History Main / TheUnReveal

* In ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', we never found out [[spoiler: which pill was poisoned]] and whether Sherlock was right in ''A Study in Pink''.

A SoundEffectBleep can be used to create an Unreveal. Another weapon in TheUnreveal arsenal is the end-of-episode cutoff.

See also MissingTheGoodStuff and RiddleForTheAges. Regularly used to add fuel to a DrivingQuestion. Not to be confused with TheUntwist[[note]]unless you expected TheUnreveal to be subverted[[/note]].

* In ''LadyAndTheTramp'', there's a running gag in which Trusty the bloodhound is about to mention some sage-like advice his grandfather Old Reliable used to give him, only to be told that he's already told it to the main characters some time before. At the very end when he's about to tell it to Lady and the Tramp's puppies, he realizes that he's completely forgotten what his Uncle said to him now, so we the audience never learn what the advice was.

* In ''LadyAndTheTramp'', there's a running gag in which Trusty the bloodhound is about to mention some sage-like advice his uncle Old Reliable used to give him, only to be told that he's already told it to the main characters some time before. At the very end when he's about to tell it to Lady and the Tramp's puppies, he realizes that he's completely forgotten what his Uncle said to him now, so we the audience never learn what the advice was.

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Much of the drama in the second series revolves around the question of how Captain Sawyer fell, and who pushed him if anyone did. There are a number of suspicions, accusations, and cryptic silhouettes, and it seems that it will be revealed at the end of "Retribution" when Hornblower is asked at court. His honour would grant a truthful account. [[spoiler:All the audience ever knows for sure is that Sawyer remembered who did it, but his mental powers were weak even before he fell. Midshipman Wellard wasn't sure about his involvement, but came to conclusion that he didn't do it, and he seemed to believe that one of the lieutenants was guilty, but he wanted to protect them. That leaves Hornblower, who was accused by Buckland in court, and Kennedy, who confessed to it -- but in all probability falsely -- before Hornblower could answer the charge.]] In Hornblower fandom, this is a true RiddleForTheAges.

* ''Series/TheXFiles}}'':
** The whole show was set-up as two honest people who fight against TheConspiracy, and the show's runner Creator/ChrisCarter kept promising a mind-blowing finales, both in season finales/season openers (fairly successfully) and the final truth was supposed to be incredibly huge and shattering. Later it was revealed that the authors had not planned anything specific and just kept adding more and more MythArc elements as the show kept going. The finale was a more of a NoEnding than anything else while the conspiracies and charades were not exposed to the general public and the Earth was still endangered by the upcoming alien invasion.

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Much of the drama in the second series revolves around the question of how Captain Sawyer fell, and who pushed him if anyone did. There are a number of suspicions, accusations, and cryptic silhouettes, and it seems that it will be revealed at the end of "Retribution" when Hornblower is asked at court. His honour would grant a truthful account. [[spoiler:All the audience ever knows for sure is that Sawyer remembered who did it, but his mental powers were weak even before he fell. Midshipman Wellard wasn't sure about his involvement, but came to conclusion that he didn't do it, and he seems to believe that one of the lieutenants was guilty, but he wanted to protect them. That leaves Hornblower, who was accused by Buckland in court, and Kennedy, who confessed to it -- but in all probability falsely -- before Hornblower could answer the charge.]]

* ''{{The X-Files}}'' addressed its most flagrant gap of logic in this way -- a fan of Mulder and Scully's asked them how they got out of Antarctica (after being stranded there half-dressed without any vehicles or anyone knowing where they were) in TheMovie; they started to explain, quibbled over a minor detail, then were cut off by the end credits before we found out anything. This was a multi-layer joke: the character asking the questions the show's fans had so often asked was herself a fan, a ShoutOut to a popular {{fanfic}} author who had died just a few months prior.

* ''VForVendetta'' has V's identity. We're left guessing as to what sort of person he was and whether he was anyone we'd know -- or even whether he was speaking literally or metaphorically when denying the LukeIAmYourFather possibility. We go through several fake DreamSequence reveals, before Evey finally realizes that it's important that his identity never be revealed, and that she should instead take up his mantle. This is because V the man had long been lost so that V the persona could take his place. The identity of the man he was before he became V would never be as important as the idea. It becomes a deeply symbolic variation of BecomingTheMask.

* On Luna's path of ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', the protagonist Sigma finds a key-like object in the GAULEM Bay. Later, when he and Phi find K, whose identity is obscured by a robotic suit and mask, [[spoiler:dead in the Rec Room]], Phi realizes that this is the key to unlock K's suit and remove his mask. She inserts and turns the key, only to discover that because [[spoiler:there is an ax buried in the back]], the suit is powered down and will not unlock.

** Later on a dragon attempts to get revenge on him/her by killing his "mate" who appears to be just as ambiguously gendered. This is made more complicated by his/her children being adopted (and who refer to V and "mate" as "Parent" and "Other Parent").

** Also in ''South Park'', two whole episodes are spent on searching for the identity of Cartman's father as a parody of cliffhanger episode endings. In the second episode, it is finally revealed that [[spoiler: Cartman's mother is in fact a hermaphrodite and that she/he could not give birth. A new question arises of which ''woman'' in South Park is Cartman's mother, but Cartman himself gets sick of the mystery and walks off.]] In an inversion of this trope, his other parent's identity ''is'' eventually revealed, to the surprise of all the fans who thought it never would be, in the episode 200: [[spoiler:the test given was a lie. Cartman's apparent mother really was his mother and his father was Mr. Tenorman]].

** Not related with the location of Springfield: In the episode D'oh-in in the Wind it is revealed to us that the "J." in Homer's middle name stands for "Jay" which, once spoken, sounds exactly the same makeing no difference in the TV-series at all from that point onwards.

** Also in ''South Park'', two whole episodes are spent on searching for the identity of Cartman's father as a parody of cliffhanger episode endings. In the second episode, it is finally revealed that [[spoiler: Cartman's mother is in fact a hermaphrodite and that she/he could not give birth. A new question arises of which ''woman'' in South Park is Cartman's mother, but Cartman himself gets sick of the mystery and walks off.]] In an inversion of this trope, his other parent's identity ''is'' eventually revealed, to the surprise of all the fans who thought it never would be.

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Much of the drama in the second series revolves around the question of how Captain Sawyer fell, and who pushed him if anyone did. There are a number of suspicions, accusations, and cryptic silhouettes, and it seems that it will be revealed at the end of "Retribution" when Hornblower is asked at court. His honour would grant a truthful account. [[spoiler:All the audience ever knows for sure is that Sawyer remembered who did it, but his mental powers were weak even before he fell. That leaves Hornblower, who was accused by Buckland in court, and Kennedy, who confessed, in all probability falsely, before Hornblower could answer the charge.]]

* Wilson, Tim Taylor's neighbor in ''HomeImprovement'', always has the lower half of his face obscured from the viewers, usually by the fence which separates his yard from Tim's. In the few episodes when a full body shot of Wilson is shown, he is only shown from behind. There was even one episode where Wilson attends a party at Tim's house, but in every close-up of his face, there is always some other item in front of him to prevent the viewers from seeing the lower half of his face.

*** Finally averted in WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo.

**** Finally averted in WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo.

* When King Trode finally gets turned from a troll back to a human at the end of DragonQuestVIII.. [[spoiler: he looks pretty much exactly the same. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtqZzkR9rus&t=4m42s Naturally Yangus finds this ''hilarious.'']]]]

** And then there's the mystery of exactly what nature of being Jones is. [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=851 Annie reveals that Ysengrin gave her the basic idea]]… off-panel. TheRant then teases the reader by saying, completely unhelpfully, "[[BlatantLies And that clears up The Mystery of Jones]]". Then when Annie asks Jones directly, we get [[spoiler:a bunch of flashbacks of Jones going back through time to the literal creation of Earth.]] And Jones apparently explaining them all to Annie… off-panel ''again''.

** Chapter 42: Catalyst also opens InMediasRes with Annie and Smitty running away from something ("That didn't exactly go to plan!"), meeting up with Mr Eglamore and Parley, and them all running. We then cut to Annie telling the story to Kat. When Kat asks what they were running from, Annie says she'd rather talk about Kat's SecretAdmirer.

->''"Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. [[GainaxEnding There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you.]]"''
-->-- '''[[spoiler: [[ManipulativeBastard Kreia]]]]''', ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords''