A list of Captain Obvious Reveals in Live-Action TV.
- American Gods (2017): In theory, Mr. Wednesday's identity is supposed to be a shocking reveal. However, anyone with the slightest knowledge of Norse mythology will immediately realize that the one-eyed old man named after Odin's day is, in fact, the one-eyed Old God Odin. Unlike the book, the show doesn't really make any attempt to actually hide his identity. His old friends call him Wodan (one of Odin's names), he is followed by two ravens who occasionally talk to him, and the New Gods even offer him to give him a bunch of sacrifices using Odin-class missiles. When he makes his reveal speech in the season finale of season 1, it's clear that the only one who is supposed to be surprised is Shadow.
- Beverly Hills, 90210: Halfway through Season 4, a stranger shows up on Dylan's doorstep, claiming to be his late father's ex-girlfriend, and the mother of Dylan's half-sister, who he never knew existed. Dylan agonises over whether this woman is legit, or she is performing some sort of scam to get his money, and after half a season with her, and Dylan finally deciding that she is legit, we find out that she was scamming him all along and everything she said to him was just a ruse to get access to his money.
- Black Mirror: The "It was just a simulation!" trope gets used a bit too much. By the time of the fourth season episode "Hang the DJ", the characters musing about how The System may be a simulation is likely to prompt eye rolls from long-time viewers. The romantic (as opposed to horrific) nature of the episode is almost unique to the series, but the other example is by far the most renowned in the series and has won several real-life awards. That episode also turns out to be taking place in a simulation.
- Blake's 7. In "Traitor", the measures used to conceal the identity of Commissioner Sleer only make it obvious to the audience that it must be an Arch-Nemesis Back from the Dead. Unless Travis had somehow survived his Cruel and Unusual Death in "Star One", who else could it be but Servalan?
- Boo, Bitch!: This miniseries begins with high school friends Erika and Gia getting into an accident, and Erika waking up to discover what seems to be her body crushed under a large animal. We then proceed to follow Erika's experience as a ghost... except she can't phase through anything, people can still see and hear her, and she seems to be able to interact with the normal world exactly as before. She goes onto become popular with the rest of the students who conveniently seem to be ignoring Gia - and this is the part where an astute viewer will immediately realize that Gia is the real ghost. Unfortunately, this is long before the actual reveal happens.
- Cursed:
- Near the end of the fifth episode, Nimue states her mother must've asked her to bring the sword to Merlin because "she knew him". It's treated like a big revelation, but it's blatantly obvious already and Nimue seems a bit daft for not thinking of this much sooner.
- It's pretty easy to figure out that the Weeping Monk is actually Fey-kind long before The Reveal, given his uncanny ability to track Fey. The other reveal that he's Lancelot is far less predictable, though.
- Dexter: During Season 6, many viewers guessed that Professor Gellar was Dead All Along almost immediately. The writers were simply too obvious with nobody but Travis ever seen talking to him but still treated it like a shocking turn of events when the "reveal" came.
- Doctor Who: Terry Nation's serials had a tendency to end the first episode with the shocking revelation that the Monster of the Week was...a Dalek! This only worked when each episode had an individual title; once the show switched to a single title for the whole serial, said title would inevitably be "(Something) of the Daleks", giving the game away.
- In Dracula (2020), the way John Harker looks and acts during his time at the convent makes it clear as day he's undead himself long before the narrative makes it official. It's more a question of how, not if, he ended up in this state.
- The Flash (2014):
- Reverse-Flash turns out to be Harrison Wells, who has been Ambiguously Evil to the audience since the start of the series. However, the real twist is that he isn't Harrison Wells at all.
- And in season 3, the Flash gains a new major enemy, an evil wizard who is creating new metas to fight him, and a dickish new(-ish) coworker who is played by Tom Felton, best known for playing an evil wizard. (There's even a Philosopher's Stone involved!) Though again, the real twist is that he is not aware of it.
- Season 3 Big Bad Savitar being an evil version of Barry from the future. The foreshadowing was not very subtle ("I am the future, Flash" actually being "I am the Future Flash", the numerous other vague statements that pointed to this conclusion, Killer Frost instantly trusting him after learning his identity, etc.). It was so blatant that fans immediately dismissed it as too obvious and started theorizing about other possibilities (such as Eddie Thawne or Ronnie Raymond). Hence, they weren't happy to finally learn of his rather obvious identity twenty episodes into the season, as many felt it wasn't worth the wait.
- The Haunting of Bly Manor:
- It's not difficult to figure out that the Storyteller is Jamie long before the final episode confirms it. It's obvious the Storyteller is someone who was around Bly Manor a lot or was at least close to someone who was, the characters have the same accent (well, most of the time in Carla Gugino's case) and it's not unreasonable to assume that the Storyteller could be Jamie twenty years older, given the age of the two actors playing the same character twenty years apart.
- Many viewers managed to guess that Hannah is a ghost prior to The Reveal, as it's quite clearly telegraphed to those familiar with the genre. However, her being dead isn't even half the story, and by the time it's revealed, most viewers probably will not have guessed that 1) she doesn't know she's dead, and is essentially Unstuck in Time, drifting between the present and her memories - real and imagined - of the past, and 2) she isn't one of the Manor's long-serving ghosts, but had died just seconds before meeting Dani and first appearing on screen.
- In Hikari Sentai Maskman, "Prince" Igam is played by a woman who makes no attempt to disguise the fact that she is one, apparently a She Is the King situation. About 3/4 of the way through the series, it's dramatically revealed that she is in fact a woman when her headgear comes off and her long hair is seen. The episode is called "Prince Igam, You're A Woman!" It's at this point that you realize it was in fact supposed to be a secret. On the other hand, the medium of Tokusatsu is inspired by traditional Japanese theater, in which some roles were played by the opposite gender (particularly in the art of Kabuki), so it's somewhat excusable.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021): The First-Episode Twist that twins Allison and Lennon unintentionally switched places was pretty easy to see coming, considering that they even were twins to begin with and that early in the episode, Lennon makes Allison's make-up and hair so that they look the same.
- Iron Fist (2017) makes a big show of finally revealing Madam Gao's face, even though it being her was completely obvious to anyone who'd watched Daredevil (2015), while being meaningless to anyone who hadn't. Not many people were wondering which elderly female crime boss with a cane it could possibly be — and the subtitles didn't even bother hiding her name.
- The Julekalender: The mysterious man (Benny) is revealed to be a Nåsåernote in Episode 15, but by then the show has dropped so many obvious hints that you've almost certainly figured it out already: For starters, the narrator keeps saying stuff like, "The Big Book is incredibly dangerous in the hands of a Nåsåer", which suggests that there's a Nåsåer in the cast — otherwise it'd be pointless — and Benny is the only candidate.note Starting at Episode 5, he takes advantage of the farmers' hospitality by telling them Blatant Lies. His weird mannerisms are also a clear sign that something is off. In Episode 8, he asks the farmers some questions that are clearly about the Nisses even though he tries to hide it. In Episode 9, he's very interested in the Nisses' lost map. In Episode 10, he lies to the farmers and goes to steal The Big Book. Finally, in episode 12, he uses The Big Book to practice black magic, which the Nåsåere are known to do. Note that the reveal was probably obvious on purpose, as The Julekalender is partly satirical.
- Kamen Rider
- Kamen Rider W: Early on in the series, it is established Philip is haunted by vague memories regarding his family, the snippets of which show him as a child with his parents and two girls. Episode 13 and 14 then focus on Philip's relationship with Wakana, whom he is drawn to on an almost spiritual level, and reveals in a flashback that Wakana had a younger brother she was close to, and is conspicuously absent in the present day story without explanation. The two episodes after this then after Saeko revealing Philip's real name to Raito, and has her and Ryubee express a strong desire to bring Philip back to the Sonozaki Family. Putting all this together, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Philip is actually Raito Sonozaki, Saeko and Wakana's younger brother. Played with, however, as this is paired with the reveal that Raito is supposed to be dead, the explanation of which is considerably more complicated, and ties into the larger mysteries surrounding Phillip and the rest of the backstory.
- Kamen Rider Wizard: The White Wizard, Haruto's mentor and the supposed Big Good, is actually Wiseman. Despite being treated as a major reveal only given near the very end of the story, nearly every fan predicted ahead of time, thanks in no small part to Wiseman being associated with white light, and the series constantly keeping Wiseman out of view as to suggest his identity is meant to be a surprise.
- Kamen Rider Gaim has the first episode featuring the disappearance of a character, a monster who appeared around the area where he dropped the Transformation Trinket, and an ominous fruit that The Hero was tempted to eat. If you guessed that the fruit had something to do with the disappeared person and that chances are he became said monster, then congratulations, you've guessed along with everyone else. However, the reveal isn't the fact that the monster was this character all along, but instead the inevitable moment when this truth is revealed to the characters.
- Played for Laughs early into into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, when Poppy reveals herself to be a Bugster. Both Emu and Hiiro are left completely unfazed by this revelation, since Poppy was already established to be an in-universe video game character like the other Bugsters, and her human alias Asuna Karino is an obvious anagram of "substitute nurse" (Kari no Naasu). Poppy is left rather disappointed that no one seems to care about this.
- Once Upon a Time has many of these including Regina's mother Cora being the Queen of Hearts (we saw Cora disappearing through a looking glass, the Queen of Hearts knowing Regina's father and her name means heart in Latin) and Emma's childhood friend Lily being Maleficent's long-lost child (Lily has a strange Birthmark of Destiny and mentioned having been found when she was a baby).
- Subverted in Power Rangers Zeo. The mysterious and powerful Gold Ranger starts appearing and helping the Rangers. Meanwhile, former ranger and current ranger tech guy Billy starts being mysteriously absent. Lo and behold, the Gold Ranger is some guy we've never seen before.
- Princess Silver: Rong Qi's behaviour towards Rong Le is very unbrotherly. Later it's revealed that they were lovers before Rong Le lost her memories. Though this comes with a less-obvious reveal: they aren't actually siblings.
- Squid Game: Many viewers reported guessing the Front Man's identity as Jun-ho's brother simply because by the time the reveal comes, there's no other person it could possibly be that would have any meaning for either Jun-ho or the audience.
- The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Scorpion (Part 2)" makes a big deal out of The Reveal that the Borg were the aggressors in the war with Species 8472, who were well on their way to exterminating the entire Collective before Janeway stuck her nose in. Considering it's the Borg we're talking about, the bigger mystery is why wasn't that the default assumption?
- Supernatural:
- A big mystery is built up in season 3 over the demon who holds the contract for Dean's soul, despite there only being one important demon character still living.
- Season 8 reveals that closing the gates of Hell requires taking your own life. This one was so obvious that even Sam and Dean predicted it in-universe half a season beforehand, yet both of them still acted as though it was a surprise they had never considered before.
- WandaVision: The Reveal that "Agnes" was really Agatha Harkness was guessed by savvy fans with a knowledge of Marvel comics history even before the series premiered. The lack of shock from the reveal is offset by the delightfully over-the-top way that it was handled, though.
- In The Wheel of Time (2021), Rand being the Dragon Reborn. The show's first season keeps the new Dragon's identity a mystery until the penultimate episode, suggesting it could be any of the five characters from Two Rivers before eventually revealing it's Rand. The trouble is, anyone who has read the books, or even looked up the series before watching the show, will know it's Rand right out the gate seeing as it's a major plot thread (plus Rand is positioned as the main protagonist of the first book). Even viewers who hadn't read the books predicted it was Rand early on due to the series comparatively never much focusing on Rand and whether he had any special abilities/traits until The Reveal; viewers guessed this was an attempt at misdirection or else the character comes off as pointless. Mat was also taken out of the running by Episode 6 due to being Put on a Bus. Some have speculated the writers were going for The Un-Twist by toying with the idea that Rand wouldn't be the Dragon in this version, but lots of viewers felt this approach wore out its welcome after a few episodes.
- Young Sheldon: Mandy's pregnancy in "A Solo Peanut, a Social Butterfly and the Truth". The episode showed Georgie and Mandy having sex, Adult Sheldon was just talking about how hard it is to raise children, and there was really no other possible twist that could keep the Georgie/Mandy storyline going.
