History Main / NotableNonSequitur

In a DetectiveDrama, any time a piece of dialogue comes along which is off-the-cuff, not followed up and unrelated to everything, you can tell it's going to be very important. If a suspect turns up late and says "Sorry I'm late, my car was stolen yesterday", the alleged car theft will be significant. If the detective remarks that the suspect has a nice keychain and the suspect says "Yeah, it's from my old fraternity," the insignia on the keychain will turn up later to reveal that the suspect and victim were in college together. Basically this happens whenever the writer can't find a neat way of dropping an important clue into an existing conversation.

* ''Series/TheInBESTigators'': In "The Case of the Freaky Frequency", Ezra's elderly neighbour is complaining about her broken doorbell and wants Ezra to fix it. Ezra brushes this off as he and the others are in a hurry to get to the ice cream shop. However, he later realises that the broken doorbell is key to solving the mystery of why cars aren't locking near the ice cream shop.

[[folder:Film]]

** [[spoiler:The family complaining that Random didn't attend Harlan's funeral.]]

** [[spoiler: Fran mentioning her cousin who is a receptionist at the medical exan=miner's office.]]
** [[spoiler: "Couldn't tell a real blade from a prop weapon"]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': At the beginning of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame The Long Game]]", the Doctor and Rose get out of the TARDIS and he gives her a few pieces of information about where they've landed for her to tell newbie Adam when he comes out. After Adam gets out, Rose points out all of those things about their surroundings, but adds that they could consider turning the heating down. It's later revealed the heat comes from the massive alien that secretly runs the station, which needs to be vented away from it so it stays alive.
** Season 4 has a few off-handed mentions of the bees disappearing, which at first appears like a reference to the real life headlines about bee populations declining in 2007/2008. [[spoiler: This ends up cluing The Doctor in on a means of tracking the BigBad of the season.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Vitiate]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape]], and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

In a DetectiveDrama, any time a piece of dialogue comes along which is off-the-cuff, not followed up and unrelated to everything, you can tell it's going to be very important. If a suspect turns up late and says "Sorry I'm late, my car was stolen yesterday", the alleged car theft will be significant. If the detective remarks that the suspect has a nice keychain and the suspect says "Yeah, it's from my old fraternity", the insignia on the keychain will turn up later to reveal that the suspect and victim were in college together. Basically this happens whenever the writer can't find a neat way of dropping an important clue into an existing conversation.

* "Bad for glass" in ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''. This statement made by the Chinese gardener makes no sense until [[spoiler: Gittes realizes he's saying [[JapaneseRanguage "bad for grass"]], referring to the salt water pooling up in the garden and allowing Gittes to figure out Cross's land-grabbing scheme.]]

* In ''Film/TheWolfman2010'', Sir John Talbot warns his son not to go out on the full moon, which [[SchmuckBait sets up]] the inevitable werewolf attack. [[spoiler: The Notable part of this is where Sir John tells Lawrence this because Sir John is the werewolf and ([[XanatosSpeedChess at least, initially]]) doesn't want to be responsible for his remaining son's death.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': At the beginning of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]], the Doctor and Rose get out of the TARDIS and he gives her a few pieces of information about where they've landed for her to tell newbie Adam when he comes out. After Adam gets out, Rose points out all of those things about their surroundings, but adds that they could consider turning the heating down. It's later revealed the heat comes from the massive alien that secretly runs the station, which needs to be vented away from it so it stays alive.

** There's a notable example in ''Apollo Justice''. At the beginning of the second case, Phoenix hires Apollo. Much to Apollo's annoyance, he is not assigned to defend a client, but rather to find the culprit of three random events: A hit and run where Phoenix was injured, a noodle cart theft, and a ''[[PantyThief panty snatching]]''. Then, a murder is reported in the area and Apollo takes the defendant's case. [[spoiler: Yes, of course ''all three'' of the seemingly random events end up playing into the murder: The driver in the hit and run was the victim, the noodle cart was stolen by the victim and he was killed while pulling it, and the "panty snatcher" (who, it turns out, actually stole two pairs of [[FanDisservice bloomers]], one of which was a prop [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Trucy]] [[InsistentTerminology kept referring to as them panties]]) was both the only witness in the murder and also the reason why the victim stole the noodle cart.]]
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Vitiate]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape,]] and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

Related to the LawOfConservationOfDetail

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/TheThinMan'', early in the movie the odd watchchain of The Old Professor was pointed out. That same watchchain was later used in an effort to frame the Old Professor by leaving it at the scene of a murder. (But the Professor's alibi was solid -- at that point he had been dead for over a month.)
* In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Geordi is giving routine orders to the engineering staff, and tells one of them to check the climate control, since it was getting a little warm in the engine room. It turns out that this was a clue that Borg had beamed aboard and were altering the ship, since Borg ships are warmer than Federation ships.
* ''Film/HotFuzz'' almost parodies this trope (like it does with most police movie tropes). Sgt. Angel makes one offhand comment about each of the minor characters before they are murdered that turns out to be the exact reason they were killed. The thing is, ''he had no idea''. He came up with a complicated theory about why they were killed that had nothing to do with those offhand comments, and he found the killers before he was told their motive.

* "Bad for glass" in ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''. This statement made by the Chinese gardener makes no sense until [[spoiler: Gittes realizes he's saying [[JapaneseRanguage "bad for grass"]], referring to the salt water pooling up in the garden and allowing Gittes to figure out Cross's land-grabbing scheme.]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In James Joyce's ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', a man approaches Leopold Bloom, asking to read the report on the day's horseraces. Bloom, not wanting to be inconvenienced, tells the man to keep it, as he was just going 'to throw it away'. The man walks away, inspired. The winning horse of the day winds up being the horse, Throwaway.

* In the Literature/LordPeterWimsey short story "The String of Pearls", when the suspects are all searched the pearls don't appear but Sayers takes an apparent whimsical tangent on the weird and random stuff people keep in their pockets. Inevitably, one of these random things turns out to be a clue as to who took the pearls and where they are now. Also inevitably, the reader is ''expected'' to realise this, so some of the other suspects have random items that [[RedHerring really are random]], but which look as if they ''could'' be used to conceal the pearls somehow, or else suggest a motive.

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* An episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had one character make an offhand comment about the goldfish in the pond on a suspect's property. Turns out they were pirahnas that the killer had fed the body to.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' uses this trope regularly, and inverts it almost as frequently. In almost every episode, minor details dismissed very early in the hour come back and provide a conclusive link to the true killer; in a number of episodes, similarly minor details pull the investigation in a different direction.

* ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'': In "O Brave New World", when the hotel staff are being interviewed after the murder, one of the waitresses complains that a pair of shoes have been stolen from her locker. Guess what later becomes the vital clue Frank uses to crack the case?

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Vitiate]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape,]] and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

** There's a notable example in ''Apollo Justice''. At the beginning of the second case, Phoenix hires Apollo. Much to Apollo's annoyance, he is not assigned to defend a client, but rather to find the culprit of three random events: A hit and run where Phoenix was injured, a noodle cart theft, and a ''[[PantyThief panty snatching]]''. Then, a murder is reported in the area and Apollo takes the defendant's case. [[spoiler: Yes, of course ''all three'' of the seemingly random events end up playing into the murder: The driver in the hit and run was the victim, the noodle cart was stolen by the victim and he was killed while pulling it, and the "panty snatcher" (who, it turns out, actually stole two pairs of [[FanDisservice bloomers]], one of which was a prop [[Cloudcuckoolander Trucy]] [[InsistentTerminology kept referring to as them panties]]) was both the only witness in the murder and also the reason why the victim stole the noodle cart.]]

** There's a notable example in ''Apollo Justice''. At the beginning of the second case, Phoenix hires Apollo. Much to Apollo's annoyance, he is not assigned to defend a client, but rather to find the culprit of three random events: A hit and run where Phoenix was injured, a noodle cart theft, and a ''[[PantyThief panty snatching]]''. Then, a murder is reported in the area and Apollo takes the defendant's case. [[spoiler: Yes, of course ''all three'' of the seemingly random events end up playing into the murder: The driver in the hit and run was the victim, the noodle cart was stolen by the victim and he was killed while pulling it, and the "panty snatcher" (who, it turns out, actually stole two pairs of [[FanDisservice bloomers]], one of which was a prop [[Cloudcuckoolander Trucy]] [[InsistentTerminology kept referring to as her panties]]) was both the only witness in the murder and also the reason why the victim stole the noodle cart.]]

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Darth Vitiate]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape,]] and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

* In James Joyce's ''{{Ulysses}}'', a man approaches Leopold Bloom, asking to read the report on the day's horseraces. Bloom, not wanting to be inconvenienced, tells the man to keep it, as he was just going 'to throw it away'. The man walks away, inspired. The winning horse of the day winds up being the horse, Throwaway.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

** Notably lacking in [[Series/{{Sherlock}} the BBC modernization]], where Sherlock has considerably less patience for the foibles of regular people. An exception to this is the episode based on TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles, where Holmes specifically takes the case only because the witness uses the word 'hound' instead of 'dog'.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Darth Vitae]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape,]] and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

* Any time Literature/SherlockHolmes tells a client not to worry about going off-topic, this trope is in play. Notably lacking in [[Series/{{Sherlock}} the BBC modernization]], where Sherlock has considerably less patience for the foibles of regular people.

* Any time SherlockHolmes tells a client not to worry about going off-topic, this trope is in play. Notably lacking in [[{{Sherlock}} the BBC modernization]], where Sherlock has considerably less patience for the foibles of regular people.

* In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer,"'' and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Darth Vitae]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape,]] and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...

* There would be no ''AceAttorney'' without this trope. Most of the contradictions Phoenix/Apollo/Edgeworth catches are off the cuff, seemingly unimportant statements that wind up screwing over the rest of the witness's claims.

* In the Olde-Tyme movie ''Film/TheThinMan'', early in the movie the odd watchchain of The Old Professor was pointed out. That same watchchain was later used in an effort to frame the Old Professor by leaving it at the scene of a murder. (But the Professor's alibi was solid -- at that point he had been dead for over a month.)

* An episode of ''{{CSI}}'' had one character make an offhand comment about the goldfish in the pond on a suspect's property. Turns out they were pirahnas that the killer had fed the body to.
* ''{{Castle}}'' uses this trope regularly, and inverts it almost as frequently. In almost every episode, minor details dismissed very early in the hour come back and provide a conclusive link to the true killer; in a number of episodes, similarly minor details pull the investigation in a different direction.