[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/I-man.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:300: Remember, before you turn invisible, you have to turn into Capri Sun. This is why invisible men go mad.]]-]
%%
-> ''There once was a story about a man who could turn invisible. I thought it was only a story...until it happened to me. Okay, so here's how it works. There's this stuff called quicksilver that can bend light. Some scientists made it into a synthetic gland, and that's where I came in. See, I was facing life in prison, and they were looking for a human experiment. So, we made a deal. They put the gland in my head, I walk free. The operation was a success, but that's where everything started to go wrong...''
-->-- '''Darien Fawkes''', OpeningNarration

A [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci-Fi Channel]] series that aired from June 2000 to February 2002. It lasted for a total of 46 episodes in two seasons.

[[BoxedCrook In exchange for a pardon]], professional thief Darien Fawkes (Creator/VincentVentresca) agrees to let his brother Kevin (David Burke) use him as a test subject for a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke synthetic gland]] that allows him to secrete a light-bending substance called "quicksilver" from his skin and turn into an invisible man. However, the gland was sabotaged before the operation by Kevin's right hand man, Arnaud [=DeFöhn=] (Joel Bissonnette), forcing the host to receive regular injections of a counteragent, or slip into a deeply unpleasant state of "quicksilver madness".

A terrorist attack on the I-man project facility, led by Arnaud, kills Kevin, and forces Darien to partner with either the group that killed his brother or the mysterious and under-funded "Agency", headed by the manipulative Official (Creator/EddieJones), for his counteragent shots. He chooses the Agency, and is usually sent on a new mission every episode. Rounding out the cast are Darien's partner Bobby Hobbes (Creator/PaulBenVictor), an experienced but...quirky agent; the Keeper (Creator/ShannonKenny), an acerbic scientist in charge of keeping Darien sane and cooperative; and Eberts (Michael [=McAfferty=]), the Official's faithful bureaucratic aide.

Not connected with the ''[[Series/TheInvisibleMan1975 The Invisible Man]]'' (1975) TV series of the same name, despite being inspired by the same source material and the earlier ''The Invisible Man'' (1958) series also featuring an invisible secret agent. Not to be confused with the 1976 series ''Series/GeminiMan'' which is also inspired by the novel and features an invisible secret agent. Nor be confused with the ''The Invisible Man'' (2011) cartoon of the same name.

-----
!!This series provides examples of:

* AccidentalMisnaming: Several characters mangle Arnaud's surname into "The Phone". [[BerserkButton He is never pleased to hear it.]] Sometimes Darien deliberately calls him that just to rile him up.
* ActionSurvivor: Darien
* AffablyEvil:
** Jarod Stark, the head of Chrysalis.
** Arnaud as well.
* [[TheGroup The Agency]]
* AndIMustScream:
** As noted below, the experiment that created the Catevari paralyzed him for decades. Thing is, he was completely conscious the entire time, but everyone thought his mind was completely gone. Darien figured it out when the Catevari's warning quoted a Grateful Dead song released after he was paralyzed.
--->'''Darien:''' Your pal has been stuck in frozen crazy Hell for 30 years.
** Several of Augustin Geither's experiments in creating an invisible man resulted in several people who lost most or all of their senses [[spoiler:including Geither himself]].
* AnIcePerson: When invisible, Darien's skin temperature is -10 degrees Celsius, giving him minor freezing powers; he is initially shown using this [[MundaneUtility to cool drinks by holding them]] but he later uses it to stop explosions or make cuffs brittle enough to break.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: "Quicksilver"[[note]]In the real world, the common name for the element Mercury[[/note]] - which renders objects invisible not by allowing light to pass through them, but by bending light around them. This is accomplished through its "complex semifluid polymer surface layer, which possesses a refractive metallic matrix composed of (classified) and (classified)." Because of "the unusually strong covalent bonds in the Quicksilver semifluid matrix," light that strikes it is bent and refracted over its surface until it refocuses and continues in its original direction. The result is invisibility from the visible spectrum. [[spoiler:And somehow, [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot]] produces the stuff, which is why it's so hard to catch on cameras. HilarityEnsues when Darien runs into one, because apparently Darien's gland was modified from one taken from another Bigfoot - a ''female'' Bigfoot]].
* ArbitrarySkepticism:
** During a meeting with FBI agents in the last episode, Darien tries to explain what Chrysalis is and what their plan appears to be, but is laughed off. Take note that the agents ''know'' that Darien can turn invisible.
** In "Ghost of a Chance," Darien expresses disbelief in the supernatural, even after seeing Alianora's act. Hobbes points out the irony of an "invisible man" having this attitude.
** In "Legends," Darien encounters Odets, a long-time believer in Bigfoot. Unlike his fellow believers, though, only he believes that the creature can turn invisible.
--->In a community of crackpots, ''I'm'' a crackpot!
* ArtisticLicensePhysics:
** When a person is invisible the temperature on the outside surface of the quicksilver coating is below freezing. This would mean not only that the body cannot radiate its own heat out, but also that it absorbs surrounding ambient heat. All this would quickly lead to anyone suffering a heat stroke while invisible.
** Averted when it comes to Darien being able to see. Quicksilver is explained as bending light around a person to make them invisible. Bending light ''would'' make you invisible, but due to how the eye works, it would also make you blind. Darien, of course, can see perfectly while invisible. This is clarified by saying that Quicksilver only bends ''visible'' light. Non-visible light isn't bent, instead shifting to the visible spectrum as it passes through the Quicksilver, so that is what allows Darien to see; however since only a narrow range of UV light is shifted to a visible range as it passes through the quicksilver (and presumably shifted back as it passes back out), he can only see in monochrome.
* AscendedExtra: [[TheSmartGuy Eberts]] started out as a minor character, the boss's nerdy assistant. The actor playing him posted to the fan message board regularly, and [[PopularityPower the fans started a campaign, Get Eberts More Scenes]]. [[EnsembleDarkHorse The GEMS won, and Eberts was in the opening credits the second season]].
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Tommy Walker, a.k.a. Augustin Geither]].
* BadBoss: While the Official is by no means a nice guy, he does, on occasion, show that he cares about his agents. He also never asks Darien to kill someone, knowing that Darien wouldn't do it. After the Official is arrested for botching a rescue attempt, a new chief with political ambitions has himself appointed the head of the Agency. He quickly figures out Darien's secret and then tries to force him to kill people in exchange for the counteragent (with a sniper rifle, no less, despite Darien not being a marksman). Fortunately, StatusQuoIsGod, so he is removed by the end of the episode, and the Official comes back.
* BadassPreacher: In "Possessed," Darien's childhood priest becomes possessed after [[InfectiousInsanity going Stage 5 Quicksilver Madness]] and confronting an abusive father.
-->You hit your wife, too? She didn't tell me, Joe. It wasn't hard to figure out, seeing Val come to church with a fresh bruise on her body every week. Do you have any idea what it's like knowing what I know and not being able to do a thing about it because there's a collar around my neck?
* BatmanGambit:
** In "The Lesser Evil," Chrysalis gives Darien the 'Solution: Beta' file in order to lure him to their side. The file turns out to be a contingency plan only, but Darien becomes deeply suspicious of the Agency and considers their offer until he learns the truth. [[spoiler:[[OutGambitted And the whole thing turned out to be a gambit by the Official, who leaked the file himself to ultimately strike a blow against Chrysalis.]]]]
** In "Beholder," the Chameleon (a professional assassin) kills a long retired general. The general's son, Alan [=McGoldrick=], is a software tycoon and willing to pay top dollar to bring the killer to justice. Upon hearing that Alan will be flying in to deliver a eulogy, Darien realizes the Chameleon is "flushing the mark" -- killing an unimportant target to get the high-value one out in an open area.
* BigBadEnsemble: Arnaud starts off as the first major villain. Chrysalis is later introduced in the second half of Season 1 and Jarod Stark is the most frequently seen member. It appears the villains will form a [[BigBadDuumvirate duumvirate]] in Season 2, but it naturally doesn't work out.
-->'''Darien:''' Every hero needs a nemesis. Well, as if Arnaud wasn't enough to deal with...
* BigShutUp: Eberts is always told to shut up, but the biggest may be in "Immaterial Girl."
-->'''Eberts:''' Theoretically, anything can happen.\\
'''Darien, Hobbes, Claire and the Official:''' SHUT UP, EBERTS!
* BittersweetEnding: "Separation Anxiety" ends with Hobbes coming to terms with his ex-wife moving on. He feels both sad and at peace for the first time in a while.
* BlessedWithSuck:
** Invisibility is cool. The regular descents into screamingly painful homicidal insanity? Not so much.
** Arnaud gets a gland of his own - one free of Quicksilver madness, but he ends up permanently invisible.
* BorrowedCatchPhrase: Claire says "Oh, crap!" after recovering from an inhibition-removing TruthSerum.
* BoxedCrook: Darien is headed to life in prison when his brother, fearing he wouldn't survive, offers a deal to get him out.
* BroughtDownToNormal: In "Mere Mortals," the gland is temporarily "turned off." Darien doesn't have to worry about Quicksilver madness and lives life to the fullest, but then finds himself in over his head for the Agency's latest mission.
* BuddyCopShow: With Darien and Bobby as the cops.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Darien is an ex-con with no formal training, and Hobbes is constantly paranoid and has been kicked out of several agencies for various mental health reasons--with both working for "the crappiest intelligence agency in all the world." And yet, they have a solid record of success and often outdo colleagues from more prestigious agencies.
* CallBack:
** In the pilot, Darien's opening monologue references Nietzsche's statement that "anything done out of love is beyond good and evil," then observes that he loves his job (as cat-burglar). In the final scene, when the Official offers Darien essentially the same work-for-counteragent deal Arnaud had planned to use, and Darien says it's evil scam, the Official quotes Nietzsche and says he loves his job.
** In "It Hurts When You Do This," Darien's narration discusses whether or not the ends justify the means. The VillainOfTheWeek (Dr. Carver) justifies harvesting brain cells from homeless people by saying he's helping people more useful to society. Later in "The Lesser Evil," Stark talks to Darien about the ends justifying the means and invokes Dr. Carver's final fate in order to make his case.
* CatchPhrase: Darien uses "OhCrap" repeatedly. In the pilot, the first time Darien turns invisible, it's cut off mid-syllable but it's obvious he's using a [[PrecisionFStrike non-PG version]].
* CelibateHero: Darien for the most part, though not by choice. Intense emotions or sex could cause the gland to activate, which would expose his secret. He's only ever romanced or had sex with women that already knew about it, except for one episode when the gland is rendered inactive temporarily, and that was interrupted.
* ChekhovsSkill: "The Other Invisible Man" reveals that the gland can contain RNA from others, which causes [[spoiler:Darien to be temporarily "possessed" by Simon Cole, the man who had the gland before him]]. Later on, [[spoiler:Darien convinces the Keeper to use this quirk of the gland to temporarily bring Kevin "back to life" in his body in the hope that Kevin will devise a means of extracting the gland, but the RNA samples used are from a point before Kevin completed the experiment and so he doesn't know how to do it]].
* ComesGreatResponsibility: A theme of the series. The Official tries to persuade Darien that since the gland is stuck in his head he may as well do good with it. He reinforces his point by blackmailing Darien with the counteragent but by the end of Season 2 Darien actually chooses to work with the government.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: An acupuncturist forces Darien to help her steal some magical Chinese acupuncture needles from a museum so that she can heal her OldMaster. The OldMaster claims that the needles are filled with "unenlightenment" because they were stolen, and so won't work. The acupuncturist thinks he means that the needles were stolen from China by a British businessman and that killing the businessman will make them effective again.
%%* ComplexityAddiction: Arnaud, Arnaud, Arnaud.
%%* CoolDownHug: A literal version in "The Catevari."
* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: The Agency uses a variety of backwater government branches as its front. Including 'Fish and Game', 'Indian Affairs', and 'Weights and Measures'.
* CrazyPrepared: Arnaud has a block of plastic explosive with a detonator hidden inside his laptop, just in case.
* CriminalAmnesiac: Darien gets amnesia in one episode, whereupon ''both'' the series' {{Big Bad}}s try to convince him that he works for them.
%%* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Hobbes
* CryptidEpisode: "Legends" serves as a Bigfoot episode. The creature has a natural ability to turn invisible, with Darien's gland harvested from such a (female) creature.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Several times on the show, the MadScientist of the Week has produced something with miraculous real world applications, only for it to be discarded because the scientist used unethical methods to acquire it. For instance, in the episode "It Hurts When I Do This" the doctor has come up with a way to cure incurable brain damage, he just has to replace it using a living donor. He exploited homeless people for this purpose, but then Claire uses his method to cure someone else by taking it from the doctor after he has a bad fall. In "Flowers for Hobbes," the scientist came up with a means of giving people super intelligence, just with dangerous personality changes and suicidal acts in later stages. At the end of that episode, the heroes find a cure for it. That would still be a tremendous achievement: temporary genius to solve problems and then be given the antidote when they start exhibiting the personality changes. In "Frozen in Time," Chrysalis has developed a fool-proof way to freeze people, just that after 24 hours it becomes permanent. That would revolutionize the cryonics industry, because many people with incurable diseases would want to be frozen until such time as a cure would be found for them. In all of these cases, the methods are simply forgotten about, even though they would revolutionize the world.
* CycleOfRevenge: In the pilot, Arnaud offers to avoid this (Arnaud's people having killed Darien's brother) by offering to shoot his own brother and be done with it.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 2 is darker in tone than S1.
* DatingCatwoman: Darien's relationship with morally ambiguous Chrysalis operative Alianora.
* DeadpanSnarker: Darien, frequently.
* DisposableVagrant: The doctor in "It Hurts When You Do This" harvested brain cells from homeless people as part of his work and research. Darien and Hobbes figure it out when they go looking for the latter's hospital roommate, Sarah--finding her and other homeless people acting strangely and having scars behind their ears.
* DistressedDude: Darien is frequently caught and tied up by people who want to steal the gland.
* TheDogBitesBack: In the pilot, Arnaud's brother has finally had enough of being bullied and threatened by Arnaud. After Darien seemingly kills Arnaud and the rest of his {{Mook}}s, the brother provides Darien a shot of the counteragent.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Darien has nightmares of Arnaud before his reappearance (more than once), he dreamed of a place and of going mad and trying to kill Hobbes before it happened, and in a subversion of the trope, he had nightmares that turned out to be [[FlashbackNightmare flashbacks from a previous recipient of the gland]], not his own.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Hobbes has a lot of these moments - usually in regards to not getting a raise, getting charged with damages during a mission or even not getting his parking validated.
* EconomyCast: The Agency has only five speaking characters and a handful of other agents.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Eberts. His first name by itself isn't so bad, but would you want to go through life named [[spoiler: Albert Eberts]]?
* TheEndOrIsIt: The end of "Germ Theory" sees all the contaminated materials bagged and properly disposed of, but a cockroach emerges from one of the bags and suddenly turns invisible.
* EnforcedMethodActing: InUniverse example. When the Agency [[spoiler: fakes Bobby's death]], the Keeper isn't told so that her grief at the funeral looks real.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Official and The Keeper [[JustifiedTrope keep their real names secret]], since they do work for a top-secret government organization with some powerful enemies.
* EveryoneHasStandards: The Official may manipulate his subordinates, but as seen in "Johnny Apocalypse," he is against sending agents into dangerous missions without proper warning.
* EvilCounterpart: Arnaud, after he implants himself with his own invisibility gland. His gland has a different drawback from Darien's, though: instead of having to deal with counteragent shots and quicksilver madness, he's ''permanently'' invisible (like in the classic H.G. Wells story).
** Alianora also serves this function to Darien. She was also experimented on, regrets what was done to her and has little choice in working for a secretive organization.
** Done for laughs with the Chinese Ministry of State Security. See TheRival below.
* EvilFormerFriend: When Darien and Hobbes get sent to the Community, someone keeps trying to kill them. They later learn it's Jack Carelli, Hobbes's old partner that was presumably killed a decade ago. Hobbes told a therapist with clearance about his operations, unaware the doctor was a double agent. Carelli's cover was blown, he was nearly killed, and he has to spend the rest of his life in the Community--all of which he blamed Hobbes for.
* EyeScream: In the episode "Beholder", the Agency are hunting an assassin who not only kills his targets, but also prevents any witnesses from identifying him with a special gun that burns out their eyes; Darien only escapes being permanently blinded from the same weapon because he instinctively triggered the quicksilver when he was attacked and it shielded his eyes from the worst of the damage.
* FakingTheDead: To throw off the bad guys, Hobbes' death is briefly faked in one episode...to the distress and then outrage of the Keeper, [[WeWouldHaveToldYouBut the only one who wasn't told]].
** Darien was led to believe that this was the case for Kevin. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it was instead an elaborate ploy by Arnaud to uncover Kevin's hidden Quicksilver research.]]
** Briefly pulled by Darien in the pilot, when he fires a shotgun out of view of the people chasing him and quickly turns his head invisible.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Despite going to some fairly extreme lengths, Darien can never get the gland out of his brain. [[spoiler:However, in the series finale, the Keeper gives him a permanent antidote for quicksilver madness, making failure a lot more tolerable.]]
* FakeGuestStar: Eberts in Season 1.
* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: Hobbes does this in one episode, appropriately titled "Flowers for Hobbes".
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "It's a Small World," Darien and Hobbes meet an informant who claims to have been in Chrysalis for many years despite his youthful appearance. "The Camp" reveals that the Chrysalis children lack parts of DNA believed to be related to aging. Arnaud confirms in "The Enemy of My Enemy" that Chrysalis discovered a genetic fountain of youth and can stop the aging process after a period of their choosing.
* FriendToAllChildren: Darien forms close bonds with the kid characters in "Ralph" and "Johnny Apocalypse." He also beats up an abusive dad in "Possessed" on principle.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Darien adopts one of the Keeper's lab rats so that it won't be experimented on anymore.
-->"You've already got one lab rat."
* FromBadToWorse: Quicksilver Madness. In the red eye phase, Darien mostly acts like an uninhibited animal, but there is the chance he can be reasoned with or assert some self-control. But if he goes too long in this state without any counter-agent, he'll enter Stage 5 Quicksilver Madness. Darien loses all sense of inhibitions and morality in this state, but is able to think and plan clearly. Worse, if he stays in this state too long, the madness becomes permanent.
** "Germ Theory" is a SickEpisode dedicated to this. Darien accidentally smashes a beaker of experimental Counteragent and cuts his hand on the glass. This somehow creates Quicksilver-producing bacteria, which slowly makes his body permanently invisible. Claire wants to study the bacteria - which she already knows can't be cultivated ''in vitro'' - and refuses to treat Darien's infection. She changes her mind when Darien enters Quicksilver Madness due to the tattoo showing his [[ExactTimeToFailure Quicksilver levels]] becoming invisible... but the Official orders her to continue and confiscates her supply of antibiotics despite being the one Darien attacked under the influence. Then ''he'' changes his mind because Darien infected him with the bacteria when he punched him in the jaw, turning his ''head'' invisible... which is when they discover that the bacteria is highly resistant to antibiotics. Then they have to dip into the Counteragent stocks when ''the Official'' starts getting Quicksilver Madness - which is when everyone discovers that the bacteria is ''lethal'' because Claire's lab rats start dying...
* FreudianExcuse: "Possessed" hints at why Darien is a FriendToAllChildren: when he was younger, a friend of his committed suicide after her father regularly abused her. It also suggests why he's weary of authority figures; he's certain their old priest (Father Moore) heard through confession what was being done to the girl and blamed him for not doing anything about it.
* FunWithAcronyms: The agency that runs the Community is called the Agency of Sequestered Seclusion.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The gland that secretes quicksilver was genetically engineered. In the pilot, Darien compares it to the atom bomb.
** This is disputed by Darien and Hobbes at the end of the second season opener ''Legends'', after they find and kill an invisible bigfoot. The Official denies their accusations but lets it slip that he knew about these creatures, implying that the original gland did come from a bigfoot but may have been adapted for a human.
* GeniusCripple: Thomas Walker [[spoiler:aka Augustin Geither]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: In "Flowers for Hobbes," a scientist designs a procedure to increase intelligence to improve the human race. All the subjects become vastly more intelligent, but increasingly paranoid and suicidal. One girl blew up herself and the research, while three others became catatonic due to synaptic overload.
-->'''Darien:''' So they lost their minds?\\
'''Claire:''' Well, it's more likely they found them, and it was more than they could handle.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Arnaud secretly tampered with the gland to ensure Quicksilver madness, thus giving him a level of control over anyone he sells it to. Falls into this trope whenever he encounters a Quicksilver mad Darien, who is only too happy to try and kill him.
-->'''Arnaud:''' Darien, take it easy.\\
'''Darien:''' [[RedEyesTakeWarning Well, that's gonna be hard.]]
* GoneHorriblyWrong: The plot of some episodes, most notably "Catevari" wherein a spy who has undergone a surgical procedure to make him ''sweat'' poison. It works, but the damage done to his central nervous system paralyzes him for decades. This also happens to the first person to have the quicksilver gland implanted.
* GoodIsNotNice: The Official is a master manipulator and a tightwad, but he's devoted to defending the country from all sorts of threats.
-->'''The Official:''' Look, son, I know what you think. You think I'm slick, two-faced bureaucrat who manipulates and schemes to get his own way, and you'd be right. I make no secret of who I am.\\
'''Darien:''' That's supposed to comfort me?\\
'''The Official:''' My job is to protect the nation, not cheer you up.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Agency, which hides its budget by getting on the books as a part of other agencies, such as the Department of Fish and Game, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or the Department of Education. (The Department of Fish and Game is itself another example, as the real life agency is Fish and ''Wildlife''.)
* HandCannon: Claire, of all people, owns one.
* TheHandler: The Keeper. Generally much nicer than most.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Augustin Geither]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Kevin saw first-hand what Geither's experiments were doing to the test subjects. According to Thomas Walker, Kevin got the experiments shut down "on moral grounds." (This also had the result of Kevin leaving the SWRB and ultimately winding up at the Agency.)
** "The Devil You Know" hints at the Official having earned quite a lofty reputation in defending the country.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Darien and Hobbes.
* HiddenDepths: "Cat and Mouse" reveals that Hobbes has a very active social life, including a favorite hangout, lots of friends and a few female admirers.
* HollywoodSilencer: In the pilot, Arnaud and his men attack the base with pistols that are inexplicably silent. They don't even have tubes attached to the barrels.
* {{Homage}}: One episode involved Fawkes and Hobbes being trapped in "The Community", an [[Series/ThePrisoner1967 isolated quaint little village for secret agents]] who had their identity exposed, and their subsequent escape.
* HonorBeforeReason: Kevin claims in the pilot that he is capable of removing the gland from Darien, but about halfway through the season, it is revealed that was a lie. More time was needed to figure that part out, but Kevin refused to wait. According to the Official, it was because Kevin didn't want to wait to get Darien out of prison.
-->'''Darien:''' So, Kev, I didn't do the crime. Think I can do the time?\\
'''Kevin:''' Not where they're sending you.
* IChooseToStay: After Darien learns [[spoiler:the Official ordered Claire to keep the permanent cure for Quicksilver Madness from him to keep him in the Agency, he says he ''would'' have stayed without a second thought, but walks out on account of the betrayal. He ultimately returns]]; see IJustWantToBeSpecial below.
* IdiotBall: In the episode "The Lesser Evil", the villain tries to get Darien to walk out on the agency and join Chrysalis by reminding him of all the people he's killed for the agency. Of the two people whose deaths he chooses to blame on Darien, one was an accident and the other was self defense. Despite this, he succeeds in making Darien feel visibly uncomfortable. [[spoiler: His first task when he tries to join Chrysalis? Kill somebody. Somebody that he likes. On purpose.]]
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Darien spends quite a bit of his free time trying to find a way to free himself from the gland. [[spoiler:Becomes a rather lower priority in the finale, when Claire devises a permanent cure to Quicksilver Madness.]]
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Having had a lot of CharacterDevelopment by the time he [[spoiler: leaves the Agency on account of the Official's poor judgment,]] Darien finds that having [[spoiler: consequence-free]] invisibility as well as a new appreciation for being one of the good guys makes his old gig of professional thievery unsatisfying.
* ImaginaryFriend: Darien poses as one of these to a little girl who happened to witness the assassination of some foreign dignitary.
* InformedJudaism: Hobbes' fake funeral is presided over by a rabbi.
* InfectiousInsanity: In "Possessed," a new formula for Counteragent briefly causes Darien to go through different stages of Quicksilver madness. While in this state, the quicksilver flakes he leaves behind don't degrade. When people - such as Darien's old priest - touch them, ''they'' go into stage five Quicksilver madness.
* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: Alex is introduced in an episode that involves a newborn baby being taken from the mother. As it turns out, Alex herself is a victim of this. The culprit is a NebulousEvilOrganisation called Chrysalis, and the babies in question are genetically those of their members. The women whose babies were stolen were actually secretly being used as surrogates. Alex's baby's genetic parents are actually Jarod Stark and his wife.
* {{Invisibility}}: Well, yeah.
* InvisibleJerkass: Darrien, when the Quicksilver madness sets in. And [[spoiler:Arnaud when he gets a gland of his own.]]
* {{Irony}}: In the last episode, it's Eberts that gets the last word.
* IronicEcho: At one point, Arnaud manages to corner Fawkes and quips "Tag, you're dead." before shooting him. Fortunately, Arnaud ran out of ammo during the preceding chase scene. By the end of the episode, while under the effects of Quicksilver Madness, Fawkes repeats the line to Arnaud.
* {{Jerkass}}: Jones, a recurring FBI agent that Hobbes dislikes and vice-versa.
* KavorkaMan: Hobbes
-->'''Darien:''' What is it with you and the ladies?
* KissOfDeath: Alianora kills people by kissing them and regurgitating water stored in her body, thereby drowning them.
-->'''Hobbes:''' She's gonna give kissing a bad name.
* LamePunReaction: Darien was prone to making bad jokes, though perhaps his shining moment was in "Germ Theory"; when The Official was ranting about his head having become invisible, Claire advised him to calm down, which Darien followed up by quipping that he should "keep a clear head." Claire, Hobbes, and Eberts (and presumably The Official) just stared at him.
-->'''Darien:''' Oh come on, you thought I was just gonna let that one lay there?
* LatexPerfection: Arnaud, after becoming permanently invisible, uses "latex" masks to be visible. He has a supply of various versions of his face, such as clean-shaven or "rugged."
* LoopholeAbuse: The Agency is never shown being sponsored by an intelligence or defense department, which would normally disqualify them from involvement in many cases. However, there is usually a loophole that can be exploited on the basis of who their current sponsor is. For example, in "Ralph," a foreign leader is assassinated on American soil and the FBI takes the lead. But because the assassin acted in a national park and also killed an endangered falcon, the Official says the Agency - which was then sponsored by Fish and Game - can be involved.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Implicitly agreed between Darien and Claire after [[spoiler:they have sex with each other while under Quicksilver Madness and the influence of an insanity inducing experimental TruthSerum, respectively.]]
* LovableRogue: Darien.
* MakingASplash: La Llorona is able to spew high-pressure water blasts from her mouth and transform into water.
* MarkOfTheBeast[=/=]PowerTattoo: The Keeper gives Darien a warning system in the form of an Ouroboros tattoo; it starts out green, and then sections of the snake go red as he gets closer to quicksilver madness.
* MercyKill: Darien reasons the Catevari did this, as he slaughtered the hospital staff, but only gently pricked a friend (who had also been experimented on).
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: In "Liberty and Larceny," Darien's old mentor reveals this is why she cut him loose. He was just too concerned about morals for a thief.
* TheMole: Arnaud, the Swiss scientist in the pilot is the BigBad for Darien. He also has elements of the MagnificentBastard.
* MundaneUtility: Darien's ability to render other objects invisible makes him an excellent thief. He also uses it for pranks and things.
* MutantDraftBoard: Since the gland could drive him insane, the Agency uses the Counteragent to keep Darien there. Notably, while they did fund the gland project, the Agency didn't know Arnaud had tampered with the gland. Using Counteragent to keep an invisible man under control was Arnaud's own idea. The Official's intent was to put the gland in a trained agent of the government, but given the way things worked out, he decided to make use of Arnaud's idea. [[spoiler:This is undone in the Series Finale, though, when Claire cures Quicksilver Madness. Darien would've stayed, but because the Official tried to stop Claire, he rebelled and temporarily went to the FBI. He only returned to the Agency because the FBI didn't take the threat of Chrysalis seriously...and his return was conditional on the Official giving his friends better pay.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Darien whenever coming out of an extended Quicksilver madness. At different times, he has nearly raped a woman, almost murdered Hobbes and generally harassed/assaulted people. Outside of Quicksilver madness, Darien blames himself for Hobbes' head injury in "It Hurts When You Do This."
* MyGreatestFailure: "Impetus" reveals that Claire worked as a junior researcher at the Defense Department's Counter-Bio Unit. She was supposed to administer a vaccine test on a volunteer, but a small error on her part caused the vaccine to mutate and give the volunteer Werner Syndrome. Claire spent ten years trying to find a cure, ultimately taking over the Quicksilver Project in exchange for the Agency funding her research.
* NebulousEvilOrganization: Chrysalis. Their exact goal is something that the protagonists try (and fail) to discover during the series. The writers may or may not have intended to reveal their agenda had the series not been canceled, but nobody else has any idea.
** The SWRB from a couple Season 2 episodes. They're actually an American government outfit, but their tactics and practices make them a threat to anyone that crosses them, including the Agency.
* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: In the last episode, Darien's narration notes this after [[spoiler:he robs a bank invisibly and finds it unsatisfying]].
-->"Cole Porter once said that, 'Work is more fun than fun.' Which I always thought was the stupidest thing I ever heard. I mean, come on, you don't work for it, it ain't fun? Please. Makes about as much sense as walkin' away from free money."
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: How Darien was caught in the pilot: while Darien is getting ready to leave after robbing a safe, an elderly person walks in and has a heart attack. Darien tries to give him CPR when suddenly he is walked in on in a [[NotWhatItLooksLike compromising position.]] Not only do we get a paper headline reading "Burgling Molester Of The Elderly", but the guy ''actually testifies in court'' that Darien was ''trying to molest him!''
* NoHonorAmongThieves:
** "Flowers for Hobbes" briefly features this. Darien's narration notes that HonorAmongThieves is a myth and that Fear Among Thieves is more accurate, as thieves promise reprisals if wronged. The current case sees Darien realize the thief was Manny Merrick, one of his old lifting buddies. It seemed like they were friends until Merrick planted Darien's fingerprints at a job he pulled and got him sent to prison for 15 months. During interrogation for the case, Darien is all-too happy to give Manny a gut punch and disrupt his operations.
** "Den of Thieves" has a fun take on it. While undercover in prison, Darien encounters two prisoners who have a score to settle with him: he stole a candy bar from their cell five years ago. He's surprised that's what they're so torked about. To avoid a beating, Darien promises to break them out of prison, but it's really just a distraction so he can get out and complete his mission. While Darien gets away, these two get surrounded by guards, so they end up with a much more legitimate reason to hate him.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: The only one capable of removing the gland from Darien's brain is his dead brother, Kevin.
** It is a partial subversion, however, in that a new gland is created, and the technology for making more also exists. They just can't get around permanent invisibility without Kevin. In fact, given that they've only had two years and a very limited budget to work on the project, it's not that surprising they haven't been able to get it out. Furthermore, one episode even shows us the disastrous results of early human invisibility tests (people stuck in permanent, total sensory deprivation).
* NonIndicativeFirstEpisode: the visual style of the pilot is just so distinct and interesting compared to the rest of the episodes which looked far more conventional that you wonder what happened to the cinematographer.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: The Catevari tries this with Darien. For his part, Darien sees a [[MirrorCharacter lot of similarities and is committed to bringing the Catevari in alive]]. Heck, the Official put Darien on the case because of this trope.
** In "Legends," Darien finds Odets unhinged for his quest to avenge his wife by killing a Bigfoot.
--->'''Odets:''' Have you ever lost a loved one to violence?\\
'''Darien:''' Yes.\\
'''Odets:''' Don't you want revenge?\\
'''Darien:''' ''(beat)'' Yes.
** Darien and Alianora, both people forced into a MutantDraftBoard by their organizations. She hits him with this in "The Lesser Evil."
--->'''Alianora:''' I don't need to bond with you, okay? We already did that when they cut us open and took out the part that makes us normal.
* NotSoPhonyPsychic: Benjamin Scarborough from "Tiresias" initially appears to be invoking cold readings and simply offering vague statements. However, he quickly demonstrates specific details about Hobbes and Darien's pasts.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: At the end of "Legends," the Official reads Darien and Hobbes the riot act for what happened and for their "insulting" assertion that it was all because of an invisible Bigfoot. As Hobbes tries to make the Official see reason, Darien interrupts to say, "Forget it. He's only playing dumb."
* OddlySmallOrganization: Apart from a couple secretaries and RedShirts, there's virtually nobody else employed by The Agency other than the cast. Sort of [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by The Agency's financial troubles, so they probably have to keep the headcount small.
* OhCrap: Darien's CatchPhrase whenever he finds himself in an unfavorable situation. Though his tone of voice suggests more of a ThisIsGonnaSuck. He said it so often that, when struck with amnesia, it was the first clue in his QuestForIdentity.
** Especially funny when subverted by the [[MagnificentBastard Bad Guy Arnaud]], when he shows up suddenly, sees the look on Darien's face and beats him to the line. "Yes, Yes, I know...Oh Crap."
*** Speaking of Arnaud, while he's normally very composed, he has this look on his face when he winds up being held at gunpoint by a Quicksilver Mad-Darien.
*** Arnaud also exclaims, "Merde!" at one point, the French equivalent.
*** During Darien's amnesia, when Stark tries to convince Darien that they're best friends, Darien asks him about his favorite expression that starts with "Oh". Stark throws out "[[Series/QuantumLeap Oh boy]]", and Darien immediately knows he's lying.
** The Official, and occasionally other characters, use "Shut up, Eberts!" frequently, often just after he's given away useful or embarrassing-to-the-Agency information.
** In the pilot, Arnaud gives Darien a series of injections, warning him of a "little prick" each time. This later becomes Arnaud's favorite term for Darien.
** In "Insensate," when the Official sees the head of the SWRB enter his office, he is quite visibly shaken.
* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: "The New Stuff" shows that Chrysalis is run by a sizable one of which Stark is a member. Jarod even boasts that his latest operation is so well-constructed that no one will be able to figure out the pattern and foil it.
* OnceAnEpisode: Darien has a voiceover at the beginning of every episode in which he quotes some famous person, and another one at the end musing over the episode's events.
** Darien actually owns a large book of quotations, that he presumably draws from for the voiceovers. In one episode, [[BigBad Arnaud]] uses this book to club Darien over the head.
* OneHeadTaller: Hobbes is 5'7; Darien is 6'2 (6'6 if you count the hair, according to Hobbes).
* OpeningNarration: Season one's is up at the top. Season two slightly tweaked it to acknowledge that it was Darien's brother, not just "some scientists," who implanted the gland in his head.
* ParentalAbandonment: Darien and Kevin's parents were out of the picture when they were children. [[MissingMom Their mother had died]], leaving the brothers to be raised by an aunt and uncle. Their DisappearedDad literally disappeared before then and isn't even mentioned until Season 2's "Father Figure." [[spoiler:Mason Fawkes had been a government assassin, but upon learning handler Royce was using him to murder his own enemies, Mason turned against him. Royce framed Mason as a traitor, forcing him to go on the run.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: In "Possessed," Darien's old priest Tom Moore comes down with InfectiousInsanity. One of the kids in his Sunday school class confesses to having an abusive dad, so Moore goes to the kid's house and nearly beats the dad to death. Darien stops Moore just in time and Claire cures him. The dad tries to bludgeon Moore while everyone is distracted, though, so [[FriendToAllChildren Darien]] punches him... and then keeps punching, despite ''not'' being quicksilver-mad at the time, until the kid returns home. The kid is not okay with this, though, and his demand that it stop snaps Darien out of it.
* PhlebotinumDependence: Darien needs periodic injections to keep him from going insane.
* PoisonousPerson: The Catevari.
* PowerIncontinence: Darien has much more control over his ability than most versions of the Invisible Man, but occasionally it kicks in involuntarily...most notably, when he's having sex.
** It's generally just arousal that causes PowerIncontinence. In one early episode, he's dancing with a sexy scientist and his hand goes invisible without him noticing.
** In the pilot, Darien attempted to spy on a security guard and a [[HospitalHottie nurse]] about to get it on, when he involuntarily becomes visible. Needless to say, the security guard did not appreciate that and threw him out, although not before punching him in the face. However, this was more due to inexperience in controlling his adrenaline levels, which is rectified by Kevin teaching him yoga.
** His powers are accidentally activated when he goes to an acupuncturist for treatment.
** Arnaud has it even worse once he gets his own quicksilver gland: he becomes permanently invisible.
* PrettySpryForADeadGuy: Kevin in "Reunion".
* PrisonEpisode: In "Den of Thieves," Darien infiltrates a terrorist cell and aides them in stealing equipment for the next attack. However, after an alarm gets tripped, Darien and another cell member (Dante) get arrested and go to prison. Darien has to stay there and stick with Dante to find out more about the upcoming attack, all while evading two inmates from his past that have a score to settle.
* ProfessorGuineaPig: [[spoiler: Augustin Geither]]
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Eberts in Season 2.
* ProperlyParanoid: Darien thought there was something fishy about Arnaud from the moment he met him. He was also suspicious of how Arnaud was able to quickly whip up counteragent for the "unforeseen" Quicksilver madness.
-->"A con knows a con."
** Hobbes runs all over the place with this. There are plenty of times where he had some justification (e.g. "Separation Anxiety" and "The Importance of Being Eberts"), but he is paranoid about so many things, it's more like the law of averages of catching up with him. Lampshaded by Darien in "Separation Anxiety."
** Hobbes demonstrates this in the pilot when he points to a young Canadian couple and tells Darien they are probably terrorists. Darien laughs at the idea of Canadian terrorists before turning around and noticing them pull out submachineguns.
** Arnaud teaches his girlfriend to look for signs of an invisible stalker. This is how she knows that Darien ([[spoiler:with Kevin's mind in temporary control of it]]) is following her and is able to get the drop on him.
* PsychoSerum: In reverse: Darien will go psychotic if he doesn't get an injection of counteragent on a regular schedule.
** The serum in "The Three Phases of Claire" was designed to be a simple truth serum used for interrogations. It does that in its first phase, but over the next two phases, a person becomes crazy and uninhibited.
* RashomonStyle: "Going Postal" plays around with this, as Darien, Hobbes and Alex recount an undercover mission at a post office that ended with Hobbes shooting up the place. Main events generally play out the same way in each version, but overall interpretations vary. (Whether a female employee was flirting with Darien or Hobbes, Alex viewing their antics as more childish than they do, etc.) Each version is also presented to viewers in a different style - Alex's like a news feed, Hobbes' like a noir movie and Darien's like a big budget movie.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "The Choice," Alex delivers one to Stark about what she knows about Chrysalis.
-->"Besides the fact that you kidnap babies because you can't have any of your own? You're a high-tech club with a Peter Pan complex and a subscription to GQ. That's it. ... Well, I know that 'Chrysalis' means cocoon and you think you're gonna bloom into something better. But you know what comes out of cocoons? Insects. And insects get stepped on."
** In "Diseased," Darien ridicules Arnaud's penchant for complex plots.
--->"You're ridiculous. You are. I mean, you join the Q-Gland Design Team just so you can steal the design? Huh? You make me think Kevin's alive so… so what? I could lead you to some files that--hey, buddy--you could've found on your own with a little research. Then you give me the flu 'cause what? So I can wind up in some hospital room and you take out the gland? I mean, douche, Rube Goldberg has got nothin’ on you, pal."
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Eventually, [[spoiler: Geither.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: see below
* ReTool: The original [[{{Pilot}} pilot]] was much more comedy oriented than the rest of the series.
** Also, Darien's estranged girlfriend Casey played a prominent role in the {{Pilot}}, but is nowhere to be found in the rest of the series. (Darien makes a reference to her in an early episode, suggesting that they broke up.)
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Unlike most fictional [[{{Invisibility}} invisible men]], there is a fairly believable in-story explanation as to how Darien sees while invisible: when the Quicksilver bonds with his eyes, it allows him to see light outside the visible spectrum, which isn't bent (the downside being that he can only see in monochrome). This also enables him to see things that other people can't see, like other invisible people and lasers. This also explains why he can be seen via thermal imaging, with the interesting side-effect that his lower body temperature makes him immune to heat-seeking bullets and lets him cool drinks. One episode even has him rendered able to see ''only'' when invisible after his eyes are temporarily damaged by an experimental weapon.
** Another downside is it makes it impossible for him to see clear objects like windows; highlighted in one episode where Darien was in a foot pursuit while invisible and accidentally leaped through a picture window.
* TheRival: The Chinese Ministry of State Security is headed by an overweight bureaucrat whose geeky assistant is identical to Eberts in every respect save for appearance. At one point, Eberts and Wang (the other assistant) begin to have a heated discussion about collating, causing both the Official and his counterpart to yell "Shut up, Eberts!" and "Silence, Wang!", respectively.
-->'''Darien:''' [[LampshadeHanging Your fat guy told my fat guy, and your fat guy's nerdy assistant told my fat guy's nerdy assistant.]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A quick example after Darien sees one of Arnaud's mooks gun Kevin down. Turning invisible, Darien attacks the mook and breaks his neck in short order.
** The Catevari kills a Senator who ran the Agency when he was experimented on. He also nearly kills the Official and his old Keeper.
* RunningGag: The Agency was kept hidden by attaching its agents to any "official" government organization that had a budget surplus that could be diverted. This led to Darien and Hobbes regularly being issued new departmental ID's and never being taken seriously as investigators, even though they were Federal agents. (As you wouldn't expect a standard murder case to attract the attention of the Department of Fish and Game, to use one example).
* ScoobyDooHoax: In one episode The Agency is ordered by government higher-ups to have Fawkes pose as a ghost to get a superstitious South American dictator to get rid of a biological missile system. However, they run into an opposing group (later revealed to be Chrysalis) who are pulling a hoax of their own so they can get their hands on the system.
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Keeper shows up in the second episode. This seems to be the second type, because it would have been easy to work her character into the pilot. She seems to be a replacement for Darien's girlfriend Casey, a civilian doctor who Darien asks to study X-rays of the gland in hopes of having it removed.
* SecretSecretKeeper: Hobbes has a long-running attraction to Claire. Season 2's "The Three Phases of Claire" sees Claire (under the effects of PsychoSerum) reveal she's long known this.
* SenseLossSadness
* ShoutOut: The OpeningNarration references H.G. Wells, while showing a clip from the 1933 movie. Arnaud, once getting his own invisibility gland, has to either wrap his face in bandages or wear a mask if he wants to be seen, just like H.G. Wells' Invisible Man.
** In "Germ Theory", the Official catches the invisibility-causing infection and his head disappears. When he gets annoyed that he can't see himself in the mirror, Eberts suggests bandages and sunglasses; Darien says he "looks familiar."
** In the second episode of the pilot, Arnaud uses the alias "Hawley Griffin," a ShoutOut to Creator/AlanMoore's ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''.
** One episode has Darien holding a rather large coffee cup - referencing his role of Fun Bobby on ''Series/{{Friends}}''.
** When Darien and Hobbes get wrongly sent to the Community (where all the retired spies are sent to), they bump into [[Series/TheAvengers1960s a British man with an umbrella]]. When Darien comments on it, Hobbes said the show was based on him.
** A young witness to a murder has an imaginary friend named Ralph, which might be a ShoutOut to Ralph Ellison, who wrote ''{{Literature/Invisible Man}}''.
** Thomas Walker is named after Tommy Walker from ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' by Music/TheWho, a blind, deaf, and mute boy. Pinball games also appear in episodes focused on Walker and Fawkes once refers to him as "the pinball wizard".
** From the two-hour premiere alone: There's a magazine cover with articles reading [[Series/DoctorWho Time and Relative Dimensions in Space!]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors Playing the Game of Rassilon!]], a business card reading [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild I.M. Foreman]], and a doctor named [[Creator/PatrickTroughton Troughton]].
* SickEpisode: "Diseased." Arnaud infects Darien with a nasty virus to make him so sick that he'll be transferred to a specific hospital, where Arnaud intends to harvest the gland. Arnaud's plan backfires spectacularly when the virus also affects the gland, vastly altering how it behaves.
* SkepticismFailure: In "Immaterial Girl," Darien spends the whole episode trying to convince everyone else that he sees an apparition resembling a woman while invisible. Frustrated, Darien finally just grabs the Official, quicksilvers his eyes and lets him see it for himself.
* SpannerInTheWorks: In "The Lesser Evil," Chrysalis tries to get Darien to defect by warning him of Solution: Beta, a plan to harvest the gland and implant it in someone else. It almost works, but then the Official reminds Darien of something he forgot and what Chrysalis missed in all their research on him: that he's the ''second'' person to have the gland.
-->'''Alianora:''' The file is real.\\
'''Darien:''' The file's two-years-old. I am Solution: Beta.
* SpidersAreScary: In the pilot, Darien mentions that he has an intense fear of spiders. Naturally, his brother Kevin uses that to trigger his first use of the gland by flooding it with adrenalin. It's not mentioned in other episodes, despite the fact that spiders are ''everywhere''. It's {{lampshaded}} later on that he's overcome that fear mostly to annoy his brother.
* StopOrIShootMyself: In the Pilot when Darien is being chased by Arnaud and his goons, he jumps from out of the armoury pointing a shotgun at his own head. It works quite well since it's the gland in his brain they want.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Claire for Darien's ex Casey (who only appears in the pilot).
* SwallowTheKey: In the Pilot, Arnaud attempted to escape with the vital data on the I-Man project by swallowing a data drive, but by the time the drive had passed through his system his stomach acid had done so much damage that the data on it was irretrievable, preventing him from creating his own Invisible Man.
* TakingTheBullet: Kevin does this for Darien.
* TemporaryBlindness: A one-shot ProfessionalKiller, the Chameleon, had a modus operandi of rendering witnesses unable to identify him by permanently blinding them with a specially-designed gun instead of killing them. Darien was a witness, but he instinctively turned invisible when the gun was used against him, which allowed the quicksilver to act as a "shield" for his eyes. While he was still blinded, he could still see when he turned invisible, and Claire was able to confirm that it would only be temporary.
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: A justified fear of Darien's since he has a unique and highly valuable gland in his brain.
* ThrowTheBookAtThem
* TomatoInTheMirror: "The Other Invisible Man" opens with the Official being attacked by a man who secreted quicksilver, but Darien affirms it wasn't him, prompting Eberts to mention the idea that the attacker was Simon Cole, the original subject of the I-Man project, who was apparently trapped in his invisible state. Darien realises that he can see Simon when he turns his eyes invisible, but when the Official regains consciousness, [[spoiler:he reveals that there is only one gland; the Official killed a crazed Simon in self-defence and Darien is essentially "possessed" by aspects of Simon's personality and memory that were imprinted on the gland, with his sightings of Simon just a hallucinatory side-effect]].
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: In "Father Figure," we learn that Darien's father, Mason, was also a small-time thief that had a strained relationship with his family. Darien has always recognized the similarities. [[spoiler:We also learn that like Darien, Mason had problems with the government and was more of a good guy than others thought.]]
* UhOhEyes: Darien's eyes turn beyond-bloodshot [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]] when he's in the initial stages of quicksilver madness, and turn silver when he's completely insane.
* UncannyVillage: The Community mentioned above.
* UnusualEuphemism: Borrowed frell from ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' (which it aired immediately before).
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Benjamin Scarborough warns that Darien has effectively killed before. He cites how Darien broke into the Mitchells' house when he was a boy and then says Mrs. Mitchell was murdered by her husband five years later.
-->'''Darien:''' That had nothin' to do with me.\\
'''Scarborough:''' It did. He bought the gun because you broke into his house.
* VillainDecay: Arnaud suffers from this after he's rendered permanently invisible. He's lost a lot of his resources, is starting to crack up and winds up a prisoner of Chrysalis. He seems to shake the decay off in his final appearance, though.
** Jarod Stark is seen to have suffered from this by his colleagues after suffering several notable defeats. In the last episode, the woman he answers to intended to demote him and put another member in charge.
* VisualPun: In "Brother's Keeper," Arnaud knocks Darien unconscious by clubbing him with his own book of quotes. Arnaud then discards the book and viewers see that it's titled ''Philosophy's Greatest Hits''.
* WeWillMeetAgain:
** "Frozen in Time": Darien gets Alianora to let him take Kate and leave the facility by reminding her of the time he let her get away.
--->'''Alianora:''' We're even now. Remember that the next time we see each other.
** "Flash to Bang": Before fleeing, Arnaud promises to kill Darien the next time they meet. He actually does try to make good on that promise, but Darien secretly lifted the gun.
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut: In "Cat and Mouse," Claire is the only one not told that Hobbes' death was faked. Darien and the Official knew because they cooked it up, they thought it'd be bad taste for the rabbi not to know, and they had to tell a bunch of agents for a possible sting.
** Darien in "It's a Small World." Chrysalis managed to get a nano-bug in Darien that lets him see and hear whatever he's doing or observing--leading to the death of a mole. Claire designs a helmet to block the signal, but the Official doesn't want to let Chrysalis know they're on to them. Instead, they accuse an unaware Darien of being a traitor and "shoot" him as Claire slips the helmet on him.
* WesternTerrorists: Arnaud's group, also Chrysalis. And the Canadian terrorists Darien and Bobby take on in their first mission together.
* WhamLine:
** In "The Other Invisible Man", when Darien believes he's chasing Simon Cole (the titular 'other invisible man'), the Keeper calls with this revelation from the just-awakened Official;
-->"There's only one gland."
** The end of "Money for Nothing, Part 2," as spoken by an invisible Arnaud.
-->"I can't come back."
** In "The Camp," Alex is insistent on breaking into the room full of babies at the Chrysalis camp. When Hobbes presses her for an explanation...
--->"My son is in that room."
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Unusually Darien asks Arnaud why Arnaud doesn't just shoot him after falling victim to another one of Arnaud's elaborate plans.
* WindowLove: [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by Bobby when Darien is in jail; he just gives a dirty look instead.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Darien, if he doesn't get his shots.
* YourHeadAsplode: In the pilot, the method Arnaud uses to eliminate the compound's guards. After calling for all security personnel to pick up their handheld radios to hear something important:
--> '''Arnaud:''' It seems some joker put plastic explosives in all your walkie-talkies. '''*boom*'''
** Combined with GoryDiscretionShot, as you only see a pair of legs sprawled on the ground outside the guard house.
** Darien reciprocates at the end of the pilot by putting an invisible grenade in the mouth of one of Adnaud's {{Mook}}s. Arnaud tries to figure out why the merc is unable to say anything despite his open mouth. Then the grenade becomes visible. Cue Arnaud's "little prick" comment.
----