and Volkoff Industries -- and Chuck's family were all the pawns in a larger game) . Midway through the season it's revealed that Daniel Shaw, who underwent a FaceHeelTurn halfway through the third season and tried to take over the CIA before the team stopped him, has been pulling Decker's strings (via blackmail over Decker's corrupt past) all along. And then ''that'' gets hijacked by Quinn, who it's revealed was behind ''everyone'' Chuck had been dealing with (or at the least was working for all the other antagonists offscreen) out of spite because Chuck "stole" the Intersect from him (Quinn was selected to be the Intersect agent, but after Bryce stole it and sent it to Chuck, Quinn was sent into the field without it, captured, and tortured. Yes, there was a bit of SanitySlippage involved).
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** The main villain for most of Season 7 was [[Film/{{Tangled}} Mother Gothel]], with [[Film/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Dr Facilier]] as a secondary antagonist. With Gothel defeated, Facilier looked set to be the villain of the two-part [[GrandFinal series finale]], only for him to be murdered by the [[AlternateSelf Wish Realm]] Rumpelstiltskin in the last seconds of the preceding episode.
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** The main villain for most of Season 7 was [[Film/{{Tangled}} [[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} Mother Gothel]], with [[Film/ThePrincessAndTheFrog [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Dr Facilier]] as a secondary antagonist. With Gothel defeated, Facilier looked set to be the villain of the two-part [[GrandFinal [[GrandFinale series finale]], only for him to be murdered by the [[AlternateSelf Wish Realm]] Rumpelstiltskin in the last seconds of the preceding episode.
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** The main villain for most of Season 7 was [[Film/{{Tangled}} Mother Gothel]], with [[Film/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Dr Facilier]] as a secondary antagonist. With Gothel defeated, Facilier looked set to be the villain of the two-part [[GrandFinal series finale]], only for him to be murdered by the [[AlternateSelf Wish Realm]] Rumpelstiltskin in the last seconds of the preceding episode.
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** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Descent", the rogue Borg the ''Enterprise'' has been chasing turned out to be led by [[EvilTwin Lore]].
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** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Descent", the rogue Borg the ''Enterprise'' has been chasing turned out to be led by [[EvilTwin Lore]].Data's EvilTwin Lore.
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** It seems ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', ''[[Series/KamenRiderOOO OOO]]'', and ''[[Series/KamenRiderFourze Fourze]]'' are getting hijacked by Foundation X, as they were involved with the {{Transformation Trinket}}s of each season in some way.
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** It seems ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', ''[[Series/KamenRiderOOO OOO]]'', and ''[[Series/KamenRiderFourze Fourze]]'' are getting hijacked by [[GreaterScopeVillain Foundation X, X]], as they were involved with the {{Transformation Trinket}}s of each season in some way.way. That being said, Foundation X's involvement in the shows eventually tapered off after a while, though they reappear every so often (primarily in teamup movies/specials).
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* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': The series does a good job establishing the origin story of many heroes and villains of the Batman mythos, but the moment the Valeska twins appeared, everybody knew that it was going to come down to Batman vs. ComicBook/TheJoker and the series [[FinalBoss did not disappointed]].
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* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]]. And then we get confirmation that [[spoiler:yes, James Moriarty really is dead, but his role as TheHeavy for Erasmus Holmes still leaves his fingerprints all over the final season.]]
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* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]]. And then we get confirmation that [[spoiler:yes, James Moriarty really is dead, but his role as TheHeavy for Erasmus Eurus Holmes still leaves his fingerprints all over the final season.]]
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* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]].
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* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]]. And then we get confirmation that [[spoiler:yes, James Moriarty really is dead, but his role as TheHeavy for Erasmus Holmes still leaves his fingerprints all over the final season.]]
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*** The Sontarans do this again in Series 13 only in a BigBadEnsemble capacity, hijacking the antimatter wave "The Flux" to wipe of several Daleks and Cybermen fleets.
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** In season 3 of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', "The Face" that's been barking out orders at Vadic is eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:the Borg Queen]].
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Apophis is not an example of this trope but instead Returning Big Bad. He was never behind Sokar, he just took over after Sokar was already killed.
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* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
** In season 8, Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully [[EnemyCivilWar wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined]]. Anubis reappears on Earth, but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a dying host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction, and that he was serving him for a while now.
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
** In season 8, Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully [[EnemyCivilWar wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined]]. Anubis reappears on Earth, but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a dying host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction, and that he was serving him for a while now.
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* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
**''Series/StargateSG1'': In season 8, Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully [[EnemyCivilWar wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined]]. Anubis reappears on Earth, but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a dying host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction, and that he was serving him for a while now.
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
**
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thats not a hijacking of another villain..
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** In Series 1, it turns out the Daleks were leading the Mighty Jagrafess into manipulating the Human Empire's population. Subsequently, they were behind the Gamestation's gathering of humans for their deadly game shows. Then the Cybermen hijacked Torchwood, the Master hijacked Harold Saxon (by ''being'' him), and the Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, and a few others hijacked the Pandorica. Yup, still going strong.
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** In Series 1, it turns out the Daleks were leading the Mighty Jagrafess into manipulating the Human Empire's population. Subsequently, they were behind the Gamestation's gathering of humans for their deadly game shows. Then the Cybermen hijacked Torchwood, the Master hijacked Harold Saxon (by ''being'' him), and the Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, and a few others hijacked the Pandorica. Yup, still going strong.
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* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' gives a humorous example. Dick is outraged when he discovers Mary has been getting love letters from a mysterious admirer, and discovers that it's actually his ArchEnemy Liam, who seduced Mary and tried to destroy Earth once before and is back to give both another shot.
* In the final season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', the Russians, who were behind the deaths of Omar Hassan and Renee Walker, were hijacked by Season 5's BigBad, [[PresidentEvil Charles]] [[ManipulativeBastard Logan]]. Season 7 had teased Logan pulling this by constantly referencing him and having Tony go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, but unfortunately, it turns out that some [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere random guy]] named Alan Wilson was Tony's target and the one behind multiple conspiracies.
** Also, in The Game, Max, the man behind Season 2's events, is the BigBad.
** Subverted in season six; it seems like the Chinese are pulling this, but Phillip Bauer turns out to be the actual antagonist.
** In the ''Live Another Day'' miniseries, Cheng Zhi returns and pulls this properly, taking over the BigBad position from hacker Adrian Cross almost immediately after he appeared to step into it.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In a major bit of ArcWelding with the main Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, the first season's villain organization "Project Centipede" is revealed to be a branch of HYDRA.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Lindsey works alongside his lover, Eve, to play Angel and Spike against each other, with the hope of usurping Angel's position at the firm and (if we're aiming high) buying his way into the Circle of the Black Thorn.
* In four out of eight seasons of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', a seasonal BigBad is revealed to have some connection to the League of Assassins.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** It turns out the source of various nasty events happening around and to Buffy's circle of friends, not to mention the forces of good around the world, are the work of The First, who appeared in Season 3 as a MonsterOfTheWeek and is now the final villain of the show.
** In the Season Eight comics, it turns out Twilight is actually Angel
** Dark Willow reappears in the ''Time of Your Life'' arc of Season 8.
* Happens in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Clyde Decker is set up at the beginning of the season to be operating a conspiracy by a faction of the CIA intent on destroying Chuck Bartowski, his friends, and his family. Midway through the season it's revealed that Daniel Shaw, who underwent a FaceHeelTurn halfway through the third season and tried to take over the CIA before the team stopped him, has been pulling Decker's strings (via blackmail over Decker's corrupt past) all along. And then ''that'' gets hijacked by Quinn, who it's revealed was behind ''everyone'' Chuck had been dealing with out of spite because Chuck "stole" the Intersect from him (Quinn was selected to be the Intersect agent, but after Bryce stole it and sent it to Chuck, Quinn was sent into the field without it, captured, and tortured. Yes, there was a bit of SanitySlippage involved).
* In the denouement of Season 12's events on ''Series/CriminalMinds'', we learn of a ''twofold'' version of this. The main villain at large during this season is Scratch, a psychopath who uses drugs to induce hypnosuggestion in others so that they do his dirty work for him. Halfway through the season, Dr. Spencer Reid gets framed for murder and imprisoned after being drugged in the same way. However, someone is actually replicating Scratch's M.O. down to the letter to make it appear to be him. This someone turns out to be the daughter of a father the BAU was forced to kill for refusing to stand down, having come out of Witness Protection and flipped her lid; she, in turn, is being used by someone else who wants revenge on Spencer for lying to her about her own father just to get her arrested, and who has gone ''absolutely starkers'' from solitary confinement and taken so many levels of crazy that she decided to subject Spencer to the same type of torture in the prison environment.
* The majority of new villains introduced on ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' in the past 15 years have been revealed to be working for Stefano Di Mera.
* One loses track of how many ''Series/DoctorWho'' serials open with a seemingly original villain who turns out to be a pawn of the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, or the Master. Or sometimes more than one of them (and sometimes they hijack each other). The production team would later admit that they overdid it in the eighth series (which introduced the Master), making him the primary villain in ''all five serials.''
** For the first four episodes of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]], Tobias Vaughn appears to be the BigBad: He makes coy references to "allies" and is clearly hatching out ''something'', but he seems to be the one driving the plot. Then it turns out that what he's hatching out are Cybermen, who quickly prove to be the bigger threat.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace "Frontier in Space"]] does it ''twice'': the Ogrons are quickly revealed to be working for the Master (in Creator/RogerDelgado's last story before his death), who turns out in the final episode to have been working for the Daleks.
** In the fourth-episode cliffhanger of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]], the Vardans are defeated...and then it turns out that they were tools for the Sontarans, who turn up to take matters into their own hands.
** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe "The Ultimate Foe"]], in which it turns out that the Master was responsible for the events that led to Earth's devastation and the Doctor's trial...and then the Valeyard, a completely new villain, turns out to have taken advantage of the Master's actions to set himself up as the story's real BigBad.
** In Series 1, it turns out the Daleks were leading the Mighty Jagrafess into manipulating the Human Empire's population. Subsequently, they were behind the Gamestation's gathering of humans for their deadly game shows. Then the Cybermen hijacked Torchwood, the Master hijacked Harold Saxon (by ''being'' him), and the Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, and a few others hijacked the Pandorica. Yup, still going strong.
** In Series 7, the Great Intelligence being behind everything would count as this. Turns out the villains in [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen "The Snowmen"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn "The Bells of Saint John"]] were just TheDragon to him.
** In Series 8, it turns out that Missy is short for "Mistress" — she's the Master, come back [[JokerImmunity yet again]].
** Another double example in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]], where the creepy patients are revealed to be early incarnations of the Cybermen — and it turns out the Master is responsible.
** Done twice in Series 12 of the new show. Firstly, the villain of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall Spyfall]] is revealed to be the Master using the identity of [=MI6=] agent O in Part 1. Then the Master turns up again to literally hijack Ashad's plot in "The Haunting of Villa Deodati/Acension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children".
** {{Spinoff}} ''Series/{{Class|2016}}'' had a huge example at [[Recap/ClassS01E08TheLost the end]] of its first [[CutShort and only]] season — the Governors are an apocalyptic PathOfInspiration working for the Weeping Angels.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** In Season 5, the BigBad is the metahuman SerialKiller Cicada. However, in the last episodes of the season, it's revealed that Eobard Thawne the Reverse-Flash has been faking his apparent atonement, and that ''the entire season'' was a BatmanGambit to manipulate [[KidFromTheFuture Nora]] into altering the timeline enough that he could escape his execution in the future. When this succeeds with Cicada's defeat in the season finale, Thawne serves as the FinalBoss of the season.
** The ''Armageddon'' storyline in Season 8 sees alien psychic Despero travelling back in time to kill Barry Allen because Despero believes that Barry will cause a cataclysmic event in 2031 (the time period when Despero came from). However, once Barry travels to that future to see for himself, the man responsible is once again Eobard Thawne, who orchestrated a "Reverse-Flashpoint" where he replaced Barry Allen as the Flash in history and turned the entire world against him.
* The second, third, and fourth volumes of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' were hijacked by Sylar, who, while not the mastermind of the first volume, was the unwitting means to Linderman's end, and much more deadly. The volumes set up their BigBad as, in order, Adam Monroe, Arthur Petrelli, and Emile Danko, only for them to be dealt with a couple episodes before the end of the volume, generally unceremoniously. Sylar's MO is to pop out of nowhere at around that time and catch everyone with their pants down, brewing some mayhem for an episode or two until the heroes get him under control...at least until the next volume begins.
** This is made all the more predictable by each volume's insistence on having a major plot thread centering around Sylar regaining his powers, deciding he'd rather be evil, or remembering who he is.
** Ultimately subverted in the final volume, where Samuel Sullivan is established as the BigBad fairly early on and keeps that title right up until the finale. Not only does he [[CurbStompBattle easily defeat]] Sylar the one time they fight, but Sylar has a HeelFaceTurn that actually seems to ''stick'' this time.
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** Whenever the series pulls off a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, you can be sure that the [[Series/KamenRider series' original]] NebulousEvilOrganisation, Shocker, would have its name all over the plot.
** In the Showa era, Shocker's Great Leader was either directly behind or revealed to be secretly puppeteering most of the evil organizations the Kamen Riders faced. It's easier to list the organizations he wasn't behind, that being Dogma and Jin Dogma in ''Series/KamenRiderSuper1''[[note]]Although ''Manga/KamenRiderSpirits'' alludes to the Great Leader having a connection to them as well, the manga is non-canon[[/note]] and Gorgom in ''Series/KamenRiderBLACK''[[note]][[Series/KamenRiderBlackRX The Crisis Empire]] doesn't have any ''official'' connection to the Great Leader, but it's a popular fan theory that Emperor Crisis is, in fact, another incarnation of the Great Leader, due to having the same voice actor, states that he had fought the 10 previous riders personally sometime in the past, and shares a "big floating head" appearance that the Great Leader's last appearance, [[Film/KamenRiderZX The Great Leader of Badan]], had[[/note]]. He's for the most part stopped hijacking the plot in the Heisei era, but whenever there's a [[LegionOfDoom gathering of villains]], nine times out of ten it's him who's leading the charge.
** It seems ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', ''[[Series/KamenRiderOOO OOO]]'', and ''[[Series/KamenRiderFourze Fourze]]'' are getting hijacked by Foundation X, as they were involved with the {{Transformation Trinket}}s of each season in some way.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai''
** In ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger vs. Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'', the villain's plot was revealed to be to resurrect not only all the Alienizers and Trinoids that have been slain in battle, but Dezumozorlya (the Abarangers' EldritchAbomination BigBad) as well. Fortunately, it was the dead [[SixthRanger AbareKiller]] who was resurrected in Dezumozorlya's stead, and Killer proceeds to team up with his fellow Sentai to defeat the various villains.
** It is played straight, however, in ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger vs. Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'', the villains are after the DÅkokugan, the sphere that the Gekirangers' BigBad Long is sealed in, and he later breaks free of the seal in order to exact his revenge.
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', the first antagonist encountered in the series is the Smoke Monster, which had been terrorizing the survivors since they first crashed on the Island, long before we even know about the Others. Early on, it was assumed that it was a raging beast, but later, we learned it was much more than that when it was discovered that it could assume the form of deceased characters. However, it only appeared in a few episodes and seemed to take a backseat to other antagonists such as Ben, the Others, Widmore, etc. After seasons of debating who the BigBad would be, the season five finale introduced an unnamed man, The Man in Black, who is Jacob's enemy, vowing to kill him, and at the end of the episode, we learn he was manipulating everyone, especially Ben and Locke, the whole time in order to accomplish this. It is revealed in the season six premiere that this man was none other than the Smoke Monster, making him the BigBad since the very first episode.
* During the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' season 6 finale, "Mr. Monk is on the Run", Monk is accused of murder and escapes captivity, hoping to prove his innocence. Monk soon figures out that Sheriff Rollins, the very officer that arrested him and has been in pursuit ever since, is the actual murderer, and further investigation leads Monk to discover a conspiracy masterminded by his nemesis Dale "[[FatBastard The Whale]]" Biederbeck.
* At the end of season 4A of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', after Literature/TheSnowQueen [[RedemptionEqualsDeath sacrifices herself to undo her curse]] in the penultimate episode, Rumpelstiltskin takes over as the main antagonist for the final episode and continues this role into the second half of the season with various other previously seen and new villains along the way.
* Evox, the BigBad of ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'', is revealed to be an reincarnation of a previous series BigBad, specifically Venjix, the BigBad of ''Series/PowerRangersRPM''.
* ''Series/ResurrectionErtugrul'' has this happen in season 4. While he has no direct connection to most of the villains that showed up in the season beforehand, but Baiju Noyan’s (The [[BigBad antagonist]] of season 2) presence near the end comes as a surprise both to the viewers and to Ertugrul and his alps.
* In the ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' episode "The Enchantment", the witch Lilith turns out to be the girlfriend of Simon de Belleme, the black magician who was the villain of the show's first episodes, and her true objective is to resurrect him.
* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]].
* The Granada adaptation of the Series/SherlockHolmes mystery "The Red-Headed League" ultimately connects its mastermind with Holmes' nemesis Moriarty. No such connection exists in the original story. However, the real-life crime that inspired "The Red-Headed League" was masterminded by the man who inspired Moriarty.
* In ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson'', the three episode arc concerning Moriarty starts with an adaptation of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", who apparently was part of the gang, since Holmes caught the Professor with the help of some documents the bastard had.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
** In season 8, Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully [[EnemyCivilWar wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined]]. Anubis reappears on Earth, but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a dying host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction, and that he was serving him for a while now.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Descent", the rogue Borg the ''Enterprise'' has been chasing turned out to be led by [[EvilTwin Lore]].
** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', an episode investigating the Orion Syndicate has a big reveal that they have been working for the Dominion.
* The conclusion of ''Series/TinMan'' reveals that the BigBad [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Princess Azkadellia]] is actually a descendent of [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy Gale]] and was possessed by the spirit of the original Wicked Witch as a child. D.G. (who's actually Azkadellia's sister) frees her from the Witch's influence in the last episode's final act, and she reverts to her original personality.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', a neo-Nazi campaign is hijacked by a mysterious phantom who delivers excellent advice on public speaking. It turns out that the phantom is none other than UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. When Hitler reveals his identity to the neo-Nazi leader, he stops giving advice and starts giving orders.
* In the tokusatsu series ''Series/UltramanNexus'', there is a constant reference of "The Unknown Hand" being the mastermind behind everyone of the Space Beasts actions, as well as reoccurring baddie, Dark Mephisto. Once the final monster is destroyed, the unknown hand reveals himself to be an entire evil Ultra known as "Dark Zagi".
* The miniseries of ''Series/TheXFiles'' seems to have the Cigarette Smoking Man returning BackFromTheDead and as the BigBad once again.
----
* In the final season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', the Russians, who were behind the deaths of Omar Hassan and Renee Walker, were hijacked by Season 5's BigBad, [[PresidentEvil Charles]] [[ManipulativeBastard Logan]]. Season 7 had teased Logan pulling this by constantly referencing him and having Tony go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, but unfortunately, it turns out that some [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere random guy]] named Alan Wilson was Tony's target and the one behind multiple conspiracies.
** Also, in The Game, Max, the man behind Season 2's events, is the BigBad.
** Subverted in season six; it seems like the Chinese are pulling this, but Phillip Bauer turns out to be the actual antagonist.
** In the ''Live Another Day'' miniseries, Cheng Zhi returns and pulls this properly, taking over the BigBad position from hacker Adrian Cross almost immediately after he appeared to step into it.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In a major bit of ArcWelding with the main Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, the first season's villain organization "Project Centipede" is revealed to be a branch of HYDRA.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Lindsey works alongside his lover, Eve, to play Angel and Spike against each other, with the hope of usurping Angel's position at the firm and (if we're aiming high) buying his way into the Circle of the Black Thorn.
* In four out of eight seasons of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', a seasonal BigBad is revealed to have some connection to the League of Assassins.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** It turns out the source of various nasty events happening around and to Buffy's circle of friends, not to mention the forces of good around the world, are the work of The First, who appeared in Season 3 as a MonsterOfTheWeek and is now the final villain of the show.
** In the Season Eight comics, it turns out Twilight is actually Angel
** Dark Willow reappears in the ''Time of Your Life'' arc of Season 8.
* Happens in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Clyde Decker is set up at the beginning of the season to be operating a conspiracy by a faction of the CIA intent on destroying Chuck Bartowski, his friends, and his family. Midway through the season it's revealed that Daniel Shaw, who underwent a FaceHeelTurn halfway through the third season and tried to take over the CIA before the team stopped him, has been pulling Decker's strings (via blackmail over Decker's corrupt past) all along. And then ''that'' gets hijacked by Quinn, who it's revealed was behind ''everyone'' Chuck had been dealing with out of spite because Chuck "stole" the Intersect from him (Quinn was selected to be the Intersect agent, but after Bryce stole it and sent it to Chuck, Quinn was sent into the field without it, captured, and tortured. Yes, there was a bit of SanitySlippage involved).
* In the denouement of Season 12's events on ''Series/CriminalMinds'', we learn of a ''twofold'' version of this. The main villain at large during this season is Scratch, a psychopath who uses drugs to induce hypnosuggestion in others so that they do his dirty work for him. Halfway through the season, Dr. Spencer Reid gets framed for murder and imprisoned after being drugged in the same way. However, someone is actually replicating Scratch's M.O. down to the letter to make it appear to be him. This someone turns out to be the daughter of a father the BAU was forced to kill for refusing to stand down, having come out of Witness Protection and flipped her lid; she, in turn, is being used by someone else who wants revenge on Spencer for lying to her about her own father just to get her arrested, and who has gone ''absolutely starkers'' from solitary confinement and taken so many levels of crazy that she decided to subject Spencer to the same type of torture in the prison environment.
* The majority of new villains introduced on ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' in the past 15 years have been revealed to be working for Stefano Di Mera.
* One loses track of how many ''Series/DoctorWho'' serials open with a seemingly original villain who turns out to be a pawn of the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, or the Master. Or sometimes more than one of them (and sometimes they hijack each other). The production team would later admit that they overdid it in the eighth series (which introduced the Master), making him the primary villain in ''all five serials.''
** For the first four episodes of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]], Tobias Vaughn appears to be the BigBad: He makes coy references to "allies" and is clearly hatching out ''something'', but he seems to be the one driving the plot. Then it turns out that what he's hatching out are Cybermen, who quickly prove to be the bigger threat.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace "Frontier in Space"]] does it ''twice'': the Ogrons are quickly revealed to be working for the Master (in Creator/RogerDelgado's last story before his death), who turns out in the final episode to have been working for the Daleks.
** In the fourth-episode cliffhanger of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]], the Vardans are defeated...and then it turns out that they were tools for the Sontarans, who turn up to take matters into their own hands.
** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe "The Ultimate Foe"]], in which it turns out that the Master was responsible for the events that led to Earth's devastation and the Doctor's trial...and then the Valeyard, a completely new villain, turns out to have taken advantage of the Master's actions to set himself up as the story's real BigBad.
** In Series 1, it turns out the Daleks were leading the Mighty Jagrafess into manipulating the Human Empire's population. Subsequently, they were behind the Gamestation's gathering of humans for their deadly game shows. Then the Cybermen hijacked Torchwood, the Master hijacked Harold Saxon (by ''being'' him), and the Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, and a few others hijacked the Pandorica. Yup, still going strong.
** In Series 7, the Great Intelligence being behind everything would count as this. Turns out the villains in [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen "The Snowmen"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn "The Bells of Saint John"]] were just TheDragon to him.
** In Series 8, it turns out that Missy is short for "Mistress" — she's the Master, come back [[JokerImmunity yet again]].
** Another double example in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]], where the creepy patients are revealed to be early incarnations of the Cybermen — and it turns out the Master is responsible.
** Done twice in Series 12 of the new show. Firstly, the villain of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall Spyfall]] is revealed to be the Master using the identity of [=MI6=] agent O in Part 1. Then the Master turns up again to literally hijack Ashad's plot in "The Haunting of Villa Deodati/Acension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children".
** {{Spinoff}} ''Series/{{Class|2016}}'' had a huge example at [[Recap/ClassS01E08TheLost the end]] of its first [[CutShort and only]] season — the Governors are an apocalyptic PathOfInspiration working for the Weeping Angels.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** In Season 5, the BigBad is the metahuman SerialKiller Cicada. However, in the last episodes of the season, it's revealed that Eobard Thawne the Reverse-Flash has been faking his apparent atonement, and that ''the entire season'' was a BatmanGambit to manipulate [[KidFromTheFuture Nora]] into altering the timeline enough that he could escape his execution in the future. When this succeeds with Cicada's defeat in the season finale, Thawne serves as the FinalBoss of the season.
** The ''Armageddon'' storyline in Season 8 sees alien psychic Despero travelling back in time to kill Barry Allen because Despero believes that Barry will cause a cataclysmic event in 2031 (the time period when Despero came from). However, once Barry travels to that future to see for himself, the man responsible is once again Eobard Thawne, who orchestrated a "Reverse-Flashpoint" where he replaced Barry Allen as the Flash in history and turned the entire world against him.
* The second, third, and fourth volumes of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' were hijacked by Sylar, who, while not the mastermind of the first volume, was the unwitting means to Linderman's end, and much more deadly. The volumes set up their BigBad as, in order, Adam Monroe, Arthur Petrelli, and Emile Danko, only for them to be dealt with a couple episodes before the end of the volume, generally unceremoniously. Sylar's MO is to pop out of nowhere at around that time and catch everyone with their pants down, brewing some mayhem for an episode or two until the heroes get him under control...at least until the next volume begins.
** This is made all the more predictable by each volume's insistence on having a major plot thread centering around Sylar regaining his powers, deciding he'd rather be evil, or remembering who he is.
** Ultimately subverted in the final volume, where Samuel Sullivan is established as the BigBad fairly early on and keeps that title right up until the finale. Not only does he [[CurbStompBattle easily defeat]] Sylar the one time they fight, but Sylar has a HeelFaceTurn that actually seems to ''stick'' this time.
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** Whenever the series pulls off a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, you can be sure that the [[Series/KamenRider series' original]] NebulousEvilOrganisation, Shocker, would have its name all over the plot.
** In the Showa era, Shocker's Great Leader was either directly behind or revealed to be secretly puppeteering most of the evil organizations the Kamen Riders faced. It's easier to list the organizations he wasn't behind, that being Dogma and Jin Dogma in ''Series/KamenRiderSuper1''[[note]]Although ''Manga/KamenRiderSpirits'' alludes to the Great Leader having a connection to them as well, the manga is non-canon[[/note]] and Gorgom in ''Series/KamenRiderBLACK''[[note]][[Series/KamenRiderBlackRX The Crisis Empire]] doesn't have any ''official'' connection to the Great Leader, but it's a popular fan theory that Emperor Crisis is, in fact, another incarnation of the Great Leader, due to having the same voice actor, states that he had fought the 10 previous riders personally sometime in the past, and shares a "big floating head" appearance that the Great Leader's last appearance, [[Film/KamenRiderZX The Great Leader of Badan]], had[[/note]]. He's for the most part stopped hijacking the plot in the Heisei era, but whenever there's a [[LegionOfDoom gathering of villains]], nine times out of ten it's him who's leading the charge.
** It seems ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', ''[[Series/KamenRiderOOO OOO]]'', and ''[[Series/KamenRiderFourze Fourze]]'' are getting hijacked by Foundation X, as they were involved with the {{Transformation Trinket}}s of each season in some way.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai''
** In ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger vs. Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'', the villain's plot was revealed to be to resurrect not only all the Alienizers and Trinoids that have been slain in battle, but Dezumozorlya (the Abarangers' EldritchAbomination BigBad) as well. Fortunately, it was the dead [[SixthRanger AbareKiller]] who was resurrected in Dezumozorlya's stead, and Killer proceeds to team up with his fellow Sentai to defeat the various villains.
** It is played straight, however, in ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger vs. Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'', the villains are after the DÅkokugan, the sphere that the Gekirangers' BigBad Long is sealed in, and he later breaks free of the seal in order to exact his revenge.
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', the first antagonist encountered in the series is the Smoke Monster, which had been terrorizing the survivors since they first crashed on the Island, long before we even know about the Others. Early on, it was assumed that it was a raging beast, but later, we learned it was much more than that when it was discovered that it could assume the form of deceased characters. However, it only appeared in a few episodes and seemed to take a backseat to other antagonists such as Ben, the Others, Widmore, etc. After seasons of debating who the BigBad would be, the season five finale introduced an unnamed man, The Man in Black, who is Jacob's enemy, vowing to kill him, and at the end of the episode, we learn he was manipulating everyone, especially Ben and Locke, the whole time in order to accomplish this. It is revealed in the season six premiere that this man was none other than the Smoke Monster, making him the BigBad since the very first episode.
* During the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' season 6 finale, "Mr. Monk is on the Run", Monk is accused of murder and escapes captivity, hoping to prove his innocence. Monk soon figures out that Sheriff Rollins, the very officer that arrested him and has been in pursuit ever since, is the actual murderer, and further investigation leads Monk to discover a conspiracy masterminded by his nemesis Dale "[[FatBastard The Whale]]" Biederbeck.
* At the end of season 4A of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', after Literature/TheSnowQueen [[RedemptionEqualsDeath sacrifices herself to undo her curse]] in the penultimate episode, Rumpelstiltskin takes over as the main antagonist for the final episode and continues this role into the second half of the season with various other previously seen and new villains along the way.
* Evox, the BigBad of ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'', is revealed to be an reincarnation of a previous series BigBad, specifically Venjix, the BigBad of ''Series/PowerRangersRPM''.
* ''Series/ResurrectionErtugrul'' has this happen in season 4. While he has no direct connection to most of the villains that showed up in the season beforehand, but Baiju Noyan’s (The [[BigBad antagonist]] of season 2) presence near the end comes as a surprise both to the viewers and to Ertugrul and his alps.
* In the ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' episode "The Enchantment", the witch Lilith turns out to be the girlfriend of Simon de Belleme, the black magician who was the villain of the show's first episodes, and her true objective is to resurrect him.
* The first series finale to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' reveals a certain someone to have been behind every mystery ([[BritishBrevity all three of them]]) up to that point, in some way or another. The same happens in episodes 1 and 3 of series 2. He wasn't behind any of the events of series 3 (likely due to his being dead), but he does reappear at the end of the series 3 finale, in such a way to [[JokerImmunity make everyone doubt whether he actually died at all]].
* The Granada adaptation of the Series/SherlockHolmes mystery "The Red-Headed League" ultimately connects its mastermind with Holmes' nemesis Moriarty. No such connection exists in the original story. However, the real-life crime that inspired "The Red-Headed League" was masterminded by the man who inspired Moriarty.
* In ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson'', the three episode arc concerning Moriarty starts with an adaptation of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", who apparently was part of the gang, since Holmes caught the Professor with the help of some documents the bastard had.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In season 3, Sokar, the Goa'uld who the show had been building up as the new BigBad since the previous season, was unceremoniously killed in a 2-parter and his forces were taken over by Apophis, who was revealed to [[DeathIsCheap still be alive]].
** In season 8, Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully [[EnemyCivilWar wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined]]. Anubis reappears on Earth, but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a dying host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction, and that he was serving him for a while now.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Descent", the rogue Borg the ''Enterprise'' has been chasing turned out to be led by [[EvilTwin Lore]].
** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', an episode investigating the Orion Syndicate has a big reveal that they have been working for the Dominion.
* The conclusion of ''Series/TinMan'' reveals that the BigBad [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Princess Azkadellia]] is actually a descendent of [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy Gale]] and was possessed by the spirit of the original Wicked Witch as a child. D.G. (who's actually Azkadellia's sister) frees her from the Witch's influence in the last episode's final act, and she reverts to her original personality.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', a neo-Nazi campaign is hijacked by a mysterious phantom who delivers excellent advice on public speaking. It turns out that the phantom is none other than UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. When Hitler reveals his identity to the neo-Nazi leader, he stops giving advice and starts giving orders.
* In the tokusatsu series ''Series/UltramanNexus'', there is a constant reference of "The Unknown Hand" being the mastermind behind everyone of the Space Beasts actions, as well as reoccurring baddie, Dark Mephisto. Once the final monster is destroyed, the unknown hand reveals himself to be an entire evil Ultra known as "Dark Zagi".
* The miniseries of ''Series/TheXFiles'' seems to have the Cigarette Smoking Man returning BackFromTheDead and as the BigBad once again.
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