History Series / NUMB3RS

* AmicableExes: Don and Liz, after their relationship ends in season four.

* IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: Played straight by Charlie in "Assassin" (S02, E05).

* BigDisasterPlot: ''Thirty-Six Hours'', which has the team dealing with a train accident.

* CloudCuckoolander: Dr. Larry Fleinhardt. At one point, he eats nothing but white food.

** In "Rampage", a man breaks into the FBI office and starts shooting everything up, but only [[AssholeVictim a suspected pedophile]] the team was interrogating right before the attack is killed. The FBI initially assumes that the attacker was getting revenge on the pedophile for molesting somebody he knew, especially when they find out the attacker has a daughter in the age range that the pedophile liked to prey on. Then it turns out that [[AccidentalMurder the pedophile was accidentally hit by a bullet that went ''through'' the attacker]] rather than being shot by the attacker, which destroys the entire theory of motive. [[spoiler:It turns out the attack itself was designed to trigger an emergency evacuation so an inside man could smuggle out some confidential data without risking being caught by a security screener on the way out. The attacker himself was an unwilling accomplice, who the contract killer coerced by threatening to kill his family if he didn't do the attack]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: Present in David's bad neighborhood backstory: he was so convinced that his HotBlooded friend Ben Ellis was the one that started a fight that got Earl Day, the third member of their ThreeAmigos, shot that he never visited Ben in prison, which means he never learned that the normally calm Earl had confronted a guy who was messing with his girlfriend, and the guy [[DisproportionateRetribution responded by shooting him]], but Ben took a plea bargain because he knew no one would believe him. David only learns it when his and Ben's paths cross in "Contender", and they eventually make peace.

** The pilot episode involving a serial killer has Terri rescue his latest victim before she is suffocated.

** In "Rampage", a man breaks into the FBI office and starts shooting everything up, but only [[KickTheSonOfABitch a suspected pedophile]] the team was interrogating right before the attack is killed. The FBI initially assumes that the attacker was getting revenge on the pedophile for molesting somebody he knew, especially when they find out the attacker has a daughter in the age range that the pedophile liked to prey on. Then it turns out that [[AccidentalMurder the pedophile was accidentally hit by a bullet that went ''through'' the attacker]] rather than being shot by the attacker, which destroys the entire theory of motive. [[spoiler:It turns out the attack itself was designed to trigger an emergency evacuation so an inside man could smuggle out some confidential data without risking being caught by a security screener on the way out. The attacker himself was an unwilling accomplice, who the contract killer coerced by threatening to kill his family if he didn't do the attack]].

** Also in "Rampage", Colby takes it pretty hard when it turns out that his bullet was what killed the suspected pedophile during the shooting attack, even after all of the evidence shows that [[AccidentalMurder it was an accidental death because the bullet Colby shot through the attacker's shoulder to stop his rampage accidentally landed in the suspect's head]] so it wouldn't threaten his job at the FBI. [[spoiler: Mainly because it reminded him of a similar incident during his Army days when his troop attacked a British troop mistaking them for Afghan enemies, which resulted in two British soldiers dying]].

* MurderDotCom: "Killer Chat"; the case is about a KnightTemplar serial killer who targets child molesters and finds victims by posing as a teenage girl online, leads them to an empty house, then tortures them to get their recorded confessions. They then murder the molesters.

* OhCrap: At the end of "Thirteen", a serial killer the team has just arrested is genuinely confused when the FBI talks about him having killed his accomplice, as he had thought the FBI did it. All at once, the agents realize what this means (that a third party not affiliated with either side was the one that did it), but they're unable to react fast enough to prevent the serial killer from meeting the same fate as his accomplice.

* ShamefulStrip: In an undercover assignment, to spot bugs. Blatant {{Fanservice}}, what with the promos advertising the strip and the random lingerie she ''just happened'' to be wearing. The shame bit's still there, though.

* SkepticismFailure: Seen in "Mind Games" where Charlie scoffs at a psychic who's brought in to work on a case; Charlie is treated as the unreasonable one, surprisingly for a show that focuses on math and logic to solve crimes. He returns in a later episode. And by the end of the episode he's dead and everyone wonders if he was the real deal.

* TakeMyHand: In "Primacy", Charlie has to do this to pull Colby to safety, after the latter is almost washed away by an opening floodgate.

* TheUnFavourite: Don has moments where he seems to believe this; it's largely implied that the amount of energy and attention Charlie's ChildProdigy status required meant that Don often ended up not getting as much as attention he should have had. However, his father makes it clear that, while he knows Don got the short end of the stick, it was never intentional, he regrets it, and he loves Don every bit as much as he loves Charlie. (Depending on how one reads certain scenes in "Hot Shot", it can possibly be said that his [[note]] deceased[[/note]] mother feels the same way).

* HiddenDepths: Colby speaks Spanish, which helped them on a case that had missing Spanish girls.

** Megan is taken by Crystal Hoyle in the Season three episode "Spree", which sets up events in the next episode, events which also set up the rest of season three.

** Megan is taken by Crystal Hoyle in the Season three episode "Spree", which sets up events in the next episode.

* TakenDuringTheEnding: Amita is kidnapped at the end of "Greatest Hits" when she and Charlie are leaving [=CalSci=] for the night, which leads to the fifth season finale when the team goes up against a cult that is holding Amita.

* CantStayNormal: [[spoiler: After Charlie's security clearance is revoked at the end of season 4]], he has a chance to return his normal life of academia. But he keeps getting pulled into cases, and even begins seeking out crime to solve by consulting for the LAPD, and eventually admits that he's bitten by the crime-solving bug.

** Also in "Rampage", Colby takes it pretty hard when it turns out that his bullet was what killed the suspected pedophile during the shooting attack, even after all of the evidence shows that [[AccidentalMurder it was an accidental death because the bullet Colby shot through the attacker's shoulder to stop his rampage accidentally landed in the suspect's head]] so it wouldn't threaten his job at the FBI. [[spoiler: Mainly because it reminded him of a similar incident during his Army days when his troop accidentally attacked a British troop mistaking them for Afghan enemies, which resulted in two British soldiers dying]].

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In "Rampage", the FBI initially assumes that the guy who attacked the FBI office did so to protect his young daughter from a suspected pedophile the team was interrogating at the time, since he was the only fatality. [[spoiler: It turns out that the attacker's actions ''were'' motivated by a desire to protect his daughter... because a contract killer who needed a distraction for an inside man threatened to kill her, along with her mother, if the man refused to do the shooting rampage]].

** creator/JoBethWilliams, who co-starred with Hirsch on ''Film/Teachers1984'', appears as Margaret Eppes on "Hot Shot".