Easily Forgiven / Live-Action TV

Exploring the concept of people being Easily Forgiven for their mistakes and crimes in Live-Action TV series.

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• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Skye lies about her true reasons for joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and leaks classified information to her old boyfriend, who then sells it to Centipede, resulting in the deaths of several people. Coulson does make her wear a bracelet that keeps her from using her hacking skills for a few episodes, but otherwise doesn't seem to hold it against her, Fitz and Simmons forgive her instantly, and when Ward hasn't forgiven her in the very next episode it's treated as him being incredibly petty (and of course, he comes around by the end of it too). May never liked Skye much to begin with, but doesn't seem to hold any resentment over the betrayal.
  • Wonderfully subverted with Ward as he spends much of season two thinking that with some hard work, the team will let him back in after he turned out to be a HYDRA agent who killed several people and dropped Fitz and Simmons out of a plane. Instead, it's clear the team will never forgive Ward for what he did and consider him the enemy.
  • Most notably, Fitz is astounded Ward truly thinks an "I'm sorry" actually makes up for nearly killing Fitz (which left him with long-lingering brain damage) and tearing into how he loathes Ward totally. When Ward protests that he "still considers us friends" Fitz (who had actually defended Ward before that attack) snorts he now knows Ward was just playing a role and turns his back on him.
• All My Children: After The Reveal that Greenlee wasn't actually responsible for her son Spike's deafness, Kendall is quick to patch things up with her, apparently forgetting that, even if Spike's hearing loss wasn't her fault, Greenlee still tried to kidnap him and landed him in the hospital after getting in a car crash. Several people, such as Annie and Erica, even point this out to Kendall.
• Angel:
  • When Wesley kills Knox, restores his and Connor's memories of the past two seasons and lies to Angel about his willingness to kill Illyria Angel lets it all slide. Not that he could really afford firing him at that point.
  • Played straight to near exaggeration with Angel's son and his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• The Aquabats! Super Show!: Humorously subverted in the Christmas special, where the Aquabats take on The Krampus in a small village he has taken over in his bitterness that he is no longer expected to punish those who have been naughty all year. Santa Claus forgives Krampus for all of his wrong-doings, but Krampus doesn't want that since it only proves his point, and insists that Santa kick his ass. Santa obliges.
• Arrow: People hold grudges for a long time in the show, but when Oliver kidnaps Lyla and her infant daughter in order to prove his loyalty to a terrorist organization, she doesn't hold it against him for a moment. As a member of ARGUS, she has personally done far worse. Lyla's husband Diggle, on the other hand, goes ballistic, and even once he finds out Oliver did it for a good cause it takes him a long time to come around.
• Babylon 5: Downplayed example when Delenn reveals to G'Kar that she deliberately concealed knowledge regarding the Shadows that could have saved G'Kar's homeworld... at the cost of starting the Shadow War before the younger races were ready. G'Kar understands, and decides she was almost certainly right... but he doesn't forgive her. At least, not that day.
• Battlestar Galactica: Happens a number of times, although given the characters' situation - being the only remnants of humankind trying to survive the Cylons and an uncaring universe - it could often be justified on practical grounds.
  • Zig-zagged in the Season 1 episode "Litmus". Commander Adama states that Chief Tyrol should be in the brig for his deceitful actions (carrying on an affair with an officer and covering it up, endangering the ship's security in the process), but Tyrol's expertise is too badly needed. Instead, his subordinate Socinus takes the fall for lying under oath himself, and is only released later for a hazardous mission.
  • In the 2-part episode "Home" early in Season 2, President Laura Roslin is not only easily forgiven by Commander Adama for her dissent at the end of the first season that threatened to tear the Colonial Fleet apart, she's easily reinstated. A mere handful of episodes later, Adama begins to fall in love with her.
  • Then in the third season finale, Lee epically lampshades this when the Fleet's leadership suddenly want to make an exception for Baltar for something he had no real power over. And it works.
• Lord Edmund Blackadder has done plenty of heinous things to his pals Baldrick and Percy, however neither holds a grudge towards him, most probably because they would need brains first to hold one.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Willow, who got Drunk on the Dark Side and tried to destroy the Earth, is welcomed back to the gang with open arms after a vacation in England. At that point all the other Scoobies had been temporarily evil at one point or another, so they're probably used to it, and Willow hates that she was so easily forgiven.
  • And Tara, with the blindness thing. And Xander with the musical demon. And Buffy, with the psychological institution one. And Angel, with the whole second half of Season 2. And Spike for... everything. Y'know, it's safe to say that just about everybody got one of these, at least.
  • The Scoobies generally forgave those who were close to them more easily than those outside their inner circle. Faith had to work harder for forgiveness (getting it first from Angel, then from Willow, and ultimately from Buffy). Amy was particularly pissed that the gang took 3 years to transform her from a rat back to human, and then very quickly cast her out, which influenced her Face–Heel Turn.
  • In "Entropy", Buffy flaunts this when she breaks off her relationship with Spike. She isn't worried about him ratting her out because she knows her friends won't care that she's been banging Spike, since they aren't particularly upset that she tried to kill them all in the previous episode (though she was under a mystical influence at the time). Subverted by the end when the gang finds out; while Willow and Dawn accept it relatively easily, Xander reacts exactly as Buffy feared he would: with shock and horror.
• CSI: Miami: Ryan WITHHOLDS EVIDENCE from a crime scene because a friend's son has been kidnapped by the Russian mob, which he only tells Horatio, yet despite very realistic anger from the rest of his team when he finally produces the evidence, by next episode it seems to not only have been forgiven but forgotten too.
• The Defenders: Season 2 of Daredevil had ended with Matt finally disclosing his secret identity to Karen. In The Defenders, when Matt meets up with Foggy at Josie's for drinks, Foggy makes a remark about how he half-expected Karen to freak out and get them both disbarred as retaliation for keeping her in the dark for all of season 2.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation does this to a ridiculous extent to justify the current Heel–Face Turn. Things which Degrassi villains have done, all of which were forgiven promptly by the victim after the turn, include stealing irreplaceable property, taking credit for a subordinate's work then firing the subordinate for complaining, posting topless photos of a classmate on the internet and broadcasting it on every computer in the school (which is by law a sex crime), helping a pedophile stalk a classmate purely for the fun of it, and being the leading cause of a student being shot and paralyzed from the waist down.
• Doctor Who:
  • During his tenure as companion, The Brigadier could get away with anything, from a general Jerkass attitude to being The Load or The Millstone to committing a genocide against defenceless Silurians when the Doctor ordered him twice not to do it, in his second story as a companion. No matter how abrasive, bureaucratic, misguided or borderline fascist he gets, the Doctor is straight back to working with him in the next story, with maybe a throwaway line about his reliance on Five Rounds Rapid gets helpless Red Shirts killed or a bit of eyerolling if he was exceptionally awful last week. Even when the Doctor eventually does have a change of hearts (and face) and finally dumps the Brigadier, it's out of boredom rather than judgement and they remain on good terms for life and even beyond.
  • Whenever the Doctor is in a Manipulative Bastard mood, particularly the Seventh and Eleventh, he'll use people as metaphorical pawns and put millions of lives at risk for some nebulous plan nobody but him is aware of. His companions will give some lip service about how he can't be trusted, then get back to unquestioningly trusting him by the next episode and acting like he can do no wrong.
  • In the TV Movie, the Master attempts to steal the Doctor's lives, killing several people and sucking the Earth into a black hole in the process (it gets better). When the Master's plans are thwarted and he's about to be sucked into the black hole too, the Doctor's response is to try and save him.
  • In "Last of the Time Lords", the Master's reign of terror over the Earth is ended. Said reign of terror involved the murder of at least one tenth of the Earth's population, the enslavement of the remaining nine tenths, messing with the Doctor's physical aging process and rendering him wheelchair-bound for most of the year and birdcage-bound for the rest, the repeated killing of Captain Jack (see also the Torchwood entry), and building weapons with which he planned to take over and/or destroy the rest of the universe. At the point of the Master's defeat, the Doctor finally says that "one thing" he had to say to the Master, which he'd hinted at several times in the episode. That thing is: "I forgive you." Although the Master makes it clear that he hates the Doctor forgiving him.
    • And those aren't even close to the Master's greatest crimes, past or future. He once was responsible for the destruction of a large portion of the Universe.
  • In "The Zygon Inversion", the Doctor uses this trope to reach out to a Zygon fanatic as part of an epic anti-war rant:
    The Doctor: You're all the same, you screaming kids, you know that? "Look at me, I'm unforgivable!" Well, here's the unforeseeable, I forgive you, after all you've done! I forgive you.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Boss Hogg and Rosco have conspired to harass the Duke family and schemed repeatedly to illegally evict them from their farm. Several times, particularly Rosco, the two have sent vicious criminals after Bo, Luke, Uncle Jesse and Daisy. In the real world, Boss would have been sent to prison (and likely barred from holding political office), Rosco would also be in prison (along with being decertified) and the Dukes would have sued their antagonists for harassment and numerous other charges. Still, both adversarial factions have acted more like old friends by each episode's end and all is forgiven... until the next time.
• In Earth: Final Conflict, Ronald Sandoval was the right hand of Zo'or, leader of the Taelons, and carried out a lot of unethical operations in his name. Sandoval conspired behind the Taelons' backs to make an alliance with the Jardians, their ancient enemy. Later, Sandoval went to the Earth authorities, promising to testify in court to every illegal and amoral activity Zo'or was involved with. Sandoval was re-acquired by Zo'or before that could happen, but Zo'or still forgave him, and Sandoval immediately resumed his old job. This is unusual, because Zo'or is not the forgiving type.
• Farscape:
  • Played remarkably straight in "DNA Mad Scientist". D'Argo, Zhaan, and Rygel cut off Pilot's arm (against his protests) in order to get maps that will help them return to their home planets. When John visits Pilot afterwards, Pilot excuses their actions because it is his duty to serve those aboard Moya, no matter what. Though Pilot forgives the others quickly, John and Aeryn remain pretty pissed off. Though Pilot does get off a master class in passive aggression when the maps turn out to be useless:
    Pilot: It appears your crystal is useless. Lucky for you, you didn't trade anything of real value to get it.
  • Also in the episode "Crackers Don't Matter". Everyone gets dosed with an aggression-inducing drug. For most of the characters this means that they will insult each other and physically fight. John chooses misogynist insults to hurl at Aeryn (none of the other male characters went in that direction), and worse, he assaults and sexually threatens Chiana, who looks genuinely terrified. (Note, the drug did not increase his libido or anything like that, this is just how John Crichton act when he's angry, apparently.) He does attempt to apologize to Chiana in the end when the drug has worn off, and she just waves it off easily, claiming to have enjoyed it. There is a reason for this, out-of-universe - the rape threat towards Chiana was filmed after the rest of the episode, because the director wanted to see how offensive they could make Crichton's behaviour while still getting away with it, and the apology scene was filmed before the threat was added. Problem is, nobody remembered to go back and change that scene so it actually addressed Crichton's newly added rape threat.
• Amusingly subverted in an episode of Firefly, where Simon figures out that Jayne had sold out both River and himself in a previous episode. Simon doesn't forgive Jayne, but he does point out they have way too many mutual enemies as it stands, and that constantly being at each others' throats over this would be pointless and stupid. Then, as he leaves, River sticks her head in, looks directly at Jayne, and warns, "I can kill you with my brain."
• Several characters in Flashpoint end up forgiving the people who've taken them hostage and offering them some kind of assistance. Notably, these are not set up as scenarios especially conducive to Stockholm Syndrome, meaning the response is in all likelihood genuine.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Despite having orchestrated an assassination attempt on Daenerys, Varys seamlessly becomes part of her court in Season 6. In fact, their first meeting occurs entirely off-screen and has not yet been alluded to. Subverted in Season 7 where Daenerys question's Varys' loyalty and threatens to burn him alive if he betrays her. She does pardon him tentatively.
• A staple of Gossip Girl. Anything can be forgiven if you're one of the main characters, related to one of the main characters, or have feelings for one of the main characters. Examples include Serena's father giving her mother fake cancer, Chuck selling Blair for a hotel, one of Serena's boyfriends running a Ponzi scheme on everyone, Serena's mother getting Serena put in jail over a theft she didn't commit, and too many incidences of cheating and screwing over to list. They might not be smart or moral people, but holy crap they're forgiving.
• Heroes season 3: Elle seems to forgive Sylar a bit too easily for killing her father. It's true, she did try her best to kill him at first, but subsequently it looks more like that was self loathing than hatred. This is remarked upon by Noah.
• Subverted in the 1986 The Hogan Family episode "Leave It To Willie". 13-year-old Willie steals his father's car to go for a joy ride, damages it and another car in a hit-and-run accident and allows older brother David to take the blame. Willie has an Imagine Spot where he envisions a "happy ending" to his predicament, akin to his favorite TV show where all the characters end on a "happy note". When his mother learns the truth she is pissed, to say the least. She tells him that the issues involved — theft, causing a hit-and-run accident that could easily have ended in serious injury or worse, damaging his father's car and allowing an innocent person to be blamed — are not easily fixed and may take weeks, if not longer. Most importantly, her trust in Willie may take far longer to fix.
• How I Met Your Mother: Ted was at first angry at Lily when he finds out she secretly sabotaged many of his relationships back in college and indirectly took part in his breakup with Robin, but he forgives her afterwards knowing that none of his past girlfriends were right for him anyway.
• iCarly:
  • In "iCan't Take It", Sam ruins Freddie's chances of getting into an exclusive science camp that would help him get into any college he wants. Because Freddie didn't know what time it was when Sam asked him. Freddie finds out and gets angry, then forgives her about 2 minutes after and kisses her again to end the episode.
  • Played with in Nora Dershlit's case. By the end of "iPsycho" Carly expresses regret over having her arrested while the others are understandably still upset that she locked them in her basement.
    Carly: Maybe we shouldn't have called the cops on Nora...
    Sam: She kidnapped us!
    Carly: Yeah, but she just wanted friends. And she bought us Chinese food.
  • However in the sequel episode "iStill Psycho" we have the inverse everyone EXCEPT Carly wants to forgive Nora.
    Carly: Wh-What is the matter with everyone?! That girl kidnapped us and beat the fudge out of you!
    Gibby: Hey, I'm forgiving. And I like Chinese food. That's who I am.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Jirou from Kamen Rider Kiva gets away with kidnapping and attempting to rape Yuri. Even Yuri is buddy-buddy with him the next time they meet.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim: Micchy never really loses Kouta's good graces after all the atrocities he pulled in the series. Though Kouta's forgiveness in #43 had him far from being satisfied or relieved., but this tis he first step in Micchy's Heel Realization. Mai extends similar forgiving hand as well. The Beat Riders (except Peko) also don't hold it against him in the end of the series, readily accepting him back if he wants to rejoin them.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost: Even after all the crap he's pulled, Adel gets forgiven by Takeru, whose father he killed, including bragging about it, mostly on the merit that he's still Alain's brother. Alain and Alia also likewise forgive him because he's their family.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One:
    • ZAIA Japan president Gai Amatsu is perhaps the most egregious example. He corrupted the Ark and set off the plot of the series, yet while the heroes don't forgive him right away, he gets off relatively easily considering all the death and destruction he caused, never facing any retribution beyond being made to resign as ZAIA Japan's CEO.
    • Horobi's murder of Izu also gets swept under the rug, and when Izu's Death of Personality ever gets brought up, no one acknowledges that Horobi is the one responsible for it. This is deconstructed in Others because Arkland is able to discredit A.I.M.S. and Hiden Intelligence by pointing out that they made nice with a murdering terrorist and did not make any attempt to punish him and his group despite knowing where they were simply because they believed he felt guilty about everything and that made it ok. It also means when he accuses MetsubouJinrai.net of being dangerous again neither Fuwa or Yua can really counter his point without making it sound like they condone Horobi's former actions.
    • Ironically, the one villain who's not let off at all is the Ark, even though it was corrupted against its will by Gai Amatsu, with it instead just being destroyed by Aruto.
  • Despite the trouble the Shindai siblings cause to the cast in Kamen Rider Saber, Touma doesn't bear any hatred or grudge towards them and is willing to welcome them to his team with open arms.
  • Almost every villain in Kamen Rider Revice is this, with Kagerou being the most blatant example. He spends half the series trying to kill his host’s family for relatively half-baked reasons. Yet his death at the hands of said host is portrayed as wrong (Retcon notwithstanding, and one Unexplained Recovery later, the cast treat him lie, their best Bud, even though his personality hasn’t changed at all)
    • Seemingly subverted with Hana/Aguilera, when accused of being a Karma Houdini, states that she fully intends to become The Atoner by going to prison once the Big Bad is defeated. Though it ends up Double Subverted when she gets a,bushed on the way to prison and never brings it up again, instead becoming a commander for her organisation’s Redeeming Replacement.
  • Kamen Rider Geats: Daichi Isuzu infected dozens of people with his Parasite Jyamato to assimilate them into the Tree of Knowledge, does things that even disturb resident sadist Beroba, and went out of his way to force Keiwa's sister into a Terminal Transformation and trick Michinaga into killing her, as part of a plan to send Keiwa over the edge, but he's forgiven by Keiwa, who was once his Arch-Enemy, after he adopts the practice of forgive the sinners while hating the sin, due to him protecting Sara from Kekera regardless of his reasons, who believes he's no one to judge since he also did bad things during his Face–Heel Turn and anyone should be given second chances to reform, regardless of their crime scales (Daichi did much, much worse than Keiwa who only attacked a few people and sell Tsumuri out to Zitt).
• Kevin (Probably) Saves the World:
  • The other angels abandon the mission early on, leaving Yvette in the lurch, and Dave makes it perfectly clear why this happened. Everyone but Dave returns after the righteous soul in Laos is found, and Yvette doesn't begrudge them in the slightest (saying she knows what it was like to lose faith). Dave later explains he didn't return because he knew he wouldn't be welcomed back so easily and had to wait for Yvette to come to him first.
  • Subverted after Tyler learns that Kevin wrote a bunch of emails pretending to be the woman he met in Laos. Things are not settled at the end of the episode, and it takes a major gesture to fix things.
• Played with in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The characters tend to stay pissed for the duration of an episode, but are usually over it in the next. Bear in mind though that episodes tend to take place over a few days, and there is no telling how far apart episodes are. There is one episode where Fin remains seriously pissed at Stabler for his actions in the previous episode, but appears to have forgiven him (or at least is not actively mad at him anymore) by the time the next episode comes around.
• Lampshaded in the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Ship Broken", when Astra assumes that working with the Legends is going to be awkward, and Constantine tells her that as long as she's stopped actively trying to kill them, she'll be their new best friend, in a tone that suggests he doesn't understand it himself. (Presumably, he's thinking of the Dharks, and particularly how Nora went from Daddy's Little Villain to Ray's Love Interest.)
• Lost: Cleverly subverted in season 5 with Ben and Locke. You'd think Locke would be angrier that Ben murdered him, but since it turns out to be an evil entity impersonating Locke (who wanted Locke dead), it makes sense.
• Lucifer (2016): Played for Laughs. Maze spends most of season 3 fighting with everyone else in the cast, most of all Lucifer. Maze has a heart-to-heart where she apologizes to Linda, but no such moment with Lucifer. In season 4, neither of them care, and Maze is confused when Lucifer is seemingly giving her the cold shoulder (he was just distracted with something else).
  Maze: What? Are you still upset about me trying to betray you and kill you? It was a month ago.
  Lucifer: No, of course not. What do you think I am, human?
• In Malcolm in the Middle, Black and Nerdy Stevie's mother abandons her family to go on a wild bender for two years, becoming an alcoholic porn star and sending Stevie over the Despair Event Horizon. She later comes back and is quickly forgiven by her husband and son, but Lois and to a lesser extent Malcolm openly still hate her for it and are called out by everyone else for being the Only Sane Man, forcing them to forgive her as well.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: This is zigzagged in the second season. Raelle gets over Scylla being a mass-murdering terrorist pretty fast, though it's more understandable as they were lovers before. Abigail though makes it clear she does not in any way forgive her, and Tally only tolerates her as Scylla helped to save Raelle's life. Both only work with her due to needing her help in taking down Nicte. In Season 3 however Abigail's forgiven her it appears, as she accepts Scylla as "one of us" after all they went through together. Tally also acts chummy with Scylla, showing that she's come around to feel the same.
• Odd Squad:
  • In "The Odd Antidote", Ms. O walks in on Dr. O, Olive and Otto just as they're finished making the cure for the odd disease she has. Panicking as they try not to let their boss know about her progressing illness, Olive and Otto attempt to hide the mirrors they stole from her while Dr. O throws the cure onto her, causing her bodily extensions to disappear and for her to go back to her normal human state. While she does grow angry at Dr. O and screams at her, demanding to know what she's doing, she ultimately forgives the Doctor (and by extension, Olive and Otto) and even thanks her for doing what she did — surprising, considering that at the time, Ms. O was a Tiny Tyrannical Girl who probably wouldn't have forgiven anyone if they did the same thing.
  • In "Zero Effect", Glenn is quickly forgiven by Olive and Otto for being a number hog and stealing all of the zeroes from town. This is justified, however, since Olive tells him that "it happens to the best of us", implying that being a number hog is something done subconsciously and is rarely, if ever, done with actual intent. In addition, Glenn decides to make it up to Odd Squad by having his shop be the go-to place for Otto's 10th birthday party, which earns him whatever forgiveness he may not have received.
  • Orville, another Odd Squad Director from the next town over, is introduced in "The Jackies" as being a longtime rival of Ms. O's, fighting with her since the caveman times and often engaging in Unsportsmanlike Gloating when it comes to the eponymous awards. Even in the modern day, he's still very much a Jerkass, taunting Ms. O and being a complete sore loser over his eventual loss to her precinct. In the Season 1 finale, "O is Not For Over", however, she is more than willing to forgive him for all the years of butting heads and befriends him, promoting one (and
• In Once Upon a Time, every time a villain sides with the heroes, they immediately forgive them and act like they no longer have to respond for their crimes. The most notable example is Regina Mills (the Evil Queen) and Killian Jones (Hook).
  • Regina is treated as part of the good guys' team even though, by her own admission, in season 3 she regrets none of her numerous crimes because it gave her her adoptive son Henry in the long run. Although these statements are part of an epic speech after which he defeats the main villain and saves all the protagonists. At that time she was not yet fully reformed and she had joined the heroes only for common interests.
  • Hook. Same as Regina, with the difference that he was accepted by everyone automatically without question (unlike Regina, who was rejected several times) and in a quarter of the time it took her.
• Peaky Blinders has Grace almost immediately forgiven by Tommy for lying to him and selling him and his gang out to his worst enemy, (which directly resulted in Danny's death) despite the fact that Grace barely apologised for it and did nothing to try and fix the damage she'd caused and instead chose to flee Birmingham in the season one finale rather than face the consequences. Polly even lampshades this at their wedding when she tells Grace in no uncertain terms that just because Tommy has chosen to forgive her, the rest of the family have not and if Grace even puts one foot out of line, Polly will deal with her.
• In Power Rangers in Space, Astronema is quickly pardoned by the Rangers when she surrenders to them and makes a first attempt at a Heel–Face Turn. Late in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy she even becomes a Power Ranger herself, and no one has any qualms with it.
  • Deconstructed in the 25th Anniversary comic, as we find out not everyone is as forgiving as the Rangers. Karone is captured and put on trial for the crimes she committed as Astronema. Despite the objections of some of the Rangers that she's no longer evil, the court finds the magnitude of her crimes to be too great to overlook and sentences her to death. While Andros gets her out of it by using a hologram to trick the court into killing her 'dark side', Karone gets quite pissed at him for doing so as she'd fully intended to abide by the court's ruling.
• In Pretty Little Liars, Paige ambushes Emily at the pool and holds her head under water to get back at her for a perceived slight (she thought Emily had told their coach about a homophobic remark Paige made, and was jealous of Emily's faster times to begin with). She does apologize in the next episode, but it's a little perplexing that her just saying "sorry" was enough to make Emily totally comfortable swimming alone with her when it had only been a couple of days.
• Subverted in Prison Break when Michael Scofield goes to Henry Pope for help in season 2. Pope understands that Scofield's manipulation and betrayal was Nothing Personal and that he did it to save his innocent brother and expose a conspiracy that goes as high as it gets, and is even willing to help, but in his own words, "this doesn't mean I forgive you".
• Riverdale: Ultimately subverted with Hiram Lodge. His victims and loved ones tried to move on after one of his acts of villainy (like the multiple acts of blackmail or either of the two attempts at murder that we see), he'd move on to another act of dubiously advantageous villainy. The final straw (at least for Archie and Veronica) seemed to be having Pop's Diner torched in Season 5, seemingly out of spite. Eventually, he’s run out of town and murdered.
  • Played straight with Alice Cooper/Smith: Despite everything she’s done from being a judgmental Jerkass to not letting Betty in on her undercover work in The Farm cult, which resulted in losing her college money, her house and nearly her sanity, everyone lets her off the hook. Unfortunately, this also enables her to keep being awful.
• Robin Hood:
  • Nobody would go on a field-trip with the man who brutally slaughtered their wife, but Robin does. Made even more idiotic considering Robin doesn't display any such altruism toward Isabella or Allan, whose crimes against him are barely a blip on the radar screen compared to Guy's.
  • In her first appearance Kate sells out Robin's whereabouts to Guy in order to secure the safety of her brother. You can't says that she's Easily Forgiven, as Robin and the outlaws don't even seem to think that there's anything wrong with it in the first place.
• Robyn Hood (2023): Chet immediately forgives the Hood for robbing, kidnapping, and assaulting him because they let him impress his friends by starring in a music video with them (where they rob him and his friends).
• Happens a lot on Rome. Eirene goes from hating Pullo for having killed her fiancé in cold blood to agreeing to marry him within the course of an episode. Caesar forgives Brutus for siding with Pompey in the civil war. Vorenus forgives Pullo not once but twice, the first time when he watches Pullo fighting for his life in the gladiator arena and the second when Pullo has found out that Vorenus' daughters are not dead but have been sold to slavery. Antonius and Octavius quickly set aside their previous battle-to-the-death differences and join forces to fight against Brutus and Cassius. Many of these scenarios involving historical figures actually played out that way in real life. It could probably be best described in the words of Antonius:
  Atia: Why would Servilia want to see me, she hates me!
  Antonius: So do I. But that's no bar to friendship.
• Smallville:
  • In the episode "Rage", Chloe doesn't seem to mind Lionel Luthor's presence at the dinner table, despite his earlier attempts to kill her.
  • Chloe is just amazing at forgiving people. Clark does all sorts of horrible things to her all the time, although he is usually on red kryptonite or something.
  • Chloe is also completely friendly to Oliver's presence in "Hex" when the last episode they met, he killed Lex Luthor, framed it on someone else and blackmailed her into keeping quiet. Though given she herself had killed to protect Clark.
  • Chloe herself tends to be forgiven quite easily for every immoral thing she does. Constantly stepping over her boundaries with people without a thought to their feelings, such as contacting someone she believed to be Clark's real mom, ripping Lana a new one for what, in comparison to her own serious violations of trust amounted to Lana's curiosity getting the best of her, that is looking at a couple pics of her dancing with Clark, stabbing Clark in the back and agreeing to spy on him for Lionel Luthor, having the gall to call her betrayal a "stupid decision in a moment of weakness" while throwing Clark's rightful anger in his face when he had just been struck blind, and in "Truth" outed a gay student in front of his friend and crush and mocked him about it, tried to force Clark to reveal his secret, tried to have his parents reveal the secret since her newfound power didn't work on him, humiliated Pete and Lex by making them reveal their own secrets. The rest of Smallville High seem surprisingly cool with her after the damage that was caused, and even nominate her as Prom Queen in Season 4.
  • Tess Mercer is a pretty glaring example. While some might point out she certainly did a lot to prove herself, it's quite jarring that the Justice League would sweep her multiple counts of attempted and successful murder under the rug. At least with Lionel, it was made clear they merely tolerate him, and it wouldn't do them any good to be rid of such a powerful ally, but all of them seem to treat Tess like family. It's especially disturbing with Clark, who had promised Bette that she'd pay for her crimes.
  • The most glaring of all would have to be Ultraman. Despite being such a murderous psychopath that he once mused that it "felt strange not to have blood on my hands before lunch", and killed countless innocent people, including (an alternate universe)Oliver Queen at the beginning of the episode he's forgiven. Instead of being locked away for his numerous counts of murder among a massive list of other, lesser crimes he gets a heart-to-heart talk and is last seen activating his own Fortress of Solitude.
• Sons of Anarchy:
  • The bikers are able to forgive each other a lot of crap. Extreme transgressions (like murdering another member's wife) will also be forgiven if they were done for the good of the club. However, betraying the club or failure to back up another member are seen as unforgivable offenses and treated with extreme prejudice.
  • This is played with in the feud between Tiggs and Kozik. Tiggs cannot forgive Kozik even years after the events and the audience is left to wonder for a long time what was that so bad that it caused such a rift between them. It turns out it was over the death of a dog.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • Played with in "Forever in a Day". Teal'c shoots Amonet (in Sha're's body) to save Daniel's life and Daniel spends the episode very much in the This Is Unforgivable! camp... until he realizes that he is still being tortured by Amonet and everything else was a hallucination while Sha're tried to communicate with him. When Teal'c does shoot Amonet, Daniel's first words are "You did the right thing, Teal'c." In this case, he had already had a chance to work through his anger and come to terms with the situation, but to everyone else it must have seemed amazingly quick.
  • Teal'c is an example of the trope done right. Nobody in the SGC seems concerned that Teal'c has killed or enslaved thousands of people, many personally, as First Prime of Apophis. It gets brought up a couple times that Teal'c has never forgiven himself for the things he did while First Prime, and has become The Atoner and a bit of a Death Seeker as penance. A season one episode has Teal'c calmly ready to accept a Kangaroo Court execution, never shying away from the responsibility of the people he's killed. In said episode the people putting him on trial do forgive him, but only after saving them from other Jaffa. Much later in Stargate: The Ark of Truth, when Tomin defects to SG-1 and feels majorly guilty over all of the things he's done, Teal'c explains to Tomin (from personal experience) that he will never forgive himself and he needs to accept that. Instead, he should commit his life to trying to help others, even though he can't actually make up for the mistakes of his past.
    Teal'c: One day others may try to convince you they have forgiven you. That is more about them than you. For them, imparting forgiveness is a blessing.
    Tomin: How do you go on?
    Teal'c: It is simple. You will never forgive yourself. Accept it. You hurt others, many others. That cannot be undone. You will never find personal retribution. But your life does not have to end. That which is right, just, and true can still prevail. If you do not fight for what you believe in, all may be lost for everyone else. But do not fight for yourself. Fight for others, others that may be saved through your effort. That is the least you can do.
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • In the episode "Amok Time", Spock tries to kill Kirk twice, yet by the end of the episode, they're best pals again. Justified in that Spock was under a once-every-seven-years madness and tried to fight it for as long as he could.
    • In the episode "The Ultimate Computer", Richard Daystrom creates the M5 Computer and tests it on the Enterprise. However, he suffers from Sanity Slippage as the M5 suffers from A.I. Is a Crapshoot and destroys a civilian craft and kills the crew of a Constitution-class. However, it seems that Starfleet and the Federation don't hold poor Daystrom any grudge as, by the 24th century, there's a scientific institute named after him dedicated to various science fields as well as keeping stock of such crazed computers.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • In the episode "Brothers" Data does not appear to suffer any serious consequences for hijacking the Enterprise after the crew learns Noonien Soong forced him to obey the homing beacon Soong installed in him.
    • After Worf kills Duras for murdering his wife K'Ehleyr in the episode "Reunion" Worf justifies it to Captain Picard by stating he acted within Klingon law. Picard replies that the Klingons might find that acceptable but he doesn't, and enters a formal reprimand in Worf's record. Worf suffers no long term consequences to his career and just a few years later is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
    • It was discovered that Commander Riker had participated in the coverup of cloaking device experiments performed by his former CO Admiral Pressman in the episode "The Pegasus" when Pressman was Captain of the Pegasus and Riker was an Ensign on the same ship who did not participate in the attempt to relieve Pressman of his command. Experiments which were violations of a treaty the Federation signed with the Romulans not to pursue cloaking technology. When push comes to shove Riker tells Picard about the experimental cloaking device Pressman retrieved from the Pegasus despite any potential negative consequences to his career. Picard later tells Riker that his role in the entire affair will be closely scrutinized and he'll have to answer some hard questions but he apparently suffers no long term damage to his career.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Enabran Tain, Garak's father, is responsible for exiling Garak before the start of the show and also tried to assassinate him in the third season. Garak forgives him for both these things.
    • Since having a half-Bajoran child by a Bajoran mistress will ruin Gul Dukat's career and marriage, Dukat tries to murder Ziyal in the fourth season. She forgives him.
    • The Die Is Cast: Sisko and the Defiant try to chase down the Tal'shiar/Obisidan Order's combined fleet in the Gamma Quadrant while Admiral Toddman ordered them to stay at DS9. After the attempt to wipe out the Romulans and Cardassians fail to destroy the Founders Sisko has a video conference with Admiral Toddman upon returning to DS9. Toddman lets him off the hook this time but indicates next time he might not be as forgiving.
    Admiral Toddman: But if you pull a stunt like that again, I'll court-martial you, or I'll promote you. Either way, you'll be in a lot of trouble.
    • In season 4, the crew take Odo to the Changeling home planet to receive treatment for a virus the Founders infected him with and face "trial" for his perceived treason against the Great Link. Garak tags along on the pretence of looking for information on Cardassian POW's. Once they get there, Garak tries to secretly take control of the Defiant's weapons and bombard the planet to kill the Founders, along with Odo and the crewmembers who went down with him, and is only stopped when Worf discovers him. Garak is guilty of sabotage, assaulting Worf and multiple counts of the attempted murder of Starfleet officers, not to mention attempted genocide. His punishment? Two weeks in jail.
    • Damar murders Ziyal in the sixth season. In the seventh, Garak and Kira are sent to work with him to liberate Cardassia. Aside from one comment Kira makes to Sisko about Damar killing Ziyal, neither Garak nor Kira ever raise the subject with Damar, never seek to avenge her death and end up friends with Damar by the end of the show. This is despite Ziyal being Kira's ward and Garak's lover. Word of God states that Kira and Garak's actors wanted to address it but the show's producers were afraid Damar couldn't be redeemed if the actors got their way, so they ignored the subject entirely. This and the above represent a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance - killing is subject to different morals for Cardassians in general, and these characters in particular.
    • Quark commits numerous straight-up crimes over the course of the series and never seems to get in any permanent trouble for them. Possibly the most outrageous example is in "Invasive Procedures", where he allows an obsessed criminal and his band of mercenaries onto the station; they take the senior staff hostage while the leader jeopardizes Jadzia's life by surgically removing and kidnapping her symbiant. Kira tells him, "You've crossed the line this time. You sold us out, and Dax may die because of it. Whatever happens next, one thing's certain... You're through here." Quark does come up with a ruse to help defeat the criminals, but still, the matter is never discussed again. Even actor Armin Shimerman (who plays Quark) said he thought the total lack of consequences for Quark's behavior, in general but in particular in this episode, was absurd, and made both his character and Odo (who is never able to prosecute him) look less serious.
• Supernatural flirts with, plays with, and plays this straight all the time given its protagonists' habit of getting Drunk on the Dark Side. It's also true that the Winchesters are often desperate for anyone with the power to help them out of whatever terrible situation is at play.
  • Demon-blood addicted Sam chooses Ruby over Dean and kills Lilith, which turns out to be the thing that breaks Lucifer free from his cage. Sam was under the impression it was going to stop him, but Ruby had been using him for this purpose all the time. Dean shows up and kills Ruby, and the brothers set about to stop Lucifer together. To be fair, Dean does have trouble trusting Sam for a while, but that only lasts a few episodes. Averted with any angel that isn't Castiel, as Sam's reputation stays with him among them and a couple bring it up years later.
  • The demon Meg is a vicious antagonist in early seasons, and she is indirectly responsible for the deaths of two of the Winchesters' closest friends. Yet, in Season 7, the brothers enter into an Enemy Mine situation with her and let her take care of a catatonic Castiel. She eventually spends time on their side.
  • Averted with Castiel after Season 6. While trying to prevent Raphael from restarting the apocalypse betrays the Winchesters by conspiring with Crowley, breaks Sam's mind, kills Balthazar, and goes power-mad, declaring himself God. Then, he goes on a smiting spree before realizing he's accidentally brought the Leviathans into the world. It's all very bad, but in order to earn the Winchesters' forgiveness, he spends several seasons enduring a Trauma Conga Line that includes death, resurrection, absorbing Sam's hell memories, going insane, going to Purgatory, having his grace stolen and turned human...and even after the Winchesters forgive him, many others don't.
  • Gadreel commits a number of heinous crimes, including killing Kevin but when he turns on Metatron, he's easily forgiven.
  • In Season 10, Dean spends time corrupted by the Mark of Cain and as a Demon, in which he commits several heinous crimes. He's easily forgiven for most of it, even by Claire Novak who hardly knows him and witnesses the carnage after he slaughters a room full of humans, who were bad guys but not deserving of such.
• After the whole Bosco/Faith/Cruz shooting incident at the end of Season 4 of Third Watch, and also after the Faith/Cruz/Mann shooting incident at the end of Season 5, enemies Faith and Cruz are soon back to work alongside each other.
• Torchwood:
  • Captain Jack is shot dead by Owen. Despite how Owen was unaware that Jack would resurrect, Jack easily forgives him.
  • In that same episode, the team mutinies against Jack and unintentionally releases a giant monster that steals the life force of anyone its giant shadow falls upon. Jack manages to destroy it by letting it feed of him. However, the effort leaves him dead for three days, which is the longest to date that he's ever stayed dead. He still forgives the team, minutes after reviving.
  • In "Cyberwoman", we find out Ianto's been hiding a dangerous Cyberman in the basement. He endangers the whole planet, tells the main character he wants him dead and is forgiven by the end of the episode.
  • In "Exit Wounds", Captain Jack forgives his brother, Grey, for burying him alive for almost exactly 1900 years. By 'alive' we mean that he suffocated to death and then revived every couple of minutes for nineteen centuries as the city of Cardiff is established above him. Mind you, this is after Grey has John Hart systematically blow up Cardiff, in addition to stabbing Jack in the back (literally) when they're first reunited. Jack blames his own failure to protect his brother for being the root cause of all this. And he didn't know what had happened to Owen and Tosh until after the forgiving.
• The Vampire Diaries:
  • Damon. Over and over and over again. He murders people on a whim, uses his Mind Control powers to effectively rape people, torments his brother and murders his best friend, it's strongly implied he was about to force himself on Elena when her brother interrupted them, in response he murdered him and within a few episodes they're acting as he's just one of the team. When he does something that isn't reprehensible they act as though he's done something laudable, as opposed to adhering to minimum standards of acceptable behavior. Then he does something not-horrifying, and it makes everyone think "well, maybe he can change..." and then he kills someone just to prove that he's still evil. The only reason they haven't killed him is because he's Stefan's brother and he can't bring himself to kill him)
  • Played with when Esther (who was murdered centuries ago by her son Klaus) returns from the dead. Klaus fully expects her to take revenge against him, but instead she forgives him immediately and attempts to bring the entire family together. It later turns out that while she truly does love Klaus and has forgiven him, she regrets turning her children into vampires and wants to wipe out the whole race.
• Played straight then averted in Warehouse 13, mostly because the recipient blew it. Only Myka trusts HG at first and forgives her for her villainy, too easily, and goes over Artie's head to get her reinstated. Then HG goes and tries to destroy the world by waking up the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone because of her own angst. She's stopped, but Myka leaves after this, blaming herself. (It's a 10-Minute Retirement, of course.) HG seems to have learned her lesson, and she's far from trusted; she is initially kept in a Tailor-Made Prison and communicates via hologram, and that she can be seriously bad news comes up whenever she appears. Also, it takes an entire season for Pete to truly forgive her for making his best friend leave.
• War of the Worlds (2019): Kariem holds Emily at gunpoint so that her mother will go get him help with his injury. Shortly after, she's not only over this (though it helps that he's quite remorseful) but she propositions him and they have sex (albeit Emily does ask if it's too soon, but he unsurprisingly doesn't object). Her mother and brother on the other only begrudgingly accept Kariem.
• Justin and Alex in Wizards of Waverly Place cycle through this. Lampshaded and inverted a few times.

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