History Main / UndercoverCopReveal

* VideoGame/Yakuza4 [[spoiler: reveals in the end that Arai was a undercover officer the entire time.]]

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* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': The last chapter of book 3 (''The Cat Who Turned On and Off'') casually reveals that [[spoiler:Hollis Prantz, one of the Junktown dealers]], is actually an undercover officer from Narcotics and was investigating a heroin ring in the area.

* ''Film/TheTrialOfTheChicagoSeven''; During the trial, we see a number of the protesters at the Democratic convention were actually undercover police or FBI agents. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Lee Weiner, one of the Seven, who wonders if there were 10,000 cops and only seven protesters in Chicago.

* ''Literature/TheCatWho'': The last chapter of book 3 (''The Cat Who Turned On and Off'') casually reveals that [[spoiler:Hollis Prantz, one of the Junktown dealers]], is actually an undercover officer from Narcotics and was investigating a heroin ring in the area.

* During an episode of ''Series/AdamTwelve'', Reed and Malloy pull a car over for a traffic violation. The passenger starts getting argumentative with the cops, causing Malloy to run him and arrest him for an outstanding warrant. As they're transporting him to the station, he thanks them for not blowing his cover - he's a Narcotics detective and the driver of the car is suspected of being a supplier. He also says that Malloy "arresting" him will make it easier for him to get close to the suspect.

* This happened to Sawyer in the "flash-sideways" on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' - the scene deliberately echoed a season one flashback which showed him as a con man, only this time the mark called him on it, and he revealed that he was a cop.

At its simplest form, a character reveals himself to be an undercover police officer, FBI agent, what have you. Often, he's acting as a ReverseMole, trying to get enough evidence on the villain to arrest him for ArsonMurderAndJaywalking. It's entirely possible that we, the viewers, won't find out until the rest of the characters do as well. Depending on what side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, this may or may not end badly for the cop.

* In ''Film/{{Unknown 2006}}'', the protagonist is revealed to be a ReverseMole, an undercover cop infiltrating a criminal gang. The point is, he doesn't know of this for most of the plot because of temporal amnesia.

Subtrope of TheReveal. Closely related to TheInfiltration, which involves a law enforcement officer pretending to be a criminal in order to join/infiltrate the bad guys' organization.

** Several scenes later, it's repeated when O'Conner calls for police back-up and an ambulance after rescuing Vince. Dom, who had [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil considered Brian his brother]] up to this point, has to seriously restrain himself from not beating the living shit of him. Instead, he takes off.

** Subverted in a ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story when Dredd inspects a PenalColony in the Cursed Earth where standards under the new warden have dropped considerably and the prisoners have free rein. Their leader claims to be an undercover Judge (Wally Squad) in the warden's office, which Dredd "accepts" for the moment so he can do a background check. The prisoner knew that Dredd would inevitably find out the truth, he was just stalling for time to prepare for an attack.

** Subverted in a ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story when Dredd inspects a PenalColony in the Cursed Earth where standards under the new warden have dropped considerably and the prisoners have free rein. Their leader claims to be an undercover Judge in the warden's office, which Dredd "accepts" for the moment while he does a background check. He knew that Dredd would find out the truth anyway, he was just stalling for time.

* In ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'', Brian O'Conner reveals to Mia that he is a cop at the end of the movie. The viewer has known this all along but it allows some drama between O'Conner and the girl he has been sleeping with and [[spoiler:eventually persuades her to help him track down the truck thieves]].

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' is set up to look like Andre might be the villain until he reveals that he is actually an undercover cop.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* In the ''FanFic/AlvanAnTheChipmunks3TheSecondSqueakuel'', [[spoiler:Music/SnoopDogg]] turns out to be a member of the police.

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* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'': Mr. [[spoiler:Orange]], just after killing Mr. [[spoiler:Blonde]].

* ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' is set up to look like Andre might be the villain until he reveals that he is actually an undercover cop.

* Creator/TimothyZahn's not-quite-''Franchise/StarWars'' SpaceOpera-Mystery-action book ''Literature/TheIcarusHunt''. To say more would be to spoil it, though if the reader is both paying attention and actively trying to put the pieces together, it's not ''that'' hard to figure it out ahead of time.
* In the Creator/TimDorsey novel ''Hammerhead Ranch Motel'', one room at the motel holds two different drug gangs who are secretly undercover cops each of whom is trying to bust the other gang. They only discover this when a third jurisdiction of police shows up and tries to bust both of them.
* At the very end of Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/MairelonTheMagician'', [[spoiler:William Stuggs, Jasper Marston's apparently dim-witted henchman]], calmly reveals himself to be a Bow Street Runner. This is helpful, as it means he's witnessed the entire climax and has no uncertainty about who to arrest.
* Cyrus Hardman in ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' is a PinkertonDetective posing as a TravelingSalesman.
* Done in the very last word of Creator/MickeySpillane's ''Deep''.
* In the first ''Literature/TruemanBradley'' novel, Trueman notices his taxi driver following him into the bank. It turns out the taxi driver is actually Detective Sam Buckley, who saw that Trueman was both extremely rich and very naive and decided to follow him to prevent him from getting robbed.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Kate in her [[Recap/AngelS01E02LonelyHearts first appearance]].
* Turned UpToEleven in a sketch in ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet''. The undercover cop reveals himself to be one to a gang, now that he's got enough evidence to convict them...[[FlockOfWolves and then all of them turn out to be undercover cops.]]
-->'''Jenkinson:''' Blimey...we're all coppers...\\
'''Johnsson:''' ...So what do we do now?\\
'''Leader:''' ...Jenkinson, can you blow up a safe?

* ''Series/FastLane'' episode "Mighty Blue". When officers Van and Deaq confront a criminal gang, one of them reveals herself as an undercover police officer to save them.
* This happened to Sawyer in the "flash-sideways" on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' - the scene deliberately echoed a season one flashback which showed him as a con man, only this time the mark called him on it, and he revealed that he was a cop.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]", one of the Sandminer's crewmembers is revealed to be an undercover agent -- and [[spoiler:so is one of the robot drones, which is actually a highly advanced robot disguised as the most primitive and stupid model in use on the Sandminer]].
* Occurs in the first episode of ''Series/RookieBlue'', even though he tries to keep his cover even after being arrested. Its finally blown when an old friend greets him heartily as he is about to be processed.
* Happens in the episode of ''Series/TheBill'' that re-introduced Frank Burnside. Burnside was undercover with a gang of soccer hooligans that are busted by Sun Hill. Burnside headbutts one of the arresting officers to maintain his cover.
* ''Series/HawaiiFive0:'' Sid in "Mala Ka Aina"; Kono in "Ma'eme'e".
* Liam in ''Series/TheChicagoCode''.
* In ''Series/{{Suburgatory}}'', a student that Tessa assumed to be gay actually was an undercover narcotics agent.
* One episode of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', "Weapons of Class Destruction", involved a suspected plot to bomb the school. One of the prime suspects turned out to be an undercover ATF agent[[note]] Invoking an in-universe version of DawsonCasting, no less[[/note]] who was hoping to draw out the real bomber by making himself out to be a kindred spirit.

* A mild version in ''Series/LieToMe'' where Foster starts dating a high school guidance councillor, only to get strange vibes from him. She then finds passports with different identities and evidence of drugs. After she confronts the guy about it, he admits that he's DEA, sent to uncover a school trafficking ring. He later reveals it to Cal as well, given that Cal can't help but stick his nose in other people's business.
* An episode of ''Series/TheFamousJettJackson'' shows an episode of the ShowWithinAShow ''Silverstone'', where all the world's bad guys are invited to a remote mansion by a mysterious new villain named Mr. Kilimanjaro. Throughout the dinner, they start arguing and trying to one-up each other, revealing all their recent and latest plots. It turns out that the whole thing was a setup by Silverstone (in disguise as Kilimanjaro) to get recorded confessions from these guys and grab them all at once.
* On ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' Eric Christian Olsen's first appearance is as an MMA fighter and suspect called Jason Wyler. It's not until half way through the episode that Hetty reveals that he is Detective Marty Deeks, undercover.
** All the team members are highly trained and experiences in undercover work so this happens in-universe fairly often. Since they hate burning a cover identity, they will try to delay the reveal as long as possible. One of Callan's old girlfriends spent years believing that he was her brother's criminal friend who had to leave town after the cops got too close.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'', Hobbes is revealed to have a history of StalkerWithACrush behavior toward his ex-wife, including suspicion of her boyfriends. He becomes suspicious of her current boyfriend, who has a criminal record, suspicions which seem to be born out when he and Fawkes catch the guy scheming with others to steal military tech and sell it on the black market. After they capture him, it turns out that he's an undercover FBI agent (and thus his criminal record is fake) and was involved in a sting operation which they [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nearly ruined]].
* ''{{Series/JAG}}'':
** The episode "Brig Break" has Meg Austin discover that [[spoiler: Petty Officer Quinn]] is an undercover agent for Navy Intelligence trying to infiltrate a group of gun runners. He ends up [[NoHonorAmongThieves getting killed]] by [[spoiler: Sergeant Lowell]] soon after Austin figures it out.
** PlayedForLaughs in "Boot". After everything she has put her through, Staff Sergeant Carrington is [[OhCrap stunned]] to discover that Private [=McEntire=], a problem recruit she had been singling out, was in fact Lt. Meg Austin. Austin assures her she knew it wasn't personal.
* On ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' one [=PoI=] is a robber who seems to be planning to murder a police officer. Reese sees the criminal breaking into the cop's house and is about to intervene when the cop's wife opens the door and greets her husband. The [=PoI=] is undercover in a gang of jewel thieves and he took some time off to see his family. Later on, the cop's cover is about to be blown so Reese outs himself as TheMole instead.
* In one episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' Morgan and Reid spot that the friend of a kidnapped girl's father is carrying a concealed gun; he's a Federal Marshal and the family are in the Witness Protection Program while waiting to testify against the Mob.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' had a patient brought in who was part of a drug-smuggling gang, who refuses to tell House where the hideout is as it might cause the upcoming raid to fail, despite House needing to know what he got sick from. His buddy (who doesn't know he's a cop) eventually lets them in, but [[spoiler:the cop's disease is fatal, and he dies without having blown his cover]].

* Practically OnceAnEpisode on ''Series/HillStreetBlues'', usually some combination of Detectives Larue, Washington or Belker -and less frequently Sergeant Goldblum- at the climax of a sting operation.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'': When Sookie first meets Eric Northman at Fangtasia, she listens in on the thoughts of other human customers in the bar and determines that one guy is an undercover cop and the place is about to be raided.
* Hilariously subverted in the fourth season of ''Series/TheWire''. Prez, formerly a cop [[spoiler: until he accidentally shot another cop]], becomes a school teacher, but Bubbles (formerly a police informant) sees him at the school, and not knowing Prez is no longer police, assumes Prez is setting himself up for this, and promises not to spill the beans. Prez, of course, has no idea what Bubbles is talking about.

* In the ''Series/{{CSI}} episode "Hog Heaven", the [=CSIs=] are investigating the murder of outlaw biker Joey Niagra and run his prints, finding his criminal record for drugs and [[ILoveTheDead necrophilia]]. The next scene, Ecklie shows up to ask why they're running an undercover cop's prints. Apparently the biker gang "Joey" was undercover in takes their "IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten" scenarios '''very''' seriously.
* ''Series/WithoutATrace''. Two agents are questioning a prostitute who was the last person seen with a missing judge when she mutters under her breath, "I'm a cop, so make this look good." They promptly begin yelling at her and roughing her up to maintain the facade of her being uncooperative.

* In ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', Amanda has a gambling problem and racks up a sizable debt with a local casino. When she's identified as a cop, a couple of guys take her to the back room and check her for a wire. They, and their boss, immediately assume she's a dirty cop and start blackmailing her in order to do things for them that only a cop can do. Throughout all this, she has to deal with an overbearing Irishman named Declan, who appears to be the casino owner's NumberTwo and her chief enforcer. At one point, she fails in a task and they threaten to expose her. In desperation, she offers herself to Declan, who sends his underling out of the room and turns on a camera, before seemingly pushing her down to his crotch level. At the end, he shows everyone the recording, where he actually stops short and tells her (without an Irish accent) that he's Lieutenant Declan Murphy of NYPD Vice. He doesn't care that she's a dirty cop, but he's willing to overlook it, if she helps him nail the casino owners. He uses the recording to get all the charges dropped from Amanda. For a while, he even becomes the head of SVU, although he still spends most of his time undercover. [[spoiler:He and Amanda have a fling, resulting in a pregnancy. She doesn't tell him until later and decides to raise the baby alone]].

** Munch gets one in an early season episode where they're trying to catch a travel agent setting up sex tours for pedophiles. He pretends to be a prospective client and they make the arrangements.

-->'''Olivia:''' That's an easy one. Special...Victims...Unit! (''Jumps up and pins the social worker on his desk to cuff him.'') Did I not mention that?

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