OOC Is Serious Business / Live-Action TV

Examples of O.O.C. Is Serious Business in live-action TV.

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• In the final season of 24, Jack Bauer snaps after Renee Walker is killed and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in an attempt to kill all responsible after the President betrays him by covering it up. Realizing that he isn't in his right mind at the moment, Chloe refuses to go along with him and says that he needs to be brought in, causing Jack to actually threaten her. Chloe lampshades it herself later on that he's never done that before.

A

• Adam-12: In "Excessive Force" (aka "X-Force"), a child molester who has just left a 6-year-old in critical condition claims the the kid wanted what she got. Peter Professionalism Malloy of all people is so incensed he commits Police Brutality. Of course, Reed and Malloy are Composite Characters.
• Adam Ruins Everything has a whole episode seem out of place. In the Season 1 finale, "Adam Ruins Death", there's very little comedy compared to other episodes, the concept of death is focused on (that should speak for itself), and even Adam is brought to tears after Hayley, Adam's crush, dies by tripping and snapping her neck after Emily recovers from getting hit by a truck. He breaks down during her funeral, and Emily goes after Adam to cheer him up. She sums up the whole episode in one line.
  Emily: I thought your show was supposed to be a comedy.
  Adam: Well, the line between comedy and drama has blurred in the recent decades.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Phil Coulson, Team Dad who's Seen It All, is very rarely rattled by anything and hardly ever has cause to even raise his voice. When he does, you know something has gone very wrong. When he straight-up yells at you, then you know you really screwed up.
  • This is used to heartbreaking effect in "The Magical Place" when Coulson starts crying when Raina tells him how upset his cellist girlfriend was by his "death", and then is seen begging to be allowed to die during the operation on his brain to rewrite his post-death memories.
  • Another heartbreaking example is in "Yes Men" when he breaks down when telling Skye the truth behind the drug that saved both their lives. He then says that he's chucking out the rule book in order to go after the people responsible for everything that was done to him and Skye, something quite at odds with his very lawful nature during the movies.
  • Melinda May gets this in "T.A.H.I.T.I." when she beats the ever-loving crap out of Ian Quinn while he's in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody for shooting Skye. She is normally The Stoic, so her intense display of emotion is a sign that the situation is deadly serious.
  • Used for comedic value in "Face My Enemy" when May is undercover as a cheerful, flighty, laughing wife. Hearing her laugh and talk so much freaks Coulson's team out.
• Edith on All in the Family, normally sweet and loving, snaps when, for example, Archie dismisses her volunteer work at a nursing home as “nothing”.
• David "Flip" Rodriguez, of American Ninja Warrior fame, was known by many as "the masked man", due to the fact that he had always worn a Cool Mask during his runs. However, after a shocking exit in Season 5, Flip decided to redeem himself and reinvent his image. When he came back to the show in the following season, one of the very first things he did before running the course was take off the mask. This stunned multiple ninjas, the audience, and hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila, who repeatedly lampshaded it during Flip's run in the 2015 Orlando Qualifying course. Guess what happened next.
  Matt Iseman: This is different -- a different Flip -- the mask is off, and that is a bold statement.
  • Also, in previous seasons, Flip had always rushed through the course, in a desperate attempt to be faster than his rival Drew Dreschel. The same year as his Dramatic Unmask, he also became much more focused and took his time more often. And when he actually finished the course, he just walked off without any celebration. This, too, was lampshaded. Multiple times.
    Akbar Gbajabiamila: This is not the normal, go-for-broke Flip Rodriguez we're accustomed to. He is super focused right now.
• This is invoked by Philip on The Americans when he approaches Arkady in a bookstore. Philip is a highly trained, highly competent KGB sleeper agent and Arkady is the embassy's KGB resident. The FBI knows who Arkady is and regularly has him followed. For Philip to approach Arkady in a public place, where they can be easily spotted by the FBI, is a gross violation of operational security and risks destroying decades of espionage work. A spy with Philip's experience would never do it under normal circumstances. Philip does this deliberately to send a clear message to his bosses in Moscow about how extremely upset he is about their plan to recruit Philip's daughter as a spy. If Philip is willing to risk exposure merely to send a warning, there is no telling what he would do if the KGB actually tries to go forward with the plan.

• Arrow: Since returning to Starling City, Oliver Queen has staked his name on his decision to never wield a gun. In Season 3, he uses one with expert precision due to a lack of other options, explaining "I never said I didn't know how to use a gun."
• The A-Team
  • When "Howlin' Mad" Murdock drops his psychosis of the week and takes a turn for the serious, you know something big is going down.
  • When B.A. "I ain't flyin' in no plane!" Baracus hears that his mother in Chicago is in trouble, he demands the group book a flight to get there ASAP.
  • A single-episode example; in "The Only Church in Town", when Face gets a letter from an old girlfriend, Leslie Becktall, he instantly becomes focused on getting to her, insisting she's in trouble. Amy even mentions that for Face to be fixating on one woman is unusual. Face opens up about how Leslie was "the only woman I ever loved", and it's hinted that her disappearance fifteen years ago contributed to his commitment issues.

• Andromeda: Invoked in "The Knight, Death, and the Devil." Tyr—a Nietzsche Wannabe who believes that artificial intelligences are just programs, not real people with wills or emotions—sticks up for Ryan, an AI who has just volunteered for something both stupid and brave.
  Captain Hunt: I can't take the risk that you'll fall apart under pressure.
  Tyr: That would be a mistake. This fellow has already taken it upon himself to perform a dangerous task. Not because he was commanded, but because it needed to be done. And in the end, that's the only test that matters. It's the test of will. (Beat) You're a machine... I can't believe I just said that.

B

• Babylon 5:
  • When Delenn first sees a Soul Hunter in the first season, she grabs a gun and tries to kill him. Sinclair is taken aback and notes that he'd never seen this in the time they've known each other.
  • In the fourth season, Londo and Vir are on Centauri Prime discussing the need to remove Cartagia from the throne. Vir is hoping they can do it without resorting to bloodshed but then they meet Cartagia, just up from personally torturing G'Kar and watering plants in the garden with his blood. Vir is so horrified that he decides right then and there that Cartagia needs to die.
  • Two seasons before, Earth and the Minbari lodge protests over the use of mass drivers by the Centauri against the Narn homeworld, but so do the Vorlons, who normally consider the affairs of the "younger" races to be beneath their concern. That should tell you how bad it was.
  • When Lyta Alexander returns claiming someone on the station is an unwitting mole, Sheridan is trying to convince Ivanova to take the accusation seriously. He notes that Garibaldi trusts her. Ivanova starts to wave him off saying "Garibaldi doesn't trust anyone," but as she speaks, she recognizes this trope in play.
• Batman (1966): Typically, Chief O'Hara is The Watson and a source of comic relief. The beginning of "The Bookworm Turns" shows him at his most serious. He's bursting with rage and grief while vowing to hunt down the murderers of Commissioner Gordon. He then bursts into uncontrollable Mirthless Laughter when it turns out that Gordon is alive and that the villain's plan involved giving him a fake parking ticket to make him miss the ceremony where he had been seemingly killed.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In Season 3, President Roslin decides to hold a public trial for former President Gaius Baltar. Her Vice President Tom Zarek, a walking embodiment of Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters who vehemently opposes government or military overreaching, freaks out and tells her that the only way to keep the peace during the trial would be to declare martial law. After he storms out of her office Roslin tells her aide that she's never seen Zarek afraid like that.
• In Better Call Saul, when Gus Fring learns his assassination attempt on Lalo has failed, he accidentally knocks over a glass of water. For a man as tightly controlled and impassive as Gus to make this clumsy mistake is a profound sign that he is absolutely terrified for his life.
• In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Dependence Transcendence", after trying to solve a math problem for the entire episode, Sheldon admits that he can't do the math, at least not in that short amount of time. It's a rare occasion when Sheldon has a moment of humility.
• Blackadder:
  • For the entirety of the first season, the only line not screamed, bellowed or roared by Richard IV is the one where he softly says to his son, "If you cross me now... or ever... I shall do to you what God did unto the Sodomites." In the whole dark, bitingly cynical world of the series, it's possibly the one time when one of the buffoonishly over-the-top characters ever qualifies as being genuinely scary.
  • More touchingly, he refers to Edmund by his name and not a malapropism in the finale, "The Black Seal".
  • In "Goodbyeee", the finale of the last episode of the fourth series set in the trenches of The First World War, George, who has been all full of bravado and impatience to "go over the top" for the entire series, admits that he's scared now that they really are going over the top and doesn't want to die. And later on in the scene, Blackadder, who has continually insulted and ridiculed his comrades, especially Baldrick, says, in response to Baldrick's last-ditch "cunning plan" that we never get to hear: "Well, whatever it was I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad, I mean who would have noticed another madman 'round here? [sincerely] Good luck everyone."
  • Another moment comes earlier in the episode, when Blackadder sincerely asks Captain Darling how he's feeling just before the push, despite spending the entire series up to that point mocking him and acting rather hostile to him.
• Bluestone 42:
  • Whenever Nick Medhurst stops snarking and becomes totally serious (as in Series 2 Episode 4 when he finds out Achmed's brought a real car bomb into the base, rather than a fake one), it's a sign that the situation is very bad indeed.
• On Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Detective Charles Boyle pretty much worships the ground that Detective Jake Peralta walks on. So any time that Boyle disagrees with something Peralta does or just doesn't back Jake immediately and unequivocally, Jake knows that he was wrong. On the few occasions that they happen, exchanges like these generally go along these lines:
  Peralta: No, she was totally wrong and I was right! Right, Charles?
  Boyle: Well... you may not have been 100% in the right...
  Peralta: Oh God, she was right. I really screwed up.
  • "Show Me Going" has multiple examples, due to the stress of Rosa being in an active shooter situation. Jake, who is usually fun-loving and cheery, is withdrawn and frustrated, while the usual Shipper on Deck Charles barks at him for having a brief moment with Amy.
• Buffyverse:
  • In "Graduation Day Part 2", the Mayor — normally cheerful, friendly and oddly wholesome for a villain who constantly speaks in a chipper, upbeat tone — goes on a brief, furious Villainous Breakdown after Buffy puts his Dragon and daughter figure Faith into a coma.
    Mayor Wilkins: (to Angel) Yeah, well I'd get set for a world of weeping! I'd get set for a world of pain! Misery loves company, young man, and I'm more than willing to share that with you and your whore!
  • Similarly, any time that meek, submissive (in early seasons) Willow loses her temper and begins to basically force her bickering teammates to cooperate by chewing them out, typically opening up with a shout of HEYYYYY!
  • And in "When She Was Bad", Buffy's attitude problem causes her to get baited easily by the vamps, leaving her friends unprotected so that Willow, Cordelia, Giles, and Miss Calendar get kidnapped by the vampires working for the Anointed One. Xander, normally Buffy's biggest fan, lays it out for her:
    Xander: If they hurt Willow, I'll Kill You!.
  • In "The Gift", Giles is trying, as gently as possible, to explain to Buffy that it may be necessary to kill Dawn to save not only the world but all of reality. Buffy point-blank says she's not discussing the matter until Giles jumps to his feet and shouts, "YES WE BLOODY WELL ARE!"
  • In "Normal Again", when Anya doesn't open The Magic Box for a long time after Xander left her, he is genuinely scared.
  • While in early seasons of Buffy Giles often chided the Scoobies for their immature behavior, he did have a certain respect for their talents and tried to speak to them like rational adults. In "Flooded", when he eventually calls Willow out on her magic by referring to her as a "rank amateur" and an idiot, you know that the line has been crossed.
  • Heck, Giles in general could be a poster-boy for this. While most of the series showed him as a bookish, nerdy Watcher, some of his most terrifying moments come when he taps back into his days as a hardcore magic-user named Ripper and wipes the floor with his opponents.
  • If Buffy ever willingly kills or attempts to kill another human being, you know things are getting worse.
  • If Angel does this it's usually a sign of Angelus returning. It can also be a sign of Tranquil Fury, as Wesley finds out.
  • Lorne's the smiling, happy, carefree member of the team. When he begins to crack in Season 5 of Angel, it's a sign that everything's about to fall apart. He never really recovers.
  • Drusilla is certifiably off her rocker, driven insane by Angelus and in almost every appearance was a Cloudcuckoolander. In "Crush", however, when Spike tries to reunite with her she is the picture of sanity and is clear-headed enough to be hurt and upset over him falling for Buffy.
• Burn Notice:
  • There's an episode where Michael sends Sam to escort Madeleine to safety. Madeleine isn't hearing of it, offers Sam a beer. Sam refuses the beer, at which point Madeleine starts taking him seriously.
  • In another episode, one of Sam's old "buddies" comes to him for help. Madeleine can tell something's wrong because Sam stops drinking for the duration of the episode. And in a DVD special feature, Bruce Campbell states that you can tell something is serious when Sam isn't drinking. Though he can be seen drinking during the planning stages of a mission, he almost never does it during an actual operation. So, since it's another (and not infrequently invoked) character trait for him, it might not exactly qualify as out of character.

C

• Castle:
  • Castle is normally a charming, witty, upbeat, mystery novelist who spends most of each episode geeking out about something. When his daughter Alexis is kidnapped he asks very quietly to be left alone in a room with one of the people involved, who has repeatedly refused to give the police any information. After some of the scariest things Castle has ever said are said, the next thing anyone outside the room hears is a long, high-pitched scream. Castle got the information he wanted.
  • In another episode, Castle is being held hostage by that week's killer. He's tied up to a chair and the guy's pointing a gun at him when Castle's phone rings. It's his mother calling. When Castle ends the call with "I love you," she IMMEDIATELY knows something is wrong.
• Cheers: On one episode, Norm is asked if he'd like another beer and demurs, saying he hasn't finished the one he has. The entire bar falls silent to look at him, leading him to explain "Sorry, I'm full!"
• Chuck:
  • When Morgan calls Devon by his real name, rather than Awesome, it clues him in immediately that something is out of sorts.
  • Chuck under the influence of Laudenol. Even when he's using the Intersect to kick ass and take names Chuck is still his generally affable self, while the drug turns him ice cold. Even without knowing why you'd realize something was very wrong seeing him in such a state.
  • Subtly used in "Chuck Versus the A-Team" with the two Intersected Gretas, Captains Dunwoody and Noble (Stacy Keibler and Isaiah Mustafa, respectively). Both are noticeably more arrogant and cold when in possession of the Intersect than in their previous appearances. Immediately after the Intersect's removal, they revert to their more affable original personalities.
  • When Decker attempts to interrupt Chuck's unauthorized mission to approach Volkoff about a cure for the Norseman weapons system, Casey turns white when he recognizes the voice. Chuck immediately points out that Casey doesn't react that way.
  • Morgan forgetting pop-cultural references like Indiana Jones and Star Wars is the first clue that something is very wrong with the version of the Intersect he uploaded.
  • Throughout the first half of the series finale, Chuck notices small details that show something is wrong with Sarah. He dismisses them initially, but it ultimately leads to the reveal (to the cast, the audience having already been made aware of this in the preceding episode) that she has been mind-wiped by the Intersect.
• In one episode of Clarissa Explains It All, Clarissa senses something is wrong when she sees her brother Ferguson acting nice, missing some of his favorite possessions, and unable to properly insult her.
• In one Criminal Minds season finale, Reid is held captive by a religious fanatic with Multiple Personalities, who at one point gives him the Sadistic Choice of which of his team members (who are back at base, listening to his ordeal via radio) will be killed by him. After a moment's hesitation, Reid picks Hotchner, calling him a "classical narcissist" and citing a Bible verse that claims narcissists should be put to death. Hotchner immediately storms off - not because he's upset at being selected, but because he knows Reid, a genius psychologist, would never misdiagnose someone like that, and must therefore be trying to send them a message. Sure enough, when he looks up the Bible verse Reid cited, it turns out to be a completely different verse about farming. Guess where Reid is being held captive?
• Invoked by Prince Philip in The Crown (2016). When Elizabeth tells him that she is considering letting her disgraced uncle, the Duke of Windsor, return to the country, Philip points out that it says something about what he thinks of the idea that he wants her to seek the advice of her former private secretary Tommy Lascelles, a man Phillip dislikes intensely.
• Whenever Johnny and Daniel meet in the early seasons of Cobra Kai, they usually get into an argument or make snarky comments at each other within moments. But after learning about the fight at the school (and the outcome) in the finale of season 2, they are so full of guilt that when they meet in the elevator at the hospital, they both remain silent and even avoid making eye contact.
  • Midway through season 5 there's a moment for both Daniel and Johnny simultaneously. Daniel rages at Johnny for refusing to help fight Silver, to the point of trying to pick a fight. Rather letting himself be provoked, Johnny is stunned by Daniel's behavior and sincerely asks what on Earth has gotten into him. Notably, Daniel is also unshaven and untidied throughout most of this episode, when he's almost always clean-shaven and well-dressed (Johnny even makes the observation that Daniel didn't tuck his shirt in). Daniel even does Johnny's signature bottle cap flip when he's given a pick-me-up Coors.
  Daniel: What happened to the "strike first badass", huh? Do I need to kick his ass to wake him up, or was just one tournament loss all it took to turn you into a pussy?
  Johnny: [Beat] What are you doing? You show up out of the blue, raving like a lunatic, you reek of booze, and now you want to fight me because I don't want to get pulled back into this rivalry with Silver? What's going on with you, man?
  Daniel: [Beat] What the hell am I doing? [collapses into Johnny's new club chair] If you think I'm off the rails...
  Johnny: Way off. [hands Daniel a Coors Banquet]

D

• Danger Force: Everyone knows something is wrong with Chapa when she is really nice to them in the episode "Chapa's Crush".
• In Dexter, after Batista gets stabbed in Season 1, Debra comments that she hates feeling so helpless. Masuka, normally the vilest and dirty-minded character in the show, just stares blankly and she asks why he's not making some perverted comment about providing sexual support in a time of need. Masuka just looks at her blankly and responds "My friend got stabbed, and he may die."
• The Dick Van Dyke Show:
  • In "Divorce", Rob tells Laura that he saw how serious Buddy was about divorcing his wife Pickles when he sat talking with him for five hours without Buddy making a single crack about the bald person sitting at the next table.
  • In "It May Look Like a Walnut", Rob is spooked when Buddy and arch-rival Mel jovially exit a scene arm-in-arm. Actually, he's having a nightmare after watching a spooky "science fiction" show.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Masque of Mandragora": Sarah Jane Smith calls the Fourth Doctor out for this, telling him she knows when the situation has gotten apocalyptic because his jokes get more strained.
  • "The Talons of Weng-Chiang": It takes being attacked by Rodents of Unusual Size to make Leela scream.
  • The Ninth Doctor carries the heavy weight of being the Last of His Kind in the war between the Time Lords and the Daleks by his own hand, but manages to keep a mostly calm and optimistic outlook, even being funny and silly at times. Then in a secret lab, he sees a heavily damaged, barely-alive Dalek (in the episode by the same name) — and immediately becomes extremely bitter and even violent, to the point that the Dalek eventually tells him that he "would make a good Dalek", which shuts him up. In the old show, and in public consciousness even more so, Daleks were often played for laughs. This signals very effectively that on the new Doctor Who, Daleks ain't funny — as everyone else learns quickly enough.
  • "The Parting of the Ways": The Doctor realizes that something is very wrong with the Daleks when he realizes that they've developed a concept of blasphemy. Throughout the episode, it shows: they're even more sociopathic than usual. The Dalek Emperor is even worse: the other Daleks have the excuse of being made of human genetic material and thus "hating [their] own existence", the Emperor went mad out of sheer isolation.
  • By a similar token, the Tenth Doctor is very decidedly anti-gun, turning one down repeatedly when Wilfred tells him to take one and kill whatever it is that has been predicted to kill him in "The End of Time". The mere mention of the possibility of the Time Lords returning causes him to pick up the gun without a second thought. It's how we know shit just got serious.
    • He picked up the gun before that in "The Doctor's Daughter" when Jenny is killed.
  • Ten is also known to allow terrible things to happen because they represent a "fixed point in time", i.e. something with far-reaching consequences that needs to happen lest history be royally screwed. He even destroyed the city of Pompeii himself, and let (nearly) everyone die because it had to happen. But in "The Waters of Mars", he's finally had his fill, declares himself the "Time Lord Victorious", and proceeds to screw up a major historical event. It's rather frightening, and the consequences for him are indeed dire.
  • When Ten gets possessed by a living sun in "42", the pain combined with the Mind Rape causes him to behave like a terrified child. He yells for Martha when she leaves his side for all of two seconds, outright tells her that he's scared, and leaves the cryo-pod to go looking for her when she leaves in an attempt to fix the power (keep in mind he's blind and barely capable of crawling at that point).
    • Similarly, in "Midnight", the creature possessing one of the passengers and causing her to repeat whatever is said jumps to Ten, leaving him completely immobile and forced to repeat whatever the possessed woman says as the other passengers try to throw him out of the airlock. When it's over, he lies on the floor in a near-catatonic state, whispering "It's gone" over and over. He stays quiet until the rescue crew arrives, and doesn't even pretend to be fine when he meets up with Donna again. When Donna jokingly repeats one of his catchphrases back to him, he looks like he's about to crawl under the nearest table.
      The Doctor: No... No, don't do that. Really. Don't.
  • "Forest of the Dead": As she's about to make her Heroic Sacrifice, River Song remembers her last meeting with the Doctor — how he turned up on her door with a haircut and a new suit and left her his sonic screwdriver — meaning that the Doctor had known River was going to die.
  • "The Stolen Earth": Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister^note Yes, we know who she is has, although willing to make difficult choices, never been seen getting really angry. And then Martha Jones reveals she's been given something called the Osterhagen Key... When its purpose is revealed in the next episode, the reaction is completely understandable.
  • "The Waters of Mars":
    • Captain Adelaide paying someone a compliment is noted to be a bad sign.
    • A Dalek spared a young Adelaide because she was "a fixed point in time" shows that even the Daleks fear a Reality-Breaking Paradox.
    • The Doctor decides to use the TARDIS to solve the problem, something he almost never does. And this is part of his epic and terrifying (but thankfully brief) turn as "Time Lord Victorious".
  • "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship": When the Doctor allows Solomon to die, it's an immediate sign to Amy (and the fans) that something is wrong and cements the theme that the Doctor really shouldn't travel alone.
    • It comes to a head in the next episode, "A Town Called Mercy". Last time he visited the Old West, the Doctor claimed that "nothing will ever induce me to raise a gun in anger." This time, he decides to send a man to his death at gunpoint. Amy lets him have it.
  • "The Snowmen": The Doctor spends the first part of the episode wearing a regular tie. When his bow tie returns, it marks a turning point in the episode.
  • "The Magician's Apprentice": Clara knows something's wrong when the Twelfth Doctor hugs her.
  • The final episodes of Series 9 feature a lot of this. In "Face the Raven", Clara makes a noble but foolish choice that means she is doomed to die within minutes. The Doctor threatens the party who set up the crisis that led her to make this choice with the utter destruction of them, their hiding place, and everyone within it (most of whom are helpless refugees) by any means necessary — even threatening to call upon the Daleks — if they can't fix it. Clara talks him out of this, telling him it's not in his nature — but knowing that he was once the War Doctor and is about to be handed over to his enemies (and thus will be alone), she orders him to not give in to his worst instincts and keep being the Doctor. Tragically, "Heaven Sent" sees the anguished Doctor horribly tortured while his pain is fresh and raw, and he emerges from this Driven to Madness — in "Hell Bent", he's willing to shoot someone solely to make a getaway (although, crucially, he knows they will regenerate) and risk the safety of the entire universe on a selfish, Tragic Dream of saving Clara from the grave, even though he has regularly condemned others for the same actions. He is eventually brought back to his best self, but it's telling this requires the help of a Mind Rape to unburden him from the anguish that drove him mad.
  • "Resolution":
    • Lin, who is depicted as normally fairly cheerful, is visibly tense and quiet when she returns from the location in the sewer where she spotted a mysterious alien creature on the wall. Unfortunately, Mitch doesn't notice until after she's left the area, by which time it's too late to get the creature, which is using her as a Meat Puppet, off.
    • Yaz quickly figures out they're about to face a grim situation early in the episode when she notices the Doctor has gone quiet.
      Yaz: Doctor... I don't like it when you go quiet.
  • "Spyfall":
    • The story introduces a new incarnation of the Master who is particularly prone to Psychopathic Manchild and Hair-Trigger Temper behaviour, displaying it almost constantly throughout his screen time after he reveals his identity, with the few moments where he isn't acting like that somewhat instead having him be just plain psychotic and rage-filled. But then, at the end, after the Doctor has visited Gallifrey and discovered he wasn't lying about the place having been razed, she gets a holographic message from him: a message in which he is completely serious as he explains what happened to Gallifrey. The seriousness only drops at the very end when he refuses to tell the Doctor what he discovered about the "Timeless Child", and it is chilling, given what he has to say in the message.
    • The Doctor is normally very talkative, even when she's by herself, as shown by the first scene of part 2 when she's busy chattering to herself while in the dimension of the Kasaavin. After she takes the TARDIS to Gallifrey and sees that the Master was not lying when he said it was completely destroyed, she is silent while listening to the Master's geolocked message and continues to say nothing while angrily throwing the message away and then sitting with her back against one of the pillars in the TARDIS. She evidently continues to be less-than-chatty while travelling with the fam, as Graham notes towards the end of the episode that she has barely said a word during their trips to five different planets.
  • "The Night of the Doctor": The War Doctor is this concept applied to an entire incarnation of the character. One plot point that's been raised in the post-revival series is that "the Doctor" isn't just a title, it's a Heroic Vow to never be cruel or cowardly and to never give up. The War Doctor's very first words are, "Doctor no more," putting the promise that gave him his name on hold because the Time War didn't need that, it needed someone who could end it, no matter the cost. As if to drive the point home, his first clothing decision is to pick up a bandolier belonging to a woman who chose to die rather than be saved by a Time Lord and put it on.
• Dollhouse:
  • In the first season and earlier second season, anything Topher is against on moral grounds goes well beyond just being wrong. This is lessened with time as Topher develops more of a conscience.
  • Wacky stoner Alan Tudyk suddenly and wordlessly carving someone's face up in Alpha's signature style.
• Drake & Josh: Josh is normally depicted as rather Hot-Blooded and often gets frantic when dealing with Drake. However, in "Josh Is Done", when he tells Drake he's ending his friendship with him for good, he is noticeably calm, making it clear that he truly means what he had just told him.
  Drake: Stop being mad at me.
  Josh: I'm not mad at you. I'm done.
  Drake: What's that supposed to mean?
  Josh: I don't want anything to do with you anymore.
  Drake: So what, are you gonna move out?
  Josh: No. This is a house where I live and I guess we'll be roommates until the day I leave for college, but that's all we'll be is roommates. I'm done with you.

E

• Elementary: Sherlock sees that the medical examiner Hawkes is self-medicating excessively due to the PTSD he's suffering from the explosion the month before that nearly killed him and did kill his girlfriend. Hawkes denies there's a problem until Sherlock reveals the backstory of how he spiraled into addiction as a result of the (alleged) death of Irene Adler, and that he'll be damned if he'll allow Hawkes to do the same thing, finishing off by calling him "mate", which Holmes never does. The next time Hawkes appears he's taking medical leave to get help.
  • Speaking of Irene, when Sherlock is close to finding the man he believes killed her, he tells flatly tells Watson that he plans to torture and murder him. This shows the extent to which Holmes is willing to throw rationality out the window where Irene is concerned.
• Euphoria: In "The Next Episode", Rue and Lexi both realize something is wrong with Jules when she gets drunk.
• The Expanse, S3 E2. Chrisjen Avasarala — the queen of sass — stops short in the middle of a witty comment to ask exactly what the consequences of *not* following the pilot's instructions would be. That's exactly how bad the high-G burn is stressing her.
  Roberta "Bobbie" Draper: Keep clenching your thighs.
  Avasarala: [barely able to breathe] If you're hitting on me, I'm flattered, but I have neither the inclination nor... [beat] What does clenching do?

F

• In one of the DVD Commentaries for Firefly, Joss Whedon points out that Alan Tudyk has a great ability to sell the gravity of situations just by looking upset.
  • An unconventional example in "Serenity" since the first impression we have of a character turns out to be OOC. Simon withholds treatment from a critically injured Kaylee until Mal agrees to help him outrun Alliance agents that are after him. For the first act, Simon comes across as very shifty and, since he used a dying woman as leverage and had a naked girl in his luggage, he looked like an amoral criminal. However, from the midpoint onward it became clear that Simon is a generally good person, and it was only the fact River was in danger that meant he was willing to throw medical ethics and his personal morality to the wind.
• In an episode of Frasier, Niles is forced by the financial burden inflicted by his brutal divorce from his spiteful ex-wife Maris to downgrade from his luxurious elite penthouse to a single room apartment in the Shangri-La, a low-rent low-budget complex inhabited mainly by single men going through divorces. When Frasier and Martin come to visit him soon after moving in, they are surprised to find Niles having apparently cheerfully settled in, made friends with the neighbors, and wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt. While Martin's happy to see him adjusting to his new home, Frasier immediately suspects that the ordinarily snobbish milquetoast Niles is merely suppressing his true misery and pain at the circumstances he's reduced to. Both Niles and Martin deny this, causing an argument that eventually leads to this little moment:
  Martin: Oh, would you just leave the guy alone! He's obviously having a good time. I'd be happy here myself; this is my kinda place!
  Niles: ... Get me out of this hellhole!!!
• Freddy's Nightmares: As in the film series, Freddy Krueger is as cruel, murderous and cackling as ever, making puns or mocking those who die or suffer terrible fates in the stories. However, the episode "A Family Affair" doesn't feature this. As the victim suffers from drug abuse and loses his life, Freddy is seen being rather grim and actually somewhat sympathetic to his fate.
• The The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Bullets Over Bel-Air" sees Carlton traumatized by being robbed at an ATM and the subsquent shooting of Will, who ends up Taking the Bullet for Carlton. The resultant trauma leads Carlton to question the system his father, a lawyer and judge, is a part of and even buying a gun and ammo.
• Friends: Throughout the series, Chandler makes self deprecating jokes when he gets together with Monica about how out of his league she is and how she wears the pants in the relationship and calls all the shots. In one episode, when she finds out how much money he has (the exact number is not shown, but it implied to be in the six digits) and IMMEDIATELY goes about planning on spending all the money on their wedding. At the point, even though he later agrees to spend it after she tells him they don’t have to, he puts his foot down, doesn’t make jokes, and tells her, in no uncertain terms, he’s not blowing his savings on “a party”. Phoebe, who was very cruel to Chandler at various parts of the show, is BEYOND impressed, and even expresses attraction towards him “Money AND a backbone? Now THAT’S a Chandler I can get behind.”.
• Played for Laughs in Full House:
  • D.J.'s remark about the contrast between the reluctance from Jesse and Danny in teaching D.J. about driving and the grudging willingness Kimmy's father is implied to exhibit towards Kimmy^note  (Kimmy mentions while she's about to have a driving practice session that her father is blindfolding himself) late in "Driving Miss D.J." is: "For the first time in my life, I wish I was a Gibbler."
  • Jesse actually agrees with Kimmy when she voices her opinion he finds agreeable despite being no fan of Kimmy in "The Trouble with Danny" when she sees the Tanner family cleaning the house.
    Kimmy: What's wrong with you people? How can you get this house any cleaner? It's already the cleanest house in America.
    Jesse: You know something? For the first time, Gibbler is actually making sense.
    Kimmy: It had to start somewhere.
  • Late in the episode "The Producer", when the whole Tanner family dine at a restaurant, Jesse takes Nicky and Alex to the lobby for acting up. After they return to their dining table, Rebecca, upon seeing the boys in their well-behaved moment, asks: "Jess, where are our children?"
  • When Danny and Jesse, at D.J.'s request, try to talk Kimmy out of her would-be wedding to Dwayne late in the episode "Taking the Plunge" and their prepared speech isn't getting the desired effect, the exchange below takes place:
    Jesse: Uh, Kimmy, what we're trying to say here is that we-we-we-we... *beat* care about you.
    Kimmy: Really? You do? I can't believe what I'm hearing.
    Jesse: I can't believe what I'm saying.

G

• Game of Thrones:
  • Roose Bolton:
    • In the episode "The Rains of Castamere", the normally stoic and to-the-point Lord Roose Bolton is acting increasingly festive and merry during a wedding, even though he refuses alcoholic drinks throughout. The wedding is going to end in a massacre, and Bolton is part of the conspiracy. He finds the happiness of the wedding guests who are about to die incredibly amusing. Catelyn notices, but by the time she puts it together and realizes he's wearing chainmail under his robes it's already too late.
    • The only time he expresses worry is when he informs Lord Walder that the Blackfish has escaped.
    • He very subtly expresses worry again, when he finds out that Bran and Rickon are still alive.
    • He's still The Stoic about it, but Sansa's escape clearly rattles him as he has essentially lost his key to holding the North.
  • In Season 2 of Game of Thrones, Tyrion cracks a joke (as he is prone to do) and Cersei actually laughs at it. Tyrion is immediately suspicious and asks Cersei why she's smiling. Cersei then reveals she's found Tyrion's whore (she actually has the wrong girl, but still), and begins threatening that if anything happens to Joffrey in the upcoming battle, she'll take it out on Shae.
  • This is lampshaded when it occurs a second time when Cersei is unusually happy when meeting with her father and Tyrion, who usually irritate her to no end. Her incessant smiling tips Tyrion off that something is very wrong, and he demands she stop doing it because it's making him uncomfortable. Turns out she's giddy because she knows Tyrion is about to be forced into a loveless marriage. Her tune quickly changes when she's also put up for a loveless marriage (again!) in the same fashion.
  • In a conversation about the late Ned Stark, Stannis notes that it seems odd for such an honorable man in a Perfectly Arranged Marriage to have a moment of weakness and bring back a bastard son as a result. And it turns out he's right — Jon is a Stark, but he's not Ned's son.
  • Davos actually disobeys Stannis in attempting to kill Melisandre, illustrating succinctly just how large of a threat Davos perceives Melisandre to be as well as how unbalanced his grief over his son has made him.
  • In Season 3, after losing his hand there are subtle signs that Jaime is changing, as he rants about why he hates being called Kingslayer after years of silence and shows hints of sexual attraction to a woman other than Cersei.
  • When Daenerys gives Tyrion the badge and position of Hand of the Queen, the usually wisecracking Tyrion is left stunned and can only kneel to his new queen in gratitude.
  • Any time Varys drops his Sissy Villain act and politely mocking tone of voice, you know it's come time to be afraid. The sorcerer is a prime example of what Varys is capable of when he gets serious.
  • Drogon suddenly becomes docile after confronting Jon, allowing the King in the North to stroke his head in a surprisingly tender moment. Daenerys is visibly stunned by this. He has never let anyone but her that close before now.
  • When Stannis talks with Shireen in "The Dance of Dragons", he sets aside his typical Brutal Honesty and is much at ease with hugging her. Cut to Shireen being carried to the stake.
  • After Jon ruins any chance of an alliance with Cersei to fight the Army of the Dead, Brienne approaches Jaime to try to convince Cersei to agree to a re-negotiation. He refuses on the grounds that they are on opposing sides, prompting her to yell "Fuck loyalty!" in his face, much to his shock, especially since she's normally all about loyalty and honor. It says a lot about how bad the Army of the Dead that Brienne considers survival more important than honor and loyalty.
• In The Goes Wrong Show, during the episode "90 Degrees", towards the end, Robert, playing the dog Ruffles (badly), chimes in with an ad-lib after a plot twist, causing Sandra, playing Barbara, to shut him down while not bothering to speak with the Southern American accent she had been acting with for the rest of the play.
  Robert: (over radio) Woof, woof, woof! (Beat) I've got some thoughts on this.
  Sandra: (blurted out in her natural English accent) No, you don't!
• The Good Place:
  • Michael's Heel–Face Turn is officially complete when he breaks down and starts crying for the first time.
  • After having all his memories restored, the first sign that Chidi, The Ditherer to the extreme, has become his "best self" is that despite being thrust right into a dire situation, he's not only completely calm and confident, but he specifically knows what he wants to eat while working out a solution, showing that he's finally gotten over his hangups about finding the "perfect answer".
  • Jason is easily the most fun-loving character in the show, and is easily distracted and/or entertained — so when he gets bored of go-kart racing in the actual Good Place, it signifies that everyone there is miserable.
• Gotham:
  • One of the versions of the Joker actually starts out as a fairly serious person before he undergoes further sanity slippage later in the show. When he's first introduced, he only smiles rarely, and it's usually a very bad sign for everyone if he actually does.
  • Jim Gordon starts the series as a clean-cut cop who hates partner Harvey Bullock's Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique. So when a bus of kids is kidnapped and Bullock is slamming a guy with a phone book, the fact Gordon is just standing to the side with arms crossed is a clear sign things are bad.
  Bullock: You see that man there? He doesn't like it when I beat people, but for you, he's got no objection, now why is that?
  Jim: Math. The lives of 30 children versus one scumbag.
  Bullock: Which means I can beat you like a bongo drum and St. Jim here won't intervene!
  • When ex-wife Barbara drops by and Jim starts putting the moves on her while brushing off talk of then-girlfriend Lee, it takes Barabara ten seconds to realize this isn't Jim, it's Clayface.
• Grantchester: Sidney Chambers has not been an advocate of any kind of violence ever since he joined the Anglican priesthood following World War II. So when he gets physical with Geordie over his support of the death penalty, it really sells how badly Gary's execution affected him.

H

• Happy Days:
  • Subverted in "Fearless Fonzarelli" when Fonzie is worried something's wrong with him when he can't start the jukebox with his hand like usual, then Marion is concerned that he doesn't have any dates since he usually Really Gets Around. However, he's fine.
  • In one episode, a sign Fonzie is in a serious slump is when his hair, which is usually immaculate, is messy.
• Harrow: Dass realizes this about Harrow's actions during the series, specifically that he had made apparent mistakes in forensic science despite being the best pathologist in the state, fueling her suspicions about his connection to Quinn's death.
• Hell's Kitchen:
  • Gordon Ramsay is usually the embodiment of a mean Brit; not because he's a bad person, but because seeing people squander their talents or potential is his Berserk Button. So the few times when he's polite or complementary to a contestant, it's 100% wholehearted, and generally produces a heartwarming moment.
  • In Season 6 of the US version, Gordon refers to contestant Robert as "Bobby", which greatly upsets the normally jovial man. During a private meeting later, Robert explains that Bobby was the name of his abusive father, who always told him he'd never amount to anything. Gordon apologizes for unintentionally bringing up painful memories and promises never to use that name again.
• House plays with this trope left and right.
  • Half the time when it comes into play it's an aversion; House will deliberately invoke this Trope for any number of reasons; sometimes out of an elaborate scheme, sometimes to lull them into a false sense of security, sometimes just to fuck with people. If Dr. House is in any way acting friendly or agreeable, 90% he's up to something.
  • The other 10% it's a genuine Pet the Dog moment. When House goes too far he'll suddenly become quiet and say or do something to show how much he cares.
  • In Season 2's "Forever", House throws his cane aside and runs to a hospital room after he notices a newborn baby is being smothered
• House of Anubis:
  • Whenever Victor acts kind and protective of the students, you know things are getting serious.
  • Similarly, it's a bad sign when Fabian gets genuinely angry at someone else, being the Nice Guy he is. Plus, when Alfie finds out he had been mean to the heartbroken Joy, it was enough to prove to him that Fabian was a sinner.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • In the episode "Do I Know You?", Barney, who has recently fallen in love with Robin, takes her out to dinner on Lily's advice to make a good impression so that Robin will take him seriously and not dismiss him as the sleazy, womanizing idiot he usually is. His attempt at being chivalrous and tasteful is so impressive (he doesn't even bat an eye when the buxom waitress practically dangles her breasts under his nose) it completely weirds Robin out and she tries to make Barney act like himself again:
    Robin: Hey, so I went to the chiropractor yesterday... That guy bent me over the table and pounded me for a good hour...
    Barney: Insurance gonna cover that? Sometimes they don't.
    Robin: That's it?
    Barney: (polite smile)
    Robin: Okay... Well, um, today, I was at the dentist, that guy drilled me. All day long.
    Barney: (polite nod)
    Robin: He drilled me hard.
    Barney: (polite nod)
    Robin: He filled all of my cavities... Come on, man!
    Barney: Well, your teeth look fantastic.
    Robin: Who ARE you?!
  • Barney burning the Playbook in Season 8 was treated by the rest of the gang as a sign that he was serious about being in a relationship with Patrice. It's later revealed he burned the book as part of his "The Robin" play, but it's no less shocking because he genuinely meant it since "[he doesn't] need it anymore".

I

• iCarly:
  • If it's Carly or Freddie that starts to suggest breaking and entering, vandalism or general mayhem, and not Sam, then the situation has definitely got out of hand.
  • Sam acting considerate and helpful worries Carly and Freddie, and they start to believe Sam is in love with their new intern.
  • When Carly and her friends choose to do something out of line, the usually laid-back and fun-loving Spencer becomes a strict killjoy in "iLook-a-Like" and "iDate a Bad Boy," grounding Carly in both episodes for disobeying him.
• In one of the season finales to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mac discovers his estranged father has actually written him multiple letters from prison, and that all of these have been intercepted and burned by his best friend Dennis. While the Gang typically backstabs and undermines each other all the time, this hurts Mac so much that rather than attack Dennis he becomes deeply sedated and depressed. Even the other members of the Gang are caught off-guard by this.

K

• Kamen Rider:
  • Ankh in Kamen Rider OOO is arrogant and spends most of his time mocking and yelling at Eiji. So in one episode, where Eiji has just been through a lot (physically and emotionally), Ankh quietly and sincerely asking him if he's okay, with no trace of his usual arrogance or mockery and shows that despite everything, he really does care about Eiji.
  • Kagami Hiiro from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid treats everything with the same stoic determination, be it cutting a fruit cake, fighting, or performing surgery. So when he emotes anything else than contempt, people around him realize that something is wrong pretty quickly.
    • Also, you know that the situation is serious when he is willing to set aside his grudge against Hanaya Taiga.
    • Speaking of Taiga, he usually acts like an arrogant jerk with zero care for anyone but himself. When he justifies his presence in CR by saying he doesn't want anyone to get hurt when he is around, people don't question it only because there is no time for that.
  • Parado is angry at his partner-in-crime, Kuroto Dan. How does he make this obvious? He drops the smile and gives Kuroto a Death Glare, just for a second. This freaks Kuroto out enough to back off immediately.
    • Nico Saiba respects neither personal property nor space and Taiga Hanaya knows it all too well since she gleefully manhandles him on a regular basis. Later episodes have her try to touch him with comforting intention and none of the antics, only to stop in fear of reaction.
    • Haima Kagami is the Plucky Comic Relief and a Butt-Monkey, who has been made fun of through the whole story. The couple times when he acts seriously, you know the organic waste has hit the air circulatory device ^note Shit hit the fan hard.
    • Emu Hojo is a kindhearted pediatrician, who smiles a lot, trips over himself, and just wants everyone to be happy and well. He puts on the Death Glare, you know it's too late to run.
  • Ryuga Banjou in Kamen Rider Build loves to boast about his muscles, can get very loud and is overall this comedic Dumb Muscle. Then there are times when he goes the insecure, soft-spoken route and they are heartbreaking.
• Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris are well-known (and mocked) for their performances as zany, melodramatic, and dim-witted socialites in the Keeping up with the Kardashians reality show and spinoffs. In a recent episode, Kim and Kris visited Vienna, where a blackface performer pretending to be Kim's husband Kanye West was at an event they attended. Both of them, especially Kim, dropped their "act", stopped smiling, and made it very clear that the situation was in no way funny.
• When Mirabelle of The Kicks is acting unusually considerate because she's helping Devin cover up her injured ankle, Emma initially thinks she lost a bet.
• In Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay is usually a Determinator when it comes to helping people fix up their restaurants. However, in the infamous "Amy's Baking Company" episode, the two of them drove him so far up the wall that he actually broke down and pulled a Screw This, I'm Outta Here.

L

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver:
  • The episode "American Healthcare Act" brings up how Trump is so distant from the bill, he hadn't gone out of his way to name it "Trumpcare". And as John points out, that is a major red flag, considering the sheer amount of shitty things he has put his name on, like Trump Vodka, Trump Ties and Donald Trump Jr.
  • How do you emphasize the seriousness of global warming? Invite over kids' edutainment icon Bill Nye and have him drop a Cluster F-Bomb on the viewer.
  • The end of the "Police" episode in 2020 hits hard with this. After getting more angered and more torn about the issue during the episode, John plays a clip of Kimberly Jones' speech. When it cuts back to the studio, there's no skits or stunts like usual; just a devastated John who ends the show with a somber "That's our show. Thanks for watching. Goodnight."
• Law & Order: Organized Crime: Jet abruptly hugging Stabler takes him aback, while it also makes her feel funny, as she's generally not at all one to show her emotions much less display physical affection. It shows just how concerned she's grown over a hit being put out against him, and it breaks down her usual emotional reserve.
• Lethal Weapon: When Riggs asks for backup, the captain sends everybody!
• Leverage: One of Eliot's catchphrases is "I don't like guns", usually said while reflexively unloading one after taking it off someone else. When he shoots someone (instead of killing him hand-to-hand) in "The Big Bang Job", it's a fairly good indicator of how seriously he takes this particular mark.
• Lost:
  • If Sawyer ever refers to another person by their actual name instead of a nickname, the recipient almost always takes it more seriously. The first time it ever happens is when Kate realizes that his parents died when he was young, and he calls her Kate instead of "freckles" to make her listen to him.
  • When Hurley realizes that the Numbers that plague his life are somehow connected to the Island, he starts getting frantic, anxious, and angry in his pursuit for the answer, something that the other survivors are clearly concerned by.
  • In "Do No Harm", as Boone is dying, Kate forgoes any of her usual banter with Sawyer and outright yells that Jack needs his alcohol supply now, which makes Sawyer give it up without complaint.
  • In the second episode, Shannon is nervous even looking at a gun, but when she believes that Locke is responsible for her brother's death, she steals one, loads it, and comes close to killing him with it out of pure grief.
  • Ben establishes himself very quickly as someone who loves to hear himself talk. However, when Alex is killed in front of him, he simply mutters to himself about how the perpetrators "changed the rules" and walks into his basement, with no one able to stop his path or get him to talk. It's revealed later that he called the Monster in as backup, leading to almost the entire mercenary team being massacred.
  • When Locke and Ben are discussing moving the island after Alex's death, the normally well-mannered Ben warns Locke off his destiny-searching path with the warning "Because destiny, John... is a fickle bitch!"
• The Love Boat.
  • A recurring plot has a passenger being an old friend of one member of the crew who soon realizes their odd behavior is hinting something is seriously wrong with their lives.
  • When the usually jovial and happy-go-lucky Gopher is short-tempered and snapping at people, his friends know something is up.
  • Doc enters the Captain's cabin to find Stubbing, a recovering alcoholic for ten years, holding an unopened bottle of scotch and instantly knows his friend is suffering from a serious setback.

M

• The writers of Mad Men do this on a meta-level in Season 4 (which begins a few months after Don Draper's divorce). Don had previously established himself as a moderate drinker who never got more than just a bit lubricated; when Season 4 starts, he's seen stumbling home from bars, being drunk on duty, and being called an alcoholic by at least two other characters. Furthermore, he had previously been a Chivalrous Pervert who would never hit on or be creepy toward any of the women in the office, let alone have an affair or even a one-night stand with one; Season 4 brings on the occasional pass and finally an ill-advised affair with his secretary Allison. Things only start getting better for him when he finds a relationship (first with statistician Faye, and then with his secretary Megan^note A relationship that had started platonically when he needed a babysitter to supervise his kids when he took them to California.). However, by this point, everyone — and particularly the audience — has gotten the message: Don's marriage was really important to him despite his seemingly cavalier attitude, and despite his womanizing, he needs a girlfriend/wife to keep him on the level.
• One episode of Malcolm in the Middle had a short gag where Reese was lying down in bed. Dewey walked in front of Reese and asks him to hold onto his wet towel while he bends over to pick up his poems about puppies, like taunting him into snapping him in the butt with the towel, but Reese simply stares at him. The gag ends when Dewey walks outside of the room where Lois is waiting and says, "He really is sick."
• The Man in the High Castle
  • The Affably Evil Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith always threatens and blackmails people very tactfully in the course of his duties in the SS. However, when he becomes worried that his own wife might incriminate herself during her therapy sessions, he very overtly and bluntly tells the therapist that he'll kill him if he falls out of line.
  • When the Smiths are under great strain due to the risk of their son's congenital health defect getting exposed, Helen lashes out at John, telling him that it's all his fault. He simply looks mournfully at his wife and tells her that he loves her, which visibly spooks her. Later, after Thomas has decided to submit himself to state euthanasia, his sister starts teasing him, and he has the exact same reaction. This causes her to tell their mother that something's wrong with him.
• The Mandalorian:
  • One of the main elements of the titular character is that he comes from a tribe of Mandalorians who follow a creed forbidding them from ever removing their helmets around others (even fellow members of their tribe), with the act of doing so resulting in expulsion from said tribe. In the second season's seventh episode, he has to disguise himself as a stormtrooper in order to infiltrate an Imperial mining installation, so that he can access a terminal that will lead him to the whereabouts of Grogu (aka the Child). When he goes to use the terminal, he discovers that it requires a facial scan of the user in order to grant access. It speaks a lot to his desperation to find Grogu that, after only a moment's hesitation, he willingly breaks his creed and removes his helmet so that the terminal can scan him. In full view of a cafeteria full of Imperials, no less.
  • In the second season finale, he takes his helmet off again so Grogu can finally see what he looks like before they part ways.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel:
  • After Abe finds out about Midge's new nightlife as a comedian, he's in such a state that he refuses his favorite tomato juice, which doesn't go unnoticed by the others.
• In the M*A*S*H episode "The More I See You", BJ is floored when womanizer Hawkeye spots an ex-girlfriend arriving at the camp...and hides.
• Subverted in "The Concert", during The Middle's third season. After an early exit from a spelling bee, an event he had gone all the way to the regionals in the previous season, Brick, usually cool and unflappably optimistic, is angry and then depressed, remaining in his room the next day and vowing never to return to school. His parents are actually happy because it's an emotionally appropriate response from a child not known to them.
• Monk:
  • Adrian Monk has severe OCD and a host of other phobias, such that he frequently needs sanitary wipes. During a garbage strike in San Francisco, he is so disturbed by the trash bags piled around that he is unable to function as a detective. By the climax of the story, he's driving a garbage truck around, picking up the garbage himself, and fingering Alice Cooper for the crime in a summation that's more implausible than usual. His friends get him to a clean room, and he gets back to normal. Relatively speaking.
  • There's one episode where a radio host is a suspect in a crime, and Monk appears on his show to interview him. The story of Trudy's death comes up, and one of the hosts offers his condolences. The suspect, who's a serious Jerkass, starts making tasteless jokes. You know Monk is pissed when the normally mild-mannered detective who abstains from physical contact jumps across the table to tackle the man.
  • The two episodes where Monk tries alternative methods of treatment, "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" and "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized", other characters do take alarm when Monk starts acting unusually. In the former, it starts because he polishes off Stottlemeyer's hospital meal tray (which he seems more interested in than in Randy's news about the drive-by shooting that Stottlemeyer got shot in) and actually hugs Stottlemeyer. In the latter, it's when Monk decides to adopt a frog named Hoppy from Sally Larkin's backyard.
    • Related: in Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii, when Natalie discovers Monk on the same plane as her on the way to Hawaii, she is noticeably alarmed by his strange behaviors as she is unaware that he is on Dioxynl (the medicine from "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine").
  • And Natalie is not immune either, in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever". Normally, she's very accepting of Monk's OCD behaviors and has a bubbly personality, but when she becomes a lottery hostess, Monk observes her becoming a full-tilt diva. For example, in one scene, she gets incredibly pissed when she trips over some sound wires, getting into a heated argument with the sound engineer, which culminates in the station manager being involved, and said engineer being fired because he's got a hot streak. Monk even says he's observed it when he talks to Dr. Bell:
    Dr. Neven Bell: But I see your point about the monkey.
    Adrian Monk: All I'm trying to say is... it's not the same Natalie! If you knew her you wouldn't know her! Last night after the show, she got somebody fired!
    Dr. Neven Bell: Really?
    Adrian Monk: One of the crew, sound guy! There were some wires on the floor, and she was just like (leans back in his chairs and snarls like a raptor) you know, complaining.
  • In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", we see that Monk is disturbed to see Natalie drinking a bottle of mouthwash after learning that Dr. Polanski, whom she was making out with the previous night, is a leper, given that she was the one teaching him about compassion and tolerance when it comes to lepers.
  • Also, when someone Monk cares about is in danger (for instance, in "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies"^note his desire to speed up in traffic to get to Ambrose when he realizes the shell casing incriminating Pat van Ranken in his wife's death is in Ambrose's house, "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic"^note when Ray Galardi accidentally kidnaps Natalie in his dump truck, "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion"^note when Monk realizes Kyle Brooks is planning to kill his wife Dianne), he tends to set aside his persnicketiness and get dangerous.
• Mr. Young:
  • At the end of "Mr. Space", Adam realizes he has changed Finnegan for the better when Derby and Slab, who ordinarily can barely spell their own names, start spouting off science trivia.
  • In another episode both Derby and Ivy are visibly disturbed when the latter compliments the former.
• Murdoch Mysteries:
  • At the end of "Murdoch in Wonderland", before confessing to releasing Ava Moon, teetotaler Murdoch asks Brackenreid for a drink.
  • This builds up in "Murdoch in Toyland" as the culprit's actions begin to get under Murdoch's skin, a fact Brackenreid lampshades. When Brackenreid says he can't hear anything on a recording, Murdoch testily insists he can. When the inspector is slow on the uptake after Murdoch explains the cancellation of sound waves, the normally-deferential detective snaps the goal at his boss: "A clean recording!" When he finally confronts the culprit James Gillies, Murdoch has to be restrained from punching him in the face not once but twice: once by Constable Crabtree in the hotel room and once by Inspector Brackenreid in the station house interview room.
  • In "The Murdoch Trap", when the suspended Murdoch and (also suspended) Brackenreid are joined by Crabtree at the Inspector's dining table to plan their re-investigation of the case against Dr. Ogden, the regular tippler Brackenreid is drinking tea, and he promises to drink nothing stronger until the case is solved. Murdoch thanks him for the gesture, and Brackenreid urges Murdoch to hurry up and solve the case because he's sick of drinking "bloody tea."
  • In "Republic of Murdoch", Inspector Brackenreid's son John suddenly visits his father at Station House 4 sporting a black eye and a split lip. The boy has learned that his father thinks he's gay, and he picked a fight with a much-larger boy to prove his masculinity to the anxious inspector.
  • In the B-plot of "Kung Fu Crabtree", Brackenreid goes to a hotel room and is greeted by an anxious Dr. Ogden and an equally tense Murdoch holding a gun. Brackenreid reacts to the sight of the gun and realizes things are serious since Murdoch rarely uses or even carries a firearm. He then learns that Julia has been getting death threats against herself and Murdoch purporting to be from their nemesis James Gillies.
• In episode 3 of The Musketeers, the normally calm and stoic Athos simply shut down after discovering his wife Milady whom he had executed was actually alive. When he dazedly tried to explain to D'Artagnan and became more and more frantic, D'Artagnan was noticeably alarmed and frightened.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • The framing device is that mad scientists Prof. Forrester and Frank are showing the Satellite of Love crew bad movies as part of a twisted experiment. One movie, Manos: The Hands of Fate, was SO bad that the villains broke character, apologized to the crew, and tried to cheer them up to get them through the movie. It doesn't really work, as the bots are reduced to blubbering pools of tears. In the same episode, at one point the normally laid-back Joel shouts "DO SOMETHING! GOD!" It's a telling indicator of how trying the movie is.
  • Another moment of Joel losing his cool at a movie took place was "Lost Continent", during the infamous "Rock Climbing" sequence.
  • We get a similar moment in the The Wild World of Batwoman where during the final pointless dance scene Tom Servo starts screaming "END! END! END!" Tom is not as laid back as Joel but he rarely screams like that.
  • He screams again during Mitchell when the title character descends to a child's level to have a prolonged argument.
  • Joel, despite all the Mad's torture, has always treated them as Friendly Enemies. That is until "The Castle of Fu Manchu" when the Mad's revel in some Evil Gloating after the bots reach the Despair Event Horizon. Joel goes into full Papa Wolf mode and unleashes a "Reason You Suck" Speech so powerful, it drives the Mads to try and watch the movie themselves.
  • In Soultaker, the normally friendly Gypsy suddenly acting angry and aggressive is a sign that the Satellite of Love — which Gypsy is connected to — is starting to breakdown.

N

• The Nanny:
  • Niles and C.C. Babcock have been trading barbs with each other since day one, so when one day he doesn't retort her snark, she immediately realizes something is wrong, the cause of which is him having a heart attack (which he eventually recovers from).
  • Among C.C.'s attributes is being an Enemy to All Living Things (to the point that even her pet dog Chester doesn't particularly like her). So, in "Yetta's Lettas", after having sex with Niles, everybody's amazed when she's seen singing and dancing with animals like she's a Disney princess.
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide has Buzz Rodriguez (the guy that never speaks) in Loomer's gang makes a point/ delivers some kind of lesson on the good things volunteering. Everyone currently on the scene Lampshades it.
  Mose: Did he just say something? He never says something!
  [aforementioned speech]
  Jerry: So THAT'S what he sounds like!
  Loomer: Dude, you haven't said anything since we've known you.
  Buzz: Everything's been fine up to this point.
• Never Have I Ever: The usually sweet Kamala's outbursts when relationships are mentioned, since she had to break up with Steve, her boyfriend — an American man of East Asian, rather than Indian, descent.
• Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves: In Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves, when Bengt's best friend Madde is identified as "Bengt's girlfriend" by the priest at Bengt's funeral (after Bengt had killed himself after learning that he was dying of AIDS), Paul answers not with his normal glibness, but with genuine tear-filled offence:
  Paul: Girlfriend?!... It is one thing that this beautiful young man wasn't allowed to live his life — but must they deny him that short life that he had?!
  • Not to mention Benjamin at Lars-Åke's funeral when the family has asked for donations to be made to the Cancer Fund rather than to AIDS research. Benjamin's reaction is to curse repeatedly, which shocks the other members of the family.

O

• Obi-Wan Kenobi shows the normally stoic and collected Darth Vader outraged in Part IV. As Third Sister Reva had lost both Obi-Wan Kenobi and young Princess Leia after both were in the Inquistors' Base, Vader storms towards her in a pace other Stormtroopers are having trouble keeping up with and proceeds to Force Choke her while roaring out that her failures would no longer be tolerated, an anger you'd only see over in A New Hope. The only thing preventing him from killing her there is Reva revealing she planted a tracker on Leia's droid.
  Darth Vader: You were warned! What defeat! Would bring!
  • In fact, during the whole ordeal in the show, specially the third episode, Vader is so enraged upon sensing his former master that he actively starts killing random civilians for no reason while trying to find the man. Vader also enganges in brutal and unrestrained combat style in an attempt to wear him down, and even tortures him in a field of burning fuel, demonstrating a form of revenge-fueled sadism that he normally tries to avoid. This, along with the aforement moment, demonstrates Vader is so consumed by his hatred and rage against his old master he's willing to forsake his usual Pragmatic Villainy just to punish him in the most painful way possible.

P

• Person of Interest: This is what clues the rest of the team into the fact that The Machine has completely stopped talking to Root because of Samaritan. Instead of being an upbeat lunatic, she's unnervingly quiet and subdued. It actually scares the others more than her psychotic behavior does.
  Shaw: Hey Eeyore, where's the perky psycho? You're creeping me out.
• The Plot Against America:
  • The normally demure Evelyn is so shocked by Henry Ford's antisemitic slur that she snaps a Yiddish curse at him that she doesn't even understand.
  • After Sandy tells his father, "You're worse than Hitler," Bess slaps him across the face and screams at him. Sandy is clearly stunned by his nurturing mother's uncharacteristic fury, showing just how far the family has deteriorated.
• Any time one of the Power Rangers acts rude, indifferent, overly-violent, or shows some negative vice, it tends to mean something is wrong, often a curse inflicted via one of the bad guys. This was most prevalent during the Zordon era, and it seemed Zordon could catch on much faster than they could.
  • In Power Rangers in Space Astronema saves a mother and her children from one of her own Quantrons, before she does, she looks on at them with a worried look on her face that says "I have to do something" with a tinge of sadness. This is the first clue that Astronema isn't nearly as evil as she lets on at least not until her brainwashing after her Heel–Face Turn, even then. The music even stops. Up to that point, she was assumed to be your average Large Ham Card-Carrying Villain who was equal parts goofy and evil, much like Rita and Divatox. It was the first time Power Rangers had an Anti-Villain Big Bad.
• Project Runway: Host Tim Gunn exemplifies poise and tact at all times, so when he calls Season 8 contestant Gretchen a manipulative bully, things have really gotten out of hand.
• Psych:
  • In an episode, Shawn and Gus find a missing camp counselor's bloodstained pajamas. Later, when Shawn explains how he knew her disappearance had been staged, he mentions how Gus didn't freak out like he usually does when he saw the "blood," meaning he must have been in on the secret.
  • The first episode involving the Yin-Yang serial killer (who kidnaps Shawn's mother) involves this trope as well. Shawn has to get serious to deal with the dangerous case so he asks Gus to pick up the slack on the wacky jokes and bizarre antics for two reasons: 1) to keep anyone from noticing Shawn himself is taking this deadly serious (OoC for him), and 2) because Shawn needs those hijinks or else he'll crack under the pressure of a case this serious. What's completely in character, however, is that Shawn gets Gus to agree to not tell anyone why he's acting like an idiot during a life and death struggle, earning him some confused and angry looks from other characters as it continues.
  • In Season 7 when Henry gets shot, Shawn lets his emotions get in the way rather than acting rationally. When he investigates the suspect's home, instead of discreetly sneaking in and analyzing the evidence like he usually does, he breaks a window to get inside and trashes the place to vent his anger and frustration.
• Punky Brewster's friend Cherie is normally sweet and effervescent, but in "The Anniversary", she suddenly becomes introverted and quiet. Punky finds out the day marks when Cherie's parents were killed in a traffic accident. Punky persuades Cherie to visit the graves at the cemetery, and there Cherie has a cathartic heart-to-heart with her departed parents that even moves Punky to tears.

Q

• Quantum Leap
  • If Nice Guy Sam Beckett really lets loose and pounds someone more than is needed to subdue them, you can be sure that either they've done something really horrible or Sam is Not Himself. If he attacks someone who isn't trying to hit him, even more so.
  • And if he departs from his usual Chaste Hero tendencies, he's either deeply emotionally involved or something weird is going on.

R

• Radio Enfer:
  • Every time Jean-Lou declines to eat something, it's a sign that he's not in a normal state.
  • Vincent notices that something wrong is happening to Carl because the latter didn't insult the former at all for an entire day, which is because Carl is preoccupied with his father wanting him to take over his bowling business.
  • Jean-Lou thinks it's odd when Carl is reading his horoscope in a magazine for girls and when Maria forgets Jean-Lou owed her money (not knowing that Carl and Maria just had their first romantic kiss the day before). Giroux also finds it odd when Maria is arguing in Carl's favor about an upcoming talent contest:
    Giroux: [to Maria] Since when are you defending Carl?
    Jean-Lou: Ever since she no longer cares about money and that Carl is reading his horoscope.
  • Vincent finds it strange when his father calls him "my dear son" right before revealing the truth about Dominique being Vincent's sister:
    Vincent: "My dear son"? It must be really serious.
  • After Giroux makes a compliment on her outfit, Maria finds it odd that he's being so nice to her. He then mentions that the school board sent him a new directive about trying to be closer with his students. At the end, it turns out said directive was from a piece of paper that was from five years ago and thus outdated.
• Reba:
  • During the first season, Van is down after failing a history test and being unable to play tackle football as a result. Cheyenne offers some pizza for Van, only for Van to decline. As Van's Trademark Favorite Food is pizza, this alarms Cheyenne enough to yell for Reba's help.
  • One example has this played for heartwarming effect. Reba spends about the entire series acting annoyed with Barbra Jean or poking fun of her whenever she shows up, so it's notable when she claims Barbra Jean as her best friend late in the Grand Finale, much to the shock of nearly everyone else.
  Reba: Well, I'm not going to stand here and let my best friend just go and ruin her life!
• Red Dwarf:
  • In "Krytie TV", when Rimmer seems against filming women in the showers, Holly remarks "Alright, who are you, and what have you done with our Rimmer?"
  • In Season 6 finale "Out of Time", the Starbug crew is facing what appears to be certain death in a fight with their morally-repugnant but technologically-superior future selves. After confirming they have basically no chance, Rimmer suggests they fight anyway.
    Kryten: Mr Rimmer?
    Rimmer: Better dead than smeg!
• The Rookie (2018): Nyla, who's usually hard-edged, prickly and sarcastic, starts to exude kindness when she gets pregnant due to her hormones. Everyone keeps asking if she's okay, and Nyla is a bit perturbed herself by it.
• Penny pinching patriarch Jim Royle of The Royle Family never misses an opportunity to complain at his mother-in-law or save money. So what does he say to his wife Barbara at her Nana's funeral? "I'd give all the money in the world to have one last drink with her." And when he wins £100 on a scratch card he hides the fact from Barbara and seems to spend a little too much money out drinking, it looks to us and Barbara that Jim is being a selfish miser again. But come Christmas Day, just after Barbara shouts at him for hiding the money in front of the whole family, she finds that Jim had bought her a new wedding ring to replace the one she lost a few months back.

S

• In the Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode "The Great Mistake", there's a flashback to the day Hilda was left at the altar. Zelda notes the groom's lateness with increasing anger; Hilda insists each time that he'll arrive. Then, after an hour of waiting, Zelda gently places a hand on Hilda's shoulder.
  Zelda: It's getting cold.
• Dr. Cox of Scrubs is The Nicknamer to the rest of the cast and never lets any of them in emotionally. But once in a blue moon, he'll drop the nicknames and talk from the heart. Though he rarely ever calls J.D. by his name (and even then, it's always by his last name), one episode has him address him as J.D., while thanking him for helping him out of his Heroic BSoD. Another example would be when, furious at J.D. for ditching his interns, he yells "Where the hell is Dorian!". Yelling isn't OOC, but calling him Dorian definitely is.
  • If Dr. Kelso doesn't insult Cox when giving him information, such as in "My Lunch", you know that something VERY bad has happened to a patient.
• Sherlock:
  • When Sherlock meets Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", she says "Brainy's the new sexy" and his normally perfect enunciation fails for a second and he mumbles his next sentence. John's expression shows how big a deal this is.
  • Sherlock offering to do the groceries or making coffee should have tipped John off that something was wrong.
  • In "The Hounds of Baskerville", it's a huge deal to see Sherlock and, to a slightly lesser extent, John, experiencing and expressing devastating levels of fear:
    Sherlock: (clutching a glass of whiskey and shaking badly) Look at me, John. I'm afraid.
  • With one line Sherlock lets the audience know how bad things are in "The Reichenbach Fall".
    Sherlock: You were right. I'm not okay.
• Smallville:
  • If the mild-mannered Clark Kent starts speaking and acting rough and is sexually aggressive, you could bet your lucky stars that he is on red kryptonite. On the other hand, seeing him being overly cheerful and completely without Wangst is not a good sign either ("Hypnotic")... Oh, and whenever he is not crazy over Lana, something is definitely wrong.
  • If Chloe Sullivan wears black, run away as fast as you could. She had donned a black outfit on three occasions — in "Rush" when a parasite makes her do all sorts of crazy things, in "Exodus" when she betrays Clark, and in "Identity" when she renders the bad guy of the week catatonic in a truly terrifying scene. Also, if she does anything to hurt Clark in any possible way, something is very, very wrong.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • In "Prototype", the team stumbles upon Khalek, a seemingly-innocent, newborn clone of Anubis, and Technical Pacifist scientist Daniel Jackson flat-out says that they should kill him. Not imprison him, not study him, not try to reason with him. Kill him. Kill him before his Goa'uld genetic memory kicks in and he remembers who he is. His reaction is understandable given the circumstances: Khalek is physiologically closer to an Ancient than an ordinary human, with all the superpowers that entail, and furthermore he will soon be able to Ascend — and it took nothing short of a Divine Intervention to stop Anubis the first time. Daniel even lampshades this in dialogue: if he, of all people, says this is the only option, then it must be. And yes, Daniel is the one who ends up shooting him, while Khalek is busy deflecting Mitchell's shots.
  • In "Shades of Grey", O'Neill and Hammond's unusual actions at the beginning of the episode are really the only way to tell that there's more going on than meets the eye.
  • In one episode, a gluttonous Goa'uld who had up until that point been giving information in exchange for some of Earth's food (after having been starved for an unstated amount of time), refuses any more food and demands his freedom for any more information. He tells Landry, "I don't get to say this often, General, but at the moment, I'm full."
  • In "Chain Reaction", General Hammond abruptly announces he's stepping down as head of the SGC, claiming he's tired of the job. O'Neill doesn't buy it for a second, and sure enough, after a bit of prodding Hammond confides that the real reason is because his family was threatened by the NID.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: There are several examples related to Spock, usually involving the otherwise stoic Vulcan becoming unusually expressive.
  • "The Menagerie" centers around this trope. The Enterprise diverts to a Starbase, claiming to have received an order to come there... which only Spock claims to have heard. Spock then proceeds to attack Starbase personnel, falsify records, and eventually commit outright mutiny — he even kidnaps Dr. McCoy! — in order to get the Enterprise, with his crippled former superior and friend, Captain Pike, aboard, to Talos IV — landing on which planet is the only death penalty left in Federation law books, for unknown reasons. When inevitably caught up with and court-martialed right there on the ship, he outright begs to be allowed to continue on to Talos IV. Figuring out why Spock is so dramatically out of character and deciding what to do about it is the plot of the episode.
  • In "The Devil in the Dark", Spock, the Technical Pacifist scientist of the group, takes aim at the Last of Its Kind Horta with a phaser when he catches it near Kirk.
  • In "Amok Time", Spock acquires a hair-trigger temper and diverts the ship to Vulcan despite orders to proceed to Altair 6. This is due to a certain quirk of Vulcan physiology that they are very reluctant to explain to outsiders.
  • In "All Our Yesterdays", Spock and Bones get stuck in the past in a way that causes the otherwise stoic and restrained Spock to gradually behave more like his violent ancestors. The first time this becomes apparent is when Bones gives usual mildly bigoted but good natured tirade to the half-Vulcan Spock, except this time Spock doesn't take it lying down and gets hostile with the doctor. Cue a massive Oh, Crap! from Bones.
  • For a non-Spock example, Kirk takes advantage of this in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", anticipating that the android duplicate being made of him would perform an act of espionage on the USS Enterprise, and subconsciously programs racism against Vulcans into the android's memory bank so that Spock would figure out that something's afoot.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • The episode "Q Who" features Starfleet's first encounter with the Borg, thanks to Q's machinations. When he is blamed for the deaths of 18 crew members in a confrontation, he drops all pretenses of being a Trickster God Jerkass and utters a chilling, "Oh, please..." With those two words, the audience (and the crew) realize that Q's amiable persona is simply one aspect of his being, which he can discard at will.
  • In "I Borg", an away team discovers that the wreckage that they're investigating is that of a Borg ship, and there's a survivor. Honor-obsessed Proud Warrior Race Guy Worf recommends killing it, making it look like an accident, and running like hell. The compassionate, unflappable Captain Picard seriously considers doing it.
    • In the earliest parts of the episode, the only person willing to address the drone as a person is Geordi. He later actually delivers a Whoopi Epiphany Speech to Guinan, who gives the drone a chance. After she is brought around, she manages to convince Picard to at least hear him out, but Picard remains unconvinced until Hugh actually uses the personal pronoun "I", and begins to shift his own tone after that moment.
  • Data is an android with an emotionless robot brain that operates with computerized perfection at all times. Any deviation from his normal personality is treated by the other characters as a code-red emergency. They're always right. For example, in "The Most Toys", that Data failed to transmit a bit of shuttle flight information to Enterprise is the first bit of evidence LaForge finds to sugguest that Data's shuttle accident was staged. The transmission was so trivial that any other pilot might have just skipped it without arousing suspicion, but Data never takes shortcuts.
    • Another, more dramatic example from the same episode: Data has a fundamental respect for life, especially sentient life. So if a character is evil and dangerous enough to drive him to attempt cold-blooded murder...
  • More commonly, if Data uses a contraction, it's usually either a sign that Lore is around, or that you're stuck in an illusion.
  • Lwaxana Troi is overbearing, self-centered, and a stickler for Betazoid tradition, to the point that she had her servant Mr. Homn ring a gong every time she took a bite of food as a sort of ongoing saying of grace. In "Cost of Living", she's actually willing to wear a (hideous) dress to her upcoming wedding despite the traditional Betazoid wedding dress being, well, birthday suits. It's a sign that she's desperately lonely and willing to do almost anything to find a companion, as she admits to Alexander when they're alone.
  • In "Future Imperfect", one of the signs that Riker's friends aren't actually real is that Geordi, who's normally a very competent engineer, is taking more than two hours to fix a minor glitch in the ship's computer, and Data (in addition to his use of a contraction as mentioned above), who's normally extremely Good with Numbers, is having trouble calculating.
  • In "Allegiance", when "Picard" starts singing drinking songs and asking for a physical, it's a sign he's an impostor. Normally, Picard is reserved and dislikes physicals.
  • In "The Survivors", Picard notes that it's odd that Deanna Troi is claiming to be in perfect health despite clearly appearing to be unwell, since usually, she's one of the most honest out of his staff. Similarly, Data is even more honest than Deanna, so everyone is concerned in "Clues" when he appears to be lying, and wonder if something is wrong with him.
  • Likewise, in the later episode "Masks", Geordi looks genuinely unnerved and concerned when Data asks a question that is somehow both a very 'Data-like' question... and also something Data would absolutely never ask.
    Data: Geordi? What... does it feel like, when a person is losing his mind?
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • In "Improbable Cause", after three years and an entire episode full of blatant cheerful obfuscation, when the crew realizes the Romulans are trying to assassinate him, Sisko asks Garak why they'd want to. Garak responds with a simple "I don't know." Odo calls out the horrifying fact that Garak is telling the truth. Because as the show's resident Magnificent Bastard and Knowledge Broker, Garak either knows everything or can guess what he doesn't know. So if Garak had known what the score was, he'd already be spinning some intricate web of obfuscation. To see him so stumped that he's actually cooperating with the truth is as stunning for the audience as it is for the crew.
  • Another one for Garak features in "Empok Nor", when he's affected by a biologically engineered virus that enhances the Cardassian xenophobia to such an extent that he goes against his usual claustrophobia to coolly hide in a stasis pod and take down an enemy, going so far as to kill one of the Starfleet research team accompanying him. While Garak has no problem killing others, after he's cured of the virus he sincerely asks Chief O'Brien to pass on his condolences to his victim's wife, as on this occasion he didn't kill for a clear purpose or to further some greater agenda.
  • Odo habitually never uses weapons of any kind — not the ubiquitous phasers, not knives, not anything. Not only because he prefers to use his shapeshifting abilities to take down suspects when necessary, but also, he's against taking a life. When he picks up a phaser in "Heart of Stone", you know he's pissed.
  • Odo is known for his cool demeanor (as Quark puts it "I always thought you were colder than a Breen winter") and keeping things together. Thus, seeing him flustered in "Crossfire" when he realizes Kira (who he loves) is falling for Shakaar is amusing at first. However, it gets serious when Odo is so distracted by the two talking about a date that he fails to check the security code sent by "Worf" to turn over turbolift controls, nearly killing them all. When Kira says she's in love with Shakaar and then Worf finds the would-be assassin, Odo returns to his quarter and erupts into a rage, smashing every piece of furniture he can.
    • Hearing the noise, Quark comes up to complain, thinking Odo is shapeshifting in practice again. The sight of Odo just sitting in the wreckage, silent and his "hair" mussed up lets Quark know something is seriously wrong and pushes him to give a pep talk (disguised as looking out for his own profits in a "Mahunt Pool") to get Odo out of this funk.
  • Quark's chilling line in "The Siege of AR-558" regarding how even the nicest humans can turn into bloodthirsty killers if they are deprived of their normal comforts and placed in danger over a long period of time. Then later in the episode, he's tending to his wounded nephew when the Jem'hadar attack, one of them barge in the room, and Quark turns around and shoots him. This after spending 6+ seasons mainly as a comic relief character.
  • The usually unflappable and Affably Evil Weyoun finally loses his cool when Dukat screws up royally by unleashing Pah-Wraiths into the wormhole, which causes it to disappear completely, stranding Weyoun and his people thousands of light-years away from home and cutting them off from re-enforcements and crucial supplies. Shouting and angry scoffing ensue.
  • Bashir, O'Brien, and Quark are shocked when Worf, who is usually a rather grumpy individual, sincerely apologizes to them for his attitude due to Jadzia's death. O'Brien even more so since he's known Worf since his days on the Enterprise.
  • Odo is normally very serious, and he and Kira are also quite grumpy. So, whenever Quark (who Odo has a friendly rivalry with and who Kira outright hates) sees one of those two acting unusually happy, he fears that it's because they are going to punish him.
  • In "Distant Voices", Bashir figures out that something is up when he notices that Dax, who is usually more of a thinker than a fighter, is turning to violence as the first solution for a problem, and O'Brien, who's usually rather hopeful, is being pessimistic. As it turns out, they're just hallucinations, embodying his confidence and sense of doubt respectively.
• Star Trek: Discovery: When Tilly is hearing the voice of her dead friend May, her friends are instantly concerned when she speaks infrequently and with shorter words. Usually, Tilly is a Motor Mouth who speaks in Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
• Star Trek: Enterprise:
  • In "Singularity", a sign that the crew (except T'Pol and Travis) are being affected by dangerous radiation is when the normally polite Hoshi yells at a coworker and when Phlox, who's usually a very amiable guy, starts acting like a Mad Doctor.
  • In "The Crossing", one of the early signs that Trip is possessed is when he leaves engineering in the middle of a job despite usually being hardworking. Likewise, it's a sign that the usually strait-laced Malcolm is possessed when he starts coming onto T'Pol, his coworker.
• Star Trek: Voyager:
  • One episode reveals the Omega Directive, which is activated when the Omega particle (which may have triggered the Big Bang, and has phenomenal destructive power) is detected. Known only to those ranked captain or higher, it requires that the captain disregard all other Starfleet protocols, including the Prime Directive, in order to destroy the particle as quickly as possible.
  • In "Q2", when Q's son stirs up the Borg for fun, he loses his cool and shouts at his son. As previously demonstrated in the TNG episode "Q Who", the Borg is the one thing Q takes seriously.
  • When Seven of Nine, who's usually The Stoic, cries in "Imperfection", it's a sign one of her Borg implants is malfunctioning and she will die if it isn't replaced. Subverted at the end of the episode, however, when she cries again despite the implant working normally.
  • In "Extreme Risk", one sign that the normally fiery B'Elanna Torres is going through psychological trauma is when she doesn't insult Neelix. She also doesn't want to eat banana pancakes despite them being her favourite food.
  • In "Once Upon a Time", Naomi begins to suspect something is wrong when the usually bubbly Neelix starts acting nervous and evasive.
  • Subverted in one episode, when an alien starts possessing crew members, Neelix becomes concerned when one man changes his drink order. He's fine, though.
  • Another subversion regarding Neelix occurs in an early episode where he thinks something is wrong with Tuvok due to him sitting on the other side of the table from usually, but he's fine.
  • In one episode, most of the Voyager crew are kidnapped and mind-altered. One sign that Tom Paris isn't himself is when he claims space travel makes him sick despite normally being a pilot.
• Star Trek: Picard: Invoked by Picard in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1" when he discovers that Hugh, a Nice Guy who isn't aggressive, was willing to kill Romulans in order to prevent more of his fellow xBs on the Artifact from being exterminated.
  Picard: Poor Hugh. It must have taken appalling brutality to turn such a gentle soul to violence.
• In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two", Dean does not want to eat after the death of his brother. Happens again during "Family Remains" when he laments his time in hell, and during "My Bloody Valentine" when he refuses food and sex when the rest of the town is being affected by Famine's hunger, the hunger not affecting Dean because he is so dead inside after his time in hell that nothing can fill up the void he has in him. Happens once again during the Season 9 finale when the depths of the Mark of Cain's effects on Dean are illustrated when he leaves his cheeseburger entirely untouched, again saying he isn't hungry.
  • Crowley, Smug Snake and Magnificent Bastard extraordinaire, trembling with terror and on the brink of panic in the mere presence of Cain. Though pretty much anyone watching could have assumed how deadly the Cain would be in this show, this pretty much hammered home the point that you do not piss this guy off.
  • Castiel became a rather shady and morally ambiguous figure during Season 6, but even at his worst, he refused to let Sam and Dean get hurt. So in the Season 6 finale, we know he's really gone off the deep end when he threatens to kill them if they will not bow down before him and profess their love of him.
  • Dean is never afraid to show his disrespect for anybody, however powerful. The only person intimidating enough to get him to show some respect is Death himself: if anyone or anything else told him to shut up he'd have a snarky remark or taunt. However...
    Death: Shut up, Dean.
    Dean: Yessir.
  • The Season 9 opening shows how much of a legend Sam is in the supernatural world: Death, who up until this point has acted totally apathetic towards humanity, says that he considers it an honor to pick up Sam's soul.
  • Sam knows something's very wrong when Dean, who was turned into a demon at the time calls the Impala "just a car".
  • Sam using a baby as bait, consenting to torture a kid, hiring hookers, showing no emotion when Dean hugs him, refusing to take the Impala and allowing Dean to get turned into a vampire among other things, after he was resurrected in Season 6. Turns out he was brought back without his soul, making him a complete sociopath.
  • Dean becoming more ruthless and violent when hunting (such as in Seasons 2 and 8) usually means he's not okay at all. As does him refusing to eat his junk food or refusing sex.

T

• In the second season of Teen Wolf, while the main cast tries to keep a Brainwashed and Crazy Jackson contained by keeping him locked in, Stiles (who's on guarding duty) sends a text from Jackson's phone to his parents so that they don't worry when he doesn't get home. The thing is, as Allison tells Stiles when he informs her what he did, Jackson hasn't told his parents he loved them since he was a little child, from the moment they told him he was adopted, and Stiles included an 'I love you' at the end of his text. Sure enough, minutes later, we're shown Jackson's father arriving at the police station to tell the Sheriff he's terribly concerned about Jackson because of this very reason and the police start immediately looking for Jackson.
• That '70s Show: Eric Forman's older sister Laurie is always teasing and putting him down. But in "Water Tower", when Eric tells her that he accidentally walked in on their parents having sex, she actually drops everything and consoles him.
• The Thick of It. When Malcolm Tucker stops swearing and speaks in a measured, reasonable tone, tremble. When Malcolm Tucker admits that things aren't going so well for him... run.
• Late in The Tick (2016), The Terror aims a gun at Arthur and threatens to shoot him. The Tick intervenes, and with no banter, no nonsensical allegories or speeches about justice, or even a hint of his normal happy-go-lucky self, he instead coldly threatens him. The Terror, who's never been intimidated or afraid of anything in the entire series, backs down:
  Tick: Terror. If you pull that trigger... I will hurt you.
• Top Gear
  • In the Bolivia special, there's a scene where Jeremy Clarkson tells his fellow hosts to stick together as they cross the Andes while suffering from altitude sickness (not surprising as they are traveling at 17,000 feet, well above the altitude where supplemental oxygen/pressurized cabins are required for aircraft). Considering that this is pretty much the complete inverse of how they usually behave, it drives home exactly how dangerous the situation with the high altitude is.
  • The trio a traversing a dangerously narrow mountain road with no railings, and James "Captain Slow" May tells the others not to ram him as they usually would. Normally he would take such taunts on the nose. This time, though, he calmly gets out of his car, goes over to Jeremy's, leans in the window, and proceeds to threaten Jeremy with a machete.
  • Normally, if one of them falls behind due to the car malfunctioning in some way, the others leave him to spite him. On the death road, the headlights on James' car stop working and he asks Richard to not abandon him. Richard listens.
  • The first overseas special in the US has two instances of this:
    • The trio drive through Alabama with offensive slogans scrawled on their cars. This stunt almost gets them attacked by, to put it bluntly, rednecks. The gravity of the situation is driven home by Clarkson being unflinchingly polite to the gathering mob in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation.
    • When the trio arrive in New Orleans, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina a scant year before and still hadn't shown any sign of recovery, they immediately stop the joking and decide to quit the last part of their challenge in favor of donating their cars to needy families for free.
  • In the Syria special, when James suffers a serious head injury that requires medical attention, they immediately rush over to help him.
• True Detective: It's almost inconceivable at that the hardened, cynical veteran Cohle could be disturbed by anything, so after he starts playing the cult videotape for Hart and then stands on the other side of the room with his back turned, you know it's some seriously twisted stuff.
• In the Two and a Half Men episode titled "That Pistol-Packin' Hermaphrodite", Charlie tells Rose (his stalker) he's getting married. Rose visibly forces a very calm response and, for the first time in the series, leaves the house using the front door.

V

• The Vampire Diaries: When Damon stops Deadpan Snarking and starts actually being helpful, you know things are pretty bad.
• In Vikings Ivar the Boneless is shown to hardly fear anything. The only times he openly shows fear is when his and Ragnar's ship are caught in a storm and are in danger of shipwreck and drowning and when Odin appears before him, just to underscore how terrifying the god is.

W

• Washington Week: On March 4, 2016, in the midst of a battle with cancer, Gwen Ifill, normally an exceptionally nice woman both inside and outside of her line of work, betrayed some stress from having to report on the campaign antics of Donald Trump, the businessman who would be President (for want of a better sobriquet), resulting in a rare moment where she snarked on camera. She would die later in the year.
  Gwen Ifill: Good evening. OK. Deep breath, everybody. We're gonna try to keep it classy here. But it's hard, especially when the leading candidate for the Republican nomination keeps testing us.
• WandaVision:You know the sitcom happiness is falling apart when Vision starts yelling and expresses fear for the first time in the MCU.
• In Season 4 of Warehouse 13 Mrs. Fredrick arrives to help solve a problem but seems somewhat confused. Artie and Steve aren't particularly concerned until she starts walking away instead of her usual Offscreen Teleportation.
  Steve: She didn't just disappear, she walked away. Walked!
• On Toby's "Day of Jubilee" in The West Wing:
  Margaret: Hey, Toby.
  Toby: Hey there, Margaret.
  Margaret: Are you okay?
  Toby: Yeah. Why wouldn't I be okay?
  Margaret: You don't usually say, "Hey there, Margaret."
  Toby: (giggles) What do I usually say?
  Margaret: You usually growl something inaudible.
  Toby: Not today.
  Margaret: I see.
  Toby: You, on the other hand, should turn that frown upside down.
  Margaret: I'm sorry.
  Toby: Let a smile be your umbrella, Margaret.
  Margaret: Okay, now you're scaring the crap out of me, Toby.
  • More dramatically, Josh's impending PTSD breakdown is preceded by him becoming increasingly snappy and irrational around the people he works with, culminating in a disjointed rant to the President while in a meeting at the Oval Office.
  • Donna bringing coffee to Josh in the pilot.
  • Bartlet's reaction to his army doctor's death.
  • The normally unflappable Ron Butterfield, the head of Bartlet's Secret Service detail, is visibly shaken when he reports the kidnapping of Bartlet's youngest daughter to the Chief of Staff.
• Wednesday: Given that Wednesday prides herself on being an Emotionless Girl, you know something really bad is happening if she's visibly scared or upset.
• White Collar. Mozzie is an extremely paranoid Conspiracy Theorist who hyperventilated simply from walking into FBI headquarters. His friend Neal grabbing a gun, however, is serious enough for him to call up Peter, an FBI agent, to try and stop him.
• In Wizards of Waverly Place, the family mentions that Alex seems to have a Lack of Empathy regarding others' pain, including her own, and that tends to fuel a lot of her thoughtless actions. Therefore, if there is an episode where she performs a selfless act, worries about others, or starts crying, her parents and brothers know something is up and go to ask her about what is wrong. Case in point, she did all she could to warn Alex that Evilini wanted to drain his magic, though it would make her the family wizard and eliminate the competition, because while she will tease Justin and prank him, she doesn't want him badly hurt. In fact, she goes through a lot of effort before Justin believes her since he understandably thinks it's another prank, and he is shocked when she risks Evilini's wrath to expose the woman. In another case, when learning that her werewolf boyfriend once dated Justin's vampire girlfriend and Mason blurts out he still loves Juliet, Alex is shocked. She spends a few days in her room crying, and actually deigns to accept a comforting hug from her mother. When talking with Mason about, Alex points out that she knows that she screws up a lot of things, but she wouldn't mess with the heart of someone she loves. When Jerry tries to cheer her up with a prank of giving a customer prune juice instead of soda, you know that she's really hurting when she admonishes him for it instead of laughing.
  Alex: Oh, that poor man. What did he ever do to you, Dad?
• In Wolf Hall, Mark Rylance plays Thomas Cromwell as a man of very understated temper — it's there, but he remains perfectly calm in expressing it, except for two occasions. When Thomas More claims he does harm to no one, Cromwell slams the desk and loudly reminds More that he's being treated far more kindly than the heretics whom More not only had burned but tortured in his own home (including Cromwell's friend James Bainham). Later, when creating the case against Anne's inner circle, Wriothesly suggests they aren't going far enough to obtain confessions. Cromwell snaps and shouts that he's not the type to be too soft on young men, betraying his inner turmoil — he's doing this to save himself and take revenge for Wolsey's downfall, but he's far from comfortable doing so.
• Worzel Gummidge: In one episode, John and Sue can tell that Aunt Sally is an impostor when she says, "Thank you", since Sally is normally very rude.

Y

• Yes, Minister: Jim Hacker is dead set on a course of action that won't do anyone any favors, and won't be swayed. It's serious enough that Sir Humphrey even drops his incredibly elaborate Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness and tells him "If you're going to do this damn silly thing, don't do it in this damn silly way." This stops Hacker in his tracks.
• Young Sheldon:
  • "A Romantic Getaway and a Germanic Meat-Based Diet": In most episodes, Sheldon brushes off Missy's meanness. But in this episode, when she tells him that she hates him, he looks genuinely hurt and just walks away without making any of his usual comments.
  • "A Tornado, a 10-Hour Flight and a Darn Fine Ring":
    • While surrounded by illegal slot machines, one would expect Pastor Jeff to throw a fit. But instead, he calmly sits with the gamblers and laundromat patrons, praying for their safety and for the safety of their loved ones. And after Connie's house is destroyed, Jeff promises not to tell anyone about her business and tries to help clean up.
    • After her house is destroyed, Connie has no snarky comments. She can only stare in shock at the wreckage of her home.

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