Oblivious Guilt Slinging / Live-Action TV

Oblivious Guilt Slinging in Live-Action TV series.

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• The Affair: As Alison begins an affair with Noah, the amount of compliments she gets for being such a great wife to Cole steadily increase.
• All Creatures Great And Small. Tristan, having failed his finals once again, hid it from his brother and dropped smoking, alcohol and laziness in order to get him in a mellow mood. Siegfried was so impressed that, after proposing a toast to Tristan, he offered him a partnership in the practice — once he'd got his degree, of course. The audience cringes on Tristan's behalf for a good five minutes (Peter Davison does horrified/guilty/hurt puppy very well); after the explosion Tristan bounces back into his usual form, completely unruffled. The same cannot be said for the audience, who now want to strangle him.
• Arrow:
  • In "Betrayal", Tommy Merlyn complains to Oliver Queen about Laurel Lance keeping secret her meetings with the Arrow, when Oliver is the Arrow himself and keeping that secret from Tommy.
  • In "Birds of Prey", Thea Queen tells her brother that he's the only person who has never hidden anything from her. Not only is Oliver hiding that he's the Arrow, he's just discovered that Thea is the lovechild of an extramarital affair their mother had with Malcolm Merlyn.
  • In "Three Ghosts", Thea asks Oliver to help remove an arrow from the leg of her boyfriend Roy Harper. Oliver (in his Arrow disguise) was the one who put in there, to stop Roy running off and doing something stupid.
  • In "Corto Maltese", Ray Palmer complains to Felicity Smoak about "some whacko" blowing up QC's Applied Sciences building last year. Felicity not only took part in the raid with Team Arrow but thought up the idea in the first place.
    Felicity: I'm suuuurrre they had their reasons...
  • In "Lost in the Flood", a family of H.I.V.E. drones justify their actions by saying to Oliver how many people have promised to save this city, but have not delivered.
  • In "Promises Kept", Diggle explains to the team about his combat shakes and the drug he's been using to combat them, and makes a particular point of telling Dinah (who knew about the shakes but not the drug, and hadn't told the others because he told her he was better) that there'll be no more secrets between them. Dinah, who just let the Vigilante escape because he turned out to be her ex-partner, repeats, "No more secrets".
• In Austin & Ally, this happens to Austin every time he lies to Ally.
• Babylon 5: In "The Coming of Shadows", G'Kar gives Londo a friendly greeting after learning that the Centauri Emperor's visit was intended as a gesture of reconciliation. Londo is horrified by the realization that the attack he has already set in motion is destroying what would have otherwise been an opportunity for peace.
• Barry: The title character, a war veteran and aspiring actor who is secretly working as an assassin, admits that he feels guilty about the people he's killed, but makes it sound like he's just talking about his war experiences. His supportive class members assure him that killing in war is entirely justified, and only killing outside of battle is unforgivable. Barry is visibly crestfallen.
• In Breaking Bad, after going through Gale's notes on Walt's technique, Hank comments that if he had used his knowledge for good he could've been of great help to humanity. This hurts Walt for three reasons as A. Walt was the real mastermind with wasted potential he was talking about, B. Gale had real talent of his own but Walt had him killed to save his own skin, and C. Walt was too prideful to let others take credit for his work, which leads to him dropping a massive hint to Hank that the real Heisenberg was still out there.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "Lover's Walk", Willow and Xander have been developing an attraction to each other for the past few episodes. At the same time, Willow's boyfriend Oz gives her a present to celebrate her new identity as a witch. Willow, who already felt bad, is driven nearly frantic by this, and sets out to find a way to stop things with Xander before they go any further. Further compounded by Xander noticing that his girlfriend Cordelia is putting up pictures of the two of them in her locker as opposed to just pictures of herself like before to show that she is treating the relationship more seriously and increasing his guilt.
  • In "Dead Things", Buffy is neglecting her duties to have a Secret Relationship with vampire Spike involving BDSM and lots of torrid sex. Naturally the Scoobies tell her how hard she must be working, "being all tied up" and "pounding the big evil".
  • In "Killed by Death", Joyce (who's not yet in on the Masquerade) walks in on the Scoobies discussing the Monster of the Week. Everyone quickly shuts up, causing Joyce to quip that she's interrupted a secret meeting. Cue unconvincing laughs.
• Chuck:
  • A good example of this as Casey is supposed to kill Chuck once he's no longer useful, but especially in one of the more recent episodes, Chuck acts in a friendly way which makes Casey have reservations about doing this.
  • Another good example occurs when Sarah is told to bring in Chuck in the episode "Chuck Versus the First Kill", and Chuck notes how she's the only one he believes he can trust. Sarah ends up not going through with the assignment, instead escaping with Chuck to find his father.
• This happens a lot on Dexter, seeing as the entire premise is a cop (blood spatter analyst, to be exact) who's also a Serial-Killer Killer. The main "slingers" are Dexter's sister Deb and his girlfriend Rita, but sometimes his coworkers also make a few remarks that by all means hit home. Dexter's internal monologue often comments on how oblivious they are to the fact that the entirely likable guy in their midst is really a killer.
• Played for laughs in the Doctor Who episode "Extremis". Bill, the Doctor's companion and an out lesbian, has brought a girl she fancies, named Penny, to her foster mother's flat. Penny is a bit nervous about the whole thing, and Bill tells her that whatever their relationship is at this point, they have no need to feel guilty about this. Cue the Pope walking into the room, irate and muttering in Italian. Of course, unbeknownst to Bill or Penny, his irate muttering is because the TARDIS dropped him and the Doctor off at Bill's place instead of the Vatican.
• In the Enemy at the Door episode "Jealousy", a man whose business is being investigated by the authorities as an alleged cover for black market activity attempts to reassure his distraught sister by telling her there's no truth in it and the anonymous author of the allegation must be insane or just plain malicious. What the audience knows by this point, but he doesn't, is that his sister made the anonymous tip-off in an attempt to get his wife in trouble.
• In the Firefly episode "Ariel", after escaping the authorities, Simon talks enthusiastically about how he and River would be dead if not for Jayne, not knowing that he had betrayed them, and the only reason he helped them escape is that the Feds were going to arrest him too, instead of giving him the reward money.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: After Carlton accidentally takes some speed from Will's locker, Will feels responsible. When Phil decides to give Will his graduation present early and tells him he is proud of him, Will says he can't accept it and confesses.
• While hosting coverage of the Seattle Christmas Parade, Frasier claims that his family are very strict about not shaking their gifts before it's time to open them. The episode then cuts to his apartment where Martin, Niles and Daphne have already opened all the gifts and are now looking sheepishly at each other. Cue a frantic scramble for some tape to put everything back before Frasier gets home.
• Friends:
  • In one episode, during the period that Chandler and Monica's relationship was secret, Ross confessed to Chandler that he'd been dating Janice. Chandler didn't care, leading to this:
    Chandler: Why would I be mad?
    Ross: Because, you know, there are rules about this stuff. You don't fool around with your friends' ex-girlfriends, or possible girlfriends, or girls they're related to.
    [pause]
    Chandler: I am mad. But you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna forgive you! Because that's what friends do! They forgive their friends when they do everything you just said, all on the list there. But I want you to remember that I forgave you. And that I let you live here rent-free! And... that I gave you (looks through his wallet)... twenty... SEVEN dollars!
  • A more straight example is when Chandler kisses Joey's girlfriend Kathy while Joey is out; when Kathy subsequently dumps Joey, Joey gives Chandler his blessing to go after Kathy because Chandler was a good enough friend to ask him first. This guilts Chandler into revealing why Kathy broke up with Joey, and Joey — who hates being lied to — is angry at him through the next episode.
• In Galavant, there's an entire song in which Galavant declares his love for Madelena. He's completely unaware that she no longer loves him, and so she responds that she loves him "as much as someone like her can love anyone".
• The Good Place: In season 1, Michael confides in how hard he's taking all the things that are going wrong in his very first Good Place community, not understanding what could be causing it all and blaming himself. Eleanor knows exactly what's wrong: she doesn't belong there. Ultimately subverted with The Reveal that This Isn't Heaven and Michael knows full well that Eleanor is a bad person.
• Hannah Montana:
  • There are quite a few episodes where Miley does something mean to someone who tirelessly forgives her by saying how nice she is and how it was really his/her fault right before Miley does something worse.
  • In one episode, Miley, Lily, and Oliver make full use of the Hannah Montana image to raise a lot of money for a fundraiser, mostly to beat their enemies Amber and Ashley, but come around when they realize how much Sarah actually worked for her money.
  • In the series finale, Miley seriously considers accepting a movie role, which would require her to go back on her promise to go to college with Lily. When she tries to talk to Lily about it, Lily starts gushing about how happy she is that Miley is going to college with her instead of going on a world tour or accepting some movie offer.
• In Hell's Kitchen Season One, Elsie is put up for elimination near the end of the season after the rest of the contestants sabotage her chances by refusing to help her. Despite Chef Ramsay giving her a chance to call out her teammates, she took the Honor Before Reason route by claiming she had their support as the camera shows that the others are quite guilty…
• The iCarly episode "iPromise Not to Tell" has Carly get a B on the history report she worked so hard on (because she printed it on three-hole paper which the teacher hates), so Sam hacks into the school computer and changes the grade to an A so she's happy. But Carly refuses to accept a falsated grade, and becomes more guilt-ridden when she was forced to ankle-swear with Sam to not tell anyone about it, leading her to experience a Humiliation Conga over the course of the episode. The guilt eventually bites her too much that she couldn't take it anymore and had to tell the truth.
• In an episode of Scrubs, JD tries to impress his new girlfriend by paying a hobo to fake a heart attack, so he can "save his life". Kylie is impressed, but mostly by how "genuine" he is.
  Kylie: James [her ex] lied to me all the time. It's good to be thwith someone I can trust.
  J.D.: Cool. [internal monologue] Oh, no.
• In "Indiscretions", a sixth season episode of Highlander, Joe Dawson is being blackmailed and has to deliver Adam Pierson (AKA Methos) to an immortal. They're driving to an ambush when Methos starts telling him he feels there's a bond between them and "Who'd have ever thought I'd end up with a watcher as my best friend?"... by the time they arrive, night has fallen and Methos is still going on. Joe then yells at him to shut up and guiltily admits it's a trap. Methos' answer? "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?". Turns out Methos is Genre Savvy and knew everything from the get-go.
  Joe: Why did you drag this out?
  Methos: [grins] I'm easily amused.
• House of Cards (US): Claire gets this from Trisha, the First Lady. After spending a better part of season two helping Frank destroy the President's political career and putting his marriage on the rocks, Trisha calls Claire and tells her that "she's a good person." Claire breaks down crying at the end of the call.
• Legends of Tomorrow. In "Tender is the Nate", Hank Heywood barges into Ava Sharpe's office and starts complaining about the Legend's expenses, not knowing that he's interrupted her making out with Sara Lance.
  Hank: If I didn't know any better I'd say you were in bed with the Legends! [Reveal Shot of Sara hiding under the table running a hand up Ava's leg] Either that or this Captain Lance is simply screwing you! [Ava gives a guilty start]
• In Life with Boys Tess's father is a master of it, whenever Tess is about to fess up her father starts gushing about how good an example Tess is and she chickens out. She does finally give in each episode and they reach an understanding.
• The Man in the High Castle:
  • Juliana's mother tells her that she was afraid that her other daughter Trudy is dead because she had the same foreboding feeling that she had when her first husband died during the war, but is sure that Trudy's alright because the feeling went away the next morning. Juliana knows all too well that her sister is most likely dead by this point because of their involvement in the resistance.
  • After Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith is told that his only son has a degenerative muscle disease and that he should euthanize him, he's conflicted between his love for his son and what he feels is his 'duty' to give him a painless death. While he's looking at family pictures of his now deceased brother (who had the same affliction), Smith's wife Helen says that she thinks it's a good thing to kill the infirm, ignorant of her child's condition.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky tries to befriend his neighbor Yori and the bartender girl Leah; the former opens up to him about the pain of losing his son and not knowing how or why it happened. It brings Bucky immense guilt considering he was the one who killed Yori's son (as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, because the son had accidentally witnessed Bucky assassinating his targets during a mission).
• Merlin (2008):
  • One episode had King Uther tell his court physician Gaius, who secretly still uses magic from time to time despite it having been banned in Camelot, "You're the only one I can trust in the fight against magic." Gaius then shares an uncomfortable glance with his protege, Merlin.
  • This happened twice to Merlin in the episode "The Sins of the Father". Arthur told Merlin that those who practice magic are evil and dangerous and he was grateful to Merlin, who "helped" him realize it. Later, Uther told Merlin he was a great ally in the fight against magic.
  • One episode in the first season had Morgana become involved in a plot to assassinate Uther. In one of his many Knight Templar moments regarding magic, he had Gwen's father arrested and later killed without trial after escaping, for associating (unknowingly) with a sorcerer. His seeming belief that this was the right thing to do, and having Morgana chained in a dungeon for disagreeing, left her enraged enough to want him dead. She pretends to apologise and asks him to visit her father's grave together, where the assassins are waiting. While discussing her father, he heavily praises him, especially for being willing to speak against Uther when he is blinded by his temper. He then tells Morgana he needs her to do the same, and admits that she was right and he regrets having Gwen's father killed and Morgana locked up. All the while, the assassin is approaching ready to kill Uther. Thanks to Uther's sincere apology, not knowing she was planning to have him killed, Morgana realises Uther is not as evil as she had believed in her anger and warns him, saving his life.
• The Musketeers: In the episode "Death of a Hero", King Louis embraces his Evil Chancellor half-brother Feron at their father's graveside, and tells him "You're the only one who never betrayed me." Feron, who has just drawn a dagger to literally stab Louis in the back, sheathes it again.
• In one episode of Necessary Roughness, Ray J tells his mother about his car breaking down. Dani initially scolds him for not having it serviced earlier, but then thanks him for being honest with her. Of course, his car was actually stolen after he snuck into a club with TK the night before.
• Frequently occurs on Noah's Arc, usually with Wade (or Noah's boyfriend at the time) slinging the guilt at Noah (for Noah cheating, wanting to break up, etc.)
• "The Death of Art" episode of Other Space is thick with this when Zalien asks Karen about Art's final mission. Undercut by comedy when Zalien takes the news quite well ..because he has several backup units on hand.
• In an episode of Parks and Recreation, Leslie helps capture a rogue possum, nicknamed "Fairway Frank" since he runs loose on a golf course, after he bit the mayor's dog, so that he can be put down. However, Leslie has reason to believe they captured the wrong possum, but is conflicted because of how pleased the mayor's office is with her now. Scenes like this result.
• In the Red Dwarf episode "Marooned", Rimmer has a camphor-wood chest containing all his Napoleonic War models, and Lister has his guitar. When they're desperate for fuel for the fire, Rimmer says his belongings are too valuable, so Lister agrees to burn his guitar, providing he can play one song first. Rimmer gives him some privacy for this, and Lister immediately starts sawing a guitar shape out of the back of the chest. Then Rimmer returns, and is deeply impressed by what Lister has done.
  Rimmer: There's no point in being modest. I know what that guitar meant to you. The same as that trunk means to me. If that trunk got so much as scratched, I'd be devastated. It's not the outward value - for me, that trunk is a link to the past. A link to the father I never managed to square things with...
  Lister: Is it?
  Rimmer: It's the only thing he ever gave me, apart from ... apart from his disappointment. But you've shown me, by burning your guitar, what true value is. Decency. Self-sacrifice. Those are the things that make up real wealth. And from where I'm standing, I'm a pretty rich man.
  Lister: Oh, God...
  Rimmer: Burn the soldiers.
  Lister: No! Not the soldiers as well!
  Rimmer: You burnt your guitar. I wish to make a sacrifice too. Burn the Armee du Nord. Cast them into the flames, let them lay down their lives for the sake of friendship... What's that smell?
  Lister: What smell? I can't smell any smell.
  Rimmer: Camphor...
  Lister: Oh, God.
  Rimmer: Your guitar was made of camphor wood? It was probably worth a fortune! Burn the soldiers! Burn them right now!
• Rome. Lucius Vorenus is estranged from his wife Niobe after eight years campaigning in Gaul, but decides it's time he Took a Level in Kindness and swears on the life of his daughter's child that he will change his brusque ways. At that point Niobe nearly blurts out that she's been unfaithful to him, but Vorenus hushes her and says the past doesn't matter. His daughter's child is actually Niobe's, and this secret is instead exposed at the worst possible time.
• Happened to Tara right off the bat in the second season of Sons of Anarchy: she reluctantly agreed to be Jax's girlfriend, on the condition that there be no more secrets between them. Then Gemma gets raped and confides in Tara, stressing that she can't tell Jax about it, ever. Of course, Jax can't stop talking about how cool it is that he and Tara can tell each other everything.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the episode "The First Duty", Wesley Crusher is involved in an incident at Starfleet Academy in which a teammate was killed. He and his teammates initially manage to cover up the truth (that the accident was caused by them attempting a banned flying maneuver). During the investigation, Wesley's mother (Dr Beverly Crusher, the Enterprise's chief medical officer) consistently insists that Wesley is being totally honest and forthcoming, and the dead teammate's father thanks Wesley for being such a good friend. The guilt they unintentionally pile on Wesley is a big factor in him eventually confessing.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Nor The Battle to the Strong", there's a scene where Captain Sisko's son Jake is supposed to be helping Dr Bashir retrieve a portable generator, but is spooked by a bombardment and ends up running in the opposite direction, leaving Bashir to fend for himself. He eventually makes it back to the hospital and finds that Bashir has survived — and the moment he sees Jake, Bashir begins apologizing frantically for bringing Jake into a war zone, which only makes Jake feel that much worse about having left Bashir behind. Jake even comments on it in his Internal Monologue
  Jake: I couldn't stand hearing him apologise to me like that. Not after what I'd done to him.
• Star Trek: Picard:
  • In "The Impossible Box", ex-Borg drone Hugh has hopes that Picard will take up the cause of the xBs on the diplomatic stage, but Picard has a guilty expression given his past failures and uncertain future.
  • During the pursuit in "Nepenthe", Rios tells Jurati that he thinks the Romulans put a Tracking Device on Raffi, not knowing that Jurati is allowing herself to be tracked. It gets worse when Jurati hints that she's the one with the tracker and Rios laughs it off.
• Supernatural. In "Free To Be You And Me", Dean discovers Fallen Angel Castiel is a virgin, so hauls him to the nearest Den of Iniquity to rectify the problem. A blonde prostitute saunters up to them and introduces herself as Chastity. On hearing this, Cas promptly downs half a glass of beer.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: The twins are supposed to be graduating middle school, but Zack failed his reading class and therefore won't be graduating with his class. Zack is guilt-tripped when their mother Carey throws a party for them and bakes a cake, plus their father shows up and gives Zack his guitar as a gift. Zack confesses after all the pressure and is sent to summer school.
• Supergirl:
  • In the episode "Blood Memory", we learn that one woman in each generation of the Nal family inherits dream-based and precognitive powers, and everyone assumes it's going to be Nia's older sister Maeve, who has been training for it her entire life, largely assuming it because Maeve is cis and Nia is trans. Because it's so important to Maeve, Nia doesn't feel comfortable revealing that she's the one who inherited the powers until she can find a way to transfer them. When their mother dies, Maeve laments that if only she'd manifested the powers yet, she'd have been able to use her understanding to save her. What Nia hears is that if only she herself had accepted the powers, she'd have known how to interpret the vision she had.
  • In the season four finale, Lena discovers that not only is Kara Supergirl but Lena is literally the last person in their inner circle of friends to know this. In the season 5 premiere, Kara is thrown to find Lena has sold CatCo to a media baroness. Lena clearly is having a good time talking about how sorry she is as she knows how much Kara loves honesty and is far too good a person to ever keep any secrets from Lena and Lena never meant to hurt her by keeping her in the dark on something so important. This does push Kara to finally reveal her secret to Lena who acts as if she forgives Kara but is clearly still angered.
• Ted Lasso: For almost the entirety of the first season, team owner Rebecca is hoping Ted will fail as a coach, and even actively sabotaging him, in order to spite her terrible ex-husband, as the football club was the one thing he truly cared about. Through all of this, the oblivious Ted is nothing but kind and supportive to her, even openly defending her from her ex-husband's emotional abuse numerous times. Most of these displays of kindness make her visibly uncomfortable, until she finally comes clean to him. Ted, himself going through a painful, albeit amicable, divorce, understands and empathizes with her and doesn't hold a grudge.
• On The Thin Blue Line, while talking about the teenager they picked up for "joy-riding" in "Night Shift", Goody rambles briefly about the trouble broken families lead to before remembering that Fowler is a divorced father.
• 30 Rock: In "MILF Island," after Liz anonymously insults Jack in a gossip column, he tasks her with finding out who the leak is, emphasizing that she's the only one he can trust, and confiding how badly the comments had hurt his feelings. Turns out to be an Exploited Trope, as he knew it was her all along, and was toying with her for revenge.
• Tyrant (2014): When Bassam is plotting a coup against Jamal, the latter often mentions to his brother how happy he is that Bassam is the one person he can trust fully.
• In the White Collar episode "As You Were," Neal breaks into Peter's house and his personal safe, looking for a shipping manifest as part of a plan to fence stolen art and skip town. While he's there, Peter calls him and...asks how Neal is doing after his recent breakup, offers to listen anytime Neal needs to talk, and tells Neal that he deserves some happiness and Peter wants to help him. Neal is sufficiently guilt-stricken at this that he puts the manifest back and pretends he never found it.
• Wizards of Waverly Place:
  • In "Harper Knows", Alex starts to ponder whether or not to tell Harper about wizardry when the latter lashes at the former for keeping secrets from her. While the trope appeared averted in that Harper was guilting Alex on purpose, it was played straight in the end when, after winning the costume contest, Harper forgives Alex and thanks her for telling the truth. This final straw broke Alex and she finally told Harper about magic.
  • This also happens to Justin in the crossover with The Suite Life on Deck and Hannah Montana where he pretends to be a doctor to impress London. While on their date, London starts talking about many men who lied to her in the past. Justin starts to feel guilty and tries to tell London that he isn't a doctor, but doesn't go through with it when London again shows how much she loves him.
• Young Sheldon: In 'One Bad Night and Chaos of Selfish Desires', various characters do this to George (who considered cheating on Mary) over the course of the episode, notably Sheldon, Mary, Missy, and Pastor Jeff.

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