History Series / Kaleidoscope2023

* ForWantOfANail: Or, more accurately, [[StealthPun the Butterfly Effect]]. One action caused a ''lot'' of extra damage.
** During the diamond heist, [[spoiler:Bob gets greedy and steals a butterfly bracelet for Judy. He gets shot, which damages his hand, and causes a lot of issues for the group.]]
** [[spoiler:Abassi finds a bullet at that heist with Ava's prints, then Bob shows up at Ava's house and gives Abassi a lead, which leads to the whole deportation mess with Ava's nanny. ]]
** [[spoiler:The bracelet itself gets caught in Ava's demo charges and nearly gets her and RJ killed.]]
** And [[spoiler:Bob had to teach Stan how to safecrack because of Bob's injured hand. Which gives Bob a chance to lock Ava, Leo, and Stan in the vault. Also, Judy had to killed RJ to protect Bob, and Abassi showed up and shot Ava.]]
** And finally, in "Pink", [[spoiler:Stan tries to sell Judy's bracelet, which leads the FBI to their location, where they find and kill Bob.]]

** When Hannah infiltrates Salas' company, [[spoiler:she frames the VP and gets him fired. He tries to blackmail Salas. Which gets him killed.]]

* ColorMotif: Part of the premise of the show. As each episode is named for a different color, it's no surprise that the color and lighting scheme changes to emphasize said color (fitting the idea of a kaleidoscope). In addition, specific objects that match the episode's color will also crop up, and each episode ends on a [[FadeOut fade into that color]}. Below are just a few selected examples:

** And if [[spoiler:Bob had to teach Stan how to safecrack because of Bob's injured hand. Which gives Bob a chance to lock Ava, Leo, and Stan in the vault. Also, Judy would not have killed RJ to protect Bob, and Abassi would not have shown up and shot Ava.]]

** Hannah like a FemmeFatale for a security probe, by [[HeroicSeductress seducing a woman]]. She's also the InsideMan in Salas' company. [[spoiler:In "White", she sabotages the heist from the inside to ''save'' lives and ''prevent'' death.]]

* BlackmailBackfire: [[spoiler: Agent Abassi essentially blackmails Ava Mercer into becoming the crew's {{mole}}, in exchange for keeping her former nanny Teresa in the country. However, when the heist begins, Ava distracts the FBI agents by setting off explosive sparks on the 59th floor of the SLS building, leading Abassi and her partner away from where the real heist is taking place. When Abassi confronts Ava later at gunpoint, Ava says that Teresa's already long gone and manages to drive away from the scene in the crew's van.]]
** Salas's VP tries to leverage Salas's [[spoiler:real identity]] against him in exchange for all of his assets after being fired, which they believe could cost him a lucrative deal with the Triplets. Instead of paying, [[spoiler:Salas sends Carlos to kill him, and it turns out to have been AllForNothing anyway because the Triplets had already thoroughly looked into Salas's past]].

* OppositesAttract: Judy is a smart, compassionate woman, but for the bulk of the series she's with Bob, who's a brutish bully who keeps messing with others out of insecurity, though he's not as dumb as he acts. Her previous boyfriend was Stan, who's a much closer match for her. [[spoiler:As Abassi points out, Bob's ambition often exceeds his grasp and gets him into trouble, and the same is true of Stan. Judy is more willing to settle for "good enough", and eventually realizes she might not be compatible with either man.]]

* AssholeVictim: The Senior VP working for Salas is [[spoiler: framed for compromising security. When he later tries to blackmail Salas, Carlos murders him.]]

** [[spoiler: Bob Strauss is an abrasive {{Jerkass}} who's not above using violence against his fellow heist-mates to get his point across, and has a bitter and untamed resentment for Stan who was his girlfriend's ex. But it was only until he beat RJ to a pulp and tried to kill the witness Stan that Judy nearly choked him to death and crushed his windpipe.]]

** Bob is too hotheaded and jealous, and doesn't like to follow orders. [[spoiler: In "Pink," he's so focused on getting revenge that he doesn't realize Ray has set him up until it's too late.]]

** [[spoiler:Abassi finds a bullet at that heist with Ava's prints, then Bob shows up at Ava's house, which leads to the whole deportation mess with Ava's nanny.

** And if [[spoiler:Bob didn't have to teach Stan how to safecrack, then Bob probably would not have been able to lock Ava, Leo, and Stan in the vault, RJ might still be alive, and Abassi would not have shown up to shoot Ava.]]

* RevengeBeforeReason: Rational as Ray may seem, his desire for revenge keeps getting the better of him. His crew is dysfunctional, with Bob being TheFriendNobodyLikes who seems like a poster boy for NoHonorAmongThieves. They are trying to steal billions of dollars from people who Roger says are the types of guys who "You could be walking down the street, have someone brush up against you, and die of a heart attack in thirty minutes" if you cross them. More importantly, all of it costs Ray precious time he could have spent being a father to Hannah.
* RevengeIsNotJustice: [[spoiler: Ray Vernon was willing to risk his second chance at life, and the lives of his heistmates and daughter just to implicate Roger Salas for the Glen Club incident. The seven billion dollars, atleast in the mind of Ray Vernon, was more of a second priority and a nice bonus for finally getting revenge on Roger, who got away from the Glen Club incident scot-free and left his wife for dead. In the end, he gets what he wants, but it came at too extreme and unnecessary a cost, and ruined the lives of all of his heistmates if not got them killed. In "Pink", when Ray visits Roger in prison, Roger essentially asks, WasItWorthIt? Ray doesn't have an easy answer.]]

** Bob is constantly in conflict with the rest of the team, and unable to control his impulses. For example, during the Diamond Way heist, he lags behind the others and gets his hand shot because he [[spoiler:couldn't resist stealing a piece of fancy jewelry for Judy]], which almost makes them. [[spoiler: Later on, he attempts to make off with the bonds they stole with a rather unwilling Judy, which gets RJ killed and gets his windpipe permanently crushed. His actions also essentially ruined the heist (which wouldn't have mattered, since they ended up stealing hundreds of cases of colored paper anyway) and helped get the feds after the crew.]]
** In "Violet", when the heist of the Glen Club starts going south, [[spoiler: Salas sets fire to the building in order to buy them more time. This ends up killing Ray Vernon's wife, who was in the building unbeknownst to him and Ray.]]

* DownerEnding: If you watch the show chronologically, anyway. [[spoiler: The heist Ray and the crew worked so hard on fails spectacularly in "White", and by the end of "Pink", nearly every member of the show who ever tried to wrong Roger Salas or the Triplets have died miserably, and so have their loved ones. The few who are still alive now live a life of constant paranoia and turmoil, and the only people still living comfortably are the villains, and those who had to appease them to avoid such a fate.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Salas warns Hannah that if you cross the Triplets, you might be walking down the street one day, brush up against someone, and die of a heart attack thirty minutes later— that's how dangerous they are. In "Pink", [[spoiler: Abassi has a stranger shake her hands and after a few steps collapses.]] As with much of the show, though, whether or not this is actually foreshadowed in your viewing depends on which episodes you watch first.

* GunNut: Ava keeps several guns in her basement, and is shown to be proficient with them. [[spoiler: Partly played for laughs in "Pink," when Bob keeps finding guns hidden throughout the safe house, including the knife rack in the kitchen.]]

* OhCrap: Doubles as a FiveSecondForeshadowing when Ray lets out a loud "NO!" as he sees [[spoiler: Ava Mercer die in front of him in "Pink."]]

* TheQuietOne: [[spoiler: Bob]] is this in "Pink", after his windpipe was crushed beyond repair in "White". His communication method of choice is a free text-to-speech app on his phone. He gets a MoodWhiplash moment when an advertisement for the app in question plays while he holds [[spoiler: Ava, Ray and Teresa]] at gunpoint. He ''can'' speak, but it presumably exacerbates his windpipe, so he only speaks when he ''really'' needs to emphasize something.

* TooDumbToLive: Stan's mother, who is aware of her son's criminal past, just cannot keep her mouth shut in front of a detective [[spoiler:(actually Carlos, who's looking for Stan and his accomplices so he can kill them)]], even though her daughter-in-law is not so subtly trying to tell her to be quiet. [[spoiler:Once she tells Carlos that she can track Stan's phone location, he shoots them both.]]

* ColorMotif: Part of the premise of the show. As each episode is named for a different color, it's no surprise that the color and lighting scheme changes to emphasize said color (fitting the idea of a kaleidoscope). In addition, specific objects that match the episode's color will also crop up, and each episode ends on a fade into that color. Below are just a few selected examples:

* FadeToBlack: (Or red, or green, or blue...) Every episode ends with a fade to whatever color the episode's titled after, and vice versa, a FadeIn with the same color when the episode begins.

* TheMillstone: Bob Strauss is a [[HairTriggerTemper extremely volatile]] Jerkass whose greed and shortsightedness routinely jeopardizes the entire heist. [[spoiler: His insistence on stealing a butterfly bracelet for Judy during the Diamond Way hit results in him lagging behind the entire team long enough to get [[GameBreakingInjury shot in the hand]] by a cop. This makes it impossible for him to crack the safe at SLS by himself since he needed ''both'' of his hands to operate the dual dials, which in turn forces Stan and Ray to pick up his slack. His brazen attempt to show up on Ava's doorstep ''in broad daylight'' to try and extort her for a bigger cut also results in him being identified by Agent Abbasi who was staking out Ava's home, which confirms Abbasi's suspicions that Ava really ''was'' involved in the Diamond Way hit and puts the entire team under even more scrutiny. Then on the night of the SLS heist, as soon as it seems they've looted all of the bonds, Bob [[FaceHeelTurn betrays the team]] by locking Ray, Stan, and Ava in the safe room before getting in a fight with [[GetawayDriver RJ]] for trying to stop him and Judy from running away with the money.]]

** If you watch "White" after "Red" and/or "Pink," [[spoiler: you will be waiting for the moment where RJ dies. At one point we see him in the sewer tunnel just as the charges go off and the show cuts away, making it seem like this is when it happens. However, we find out later he survived that, and is ''actually'' killed by Judy later after he shoots Bob.]]

** [[spoiler: In "Pink", Bob forces Ray to call Stan and Judy and arrange a meeting with them, wherein Bob will show up and presumably kill Stan on the spot. The show leads us to believe that Ray did make that call— we cut to Stan and Judy getting ready to go, and Stan remarking that they're going to be late. However, it turns out Ray called Agent Abassi instead, and the name "Porky" in Ava's book was code for the FBI A.K.A. "the pigs." Meanwhile, Stan just wanted to get to a food truck before they ran out of lengua tacos.]]

* RevengeIsNotJustice: [[spoiler: Ray Vernon was willing to risk his second chance at life, and the lives of his heistmates and daughter just to implicate Roger Salas for the Glen Club incident. The seven billion dollars, atleast in the mind of Ray Vernon, was more of a second priority and a nice bonus for finally getting revenge on Roger, who got away from the Glen Club incident scot-free and left his wife for dead. In the end, he gets what he wants, but it came at too extreme and unnecessary a cost, and ruined the lives of all of his heistmates if not got them killed.]]

*** There's a giant reflective red screen at the hideout

* OhCrap: Doubles as a FiveSecondForeshadowing when Ray lets out a sharp "NO!" as he sees [[spoiler: Ava Mercer die in front of him in "Pink."]]

* TenMinuteRetirement: In "Violet" Leo gets out of the game until [[spoiler: his wife is fired and racism played a factor in the firing.]]

** In "Violet", Leo targets a country club that was openly racist towards him and his loved ones.

* JustOneLittleMistake: [[spoiler: It seems very likely that the heist crew could have made it out of the country in time before being caught— especially since Roger Salas is in control of the investigation (he intentionally tries to keep the FBI not involved, or else they'd find out about the millions of dollars he's laundering for the triplets). However, Stan made their fatal mistake by leaving his glasses behind in the safe room, which Roger noted was the same glasses the "doctor" was wearing while performing his eye exam (actually scanning his face to make a mask that'll pass the vault's facial recognition software). This single piece of information is what helps Roger Salas find out who was behind the vault heist all along.

* FakingTheDead: Ray Vernon had to in order to complete his prison escape. Ava took the car he stowed away in and burned it in a ditch, leaving a corpse behind with teeth that the police matched to Ray's dental record. In the seven years since, Ray has been living his life under the name Leo Pap.

* GunNut: Ava keeps several guns in her basement, and is shown to be proficient with them. [[spoiler: Partly played for laughs in “Pink,” when Bob keeps finding guns hidden throughout the safe house, including the knife rack in the kitchen.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: There are a few moments where it's possible to feel sympathy for Bob... but these are undone once you know the full story. His hand injury from [[spoiler: the Diamond Way robbery]] comes across as tragic until you see how he got it in "Yellow" and learn [[spoiler: it was pretty much his own fault]]. In “Pink,” he [[spoiler: can barely speak due to his crushed windpipe, and tries to write a letter to Judy declaring his commitment to be a better man. He almost seems to take Ray's advice to give up and walk away from his RoaringRampageOfRevenge plot. However, Bob continues pursuing his revenge and ultimately dies because of it.]]

* OhCrap: Doubles as a FiveSecondForeshadowing when Ray lets out a sharp "NO!" as he sees [[spoiler: Ava Mercer die in front of him in “Pink.”]]

* ThoseTwoGuys: In “Pink,” Bob hires two killers who banter with each other for most of the episode and bond over a relationship advice-themed podcast.

** In "Violet", Leo targets a club that was openly racist towards him and his loved ones.