Line #26 Main/GuiltRiddenAccomplice


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6	->''"Who I thought was my homie dropped the dime. So I gotta peel his cap with the nine. "''
7	-->-- '''Mc Eiht''', Compton's Most Wanted
8
9	It's easy to trust your childhood friends or loyal minions with your secrets, but even they have a limit to what they'll keep secret. Perhaps a group of drunken teens ran over a little kid and decides to close ranks, make a pact, cover everything up, and keep the crime to themselves. But one or more group members are [[KeepingSecretsSucks uncomfortable with the secret]] and appear to be cracking under the pressure, and could possibly rat out the other party members that were involved. Whether or not they actually squeal, stay silent, or get killed by their supposed friends varies from movie to movie. Usually when this happens, everyone becomes paranoid of one another when it comes to being a potential snitch. This trope is very common in horror/thriller/crime dramas/murder situations.
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11	Overlaps with AHouseDivided, MurderIsTheBestSolution, and sometimes DefectorFromDecadence, and RebelliousRebel. Usually leads to a PlethoraOfMistakes. Compare IdioticPartnerConfession.
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13	----
14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
19	* In ''Manga/{{Tsukigasa}}'', while Kuroe never approved of thievery, the robbers who saved him were surprised when he tried to make off with their maps and Tatsumi was surprised when he gave them to him to help arrest the criminals and Kuroe ''still'' wanted to turn himself in too. Ultimately, it comes down to Kuroe being a righteous sort of person and wanting to protect Azuma, the criminals' next target.
20	[[/folder]]
21
22	[[folder:Comic Books]]
23	* One well-known example could possibly be the Comedian from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. Of course, he pays for this with his life. He wound up being the victim of the MurderIsTheBestSolution variety.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Fan Works]]
27	* ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' In the non-cannon story "Nightmares Yet to Come", it's shown that [[spoiler:Cloud Kicker]] is a member of TheConspiracy... and it's driving a pony who's ''already'' a NervousWreck to worse heights. It's also ruining her chances of dating, though even she's not sure if that's a contributing factor or not (her boss disagrees).
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
31	* The Genie from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTalesTheMovieTreasureOfTheLostLamp'' is very clearly traumatized by the many horrible things he's been forced to do when his lamp was in the possession of Merlock, even though the only two he explicitly names are sinking {{Atlantis}} and destroying Pompeii. As he points out, he's ''compelled'' to obey the bearer of the lamp no matter how much he hates the wish, and Merlock is an EvilSorcerer with a magic talisman that grants him ''unlimited wishes''. Throughout the film, he's terrified of the possibility of his lamp falling back into Merlock's clutches, and when it finally happens, he becomes a meek, downcast, and miserable shadow of himself. In the film's climax, a cruel Merlock orders the Genie to use his powers to throw Scrooge out of his castle, which is currently [[FloatingIsland flying several thousand feet in the air]]. The Genie visibly fights against the wish, and in the end, all he can do is apologize to Scrooge.
32	* The Huntsman from ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' is horrified by the Queen's order to kill Snow White and bring her the girl's heart. He tries to talk her out of it and only agrees when she makes it clear it'll be ''his'' life if he says "no." Even so, he's overwhelmed by guilt and, upon seeing her kindness and innocence, can't go through with it, instead letting her go and [[DeathFakedForYou faking her death]].
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
36	* The protagonist of ''Film/{{Armored}}'' quickly goes from accomplice to SpannerInTheWorks when the thieves' hideout is found to be not as secluded as they thought and his friend tries to solve the problem by killing the witness, breaking the head organizer's deal with the protagonist that there would be no casualties.
37	* Cleon from ''Film/DeadPresidents'' is of the broke down and squealed variety.
38	* The entirety of Billy Wilder's ''Film/DoubleIndemnity'' is a flashback derived from the Dictaphone confession of guilt-ridden insurance agent Walter Neff, beguiled by femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson into murdering her husband.
39	* Another example from the noir canon is ''Film/TooLateForTears'', in which con man Danny Fuller (played by noir vet Dan Duryea) begins cracking up after killer housewife Jane Palmer pressures him to kill her sister-in-law to cover up the murder of her husband. [[spoiler:Poor Danny is made to go away rather quickly.]]
40	* Rachel from ''Film/TheHauntingOfSororityRow'' starts to show signs of this trope.
41	* David Reynolds from ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107401/?ref_=nv_sr_1 The Liars Club]]'' is starting to doubt his best friend's innocence regarding the rape and murder of a fellow friend. But he's of the "kept silent" variety who continued to destroy evidence with the rest of the group.
42	* A key part of the Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie ''Film/{{Rope}}''. A key difference, however, lies in that it is not the anxious Philip who keeps making mistakes but rather the cool, suave and entirely unrepentant Brandon who enjoys letting hints drop to make himself feel more intelligent, all the greater for the glory of getting away with it (despite rubbing the clues in the victim's familiar ones faces numerous times), a fact which actually irks Philip even more.
43	* Violet from ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178043/ Stranger Than Fiction]]'' was starting to get panicky and erratic. She either hanged herself or one of her friends (presumably Emma) rubbed her out and made it seem like a suicide.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Literature]]
47	* John Grisham's ''Literature/TheAssociate'' has a rare case of a guilt-ridden ''mastermind''. [[spoiler:Baxter Tate, accused but never convicted of rape back in college, goes through rehab and decides to patch things up with the woman who accused him. The problem is, it's the evidence of this rape and the possibility of being labeled an accomplice that's being held over protagonist Kyle [=McAvoy=]'s head by a mysterious conspiracy, and so the conspiracy has Tate killed to keep their leverage.]]
48	* ''Franchise/{{Discworld}}:'' ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' has the Golems who made the Golem King. After it goes completely insane and murders someone, the golems responsible are so horrified they start killing themselves, [[spoiler:because they used their own clay to make the King]].
49	-->''CLAY OF MY CLAY. GUILT. SHAME.''
50	* ''Literature/ForeverAndADeath'': The captain of Curtis's yacht is confused and conflicted about the whole coverup and murder plot. [[spoiler:Soon he is DrivenToSuicide]].
51	* ''Literature/GhostStory'' reveals Molly Carpenter to be one of these. Harry — her teacher in magic and the BigGood who protected Chicago — has been murdered. [[spoiler:The truth is that he was trying to escape AFateWorseThanDeath by committing suicide, and asked her to assist him with it. Harry hired a sniper, Molly [[ItMakesSenseInContext erased his memories of the plan afterwards]], and everything went as planned. Except for the fact that, with [[TheDreaded Harry]] gone, a ''lot'' of supernatural predators that would otherwise have stayed away are descending upon Chicago, and the city's living defenders are left severely weakened and comparatively ignorant about the supernatural world. Also, Harry's TrueCompanions are traumatized by his death, and Molly has to live with the guilt of that ''and'' the pain of undergoing TrainingFromHell at the hands of a sadistic Fae to get strong enough to defeat said predators.]] She believes that all of that could have been prevented if she'd had the courage to tell someone else [[spoiler: what Harry was planning,]] and she's not wrong. Morals of the story? Do not let [[TheHeroDies the hero die]] or pledge UndyingLoyalty towards someone with depression.
52	** Notably, after Harry comes back to life, she welcomes him with open arms, letting him stay in her apartment even after signs of TheCorruption begin to show. [[TrueCompanions Admittedly]], [[HotForTeacher she]] probably would have done that anyway, but one gets the feeling she's trying to atone.
53	* In ''Literature/TheMugAndSpoon'', Marie is extremely conflicted about [[spoiler:the scam that involves her posing as a fairytale princess to attract a rich husband]]. After she ends up marrying a man she really loves, she can't bring herself to lie to him and soon tells him everything about [[spoiler: the scam]], asking him to keep it a secret.
54	* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''[[Recap/WarriorCatsCodeOfTheClans Code of the Clans]]'', there's a short story where Darkstripe encourages Longtail to break the warrior code by eating the prey they caught instead of bringing it to the Clan. Longtail feels guilty when they return to camp to find that one of the elders has died, and he blames himself, thinking that the prey might have given her the strength to fight off her illness if they'd brought it back earlier. Darkstripe, seeing how Longtail is feeling, threatens that if Longtail tells the Clan what they did, ''he'll'' tell them how it was all Longtail's idea and that Darkstripe couldn't stop him.
55	[[/folder]]
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57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* A terrorist on ''Series/TwentyFour'' season 2 had second thoughts about their plan to trigger a nuke in LA. He and an accomplice end up killing each other.
59	* One of the victims in the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Blood On The Tracks", who wanted to turn himself and his friends in for a crime they were involved in a decade prior that left another friend dead (the other being the only one who supported him in this). Very tellingly, the killers ended up being the two who not only wanted to keep everything quiet but were least affected by what they had done.
60	* Parodied on the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' BeachEpisode when Joey had to come clean about [[spoiler: peeing on Monica's leg after she is stung by a jellyfish]].
61	-->'''Joey''': I gotta get it out! It's eating me alive!
62	* The murder victim from the episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' that dealt with female-on-male rape turned out to be one of these. She and a couple of friends raped a male stripper at knifepoint during her bachelorette party. Years later, she was confronted by her victim, and she felt guilty enough to confess her crime and turn over the names of her accomplices. When she told the other women her plans, they killed her to cover up their crime.
63	* ''Series/MidsomerMurders''
64	** "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS2E1 Death's Shadow]]" had a young boy who'd apparently hanged himself decades earlier, causing his single mother to commit suicide shortly after. It was actually [[spoiler: an accident: the boy wanted to join the village "cool" kids, who put up a noose and told him to stand tiptoe on a chair with his neck in the noose as an initiation. The boy slipped while they weren't looking,]] and they kept mum about the whole thing for years. Then one of them got the news that he had a terminal illness, and went to confess [[spoiler: to the priest who, it turns out, was the boy's father]] who goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
65	** Julia Gooders, who confesses to everything after all the other conspirators are dead in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS4E2 Destroying Angel]]".
66	* During ''Series/OneLifeToLive'''s legendary gang rape storyline, one of the rapists, Powell Lord was this, having been bullied into committing the rape by the other two. The guilt drove him so mad that he tried to kill himself... and a year later, he became a serial rapist himself.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
70	* ''TabletopGame/{{Fiasco}}'': One of the results that can be rolled on the Tilt Table (a complication that makes the players' plans definitely go FromBadToWorse) is "someone develops a conscience".
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Video Games]]
74	* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:''
75	** During Jaal's LoyaltyMission, one of the Roekaar taking part in a faked bombing of the Forge, a sacred site to Angara, breaks and tells Jaal, his brother, what's going on. Then his sister shoots him in the back and has her own MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment (the brother lives, and thanks to Angaran social norms, isn't that upset over the whole deal).
76	** A mission on Voeld has Ryder encounter a pair of Turians playing scavenger in the cities the kett have destroyed. One of them cracks and tells Ryder what they're doing out of guilt, prompting her Angaran contact in a nearby town to remark she didn't have the heart for it anyway.
77	* Bianca from ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon'' is {{The Dragon}} to [[BigBad the Sorceress]] and helps her snatch the eggs from the dragon world. However, as the game goes on, it's very clear she doesn't actually want to hurt Spyro and Hunter and tries to warn them away to the point of begging by the time you reach Evening Lake. [[spoiler: When she discovers her boss only wanted the baby dragons for their wings and not to restore the Lost Worlds' magic, she immediately makes a HeelFaceTurn.]]
78	* "VideoGame/Reverse1999" Druvis III becomes this to [[spoiler:Forget-Me-Not and the Manus Vindictae]] in the 24 hours before the "Storm" hits 1920's America. A confrontation with [[spoiler:Vertin over dinner in the Walden and seeing the sham refugee camp being built in her family's burnt out forest and potentially having it all taken away, convinces her her to defect from the Manus to help Vertin and the others.]]
79	* ''VideoGame/WildArmsMillionMemories'' does this with [[spoiler: Antenora. She genuinely feels bad about abducting Yulie because the girl had healed her beforehand so she frequently stops by Yulie's cell to check on her and explain herself. Yulie's kindness and understanding, paired with what Odessa has in store for her, only makes Antenora feel worse, so she decides to let Yulie go and urges her to run when the battles around them start getting messy.]]
80	** Later on, [[spoiler:Rudy himself]] ends up siding with [[EvilOverlord Siegfried]], which leads to [[spoiler:him reactivating the Yggdrasil System and causing Filgaia to go up in a ball of fire]]. Even though it was in exchange for an {{Enemy Mine}} against [[OmnicidalManiac Mother]], they feel so guilty about it in the final chapter that, when called on it, [[spoiler:''both'' of his dialogue options are silent pauses]].
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
84	* [[spoiler:Valerie Hawthorne]] from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' helped stage a fake kidnapping and betrayed her accomplice, but years later, when the accomplice broke out of prison, decided to meet with him and tell the truth. [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceDoorSlam This got her killed by Dahlia Hawthorne]], [[HeKnowsTooMuch who didn't want her revealing what they'd done]].]]
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Western Animation]]
88	* In ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'' episode ''De watersnood'' Wannes, BigBad Dolf's childhood friend, tries to dissuade Dolf from his plan, and starts having a terrified breakdown once it's done. Wannes becomes visibly afraid of dolf and when he shows up later, he's heavily implied to be drunk. It could be argued that it already started in the previous episode where Dolf proposed murdering Ollie, who they both went to school with.
89	* ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'': The Headless Horseman. Basically, Prime Evil enlisted his help in bankrupting a gold mine owned by [[TheHero Jake]]'s great-grandfather. (The ghosts scared all the miners away.) Jake made his distrust of the Horseman very clear, even as the ghost protested that he wanted to help and try to redeem himself. So very tragic, and that sad voice...
90	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
91	** {{Parodied\|Trope}} when the boys toilet paper a teacher's house and Kyle starts to feel guilty and wants to confess. It even includes Cartman [[MurderIsTheBestSolution trying to kill Kyle]] with a wiffle ball bat to silence him.
92	** In another episode, when world governments are trying to hide something bad they did from extraterrestrials, Finland's lets loose they can't take the guilt and want to squeal. Cue the other countries silencing them...with nukes. Then cue the aliens asking "Hey, what happened to Finland?" and the others making up lame excuses to explain why Finland is all of a sudden lifeless and glowing.
93	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' frequently to Mr. Krabs: standout cases include when they try to cover up (supposedly) killing a health inspector and when he is forced to make a fraudulent newspaper with articles that destroy people's reputations. Something to be expected when the accomplice has the childlike innocence of Spongebob and the perpetrator the Machiavellianism of Krabs.
94	[[/folder]]

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