Line #154 PoorCommunicationKills/LiveActionTV


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7	!!Examples of PoorCommunicationKills in Live-Action TV:
8	[[index]]
9	* ''PoorCommunicationKills/CobraKai''
10	[[/index]]
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12	* On ''Series/NineOneOneLoneStar'', Owen is dating Katherine and it's going great when she tells him her ex-husband Patrick will be coming by to drop something off. She says they should get along great as "he's the spitting image of you." Patrick comes by and Owen is stunned to meet a balding man in his 70s with a dull attitude. He's soon convinced Katherine has a thing for older men and a fight ensues where Owen is ready to break up rather than "be used for your daddy issues." At which point, Katherine's ex shows up...a handsome man who not only looks like Owen but has the same interests. It turns out the man who was by before was Patrick ''Senior'', his father. Owen tries to backtrack but it's too late as this misunderstanding (combined with his own insecurities and Katherine not bothering to mention her ex was "Junior") cause Katherine to dump him.
13	* ''Series/AlexRider2020'':
14	** Thankfully a non-lethal example. After finding out Alex is a spy, Tom visits him at the Friend estate to discuss it. [[spoiler:If Alex had mentioned the name Roscoe, Tom probably would have been more cautious when seemingly headhunted by Roscorp.]]
15	** And again in the final episode. [[spoiler:Duplicate!Alex makes his way to London and inserts himself into Alex's life with the aim of destroying him. One thing he does is corner Tom and taunt him about being taken prisoner earlier, asking "Did it hurt? Were you frightened? Did you think you were going to die?" Jack and Tom hold a sort-of intervention where an angry Tom throws these questions back in a bemused Alex's face. A sentence explaining that Alex is meant to have ''asked'' these questions would have cleared things up immediately (as Alex would probably have made the connection between Point Blanc and a mean-spirited version of him running around). As it is, Alex thinks ''Tom'' is taunting ''him'' and storms off. So when the duplicate approaches Tom again, he's able to draw him away by pretending he wants to apologize.]]
16	* Huge example in late season 3 of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Wesley translates a prophecy that Angel will kill his son, Connor. Instead of telling Angel (or Gunn, or Fred), Wesley kidnaps Connor and loses him to Angel's archenemy the vampire hunter Holtz, which results in Connor being raised in a Hell dimension and growing up to hate Angel fiercely. While the urge to protect baby Connor is understandable, everyone gives Wesley a hard time about putting it all on his own shoulders and not just telling them what was going on in the first place so they could help him make a better decision. Angel goes so far as to try to ''kill'' Wesley, and Wes is ostracized from the group for the rest of Season 3 and the early part of Season 4. On top of it all, it turns out the prophecy was false the whole time because the demon Sahjan had altered the original words (which predicted Connor would grow up to kill Sahjan), meaning Wesley's actions were AllForNothing.
17	* Their many, ''many'' secrets tore the Queen family apart in the second season of ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. As of the third season, Oliver [[AesopAmnesia clearly hasn't learned the lesson.]]
18	* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the whole human/Minbari war starts because of this, mostly because they don't know each other's language or cultural traditions.
19	** To Minbari, it is common courtesy to show all your weapons to other soldiers, so they can see that you have nothing hidden and mean no treachery. Which on a warship means opening all gunports but leaving the weapons powered down. The humans noticed the first part and mistook a power spike for powering up the weapons (also, the Minbari sensors had accidentally jammed the human jump drives and their stealth was keeping the human scanners from getting a clear reading that would have shown the weapons weren't powered up) and started firing in presumed self-defense, killing the Minbari's revered leader, resulting in them declaring holy war against the human race and making no attempt to communicate with the humans, neither to tell them the reason the Minbari were trying to kill them all nor to get any explanation for the humans' actions. Ironically, Dukhat, the Minbari leader, had ordered to close the gunports to avoid this in the exact same moment the human commander ordered to open fire.
20	*** To make things even more tragic, it's possible the Minbari ''were'' powering weapons... to shoot at Soul Hunter ships that the human ships couldn't detect. That was when Dukhat ordered to close the gunports: Soul Hunters have the ability to sense when someone will die and, being hated and feared by everyone else, show up only when someone whose soul they deem worthy of preserving is about to die, [[OhCrap leading Dukhat to realize the humans were about to mistake the open gunports for a hostile action and open fire]], but he gave the order just as Jankowski, the human commander, was ordering to open fire. Anger at the "unprovoked" attack pushed the Grey Council, the Minbari government, to declare and announce a holy war to exterminate the humans, and by the time they realized it was not so unprovoked they couldn't take it back out of fear of losing their people's trust.
21	** Interestingly, when a Minbari warship shows up at Babylon 5 showing all weapons as common courtesy, the warship's captain Neroon arrogantly refuses to explain himself; the more level-headed Minbari Ambassador Delenn goes to the bridge to enlighten the Bab 5 crew about this tradition and invite them to confirm that the weapons are not powered. Apparently, even ten years after the Earth-Minbari War, all the details of the misunderstanding that kicked it off are still not common knowledge in the Earth Alliance, due to the Minbari's poor communication skills. Also, Delenn probably could've warned the humans ''before'' the warship arrived.
22	** Sheridan once mentions that the need for proper communication was the first thing he learned at the Academy.
23	*** In the ''In the Beginning'' TV movie, Sheridan even warns his superior not to send that particular commanding officer, who has a bad record of FirstContact situations (such as something called the Omega Incident), to meet an ancient and powerful race, claiming he's too impulsive. Had a less impulsive officer been in command, it's possible the whole war would've been averted. The superior officer unfortunately didn't listen, citing that Jankowski had been cleared of responsibility in the Omega Incident.
24	*** Later, Sheridan and Franklin are sent to meet a friend of Delenn's who wants to open a back-channel of communications between humans and Minbari hosted by Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn Regime. Unfortunately, Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic assumes that the Narns are scheming against the Centauri and sends a warship to attack the meeting. Sheridan, Franklin and G'Kar are the only survivors.
25	%%** There's a ''whole'' lot of other unnecessary lack of communication. Just watch the end of Season 1[=/=] the beginning of Season 2.
26	* ''Series/{{Belgravia}}'': A whole lot of suffering could have been avoided if Edmund Bellasis had simply ''told'' Sophia Trenchard that the man marrying them was his army buddy who had been ordained due to previously serving as a priest and therefore had the authority to marry them legitimately. Instead, when Edmund's regiment is moving out to engage the enemy and Sophia recognizes one of their faces as the priest who married them, she assumes she's been had, and neither Edmund nor his friend is around to explain things because they both die in combat that same night. This leads to Sophia having to give her up her baby to avoid scandal, not knowing that she and Edmund were really married.
27	* The last [[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E13Blake episode]] of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' has Tarrant fall for Blake’s bounty hunter act and tell Avon that Blake has betrayed them. Avon, who really should know Blake better than that, aims his gun at Blake, who, instead of explaining the truth coherently, just comes out with vague statements like "I set all this up!", all of which Avon misinterprets until he finally snaps and pumps Blake full of gunfire.
28	* In ''Series/TheBoys2019'', the team is constantly at risk of falling apart completely because of their inability to be open with one another.
29	** Before the series began, the Boys originally fell apart because Frenchie had to break off from tailing Lamplighter to save his friend who was OD'ing. As a result, Lamplighter accidentally burned alive Mallory's grandkids and Frenchie couldn't forgive himself, neglecting to explain to the others that he had a good reason and making them think he was untrustworthy.
30	** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Mallory reveals that she had been hiding a potential method of killing [[BigBad Homelander]] because [[DirtyCoward she was scared of what Butcher would do with the information and what the government would do if they found out she talked]]. Butcher is understandably furious, but Mallory [[AdaptationalJerkass refuses to take responsibility]] and gives him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that hits too close to home and makes him start burning bridges left and right. Butcher pulls a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim on his stepson Ryan and alienates Frenchie & Kimiko, causing virtually all of his relationships to self-destruct throughout half the season just when he was finally starting to do well for himself [[TurnOutLikeHisFather and driving Ryan back into Homelander's arms]]. Furthermore, he starts taking SuperSerum to become an EmpoweredBadassNormal but neglects to tell anyone other than Hughie, giving the rest of the team even less reason to trust him when the truth comes out.]]
31	** M.M.'s family life falls apart because his wife dumps him to prevent him from endangering their daughter with his job, and he spends most of Season 3 butting heads with TheExsNewJerkass Todd who's a die-hard Homelander fan and takes M.M's daughter to his rallies. Despite knowing how powerful [[EvilInc Vought]]'s stranglehold on pop culture is, M.M. makes no effort to show Todd any of the evidence they have on Homelander to protect his daughter from his influence and instead just decks him, horrifying his daughter. M.M. later realizes he's being an idiot, and after a heart-to-heart with Frenchie resolves to be more open with his daughter. However, his refusal to be open with Todd causes him to double down on his support for Homelander even after he starts to show his true colors.
32	* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': Daphne and Simon won't fight and remain hostile for over the course of 2 episodes if only Simon were ''honest'' to Daphne from the beginning about [[spoiler:his wish to remain childfree and the reason behind it]] and Lady Bridgerton gave enough information about how the children are conceived.
33	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
34	** During the second season, Angel [[FaceHeelTurn becomes evil]], and Spike [[EnemyMine forms an alliance with Buffy]], but neither of these developments lasts that long; by the time Season 3 starts, [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Angel's back to being a good guy, and Spike's back to being a villain]]. No one told Joyce this, however, so she welcomes Spike into her home and locks Angel out when he comes to save her. Fortunately, Buffy comes to her rescue.
35	** Speaking of Angel, his turning into Angelus was a result of him experiencing a single moment of pure happiness, [[CurseEscapeClause which broke the curse]] that gave him a soul. The descendants of the Romani coven that cursed Angel sent Jenny Calendar to Sunnydale for the express purpose of keeping Angel and Buffy apart but did not tell her that Angel experiencing true happiness could cost him his soul. Buffy and Giles spend a significant amount of time angry at Jenny for her duplicity and the fact that all the pain and carnage caused by Angelus could have been avoided had they been warned about the possibility of Angel losing his soul. The Romani not telling Angel about his CurseEscapeClause right after he was cursed doesn't quite qualify as this trope, however, since at the time he was so tormented by his soul that he would have ''wanted'' to lose it regardless of the consequences (and even tried unsuccessfully to go back to his evil vampire family once, as we see in a flashback in Season 2 of ''Angel'').
36	** In Season 6, when he returns to Sunnydale for one episode, Riley neglects to tell Buffy he needs the demon he's just sent her after captured alive. His new wife criticizes him for it.
37	** Faith's induction into the Scoobies helped to temper her lawless approach to slaying (which Buffy initially didn't know about). However, Buffy lied to her about Angel's resurrection, which allowed Gwendolyn Post to use this to turn Faith against the gang.
38	** In Season 7, when Faith returns to Sunnydale, the first person she encounters is Spike. As nobody has told her of Spike's HeelFaceTurn, Faith assumes he is still evil, and thinks that he's saying "I'm on your side" because he thinks ''she's'' still evil.
39	* In Mexican series ''Series/{{Capadocia}}'', Guadalupe is an indigenous housekeeper who doesn't speak Spanish. When her employer is murdered by her husband, he frames Guadalupe and she is arrested after being framed for murder. No one understands what she is trying to say as she is taken away, so her baby is left behind at her employer's all by himself. Fortunately, Teresa, the prison governor, arranges for an interpreter to find out why Guadalupe is so distressed and the baby is found in time.
40	* In ''Series/{{Charite}}'', Robert Koch's Tuberculin is still in its test stage, far from being a fully developed medicament, and taking it is highly risky, and Koch knows that and does not intend to be a SnakeOilSalesman. Unfortunately, he hasn't made that clear enough to his audience, so it doesn't take long until the entire world celebrates him for the "miracle remedy" — and is in for a nasty surprise.
41	* In ''Series/ChicagoPD'', Voight continually clashes with Violent Crimes, with their Lieutenant annoyed that Voight doesn't share information - to which Voight retorts that neither does Violent Crimes share any information with Intelligence. Both parties claim to leave voice messages for each other. Towards the end of the episode, Intelligence rolls up to an apartment where they believe a drug dealer is going to be killed... and Violent Crimes rolls up, telling Voight they're following up on the car belonging to some cartel hitmen, which was spotted at the apartment. It results in one Intelligence detective being shot in the neck, and pronounced dead on arrival.
42	* ''Series/ControlZ'': Pablo mistakenly assumes that Sofía is an accomplice to Raúl's scheme in harboring Gerry from the police after seeing the three together at a nightclub, then leading him to show the out-of-context evidence to the student body, who are quick to outright accuse Sofía of being a "traitor". Susana doesn't even let Sofía explain her side of the story, stating how disappointed she is that Sofía "changed". Sofía says the same about Susana, given that she now knows about her affair with Quintanilla. However, Susana is left clueless at the hint.
43	* This happens twice in ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' with disastrous results.
44	** When the producer of a local television mentions that there is room for only one more dancer (either Theo or Cockroach), Theo repeatedly insists on Cockroach going in. At first, Cockroach objects, because Theo had the tickets. Eventually, Cockroach accepts, causing Theo to become extremely bitter about it. He starts acting like a jerk around his family until Clair tells him that it was his own fault for being dishonest.
45	** A few years later, Sondra has to forfeit a night out with Elvin and two friends, but she repeatedly insists that Elvin continue as originally planned. She thinks that Elvin will make a final objection, but he caves in and accepts. Later on, she gives Elvin the silent treatment until Clair puts the blame on Sondra for not expressing her true feelings.
46	%%* Jeff in ''Series/{{Coupling}}'''s entire personality comes from this trope. He's the page quotation provider for DiggingYourselfDeeper.
47	* In ''Series/CriminologistHimuraAndMysteryWriterArisugawa'', it's revealed that one of the victims of the week might've survived if the parties around him had just communicated their intent to each other. [[spoiler:The killer of the episode is a member of the Shangri-La Crusade, who seemed like they were going to shoot a journalist who infiltrated their ranks. Seeing this as an opportunity to test his euthanasia drug on a person who was going to die anyway, the killer spiked the journalist's final drink. However, it turns out that the Crusade were only planning to test the journalist, and aimed an empty gun at him to see if he could be converted to their cause in his "final" moments (and, indeed, he agreed to join them before the poison kicked in). Had the Crusade's leader cared enough about her underlings to explain her machinations to them, the journalist might have lived to tell the tale.]]
48	* In the ''Series/DadsArmy'' episode "Ring Dem Bells" Wilson and Pike go into the Eight Bells pub with the platoon dressed as Nazis for a training video. Instead of just explaining to the barman what's going on, they cause widespread panic.
49	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
50	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants "The Mutants"]]: If the Earth Administrator had just started his speech by saying he was granting Solos their independence, the whole plot would have been avoided and he'd have saved his own life.
51	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow "The Beast Below"]]: It turns out that the [[SpaceWhale Star Whale]] ''volunteered'' to help save the UK by coming to the dying Earth so they could build Starship UK on its back. Not being able to communicate this to the humans led to it being captured and tortured for 200 years, with people who protested against the torture being fed to it.
52	* Way back in the first episode of season 2 of ''Series/DoomPatrol2019'', little Dorothy Spinner spied on her father, Niles Caulder, as he tearfully handed over a pendant to a gloating Willoughby Kipling. Soon afterwards, Niles died, and nobody told Dorothy why, so she assumed Kipling's taking the pendant was responsible, and thus set out on a quest to retrieve the pendant. Flash forward to "Casey Patrol" in season 4, where Dorothy retrieves the pendant, only to have to hand it over to the seemingly unconnected villain Torminox to save her friends; Torminox is later revealed to be working for a group called the Cult of Immortus. In the next episode, Kipling returns to Doom Manor, informing the Doom Patrol that the Pendant of Immortus was stolen and now everyone is in danger...
53	* ''Series/DropDeadDiva'': The ''entire romantic subplot'' of Season 5 could have been solved by Jane just explaining [[spoiler:that Grayson kissed her without any provocation on her part]] to Owen rather than keeping it to herself and angsting over it until it was too late.
54	* ''Series/{{ER}}'' once had a Hispanic woman brought in showing mysterious symptoms. Susan talks with her husband and discovers that the patient is overdosing on medication. The directions said to take it "once a day", but she thought it meant "eleven a day". ("Once", pronounced on-say, is Spanish for eleven.) Despite them figuring out the problem, the patient still dies.
55	* In the ''Series/EverDecreasingCircles'' episode "Manure", laid-back Paul Ryman is away at a Pro-Am golf tournament and asks his neighbour Martin Bryce to take a delivery of manure for him. However, Martin is busy obsessing over the fact that Paul's garden seems to be free of molehills, unlike his own, so when the tractor of manure arrives, he is standing in Paul's driveway when he tells the driver, "Well, I don't want it on my driveway, do I!? Put it on Mr. Ryman's!" The driver promptly dumps the manure in ''Martin's'' driveway.
56	* ''Series/FawltyTowers'': Some of Manuel's misunderstandings are due to him missing one single word.
57	** In "The Hotel Inspectors:" Mr Walt asks Manuel for a table, for one. Manuel thinks he wants table number one. After Mr Walt is seated, Manuel checks a list, and moves Mr Walt to another table, which turns out to be Mr Hutchison's table, which leads to a whole series of misunderstandings about which food Mr Hutchison ordered.
58	** In the appropriately named "Communication Problems": Mrs Richards demands some paper from Polly, neglecting to tell her that she means lavatory paper. Polly, really trying to help, keeps accidentally offending Mrs Richards with helpful questions. Soon afterwards, Polly tells Manuel to get some loo paper, for twenty-two. She means room twenty-two, but Manuel takes this to mean twenty-two rolls, and he is seen carrying a huge stack of loo paper.
59	---> '''Mrs Richards:''' Girl! There's no paper in my room. Why don't you check these things? That's what you're being paid for, isn't it?
60	---> '''Polly:''' We don't put it in the rooms, we keep it in the lounge.
61	---> '''Mrs Richards:''' In the lounge?!
62	---> '''Polly:''' I'll get you some. Do you want plain ones, or ones with our address on it?
63	---> '''Mrs Richards:''' ''Address'' on it?!
64	---> '''Polly:''' How many sheets? (Mrs Richards looks appalled) Well, how many are you going to use?
65	* The climax of the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' episode "[[Recap/FireflyE12TheMessage The Message]]" has the intrepid crew under siege and almost certainly about to die at the hands of an overzealous cop hunting down Mal and Zoe's friend, Tracey. Shepherd Book hatches a plan: the first part is surrendering to the cop and telling him they're going to turn Tracey over to him. Tracey overhears this part of the plan and grabs a gun and fires at the crew, [[KickTheDog holds Kaylee hostage]], refuses to put down his weapon when cornered, and finally is mortally wounded by Mal. It isn't until he lays dying that the plan is revealed to be to lure the corrupt cops into a trap and confront them with the fact that they're outside their jurisdiction. Tracey didn't ask if there was any more to the plan, and Mal never bothered explaining the plan after Tracey started shooting up the ship and took one of his crew hostage, meaning poor communication from both sides got Tracey killed.
66	* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' often relied on the titular character, an eloquent, educated man who could often string together the most complicated of sentences, being rendered incoherent when a simple explanation could extricate him from a difficult situation. One episode played with this dynamic when Frasier's dad tried to return $40 that was mistakenly given to him by a bank's ATM. He patiently, articulately explains the situation in terms so clear even a child could understand...and the bank employees all misunderstand him and what he wants.
67	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' :
68	** When Chandler attempts to masturbate and Monica (his wife) interrupts him. He quickly changes the channel to a show about sharks, and Monica presumes this means he finds sharks sexually stimulating.
69	** The infamous break up between Ross and Rachel stems heavily from this trope. Had Rachel been more clear on what "being on a break" meant, Ross would not have misinterpreted it as a break up. Of course, a running joke in the later seasons was that her reasoning on this made sense only to her.
70	** In "The One Where No One Proposes", after Joey finds a ring on the floor, Rachel accidentally thinks he is proposing to her and accepts. Instead of simply telling Rachel the truth about his "proposal", Joey spends most of the episode embarrassed about the misunderstanding and gets into awkward situations with Ross as a result.
71	%%** The season 9 opener episode, "The One Where No One Proposes", is built around this trope.
72	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
73	** The War of the Five Kings results at least partially from very poor communication between the Starks and the Lannisters when Catelyn arrests Tyrion with little evidence and without questioning him at all first. In addition, Cersei never even tries to explain to Ned Stark that she didn't actually kill Jon Arryn.
74	** It is revealed in the Season 7 finale that [[spoiler: Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark really did fall in love with each other and secretly married in Dorne. While it disproved the fact about Lyanna being kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar and confirmed that Jon Snow (or Aegon Targaryen) is the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne, [[LoveRuinsTheRealm the whole love affair still led to a civil war]] that affected several houses for a long run. Had Lyanna or Rhaegar told their families about it instead of running away together and eloping somewhere else, many deaths could have been prevented]].
75	** Tywin taught Tommen that a wise king listens to his advisers; however, Cersei and The Small Council made no effort to advise him on running the kingdom and refused to make him a part of their plans and affairs. So when Tommen attempted to confront the High Sparrow on his own, he found himself swayed by his charm and his platitudes and ended up allying the Crown with the Faith Militant. Now under the High Sparrow's guidance, Tommen makes new acts and decrees without consulting his mother or The Small Council.
76	** Curiously [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in series 8. [[spoiler: While other issues contributed as well Daenerys's SanitySlippage is in part caused by increasing Paranoia as her advisors become aware of the secret of Jon's parentage and begin plotting against her.]]
77	* In ''Series/TheGoodDoctor'' Season 3 episode "45-Degree Angle", Dr. Shaun Murphy, the autistic protagonist, leads his first solo surgery and asks one of the nurses to hand him an instrument, but when the nurse hands him the requested instrument at the incorrect angle, he kicks her out of the operating room. Dr. Lim then orders Shaun to apologize to the nurse, which Shaun is hesitant to do, then tells him that he didn't do things right himself and that he needs to "make this right" without clarifying to him exactly what she means. So instead, [[LiteralMinded Shaun]] approaches the nurse while she's having lunch and tries to show her what she did wrong and how to hand him the instrument the correct way, which leads the nurse to storm off and later file a complaint against him, and Lim to sternly tell him off for not apologizing, even threatening to fire him if the incident or anything else of the kind happens again, and it's only ''at that moment'' that she gives him the information he needed earlier.
78	* This is what kicks off the entire mess of ''Series/GoodOmens''. The pregnant wife of an American diplomat is about to give birth in a convent where the nuns (working for Hell), plan to swap her child for the Antichrist that Crowley is going to deliver so he grows up in an influential political family as the first step to Armageddon. But then a couple called the Youngs show up, the wife is also in labor and things get out of hand. When Crowley comes by, Mr. Young tells him "the birth" is happening in Room 3, meaning his wife, but Crowley assumes that it's the American woman and takes the Antichrist to that room. Then, Sister Mary mistakes Mrs. Young for the diplomat's wife and makes the switch of that kid for the Antichrist. She and Sister Theresa then exchange winks which each totally mistake what the other is thinking and Mary not grasping that she just gave the Antichrist to the wrong family. Then, some demons wipe out the entire convent before double-checking on things. Crowley and Angel Pal Aziraphale (not wanting the world to end) work together to try and keep the diplomat's son from going evil, unaware they're working on the wrong kid. Thus, these mistaken assumptions all pile up on each other and nearly end the entire world.
79	* Scores of examples on ''Series/GossipGirl'' with the characters just failing to make the logical connection of talking rather than jumping to the wrong conclusions.
80	** The best example may be when Lilly visits Serena's school and hears some girls talk about how Serena has been having an affair with her teacher, Ben. Concerned, Lilly reports Ben to the school board, expecting them to just fire him and hush it up. Instead, they want Ben prosecuted for statutory rape. Wanting to spare Serena a trial, Lilly forges a statement from Serena on what Ben did, and he goes to jail. This later causes Ben's sister Juliet to embark on a wild scheme of revenge on Serena that nearly ruins her. When Juliet snaps that she's paying Serena back for ruining her brother, Serena cuts her off by saying she has no idea what Juliet is talking about. After Lilly is forced to confess what she did, Serena drops the bomb: The "rumors" were just that. Ben never laid a hand on her despite her best efforts. Serena openly lampshades how Lilly didn't even bother ''asking her daughter'' if the rumors were true before destroying an innocent man's life.
81	* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'':
82	** Bruce goes looking for Reggie Payne at gun ranges based on Alfred's statement that he's probably holed up in "a shooting gallery". The more streetwise Selena explains the other meaning of the term (a place where people hole up to do drugs).
83	** A lot more people would still be alive, and a lot less trouble gone to if Cobblepot could've just told Nygma [[spoiler: that he's in love with him.]]
84	* In ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'', Paladin's business card can cause some confusion over his profession that can occasionally lead to rather unfortunate mix-ups. More often than not, the confusion is resolved without anyone dying, but every now and then... This is actually what gets him started as a hero in the pilot. He was tricked into fighting a "notorious killer" who was actually also a good guy and ended up taking on the dead man's quest after learning the truth.
85	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
86	** In episodes 2.09 and 2.10; Mohinder utterly failed to tell Noah that he didn't need Claire, just a pint of blood to save a life and stop a plague rather than kidnap her. Instead, he made it seem like he had done a FaceHeelTurn and was going after this BoyfriendBlockingDad's daughter and bringing about the season's TearJerker episode.
87	** Peter and Hiro ended up in a fight because neither was all too keen on examining why each was doing what they were doing by defending and attacking Adam respectively. And these are people who can ''[[TalkingIsAFreeAction stop time!]]'' Hiro and Peter could have had talked it out while sipping tea in Tokyo and come back with the whole thing handily resolved, were it not for "With great power [[DeusExitMachina goes]] all intelligence".
88	** In the first episode of Volume Four, Claire overhears her father, Nathan, explaining to her grandmother, Angela, that he is sending government agents out to get Peter and Matt and that he wants to keep Claire home and out of this entire situation [[spoiler:(Claire gets a free pass)]]. So Claire, giving her grandmother a nice DeathGlare, gets herself into the situation and calls Peter. Reasonable enough, right? She tells him government agents are after Matt ... then ''completely fails to mention they're after Peter too.''
89	** Also in Volume 4, it turns out Noah had given Mohinder some fairly blatant clues that [[MugglePower something bad]] was going to happen regarding evolved humans, but Mohinder told no one because he was overcompensating for his usual tendency to [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter trust too easily]], (accidentally!) [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder change sides about as often as he changes his clothes]], and [[CannotKeepASecret tell people too much]]. So he'd decided to overcompensate by trusting ''nobody'' and not telling anyone ''anything''. It's a start, but Matt points out [[WhatWereYouThinking it's still pretty stupid.]]
90	--->'''Matt:''' You're my friend. You could have warned me! You could have warned all of us!
91	* ''Series/HoratioHornblower''
92	** In a scene written for the show a group of deserting British sailors (their ship's crew was besieging the Spanish) [[MeleeATrois captured by Dominican rebel slaves]] (ItMakesSenseInContext), and so the rebel commander rows out to the sailors' original ship, to bargain with the captain to leave the island in peace (with one of their sailors at gunpoint). The ships' Royal Marines train their weapons on the rebels, and the Captain is asked whether they should open fire. He replies with "Fire?", the others understand it as "Fire!" and [[ShootTheDog shoot the rebels and their hostage]], [[NiceJobBreakingItHero declaring an outright war]] between the ship's crew and the rest of the rebels. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVo7OpOv__Y&feature=relmfu Seen here]].
93	** In another scene from the same episode, Hornblower, Bush, and their men are pinned down under fire from the fort. Hornblower works out that there must be an underground passage from the tower to the fort and, as soon as he does, leaves with his men to find it. He does not share his conclusion with Bush, who thinks Hornblower has simply fled a losing battle and is in the process of handing over his sword before Hornblower returns to save the day. The judges at the court-martial later castigate Hornblower for not communicating at all with Bush.
94	* ''Series/{{House}}'': many episodes are built on this trope, where the [[PatientOfTheWeek medical mystery of the week]] hinges on some piece of critical information that wasn't shared. Any kind of small detail about the patient or their family members not revealed generally ends with the patient having at least one near-death experience.
95	--->'''House:''' It's a basic truth of the human condition, that everybody lies. The only variable is about what. The weird thing about telling someone they're dying is that it tends to focus their priorities. Find out what matters to them.
96	** An early episode revolved around a lacrosse player who got injured during a game. The answer to his problem stems from the kid [[spoiler:actually being adopted and his biological mother not being vaccinated]]. This is entirely the parents' fault, as this fact was never revealed by them. Although the kid already knows.
97	** [[Recap/HouseS5E09LastResort The episode "Last Resort"]] had a patient displaying symptoms of a disease that's only found in the tropics, but the patient denied having ever been in a tropical environment. As the episode progresses and his condition worsens, House asks again whether he'd ever been to the tropics. The patient shook his head and said, "Never south of Florida." At this point House gave him a DeathGlare and pointed out that Florida ''is in the tropics''.
98	* When, towards the end of the first season of ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', the dying king Viserys gets a dose of pain-relieving drugs, he starts answering a question his daughter asked him hours ago. He says that he really does believe in the dream of the first Targaryen emperor Aegon, the Song of Ice and Fire, and that he wants her to take charge after his death. Unfortunately, in his drugged state, he doesn't realize he's saying this to his new wife, with whom he had a son they also named Aegon. Not knowing about the original question, she takes this to mean the king wants to change his desired heir from his daughter to their son. Since the king dies that night, the queen reluctantly starts a bloody succession dispute, believing she is enacting her husband's dying wish.
99	* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': There's an episode where Barney runs the New York City marathon without any prior training. He finally feels the effects while riding the subway a little later: his legs lock up and he can't stand. Eventually, a pregnant woman, an old lady, and a little boy in crutches enter the crowded train and ask for his seat. Instead of just explaining that his legs don't work, he simply mutters, "I'm sorry. I can't." Now, New York being New York, it's possible no one would have believed him, but the explanation would have been better than the vague thing he actually did say.
100	* In the ''Series/{{Intelligence\|2014}}'' episode "Delta Force", Gabriel's old Delta Force friend Norris committed a series of political assassinations because [[spoiler: his CIA handler somehow misinterpreted a very terse message from D.C. saying that the U.S. was in favor of Bolivian presidential candidate Javier Leon as "eliminate Javier Leon's competition"]].
101	* ''Series/{{JAG}}'':
102	** Harm and Captain Reed in "Desert Son" do not get along, and Reed gives the bare minimum of assistance when Harm and Meg go to investigate the accident site. This plus one knocked over road sign nearly get Meg and Harm killed when they accidentally enter the Free Fire Zone.
103	** In "Scimitar", Meg is not let in on the secret part of their mission and is left to improvise when she discovers that Harm is in danger.
104	* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
105	** Any series under the writing of Toshiki Inoue tends to suffer from this.
106	*** ''[[Series/KamenRiderAgito Agito]]'', ''[[Series/KamenRider555 555]]'', and ''[[Series/KamenRiderKiva Kiva]]'' all had near-identical situations: a member of the secondary cast[[note]]Ryo Ashihara[=/=]Gills, Yuji Kiba[=/=]Horse Orphenoch, and Keisuke Nago[=/=]IXA, respectively[[/note]] is friends with the main character while wrongly thinking that their Rider identity is evil because of some crime or deed[[note]]Ashihara believes Agito killed the woman he loved, Yuji believes Faiz is a pawn for Smart Brain, and Nago believes Kiva is an OmnicidalManiac[[/note]]. The protagonist never thinks to reveal his identity in order to defuse the situation, which lets the tension build. In the end, [[spoiler:everything is resolved peacefully when the secondary character learns the hero's identity by accident, since he knows that the hero is a good person and therefore realizes that his hatred of their Rider identity was misplaced.]]
107	*** There are a couple of minor tweaks to this formula. In ''Agito'', Ashihara arrived only after Shouichi had just destroyed the MonsterOfTheWeek that really killed his girlfriend, so all he saw was Agito with her. It wasn't really hard for him to believe the truth later on, since it makes more sense than Shouichi of all people killing her. In ''555'', it's the fact that the Rider Belts get passed around like Halloween candy, and one character actively uses the Faiz Gear to try and sow discord because he hates both Takumi and Kiba. This particular part even results in Takumi letting Kiba have the Faiz Gear for a couple of episodes. ''Kiva'' had an incident where Wataru half-admits it (Nago asks "Where did Kiva go?!" and Wataru wordlessly points at himself), but Nago just brushes it off as a bad joke; [[spoiler:also, it's later revealed that there was a Kiva who was active in the 1980s that really was an OmnicidalManiac (and Wataru is his RedeemingReplacement), so Nago's suspicions weren't completely unfounded]].
108	** Played with, but ultimately averted in ''Series/KamenRiderBlade''. After spending almost the whole series fighting each other, all four Kamen Riders are finally united as a team during the last arc of the show. Logically, this is not desirable for the BigBad, who sends out a monster capable of disguising itself as the Kamen Riders, tasking it with turning the Riders against each other. Luckily, the Riders realize the BigBad is trying to invoke this trope.
109	** It gets played with in ''Series/KamenRiderGaim''. Takatora, at least in [[TheHero Kouta]]'s eyes, is the BigBad he must defeat. When he confronts him for a second time, [[spoiler:Takatora [[SubvertedTrope stops the battle and shows Kouta precisely why he's doing what he is instead of letting his hatred towards him fester]]. His original intent is to break Kouta's idealism, but that fails, and later Kouta manages to appeal to Takatora's own idealism once he finds a peaceful solution to their problem. Too bad Yggdrasil's inner circle had other plans...]]
110	** It's played straight in ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'', but not without some resistance and subverting. Despite all the good reasons to keep secrets, Shinnosuke has pointed out just how troublesome keeping things a secret is and even his superior felt the need to [[spoiler:[[TheUnmasquedWorld reveal who the Kamen Riders are]]]]. However, keep in mind that it's straight. Three of the major characters (TheMentor, TheRival, and the {{Tsundere}}) all have knowledge [[spoiler:of a guy who [[MadScientist isn't right in the head]]]]. However, their insistence on keeping secrets is what got [[spoiler:said scientist to pass by undetected and eventually hijack the position of BigBad]].
111	** In episode 15 of ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'', Taiga and Hiiro learn that Emu [[spoiler: is PatientZero of the Bugster Virus]], and seemingly attack him out of nowhere, believing that telling him the truth would make things worse. [[spoiler: Their point is proven when Kuroto ends up revealing the truth to Emu, spiking his stress levels and worsening his disease.]]
112	** Averted with a passion in ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne''. On the advice of [[HypercompetentSidekick Is]], [[TheHero Aruto]] hides the fact that he's Zero-One from A.I.M.S. Unfortunately, this leads them to believe he's some sort of [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots HumaGear]] sent to cover up the rogue Magia attacks. In other series, this dynamic would last for at least the first quarter or half of the series. Here, it takes all of ''three'' episodes before Aruto decides that the secret isn't worth keeping if he wants to prove that he's an HonestCorporateExecutive, which leads to him transforming in front of Isamu Fuwa/Kamen Rider Vulcan. While they still disagree on whether or not AIIsACrapshoot, Fuwa acknowledges that Aruto is an ally from that point on, especially after later events force him to realize that artificial intelligence isn't inherently evil and the real enemy is [[MegaCorp ZAIA Enterprise]] and its CEO [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Gai Amatsu]].
113	** ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'': After Touma refuses to join the Southern Base faction of the Sword of Logos, Reika turns the Northern Base against him by telling them he's a traitor and giving them orders from their superiors to detain him. While the Northern Riders don't seem completely convinced of this, they admit that it's plausible (they'd recently had other traitors like Calibur in their ranks; and Touma had spent time fighting Calibur unobserved where, Reika suggests, Calibur possibly swayed him to his cause) and confront him. Touma, however, has trouble defending himself without looking guilty (he hasn't betrayed the order, but ''is'' taking Calibur's argument seriously) and ends up convincing the others that he really ''is'' a traitor. It doesn't help that shortly after this, the Megid start transforming humans into the MonsterOfTheWeek, which makes Touma look even more guilty when he tries to protect them. However, the deception quickly falls apart since the Northern Riders soon start questioning Reika's increasingly shifty story and actions and get the chance to verify that Touma is telling the truth. Tetsuo and Ryo both quickly rejoin Touma's side after a TrialByCombat, and while Rintaro holds out for longer due to loyalty to the organization that took him in as a child, he eventually rejoins as well when the proof of the organization's corruption becomes undeniable. Only Ren refuses to join due to his own personal beef with Touma.
114	* An almost literal example happens in a ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' sketch, where Jordan Peele's character sends a series of text messages to Keegan's character that were meant to be casual in tone but gets interpreted as dismissive to the point that an invitation to go hang out at a bar gets interpreted to a challenge to a fight. This leads to the latter storming into a bar with a nail-bat, only to find the former happily waiting for him (and thinking that the bat was meant as a gift).
115	* A literal example in ''Series/{{Killjoys}}'' as season three has them tangling with Hullens, specially created aliens in human form who heal quickly from injury. In "Attack the Rack", Dutch stages an assault on the RAC to expose the Hullens in their ranks to the human agents and have them fight back. She's looking in a room when attacked by Banyon, the recently appointed RAC boss. Naturally, Dutch believes she's a Hullen and they start fighting it out with [[spoiler: Dutch stabbing Banyon in the side. To her shock, Banyon doesn't heal from it and Dutch realizes she's human. It turns out Banyon didn't know a thing about the Hullens and was just looking into what happened to missing agents. She assumed Dutch and her crew were somehow involved and that's why she was so hostile to them. Both women realize that they've been on the same side but mutual suspicion (and Dutch not wanting to reveal the Hullen threat until she was ready) caused this with Banyon dying of her wound.]]
116	* In ''Series/LockwoodAndCo2023'', Lockwood has a bad habit of not telling people things because he doesn't want to burden them. In the second episode, he doesn't tell Lucy that DEPRAC has learned she's only grade 3 and is pressuring him to fire her, and he doesn't tell her that he's going to mention her on television to make it so that she's too famous to be fired. So to Lucy, this just looks like him disregarding her request to be left out of agency publicity and using her the same way her mother did, resulting in her nearly quitting. It also results in a dramatic argument outside at night near a former gallows, which attracts multiple ghosts they then have to fight off.
117	* Fans (and detractors) of ''Series/{{Lost}}'' have commented on the characters' apparent inability to ask the right questions. In particular, they've had Juliet among them since her HeelFaceTurn, but have not asked her any questions about the intentions or nature of the Others. This tendency was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the season 4 episode "Cabin Fever," as [[spoiler:Christian]] says to Locke, "So why don't you ask the one question that does matter?" Actually played for laughs early on, when Michael is incredulous when the others talk about polar bears, and a confused Charlie says "You didn't hear about the polar bear?"
118	* ''Series/LoveAndDestiny'': A lot of heartache could have been avoided if Jiu Chen had told Ling Xi his plan to save her by sending her to the mortal realm. As it is, she thinks he really has just been using her and doesn't care for her at all.
119	** Downplayed since he ''did'' tell her... right after she magically lost her hearing.
120	* This almost happens in the fourth season finale of ''Series/MadamSecretary''. When a massive Russian nuclear missile strike is detected on radar, President Dalton is heading to a secure location while ordering a counterattack. Just as it's about to occur, a general shows up to reveal this was all a computer simulation he put together and decided to "stress test" without telling anyone. Liz goes on a rant on how insane it is to nearly start World War III in a limited time with limited information (not the least of which is that at no point in the process did anyone think to check with allies such as NATO who could have said the was no attack.)
121	* ''Series/MakoMermaidsAnH2OAdventure'': The first season used this trope to hide information from the audience. Facts about mermaid history and lore are already known to the mermaid trio, but they're only exposited as they came up over the course of all 26 episodes. The mermaids' history and prejudice against mermen go unexplained for the first few episodes, and when the audience gets clued in, Zac is already behaving in a way that suggests their fear of him is justified, but he's also pissed at them for lying and tricking him into a trap. He starts ignoring their claims that he and the trident he found are dangerous, but it's not until he accidentally nearly kills Lyla with the trident's magic does he realize they're right.
122	* So many problems on ''Series/{{Merlin 2008}}'' could have been solved instantly if Merlin wasn't almost pathologically secretive - and not just on his magical abilities (which he is justified in keeping to himself) but things such as traitors in Camelot and other characters getting magically brainwashed.
123	* ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'': In episode 24, Bambang's father asks him to decorate their car while Alan is in need of money to pay some hospital bills. When asking for money to decorate Bejo, Bambang leaves out that it was a request from his father. Had Bambang told the others, he at most might get the money sooner and at least Alan and Prima won't accuse him of neglecting Alan.
124	* So much of the comedy of ''Series/ModernFamily'' relies on family members completely misunderstanding a situation which makes it more chaotic.
125	** Phil realizes that Luke mistook a facial tink as a winking signal for him to ruin Claire's attempt to buy a shed. It also turns out Luke has been doing this thing a lot over the years.
126	--->'''Luke''': You think Alex's cello set itself on fire?
127	** A frequent bit is that between Gloria's bad English and Luke and Haley's dim-wittedness, miscommunication can abound over the smallest things.
128	** Manny is a classic case of a child older than his years and enjoying a more cultured lifestyle and assumes almost everyone in his school is the same way. Thus, he won't grasp that trying to theme a dance to an obscure classic musician won't go over well.
129	** There's also the way the various spouses will attempt to one-up each other and cause more chaos.
130	** Really, it was all summed up in a rare bit of wisdom by Luke: "90 percent of your problems would be solved if you just ''talked'' to each other more."
131	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' combines this with HaveAGayOldTime and BuryYourGays.
132	-->'''[[HeteronormativeCrusader Biggles:]]''' Are you gay?\
133	'''Algy:''' I should very well say so, old fruit!\
134	(''Biggles shoots Algy'')
135	* ''Series/MrAndMrsSmith2024'': Happens quite literally in the case of [[spoiler:Eric Shane]] as John and Jane misunderstand each other's signals and accidentally overdose him with truth serum, leading to his death.
136	* In ''Series/TheMusketeers'', when Athos has been forcibly dragged back to the lands he owns to see how badly they're doing without a lord, he says to his sister-in-law that "I should have signed the land over to you" before he left, but he would do so now. She immediately starts wearing her finery again and talking about what a wonderful thing he's done for her. And somehow, he doesn't realise that she thinks the land is going to be gifted to her ''personally'', not a group "you" meaning "the tenants".
137	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'':
138	** This is how Joel got off the Satellite of Love. Gypsy had caught a transmission from Deep 13 with Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank plotting to kill Mike Nelson, utterly sick of how he's marching around like he owns the place. Gypsy misinterprets this as them wanting to kill ''Joel'' and sets off to "save" Joel from the Mads. While she does save Joel, she doesn't save the other robots or herself and leads to ''Mike'' being the one stuck up there.
139	** In a later episode, Pearl pleads with Mike to provide a distraction to prevent the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Observers]] from dissecting [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes Bobo]]. Mike asks the [[{{Nanomachines}} Nanites]] to [[ExactWords "take care of our little problem."]] They do...by [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up the planet.]]
140	--->'''Crow:''' Here comes [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds Mike, Destroyer of Worlds]]!\
141	'''Servo:''' Oh, god of fire and vengeance -- get away from me, you knob!
142	* The ''Series/{{Nova}}'' episode [[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/spy-factory.html "The Spy Factory"]] accuses the UsefulNotes/{{NSA}} and UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} of this during the lead-up to 9/11, sitting on intelligence they had on al-Qa'ida rather than passing it along to the FBI so they could do something with it.
143	* ''Series/Numb3rs'': 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 trio, 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 would believe him. David only learns it when his and Ben's paths cross in "Contenders", and they eventually make peace.
144	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Granny's decision not to [[spoiler:tell Red that she's actually [[TheBigBadWolf the wolf]]]] gets many people [[spoiler:including Red's LoveInterest]] killed. Afterwards, Granny [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] [[IdiotBall how stupid doing so was]].
145	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
146	** In "Trial by Fire", alien forces are hovering above the Earth, and have sent out a message to the world's leaders. The message, unfortunately, is unable to be deciphered, and the President of the US is presented with two options - Preemptive strike, or wait things out and hope they can translate the message. [[spoiler:He eventually takes the Hawk approach and launches a nuclear warhead at the [[FlyingSaucer UFOs]], which fails. As a retaliatory strike comes in, he's informed that they just cracked the code... by submerging the audio beneath water; it was a message of Peace.]] But what were you expecting? There's a reason that the trope CruelTwistEnding was originally called Outer Limits Twist.
147	** In "Summit", the Dregocian delegation's shuttle is destroyed in an ion storm as it approaches the planetoid where it was supposed to hold peace talks with the human delegation. The shuttle's last message accuses the humans of sabotaging it. The human and Dregocian motherships destroy each other in the chaos that follows. The human delegation detects both sides preparing for war and determine that they will come into firing range of each other's fleets in three hours. As their transmitter is damaged, the humans cannot alert either side that it was all a terrible misunderstanding.
148	* ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'': Roughly 20 years before the series started, the alien couple Tarrick and Santaura landed on Earth with their newborn baby daughter and were immediately captured by the government and imprisoned in Area 62. On day, a disaster struck and Area 62 was evacuated. Unable to escape their cell, they passed their baby to a janitor, but they were seemingly caught in an explosion that also injured Santaura and put her in a coma. Assuming their daughter was dead, Tarrick made Area 62 his base, became the supervillain Void Knight, and did villainous things to gather the materials and energy to revive Santaura, not telling anyone what his goal was and thus making the Power Rangers oppose him and make it harder. When Santaura is finally revived, she becomes the supervillainess Void Queen and aims to wipe out humanity as revenge for the death of her daughter. It turns out that the janitor, Ed "Pop-Pop" Jones, survived and raised the baby into Amelia Jones, one of the Power Rangers opposing them. Because Pop-Pop assumed the two were dead and thought Area 62 became radioactive (it wasn't), he never let Tarrick know that their daughter was all right. Once Amelia finds out about their relation and lets them know via telepathy, they drop their villainy almost instantly.
149	* In the ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' spinoff ''The Perfectionists'', about the murder of a rich and manipulative college student Nolan, the characters get hit by this ''hard''. [[spoiler: Jeremy]] admits to having done something horrible, which would ruin his life if it ever got out. The main trio of Caitlin, Dylan, and Ava immediately assume means he killed Nolan. This character only ever refers to this crime as "what I did"...and Caitlin and co ''also'' only ever refer to it as "what you did". Nobody ever gets more specific than that. [[spoiler: Naturally, Jeremy did not in fact kill Nolan--but the characters only learn that ''after'' Nolan's grieving sister impulsively shoots Jeremy.]]
150	* ''Series/PrincessAgents'': Yuwen Yue has no time to tell Chu Qiao about his plan to fake her death. She thinks he really did try to kill her, so when Zhong Yu saves her she doesn't tell Yuwen Yue she's safe. Yuwen Yue thinks she was accidentally cremated and blames himself for her "death". Meanwhile Chu Qiao is working for Yan Xun and is convinced Yuwen Yue is her enemy.
151	* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': This was what lead to the murder in in "Cloudy... with a Chance of Improvement". The killer was a news anchor who came to believe his wife was having an affair with their co-worker due to her suspicious behavior. In reality, his wife was attending meetings with a marriage counselor which she didn't tell her husband about and by the time he discovered this it was too late.
152	* ''Series/TheRiseOfPhoenixes'': Ming Ying's refusal to explain why she disowns Zhi Wei drives a wedge between them. It just gets worse later when she orders Zhi Wei to leave the palace, again without explaining why.
153	%%* Dear Lord, ''Series/{{Roswell}}''. Max and Liz have a giant misunderstanding in season two that fans will never get over.
154	* ''Series/SchittsCreek'':
155	** In the early seasons, Alexis falls for the very quiet and introverted Mutt. They begin a romance, but his inability to communicate and her talkativeness kills their relationship.
156	** David falls in love with NiceGuy Patrick, who generally expresses himself well. However, Patrick is sometimes reticent to reveal information that he feels will upset people. This leads to him [[spoiler: not communicating his feelings to David early on and Stevie having to point out to David that he is in a NotADate situation with Patrick. Also, Patrick neglects to tell David he was once engaged to a woman until the woman shows up in town looking to reunite with him. Later, David invites Patrick's parents to a SurpriseParty only to discover Patrick hasn't come out to them.]] Thankfully, David learns to be understanding of this quirk of his boyfriend and they work things out.
157	* An episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' focused on the effects JD's insane hours at the hospital were having on his life. It manifested in particularly dramatic fashion on a date, where JD, upon looking at the incredibly gorgeous girl he was about to kiss, instead saw the hideous cancer patient he was treating earlier in the day. He mumbled something incoherent and walked away. The next day, when the girl asked him why he bailed, JD actually said ''nothing'' instead of explaining the situation. JD's narration even lampshaded the communication failure, and it was included in a trio of scenes where males proved utterly incapable of communication with their girlfriends.
158	* In ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'', mystic Allanon is told by his mentor Bremen that he will one day have a successor. Allanon is convinced this is Bandon and goes overboard in driving the young man to learn all the magic he can and prove himself. All this ends up doing is turning Bandon to darkness and to become a major threat. Badly injured, Allanon meets with the spirit of Bremen, who reveals his true successor is [[spoiler:Mareth]]. Allanon lampshades that maybe so much trouble could have been avoided if Bremen had just [[spoiler:''used a gender pronoun'']] to give a hint Allanon's successor would be [[spoiler:a ''woman'']].
159	* ''Series/Shogun2024''; in Episode 5, Blackthorne is gifted a pheasant that Lord Toranaga caught on a hunt, and has it hung up in the yard to age so he can eat it later. He instructs his household staff that no one is to touch the bird without his permission, jokingly declaring "if touch- die" (it doesn't help that Mariko, his translator, is currently busy elsewhere). Problem is, the Japanese [[LiteralMinded don't get the joke]] and take this as a direct order from a noble, so the bird is left to rot and attracts flies. Eventually the kindly gardener Uejiro takes it down to preserve the cleanliness of the house and is immediately executed, and when Blackthorne learns of this he falls into a HeroicBSOD as he realizes the hard way just what Mariko was warning him about the power of his words.
160	* Happens ''so many times'' on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', usually because the A.I. of Jor-El in the Fortress of Solitude is a total prick and insists on talking cryptically.
161	** "Solitude": [[spoiler:Brainiac]] infects Martha with a deadly kryptonian virus. Clark questions Jor-El, and all he says is that "I am sorry, my son. The wheel of fate has already been set in motion. Even you cannot alter destiny." ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels.
162	** "Lazarus": Jor-El warns Clark Kent that "a great darkness" is coming. Sure enough, Lex Luthor [[spoiler:(actually his clone)]] returns. Clark defeats him and reports his success. [[spoiler:Jor-El reveals that he doesn't really give a crap about Lex Luthor. The "great darkness" he was refering to was ''{{ComicBook/Darkseid}}'', who arrives on Earth safely and unnoticed. To make this situation even worse, Jor-El just tells off Clark for the mistakes he made during the episode and shuts himself and the fortress down, ''without telling Clark anything about the actual threat.'']]
163	* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' Gemma is upset because Tara wants to move away from Charming and take her kids (Gemma's grandkids) with her. Tara is under investigation and Gemma has used this threat to keep Tara in Charming. Suddenly, Gemma finds out Tara's charges have been dropped and Tara is free to go where she pleases. Gemma assumes this is because Tara made a deal to turn on Jax (Tara's husband, Gemma's son, and the leader of a less than legal motorcycle club). Without asking any questions, Gemma violently attacks Tara and brutally kills her to protect Jax, only to later find out that Tara's charges were dropped because '''Jax''' made a deal to get Tara's charges dropped. And everyone '''but''' Gemma knew that was the case.
164	* In the third season of ''Series/SoyLuna'', a lot of the title character and her LoveInterest, Matteo's grief (as well as the chance of a solist career, in the latter's case) would have been spared, and Matteo's accident would have been avoided had she not spent the entire time acting like a JerkAss towards Matteo and [[AlphaBitch Emilia]] and their kiss and instead asking ''why'' it happened.
165	* A lot of people's lives could have been spared in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' if the Federation didn't play the good guy. As Burnham explained to Captain Georgiou, they should preemptively attack the Klingons so that they could show them their strength, but Georgiou refused as that's not Starfleet's way. Whoops. However, seeing as T'Kuuvma was itching for a fight to unite the Klingon houses under his rule, this probably wouldn't have helped at all.
166	** Season 4's story involves a powerful NegativeSpaceWedgie ravaging the galaxy. By the end of the season, we meet its creator, Species 10-C, who have a HiveMind so complete they have no conception of individualism, thus they have no idea they're killing countless species.
167	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E1AmokTime Amok Time]]", multiple examples.
168	** Spock would literally rather die than have [[MateOrDie the problem]] explained to Starfleet Command. This is apparently true of all Vulcans at this point in history.
169	** It's possible that Kirk could've explained things to Komack in a way that would've gotten him permission to go to Vulcan without letting too much slip. Kirk even had his Chief Medical Officer's statement that Spock would die if he didn't return to Vulcan, and didn't bother to mention it to the Admiral.
170	** Poor communication also almost killed Kirk in this episode. Would it have hurt T'Pau to tell him that the fight was a death match ''before'' he signed up?
171	* At various points in ''Series/StargateSG1'', the SGC become frustrated with how so many problems could have been solved if Teal'c told them more about his personal life before he defected from Apophis, such as that he had a wife and son (who the SGC later had to rescue) or that the Goa'uld Cronus was responsible for the death of his father (only brought up when Cronus was one of three "delegates" coming to Earth for a vital conference with the Asgard to determine Earth's future safety).
172	* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Played with and somewhat justified.
173	** In the first season, the kid group, teenagers Nancy and Jonathan, and adults Joyce and Hopper all keep their findings to themselves, for various reasons:
174	*** Mike, Lucas, and Dustin hide Eleven's existence because they want to find Will and believe she's key to the mystery of his disappearance. Eleven's fear of TheConspiracy helps contribute to their reluctance to tell others the truth. Although Eleven knows exactly what happened to Will, and even where to find him, her difficulties expressing herself clearly lead to her being unable to explain in anything more than vague concepts and confusing visual metaphors. For example, when initially asked by the boys where Will is, her response is to turn their ''D&D'' board upside down to explain the alternate world. Only after a EurekaMoment from Mike later on do they piece together her meaning. It's also not helped in the least that for all her power, she's nonetheless a very scared, confused, and traumatized young girl, and it takes most of the first season before she's even able to say that ''she's'' the one who made the Demogorgon aware of the real world.
175	*** Siblings Nancy and Mike haven't been close for years and have no reason to share their information. They have a bonding moment when they team up and agree to avoid keeping secrets. Then immediately lie about how they feel about their respective LoveInterests.
176	*** Joyce, at first, is ''very'' vocal about her belief in Will's survival. Hopper is usually much more subtle about his investigations, especially after alerting TheConspiracy, but he immediately subverts the trope and tells Joyce what he's uncovered when he's convinced she's right.
177	*** Lonnie convinces Jonathan that telling Joyce his suspicions about the Demogorgon would only hurt an already traumatized Joyce. She calls Jonathan out on it in chapter 7 and he quickly admits his mistake.
178	*** However, the trope is subverted when everyone is gathered together in "The Bathtub". They all make sure everyone knows the situation.
179	** In Season 2, the characters are quicker to approach each other with their findings, but there are still some failures.
180	*** Hopper keeping the fact that Eleven is not only still alive but living with him a secret from everyone, ostensibly for her protection (but he later acknowledges there were some of his own issues at play).
181	*** Dustin doesn't tell the rest of the team that he'd found Dart and seen him grow into a Demogorgon right away. He gets called out on it.
182	*** Hopper leaves Will, Mike and Joyce to go search for the tunnels without telling them (or anyone else) anything, so when he gets caught, they have to use Will's mental connection to the Mind Flayer to track him down, which is dangerous.
183	*** Joyce leaves absolutely no message behind for Jonathan when he comes home, so when he sees the government's Polaroid film cartridge, he assumes they've been kidnapped by the agency when they are actually willingly working together, leading Jonathan and Nancy to storm the building.
184	*** Dustin is unable to reach anybody on their walkies because everybody has left them behind (Will is sick, Mike is helping Will, and Lucas is talking to Max), so he can't warn anybody about Dart, and ultimately has to recruit Steve instead.
185	** In season three:
186	*** Hopper and Joyce are off investigating Starcourt Mall and don't realize that their kids could be in trouble until just before the climax.
187	*** Dustin is removed from the rest of the Party's plot because he becomes preoccupied with his own Russian code-cracking, and later becomes trapped in the Russian base.
188	*** On the other hand, Nancy and Jonathan are quick to contact the Party when they realize something regarding the Mind Flayer — which the kids were also investigating — is afoot. At the same time, when the Party confirms that the Mind Flayer is back, they immediately try to alert Hopper, only to discover that he and Joyce are together and currently unreachable. Once Nancy and Jonathan come to check to see that Will is okay, the Party share what they know with the two older teens, and vice versa.
189	* ''Series/SuperiorDonuts'' has this almost happen when the shop introduces their new PB & J donuts.
190	-->'''Tush:''' Oh! I can't feel my face! Quick, are there peanuts in those donuts?\
191	'''Arthur:''' There's peanut butter. What did you think the "PB" stood for?\
192	'''Tush:''' Probably Bacon!
193	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
194	** About half of the Winchester family drama could have been avoided if Sam and Dean simply ''told'' each other about their problems rather than insisting they're fine. Multiple seasons involve one if not both of them keeping a secret throughout the first part of the season that then blows up somewhere around the middle.
195	** Castiel's [[spoiler:slide into evil]] in Season 6 could have been avoided if he'd simply asked the Winchesters for help, and if the Winchesters hadn't blown off the ''civil war in heaven'' as [[BystanderSyndrome somebody else's problem]].
196	** The final seal keeping Lucifer imprisoned could have remained intact if certain parties who wanted the Apocalypse to happen hadn't done their best to make sure the Winchesters didn't learn until it's too late that [[spoiler:Lilith's purpose wasn't to break the final seal, she ''was'' the seal and her purpose was to be slain by Sam, Lucifer's true vessel]]. It also doesn't help that Sam made the spectacularly poor decision to [[spoiler:trust a ''demon'' (Ruby)]] and that Dean all but disowned Sam when he found out instead of reaching out to him. Bobby called Dean out on that.
197	** And poor, poor Kevin. If only Dean had bothered to tell him that [[spoiler:Sam]] might be dangerous when he ''straight up asked''. Maybe the man just didn't have enough reasons to wangst.
198	%%* If you've seen the Series/{{Survivor}} end game...
199	* ''Series/TeenWolf'':
200	** The show's HypercompetentSidekick Stiles Stilinski [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this trope and states that a complete lack of communication is the main reason why all of the characters are having so many problems in season two. He points out that nobody trusts anyone else and the inability to effectively communicate between werewolves and humans was eventually going to get someone killed.
201	** Also, most of the plot of the first five episodes in season one could have been skipped if Derek had just taken five minutes out of brooding and TOLD Scott he hadn't been the one to bite him.
202	** Victoria Argent wasn't able to talk to Allison one last time before she kills herself (to stop from becoming a werewolf), so she is unable to tell her daughter what led to her death (that she tried to kill Scott and Derek bit her in Scott's defence). Then Scott doesn't tell Allison what happened either, because he doesn't want to [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead damage Allison's memory of her mother.]] This allows Gerard to manipulate Allison by casting Derek in the worst light possible.
203	* ''Series/TenMilesOfPeachBlossoms'': Bai Qian would never have jumped off Zhuxian Terrace or drunk an amnesia potion if Ye Hua had explained his plan to her and hadn't acted like he hated her.
204	* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'':
205	** Gwen tries to keep her actual job in Torchwood as a catcher of rogue aliens secret from her boyfriend Rhys in the least helpful way. Despite Torchwood's ability to set up dummy companies, create false identities and twist the truth when need be, Gwen never uses any of this to give Rhys any reason to calm down about her mysterious job. Instead she is openly ambiguous about why she works such long hours and gets called away so often. Even Jack, ''her boss at Torchwood'', says she shouldn't let her personal life drift, but never makes any good suggestions to Gwen as to ''how'' to do so. This can get frustrating for the viewer because obviously some people on the police force where she used to work know Gwen does ''something'' working for Torchwood, and people out in the world know Torchwood does ''something'' (an old woman in the first episode of series 2 mutters "Bloody Torchwood" as they pass by, having confirmed that a blowfish driving a sports car came this way).
206	** In series 4, Rex gets aggravated by the tendency of Gwen and Jack to run off and try to handle things on their own instead of just asking for help. He lampshades this trope when Gwen receives a message through the special contact lenses that [[spoiler:her family is being held hostage until she brings Jack to the originators of the message]]. Given the fact that the bad guys using the lenses could only see whatever Gwen could see or receive a transcript of what was said while Gwen was looking at someone, she could easily have told Rex and Esther (and, you know, Jack, before [[spoiler:kidnapping him]]) what was going on without tipping her hand, by writing a note behind her back or something.
207	* ''Series/TheTribe'': So many problems on the show stem from characters simply not explaining what they mean to each other or making assumptions based on incorrect/incomplete information.
208	* In ''Series/UFO1970'', one episode has Foster being saved by an alien after he's injured. However, the explosion in which he was hurt also destroyed his communication device. He and the alien manage just fine, communicating with gestures, but once he's rescued, things don't work too well. Foster tries to tell his rescuers to save the alien, but they can't hear him. Finally, one of them gets the idea of pressing the faceplate of his spacesuit to Foster's. Foster tells him, "There's an alien. Help him - he's a friend." Unfortunately, the only word that gets through is "alien". They figure he's been attacked and shoot the alien, while Foster can't tell them to stop.
209	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'': The reason the siblings take so long to band together and consciously try to stop the end of the world as a family. Because of their pasts, they are off doing their own things and act vitriolic and distant with each other when their storylines do intersect. It's a very frequent occurrence that one or two of them are in possession of a PlotCoupon but don't share this knowledge with the others, causing them to waste time on a pointless FetchQuest.
210	* In the TV movie ''Film/TheUnexpectedMrsPolifax'', the title character has been meddling in a CIA operation. CIA chief Carastiers tells his underling to convey a message to their man abroad to "take care" of her. The underling tells the agent that "she's sanctioned" and to take Polifax out. He tells his boss he conveyed the message and the agent will call "once it's done." At which point, Carastiers clarifies how he meant "take care of her" as in keeping a watch on her before putting her on a plane back home and his underling has just ordered the assassination of an innocent American senior citizen.
211	* In the final season of ''Series/{{Veep}}'', Selina is trying to handle the antics of her ex-husband Andrew, who's threatening her campaign. Aide Quinn (whose affleable image hides his ruthless nature) presses Selina who snaps "take care of it," meaning to pay Andrew off. Instead, Quinn assumes he's been given a ''murder'' order and arranges for Andrew to be killed in a boat explosion. Selina is rocked to realize she accidentally ordered her ex-husband's death.
212	* ''Series/TheWire'':
213	** In season two, just as the Major Crimes Unit is gearing to execute warrants on the Greek's businesses, Ziggy gets into an argument with Gleikas and murders him, and then turns himself in to the police. Despite being told about the investigation into Frank Sobotka, Jay Landsman never puts two and two together and doesn't call the MCU about this development, giving the Greeks time to clear out all evidence from Gleikas' store. The headstart this miscommunication causes gives the Greeks time to disappear, and partly leads to the death of Frank Sobotka.
214	** In season four, Rancy Wagstaff, trying to not get in trouble with his foster mom, spills the beans that he knows of a murder. But because Carver is too busy, he tries to set him up to talk with Bunk and Lester, but unfortunately Randy ends up talking with Herc, who doesn't understand Randy's way of talking, and frustrated, tries to preassure him to say he was an eyeball witness, and later when interrogating Little Kevin, Herc [[LooseLips lets slip]] that there is another witness, that ends up trickling back to the streets making Randy a target.
215

Context PoorCommunicationKills / LiveActionTV