Sandbox / Magnificent Bastard Live Action TVH To Z

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

H - M

• Hannibal: Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself maintains a sense of charm and genteelness that is unmatched in other portrayals, despite being a cannibalistic Serial Killer. Hannibal delights in nothing more than "winding others up to watch them go" and manipulates events, gaslighting people and driving them to insanity or horrible deeds simply to watch what will unfold. Manipulating the FBI perfectly, especially Will Graham who Hannibal fixates on, he manages to elude suspicion for a frighteningly long time, even triggering one captured FBI agent with a trigger to shoot Dr. Frederick Chilton, whom he has a special contempt for. Hannibal also manipulates the dysfunctional Verger siblings until their relationship is at a bloody head before he mutilates and paralyzes the sadistic Mason Verger solely due to dislike of him. Hannibal does rouse himself to save the life of Will from a vengeful Mason later, and in the series finale proves his care for Will and desire for them to become a murderous couple when he rescues Will from the Red Dragon killer. A murderer with a god complex and Satanic Archetype, Hannibal is nevertheless an audacious manipulator with a captivating presence on the screen, ever joyful to string people along to his whims.
• Henry Danger: Rick Twitler is the founder of TwitFlash who eventually came to dislike how people were addicted to their screens and regretted creating the company. Hacking the Man Cave to gain access to the heroes' personal information, he sets up a series of events, which includes faking his kidnapping to trap the heroes and steal their powers, succeeding in taking Kid Danger's fast reflexes and turning himself into a computer virus that nearly spreads to the heroes. Anticipating that he may fail, Twitler had set up a video ahead of time giving Drex the blueprints to a superweapon. Returning in Danger Force, it is revealed that Twitler had yet another backup plan, having put his soul inside a computer years prior that inserted itself inside a video game. Twitler possesses Mika and later Helper Monkey into building a cyborg that he uses as a vessel to return from the dead. Holding the news station hostage, he uses a satellite to activate what's left of his computer virus and nearly infects everyone. When Volt manages to stop it, Twitler absorbs Henry's forcefield, as well as a combination of his cybernetics and the Indium Crystals to create enough power to destroy the internet.
• Hogan's Heroes: Marya is a Soviet spy who operates under the cover of being a White Russian émigré. Extremely capable behind her overacting and eccentric behavior, she proves one of the most cunning and charismatic schemers in the series. In her first appearance, she helps the Heroes to spring captured French Resistance member Tiger in order to obtain information about secret German airbases for her country. Subsequently, Marya alternates between working with the Heroes towards a common goal and working at cross purposes towards her own objectives, often using their own scheming to her advantage. Her achievements include destroying or discrediting plenty of high-ranking German officers and scientists, helping to steal a large portion of Hermann Göring's art collection, sabotaging the reputation of an experimental wunderwaffe, retrieving a Soviet scientist, and saving her spy ring from an SS plan to expose it. The only recurring character to consistently operate on the same level as Colonel Robert Hogan, Marya stands head and shoulders above most of the show's other schemers.
• The Holy Pearl (2011): Hu Ji is a demonic wind sorceress and former fairy forced into the service of the vile Shi You Ming. To save her people from Shi You Ming's wrath, Hu Ji works as his chief subordinate, leading his armies in combat and manipulating the emotions and politics of the human realm to soften them for the demons. Constantly plotting to usurp her master, Hu Ji remains quick to recover whenever seemingly beaten back by Shi You Ming and uses his distraction in combat to die bravely attacking the demon lord.
• Homeland:
  • Abu Nazir is an al-Qaeda commander who longs to destabilize the American government. After capturing soldiers Nicholas Brody and Tom Walker, Nazir forced Brody to seemingly kill Walker, before later halting his torture so he could nurse Brody back to health. After his son, Issa, and dozens of other children are killed in a drone strike launched by Vice President Walden, Nazir used the incident to expose America's hypocrisy to Brody. Seeking revenge, Nazir allowed Brody to be rescued by American soldiers so he, and Nazir's other agents, would gradually dismantle Walden from within and eliminate anyone in their path. When Brody fails to kill the Vice President, he instead has Brody try to influence Walden's policies against the Middle East. As he plans another terrorist attack, Nazir Brody's Love Interest, and forces Brody to assist him in killing the Vice President in exchange for freeing her. Once Walden is dead, Nazir allows himself to be caught and killed by the police so his followers can later set off a bomb during Walden's memorial service and frame Brody for the attack.
  • Tom Walker is a former soldier turned terrorist. After being captured alongside Nicholas Brody, Nazir forced Brody to beat Walker to death. In reality, Nazir helped Walker fake his death, and Walker snuck back into Washington D.C. to carry out most of Nazir's plans. Posing as a wandering vagrant, Walker routinely delivered messages to and from Nazir's agents, all while managing to elude various law enforcement officials. When Walker is finally exposed, he evades multiples police officers chasing after him and kills a hunter before the man can report him to the authorities. He also lures multiple CIA agents into a trap by pretending to meet with one of his contacts, only to have him killed in an explosion upon realizing he betrayed Nazir. Walker later assassinates Vice President Walden's chief aide as part of Nazir's elaborate plan to have the Vice President murdered and escapes without the police ever finding him.
• House of Cards (UK): Francis Urquhart plots, schemes, manipulates and backstabs his way up the political chain in the hopes of becoming Prime Minister; remaining above suspicion among all of his colleagues. He does it with class, skill and style, all the while giving conspiratorial No Fourth Wall asides to the audiences, explaining his thoughts on his opponents and next steps. He commits terrible deeds, frequently exposing scandals of rivals and supposed friends, manipulating others into doing his bidding and in some cases resorts to outright murder to get his way. Urquhart ends up as Prime Minister, determined to remain in office longer than even Margaret Thatcher, a goal which he absolutely achieves by the end, showing himself no less a cultured player of the grand game in the office as he was outside it. Even after his assassination, his machinations have ensured he will be remembered as a beloved figure in English history, his true villainy always concealed beneath the one line: "You may very well think that. I could not possibly comment."
• I Am Frankie's "I Am Eliza" two-parter: Prototype E, aka "Eliza" is an android prototype Dr. Sigourney Gaines created before Frankie. Prior to the series, she became an infamous international criminal who managed to get away with a lot of crimes. Needing a system update, she goes to the Gaines residence and poses as Frankie, managing to deceive Frankie's friends and family into thinking she was Frankie, uploading Frankie's memory files to keep up the facade and holding Sigourney and her family hostage when they discovers Eliza's identity. After disabling E.L.F. hardware and the GPS so Frankie couldn't connect, she'd get supplies for creating a new face to hide and cover her identity with, force her creator to create the face mask, and then destroy the laptop used to program said mask so her new face would be "untraceable". She'd put up an even battle against Frankie, and nearly shuts Frankie down permanently, only failing due to short-circuiting. She's then seemingly restrained to a charging chair, with her strength reduced, but she unplugged the chair before she could be de-powered, and manages to escape with what she wanted.
• iCarly's "iMeet Fred": Lucas Cruikshank is portrayed as a cunning prankster with aims on using internet drama to increase the popularity of both himself and iCarly. Under his popular Fred persona, he feigns offense at Freddie expressing distaste for his humor and proclaims that he'll never make another Fred video. Cultivating controversy against iCarly for days in which the internet turns on them, Lucas eventually reveals he schemed the whole thing to set up a friendship and team up with the iCarly crew, bringing them more viewers than ever before. Lucas sincerely apologizes for manipulating everyone, and even makes up with Freddie to publish a collaboration between Fred and iCarly.
• I, Claudius: Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, is a ruthless schemer set to put her son Tiberius on the throne. Poisoning her daughter-in-law Julia's husband to free her for marriage and later poisoning her second husband after biding her time, Livia arranges for the deaths and ruination of multiple impediments and rivals: revealing the affairs of Julia to ruin her, arranging an affair between Julia's son Postumus and her own granddaughter before framing Postumus of assaulting her and later having him disposed of. Livia even kills Augustus himself with poison she smears on his personal figs even as she mourns him. Upon finding Tiberius a revolting disappointment, she assists in Caligula's rise, though conceals the prophecy that Claudius will succeed Caligula as Emperor from the former, telling Claudius the truth of all that has transpired before her death with his vow that he will elevate her to a goddess when he is Emperor to save her from hell's torments.
• The Imperfects: "Isabel Finch" is the alter ego of Dr. Sydney Burke, created by an experimental gene therapy. Finch is a cunning genius who sets out to fulfill Burke's desires, manipulates Hannah Moore into helping get info on Burke's rivals and then picks them off. Realising that Dr. Dominique Crain is using them, Finch helps convince Burke to team up with her and sets out to perform a genius escape from captivity. Finch later manipulates her way into the good graces of Dr. Alex Sarkov in order to try and become the dominant personality of Burke's mind. Seemingly defeated, Finch simply bides her time, is now fully in control of Burke's mind and has disposed of Crain and taken her position.
• Inside No. 9:
  • "The Referee's a W***er": Martin Rutherford is a corrupt referee hellbent on promoting his team, City, to the top league of English football. Upon the final league match of the season, Martin sets about sabotaging a game between Rovers and United in order to dock points from them by orchestrating a magnificent Zero-Approval Gambit: enlisting the help of several incompetent officials to assist him with the game, Martin sets out to sow division amongst them by having the weakest one, Oggy, approached and bribed. He also makes sure to do the same to Phil, a junior referee who Martin knows will inform the authorities to save his career. Attempting to ruin the playing of United's star striker, Calvin, Martin seduces him and then falsely gives him a Love Confession right before the match in order to rattle him. Once on the field, Martin causes chaos by making deliberately poor refereeing decisions, until finally abandoning the game twelve minutes from time after successfully turning the crowd and the players against each other, causing each team to be docked points and ensuring that City will be promoted. Remaining completely above suspicion the whole time, Martin celebrates his victory upon being left alone, having accomplished everything he set out to do.
  • "Misdirection": Gabriel is a talented amateur magician determined to take revenge on Neville Griffin for murdering Gabriel's grandfather Wally Wando and stealing his magic trick. Using the concept of misdirection, Gabriel fools Neville into thinking that he is trying to expose him for the murder of Wally whilst actually planning to frame him for the murder of his wife. Using a series of tricks whilst remaining above suspicion, Gabriel manipulates him into handling a razor blade, revealing the combination of his safe by planting a tracking device on his ring and turning off his security camera late at night. Obtaining everything he needs, Gabriel then murders Neville's wife and plants the razor in Neville's safe before informing the police, resulting in Neville being jailed for life.
• Inspector Morse:
  • "Masonic Mysteries": Hugo De Vries is a suave, impeccably polite criminal mastermind and Master of Disguise, deservedly regarded as "one of greatest conmen of the age." Arrested by Morse twelve years previously for swindling Oxford University out of nearly one million pounds, De Vries returns seeking revenge, brainwashing one of his former victims into believing Morse famed him. Murdering Morse's new Love Interest Beryl Newsome, he carefully sets up events to implicate Morse for the crime even leading to his temporary arrest, as well as murdering Morse's mentor Desmond McNutt. Engaging in a series of psychological attacks and ordeals that leave Morse questioning his grip on reality, De Vries also hacks the Thames Valley computer servers to further incriminate him, made all the more impressive by doing so in a time when most officers didn't even know such a thing was possible. Even when caught by surprise, De Vries improvises a masterful monologue performance that successful fools Morse, enabling him to escape by stealing Lewis's car. Cultured, extremely charismatic and utterly ruthless, managing to constantly stay ten steps ahead of everyone, no other antagonist came as close to so completely defeating Morse as De Vries.
  • "Deadly Slumber": Michael Steppings is an amiable, approachable self-made tycoon out for revenge against the Brewster family, whose corruption left his daughter brain dead. Spending a year preparing an intricate plan, he carefully built a case of their malpractices, even breaking into the Brewster clinic to gather information. Having arranged events to seemingly give himself a cast-iron alibi, he murdered Doctor Matthew Brewster and then arranged his own arrest so that he would be cleared as a suspect; whilst also setting the scene to appear that the victim's son killed his father and tried to frame him, even subtly planting the idea in Morse's head. He then blackmailed him into confessing by threatening to expose his parent’s malpractices, so that Doctor Claire Brewster would know how it felt helplessly watching your child deprived of their life, something he considered "poetic justice". Ingenious and a masterful actor, Steppings was nevertheless a genuinely genial figure, with Morse himself admitting that if he was monstrous it was only because he was made to be.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Abby is a con artist who Dennis meets at a water park. Scamming Dennis into giving him money by acting as his neglected daughter in front a woman he was trying to seduce, Dennis takes an interest in her, and decides to take Abby under his wing. After being taught to steal right in front of the victim's face by Dennis, the two go on a scamming spree throughout the water park, putting all the valuables in a locker. Eventually, Abby tells Dennis that she's being forced to leave by her mother, and gives Dennis a memento as thanks for being the first adult to care about her. When Dennis confronts who Abby said was her mother, Dennis finds out that the woman isn't Abby's mother at all, and that Abby took the opportunity to swipe the locker key from Dennis and make off with all their stolen goods for herself, further impressing him.
• I Woke Up A Vampire: Dylan Helsing is an extremely adept Hunter, serving as the latest in a long family line of Mystic and Blended hunters. Having tracked, captured and delivered nearly 37 monsters, Dylan gained a reputation for being one of the best and most skilled Hunters of his generation. Upon getting hired by The Collector to capture Blendeds for a buyer, he goes to Magnolia Middle School posing as a normal student, where he detects that there was a Blended, after some investigation. Keeping his normal schoolboy act for the next couple of days, planning to capture the Blended, he'd spend a lot of time with Carmie Henley, Kev Gardener and Madison Spencer and slowly become genuine friends with them, to the point where he no longer wants harm Madison. He reluctantly caves in and captures her, but upon learning he was unwittingly helping The Shapeshifter form an army that could destroy humankind, he crafts a plan to rescue Carmie and Madison before the Shapeshifter could use them in her scheme, and presumably gives up hunting.
• Jack Ryan:
  • Luka Goncharov was a soldier of the Soviet Union who was ordered to execute a group of scientists when his superiors decided to terminate Project Sokol, with Goncharov shooting at is own soldiers when they tried stopping him. Becoming The Spymaster for the modern Russian Government, Goncharov would learn about The Coup who revived Project Sokol, where he infiltrates the coup to dismantle it from the inside. Eventually meeting Jack Ryan, Goncharov would help Ryan escape from the coup and later give Ryan information that allows Ryan to stop the coup from nuking a town, while he confronts the coup’s leader, Petr Lebenev, having the Czech authorities ambush him. When Lebenev dies, Goncharov and Ryan work together prevent war between the United States and Russia, before Goncharov gets arrest for his past crimes, accepting whatever punishment he may receive.
  • Petr Lebenev was a subordinate of Luka Goncharov who attempts to stop Goncharov from killing the scientist in charge of Project Sokol. When Petr survives Goncharov’s shot, he kills a Czech citizen who rescue him before taking his name, Kovac, where Lebenev arranges things so that his daughter, Alina, would become president of the Czech Republic, using their influence, resources, and manpower, to form a coup to take over the current Russian Government. Lebenev would orchestrate the assassination of Russian Defense Minister Popov and replace him with his puppet, Alexei Petrov, and restart Project Sokol, which is revealed to be a plan to have his coup would nuke a Russian town and frame the Americans resulting a war between the two countries. Cornered only by the equally brilliant Luka Goncharov, Lebenev had arranged for his plans to continue on after his death, having his friend, Antonov, hijack the Russian ship, The Fearless, and launch missiles at an American ship in his coup’s last attempt to bring America and Russian into war.
• Just Add Magic:
  • Ida Perez, better known as "Mama P" is the owner and founder of her self-titled restaurant as well as an ex-protector. After having her life ruined when Chuck got her father fired from his job, she became a pessimist with magic and got into various magic-related arguments with her partners Becky Quinn and Gina Silvers. Eventually cursed by Gina into being stuck in Saffron Falls, Perez spent the next 40 years trying to break said curse even after her protector era had ended, whether by collecting magic spices and hiding them in her secret pantry within her restaurant, or sabotaging her competition via magic and never getting caught. When she finds out Kelly, Hannah and Darbie were the new protectors, she offers to help Kelly cure her grandmother Becky's curse while deceiving them into helping her with breaking her own. Though she successfully escapes and callously freezes most of the town, she ends up returning to Saffron Falls as a manipulative but well-meaning ally helping the girls to fend off other rogue protectors, spending the remainder of the series hoping to make up for her past actions, while still having a deceptive side to her.
  • Charles Peizer, aka Chuck Hankins, is a former protector of the Cookbook from the 1860s. Losing his sister Rose in an attempt to make them the permanent owners, Chuck dedicates his life to finding a way to her back. Meeting Becky Quinn, Ida Perez, and Gina Silvers during their protector era in the 1960s, Chuck becomes friends with Gina, ruins Ida's life, and indirectly causes the trio to break up and end their protectorship. Disappearing in 1965 and returning 50 years later, Chuck continues trying to bring Rose back by tricking the 1960s trio Becky, Ida and Gina, along with the current protector trio of Kelly, Hannah and Darbie. He creates his own cookbook to steal pages from the main book, traps both trios in a Morton's Fork with a sleeping spell, takes over Jake's body and pose as him to deceive the heroes, and spell Hannah into nearly being trapped in the book in Rose's place, before reforming when his sister is finally freed from her prison.
  • Season 2B: Caroline Palmer is a former protector from the 90s, and was once the fearless leader of a mischievous high school prankster trio. After one day altering a time travel recipe to go to the future and check on her audition for a ballet class, and finding out she was unable to go back and was stuck in the future, she then grew angry and bitter and started to see magic as a dangerous resource and vowed to destroy it. Using a spell to alter her appearance into a completely different looking woman named "Jill", she spends the next 20 years posing as a campaign manager and getting to know targets and single-handed places a trigger word on nearly all of the protectors to wipe out any magic-related memories. When she's exposed, she destroys nearly all the spices in sight so the girl trio can't cook to fight back. She holds back on erasing the girls' memories so they'd lead her to the spice garden and she can destroy it. She comes dangerously close to permanently destroying magic for good, right before she erases her own magic-related memories.
• Justified: In amidst all the white supremacists, drug addicts, stupid crooks, and other human wreckage that comprised the gangsters of rural Harlan County, there was the occasional villain with some charisma and flair, and the according ability to run rings about series' protagonists Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder:
  • Wynn Duffy is an ever-adapting opportunist who proves himself one of the greatest survivors of Harlan's crime scene. Introduced working for Emmitt Arnett, Wynn plays things to his advantage as Robert Quarles kills Arnett and takes over, becoming Quarles' lieutenant. Ingratiating himself with Detroit mob boss Theo Tonin, Wynn takes over operations in Harlan after betraying Quarles, and continues to serve under Tonin and rise in the ranks. Using Boyd as an ally and pawn all at once, Wynn becomes the new kingpin of crime "east of the Mississippi" and joins forces with Katherine Hale and Avery Markham's operation to spread his influence. Having been a mole in Markham's outfit years ago and skillfully covered up his involvement, Wynn continues to play all sides to his advantage, and though betrayed by his bodyguard Mikey, Wynn convinces Mikey to rescind the treachery and reaffirms their friendship when it costs Mikey his life, holding him as he dies. Wynn then uses his contacts to duck out of Harlan forever, helping Ava escape as well in exchange for millions of dollars with which he flees to Fiji, safe from justice. Wynn consistently avoids the fallout of the various warring factions throughout the series through guile and tact, and is one of the few characters to escape Kentucky practically unscathed.
  • Drew Thompson was once a Detroit mobster with a unique penchant for taking Refuge in Audacity. After witnessing Theo Tonin commit a murder, Drew realizes that he must get out of town before Theo killed him to cover it up. Shooting Theo in the eye, Drew stole an airplane and faked his own death, shoving his accomplice, Waldo Truth, out of the plane, then parachuting into Harlan County where he exchanged his cocaine and drug money for a new identity, helping Bo Crowder and Arlo Givens become rural mafiosi while he himself became Shelby Parlow of the Harlan Sheriff's Department. Eventually elected Sheriff himself, Shelby used his position to undermine Boyd's control over Harlan and the office of Sheriff alike, while also joining the recently revitalized search for "Drew Thompson" whose survival, but not identity, had been discovered. Found out in the end and arrested by Raylan, Drew Thompson nevertheless enjoyed a decades long career in law enforcement, and his machinations set in motion the eventual collapse of Boyd's criminal enterprises—the very same enterprises Drew had helped Boyd's father Bo—assemble in the first place.
  • Loretta McCready was the foster daughter and understudy of Mags Bennett, and while she might have sided with Raylan against Mags, the passage of time proves that it was Mags' influence that lasted. Aspiring to become a marijuana kingpin in the same vein as her foster mother, Loretta spent Season 6 buying up agricultural land throughout Harlan County under both her real name and various aliases, and putting herself in direct competition with Avery Markham and the various gun thugs in his employ. Allying herself with Boyd, Loretta turns the entire town against Markham with a single speech at a party that Markham himself was hosting, and bought up most of the land in the county. Even the implosion of Boyd's empire and the loss of his protection could not stop Loretta; when Markham cornered her she persuaded him that she should become his new partner, thus surviving until Raylan and Boyd killed off Markham and his enforcer, Boon. Only a teenager when the series ended, Loretta demonstrated that she was more capable than most of the adult criminals on the show, and was left in a perfect position to pick up where Mags and Boyd left off, as the reigning queen of the Harlan underworld.
  • Charlie Weaver is the helpful security guard of the US Marshal's evidence locker. A friendly face who regularly assists Raylan and the Marshals in finding the right evidence for cases, Charlie catches on to Raylan and Winona's frequent tampering with money that is evidence from a decades-old bank robbery. Deciding to play it to his advantage, Charlie swipes the money for himself and plays innocent, fooling Raylan and Art Mullen long enough for him to call out sick and flee the country to Mexico, using his newfound wealth to fund his "early retirement."
  • Season 2: Mags Bennett is the matriarch of the Bennett family, a Bandit Clan of hillbilly moonshiners and marijuana farmers whose influence was felt throughout Harlan County. Ruling her namesake township of Bennett as not just a Small-Town Tyrant but an uncrowned Feudal Overlord, Mags controlled the Bennett Police Department through her son, Doyle, and the marijuana trade through his brothers, Dickie and Coover, making her the final arbiter on near everything that happened in town. Rallying the people of Harlan at large and Bennett in particular against Black Pike Mining's attempts to buy up the county, Mags secretly cut a deal with Black Pike behind the backs of her fellow townsfolk, selling most of the county to Black Pike in exchange for extensive personal profits that she plans to use to get her grandchildren out of crime. Staying her hand when her son Coover is killed by Raylan, Mags returned to action when Dickie started a war with Boyd and proved capable of matching him trick for trick. In the end, only the unexpected return of Mags' foster daughter, Loretta, to Bennett, and the ensuing intervention by the Marshal Service proved able to bring the Bennett township tyrant down.
  • "Blaze of Glory": Frank Reasoner is an elderly, sickly criminal seemingly reformed after his past of being one of the most successful bank robbers in America. Truthfully using his health condition to get himself an early parole, Reasoner jumps right back into the crime game, recruiting two young crooks to help him rob a bank with the least amount of violence possible. More dangerous than his apparently weakly state implies, which he demonstrates by threatening one of his partners for unnecessarily injuring hostages during one of their heists, Reasoner exaggerates his sickness to trick his partners into carrying out another bank heist without him, only to then swipe the cash from the previous robbery all for himself and rat the two crooks out to the police as a distraction. Using both this trickery and a deception that he's willing to turn himself in to throw everyone off his scent, Reasoner comes very close to using a private plane to escape the country a millionaire, even offering long-time enemy Deputy Marshal Art Mullen the opportunity to join him before Reasoner accepts his ultimate capture with a shrug.
  • "Long in the Tooth": Roland Pike was a mob accountant who stole a fortune from his employers, evaded the US Marshals, and fled the country to craft a new identity for himself. Becoming a dentist who helps the less fortunate while falling in love with his secretary, Mindy, Roland avoided the searching eyes of law enforcement and the mob for years, and is only exposed when he willingly ousts himself by attacking a rude bully. Roland plans various methods to flee into Mexico, using his old connections and his grateful clientele to arrange a smuggler, and though the coyote betrays the couple, Roland murders him in response. Realizing that the mob has found them, Roland purposefully sacrifices himself to save Mindy and Raylan, maintaining an affable rivalry with Raylan and swearing his love for Mindy to the very end.
• The Kill Point: Sergeant Jake Mendez, aka Mr. Wolf, is an Iraq War veteran who orchestrates a Bank Robbery in downtown Pittsburgh together with members of his old platoon after being betrayed by his country. When the robbery turns into a Hostage Situation, Wolf quickly adapts to the situation, foiling the police forces surrounding the building and hostage negotiator Horst Cali multiple times and hatching several escape plans which nearly succeed. Wolf also treats the hostages as well as he can under the circumstances while still accepting he must do the inevitable if his demands are not met. Wolf briefly relinquishes command when he fails to protect all of his men, later executing the Ax-Crazy private who disobeyed his orders, and managing to escape by blackmailing Cali after ordering his wife to be kidnapped. Wolf allows Cali to shoot him when cornered so he can die with honor, as the only surviving member of his gang still gets away with the money they stole.
• Knightfall: William de Nogaret is one of the chief powers behind the French throne. Inspiring violence in the capital to convince King Philip to confiscate the property of the Jewish population to strengthen the throne, de Nogaret later also poisons himself in a gambit to manipulate Princess Isabella in eliminating her fiancee Prince Louis of Navarre, assassinating the English ambassador and establishing a match for Isabella with England. Later returning to power and helping to manipulate the fall of The Knights Templar, de Nogaret achieves his revenge on the Pope who murdered his parents. Later tiring of Philip's madness and abuse, de Nogaret sides with his son Louis to leave Philip to his fate and secure de Nogaret's place as Louis' most loyal follower.
• The Last Kingdom:
  • Uhtred, son of Uhtred, was a Saxon taken in by the Danish Earl Ragnar and raised as his own son. Framed for Ragnar's death, Uhtred becomes a warrior in service to the Saxon King Alfred, with whom he often clashes. Uhtred proves his value by leading expert raids, even facing and slaying the great Dane warlord Ubba. Saving Alfred's life, Uhtred continues on campaigns to help unify Wessex while using his wits and charisma to perform covert operations to weaken the enemy and rescue valuable hostages such as Alfred's daughter, Lady Aethelflaed, when she is held hostage by Danes. When cursed by the sorceress Skade, Uhtred breaks her curse by drowning Skade, killing her without a drop of bloodshed. Uhtred lures a powerful enemy army into a trap by faking the murder of the leader's sons and continues his service after Alfred's death. Later saving the lives of King Edward's forces by infiltrating an enemy fortress and taking it from the inside, Uhtred brokers a peace with the enemy Scots by ensuring Northumbria's independence under his leadership, reclaiming his ancestral home of Bebbanburg in the process. Growing and maturing over decades of pain, love and loss, Uhtred ends the series by reasserting his one true belief: that destiny is all.
  • Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, has a dream to unite the British continent and lets little stand in his way. Upon meeting the Dane-raised Pagan Saxon Uhtred, Alfred performs a show of goodwill by marrying him to a noble Saxon woman but neglects to inform Uhtred he takes on her family's debts to bind Uhtred to him further. A brilliant commander, Alfred leads daring defeats of the Danes and establishes Wessex as a true power and constantly plays through the ruthless political court of Wessex. Even manipulating his own son Edward to make him a better ruler when Alfred is dead, Alfred plays him into giving up his first marriage and children, then halts his forces giving aid to an estranged Uhtred on the field to force Edward to make a true decision as a King. Even upon his deathbed, Alfred makes a final peace with Uhtred, but makes certain to show him the written history of Wessex so he will forever know Uhtred will be invested in seeing Alfred's dream through.
  • Earl Guthrum of the Danes is an intelligent man who lures three Saxon armies into a trap to annihilate them. The right-hand of Ubba Ragnarson, the closest man the Danes have to a true king, Guthrum is the one who handles most of the strategy, arranging for the overthrow of kingdoms. A true threat to even Wessex, Guthrum leads the capture of Winchester abbey and attempts to use Alfred's scheming nephew Aethelwold to assassinate the King. Upon his defeat, Guthrum believes that the Christians' god is truly with them and submits to be baptized and renamed Aethelstan, honored by Alfred for choosing peace over war in the end.
  • Sigtryggr Ivarson is a Norse-Gaelic Warlord introduced overrun Wales and killing its King Hywel to rescue the captured Dane Brida, the lover of Sigtryggr's late cousin Cnut. Learning of Wessex's riches, Sigtryggr leads a number of brutal, daring raids through villages along the way to capture Winchester and hold a standoff against King Edward, even playing Edward by offering one of his sons as a hostage but making him choose which boy, before he accepts Uhtred as a hostage instead. Sigtryggr then uses his leverage to secure land for himself and his people, getting everything he wants while also leaving with one hostage: Uhtred's daughter Stiorra whom he has grown to develop a caring and mutual romance with.
• The Librarians 2014:
  • The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008): Vlad the Impaler, Dracula himself is a cunning and vicious vampire who became crippled and near powerless after drinking contaminated blood and now seeks the Judas Chalice to revive himself to full glory. In the present, Dracula masquerades as the meek and seemingly harmless Professor Lazlo who is taken in by Sergei Kubichek who is plotting to use vampires and the Judas Chalice to bring order to Russia again. Dracula instead plays along and uses Kubichek and hero Flynn Carson as his puppets throughout the film, manipulating them into getting the Chalice for him and disposing of Kubichek when he successfully obtains it and fully restores himself, intending to use the Chalice to usher in an Age of Darkness with him as ruler. A charismatic and aristocratic vampire, Dracula even goes out gracefully upon being killed by Flynn who he genuinely respects, even complimenting him as a great historian before dying.
  • Series:
    • Season 1: Dulaque is the charismatic and devious leader of the Serpent Brotherhood and is in truth Lancelot du Lac, having become bitter and twisted after the fall of Camelot. Dulaque desires to return the world to the age of magic and kings, believing it to be what humanity needs to prosper, and will stop at nothing to make it happen. Over the course of the series, Dulaque has a long list of ingenious acts, such as manipulating Cassandra into getting him into the Library and using Excalibur to return magic to the world, tricking and capturing Santa Claus and using his diplomatic charm to try and have the various magical factions disband the Library. Finally, in his greatest move, Dulaque leaks information and has The Librarians create a portal to the Loom Of Fate to allow him to rewrite history and return Camelot to existence. A genius plotter who always has a new plan and takes his defeats in stride, Dulaque is the most dangerous enemy faced by The Library.
    • Season 2: Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character brought to life by Prospero to act as his right-hand man. A charismatic, dapper gentleman who knows how to manipulate things to his advantage, Moriarty is instrumental in setting up Prospero's powers returning to him and helps him foil the heroes at various times. Moriarty can fake a truce to subtly influence the heroes into giving him the Staff of Zarathustra to empower his master, or to analyze and discover the weaknesses of his foes thorough a keen Sherlock Scan. Eventually ditching Prospero due to his love for Eve, Moriarty helps bring about Prospero's ultimate downfall by manipulating him into letting his guard down, and dies protecting Eve, with his final words being a method to destroy his master for good.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Adar is one of the original elves taken by Morgoth. Tortured to become an Orc, or Uruk, Adar never devolved into the bestial state as many of the other orcs assumed. Revered as a father by the orcs, Adar betrayed and overthrew Sauron, leading his forces to ravage the southlands while forcing the humans into his army as shields or servitors. When captured, Adar has another plan to leave the human fanatic Waldreg with the hilt of Sauron's sword, triggering the explosion of the hidden mountain Orodruin, or Mt. Doom. With the southlands obliterated into a suitable home for Orcs, Adar rechristens the land as Mordor and assumes his position as its king.
• Lost:
  • Benjamin Linus is the leader of the Others and proves himself to be an incredibly cunning and manipulative opponent. Originally appearing to just be a prisoner, he quickly turns Jack and Locke against each other with only a few words, all while locked in a cell. Upon his escape, the depths of his skills becomes clear, as he cons Sawyer into believing in his fake pacemaker, makes a deal with Jack to operate on him twice, and sends Juliet to serve as a mole within the survivors. When he's captured, he deliberately releases just enough information to ensure the survivors believe him, but keeps enough to himself that they can't just kill him, and he eventually talks himself out of captivity. On the mainland, he manipulates Sayid, who considers himself Ben's Arch-Enemy, into working as his personal hitman against Charles Widmore by manipulating his grief over his deceased wife, and ultimately works with Eloise Hawking to return the Oceanic Six back to the Island. Upon his return, he proves vital to the defeat of the Man in Black, continuing to use his lies and manipulations to serve as a mole for the survivors, and ultimately proves himself to be far more than the sociopath he initially seems to be.
  • Eloise Hawking quickly proves herself to be far more than the doddering old woman she appears to be. Introduced during Desmond's time flash to 1996, she proves her knowledge of the future by pointing out a man who dies just seconds later, explaining to Desmond that the universe will always course correct itself to achieve what it wants. With this concept in mind, she manipulates her son Daniel onto the path of science she knows that he's destined for, suppressing all of his interests besides science to ensure he will go to the Island and die by her hand in 1977, finally showing just how much she cares about him for the first time before he leaves. Continuing to secure the timeline, she works with Ben to send the Oceanic Six back to the Island, managing to locate the Island when even Charles Widmore couldn't, and successfully gets them back on the Island to ensure the timeline will remain stable. Despite her small number of appearances, her impact on the stability of the timeline cannot be overstated.
  • Desmond Hume, upon regaining his memories in the alternate timeline, begins a mission to awaken his friends and allow them to move on. After encouraging Hurley on his date with Libby, he runs Locke over with his car, and when Ben confronts him about it later, he beats Ben to a bloody pulp to make him remember as well. After turning himself in for these actions and getting himself transferred with Kate and Sayid, he makes them promise him a favor; after they agree, it's revealed that he'd already bribed Ana Lucia to let them out at a certain time and place, beginning separate plans for both of them. While Sayid is awakened elsewhere, Desmond has Charlie kidnapped and brings Kate to the charity concert, ensuring they both awaken as well. After promising Eloise that he won't take her son with him, Desmond finally gathers his friends at the church, allowing all of them to move on to the afterlife together.
• Lotus Lantern: Yang Jian, better known as Erlang Shen, is a far more heroic figure than in most adaptations of the myth. After the deaths of his father, brother and mother for violating the Heavenly laws, Yang would seek reform of laws to achieve justice for his family and pursue the love of Chang'E. Elected to the position of "God of Justice" after millennia of animosity with the gods, Yang uses his position to delay judgment for the Jade Emperor's Eighth Daughter and her mortal lover. After being pushed by Heaven to imprison his sister Sanshengmu following her marriage to a mortal, Yang would take a different approach to reforming the Heavenly laws. Taking interest in his nephew Chen Xiang's determination in freeing his mother, Yang would manipulate events around Chen to strengthen his abilities and resolve as a warrior, isolating him from individuals holding back his growth. His efforts vindicated during Chen's attack on Heaven, Yang would persuade the Queen Mother into allowing him to stop Chen from finding Pangu's axe, with the actual goal of ensuring Chen emerges victorious. Beaten by Chen in one final fight, Yang would reveal his true intentions and assist in cleaving open Mount Hua, earning the forgiveness of both Chen and Sanshenmu and the admiration of Chang'E.
• Lupin (2021):
  • Assane Diop is a brilliant thief who has modeled himself after Arsène Lupin and is driven to avenge the framing and murder of his father. Determined to bring the evil Hubert Pellegrini to justice for his crime, Assane easily evades the entire French police force along the way, even capturing their corrupt Commissioner and making him confess to corruption on tape. Continuing to gather evidence while playing all who come after him, Assane keeps his identity hidden from the cops for much of the series and even when one finally catches on, Assane manages to charismatically convince him of the despicable corruption in his office, creating a key ally for when Pellegrini has Assane's safe house raided and forces him on the run. Also planting a mole in Pellegrini's organization, Assane destroys his enemy at an charity event Pellegrini had intended to use to line his own pockets by redirecting the electronic donations to go to the intended foundation to help the poor while playing a tape of Pellegrini confessing to insurance fraud and the murder of Assane's father. A charming genius despite his past of infidelity and proclivity for stealing, Assane runs circles around the elitist society so smugly dismissive of him.
  • "Phillipe Courbet" plays the role of Pellegrini's brilliant, young banker more than willing to break the law to help his clients profit. In actuality a recruit of Assane's, Courbet takes his role in return for payments of precious diamonds to help Assane break into Pellegrini's corrupt charity fundraiser. Helping Assane sneak into the auditorium, Courbet redirects Pellegrini's money laundering machines to send the electronic donations they receive to the proper charities and his stealthy planning to plant Assane within the building helps him infiltrate Pellegrini's ranks and utterly destroy his master plan, ending the season with the smug businessman disgraced and arrested.
• Masters of Horror's "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road": Ellen, once the abused wife of survivalist militia member Bruce, finds herself trapped in the wilderness and menaced by the monstrous Serial Killer Moonface. Using her survival training to outwit Moonface, Ellen is able to overcome and kill the murderer. It is then revealed Ellen murdered Bruce when he abused her and poses his corpse to seem like one of Moonface's victims while also murdering the insane and broken victim of Moonface known as Buddy to ensure there are no witnesses and also in revenge for Buddy alerting Moonface.
• Mayor of Kingstown: P-Dog is a prisoner charged with attempted murder who becomes the leader of the Crisps inside Kingstown prison. Leveraging a deal with the prison guards, P-Dog arranges for child-murderer Kenny Miles to be killed on the condition that they lift the lockdown on the prisoners. Still suffering mistreatment from the prison guards, P-Dog orchestrates a prison takeover by having his men give him a shiv to stab a guard before subduing the personnel transferring him, while free all the inmates from their cells and killing countless more guards. Holding the surviving guards hostage, P-Dog has them systematically killed until the National Guard shoots him, dying content that he gets to go out on his own terms.
• The Mentalist: "Like a Redheaded Stepchild" and "Blood Feud": Steve Rigsby is the father of CBI agent, Wayne Rigsby, and a cunning career criminal who was released from prison where Steve had his son give him an alibi to avoid suspicion from the parole board. In his first appearance, Steve ostensibly assists Wayne and the CBI to solve the murder of a prison guard, only to use them to shut down a rival cigarette smuggling business before giving Wayne an honest fistfight when Wayne learns of Steve's manipulations. Steve later gets shot trying to protect his friend in his second appearance before accepting his death, spending his last moments bonding with his son and giving Wayne a vital clue that would allow Wayne to find Steve's killer and kill him.
• Merlin (1998): Queen Mab is a goddess suffering a decline in followers of the "Old Ways" that would entail her kind's demise. Unlike her sister Nimue who contented herself with letting destiny pass its course, Mab sought to survive at all costs. She conceived a half-human son, Merlin himself, to groom into a leader of the Old Ways. When he eventually rebukes Mab after her Accidental Murder of Ambrosia, Mab manipulates Vortigen to be her new champion. When he is killed by Uther Pendragon, who later fathered King Arthur to lead a kingdom unfavorable to the Old Ways, Mab offers compassion to an ostracized Morgan, obtaining a contingency against Arthur. Mab later serves as a treacherous influence to Mordred, the result of Morgan and Arthur's tryst. Through him and an enchanted enclave keeping Merlin occupied, Mab indirectly succeeds in toppling the Pendragon kingdom from behind the scenes. Desperate to keep the Old Ways and thus herself alive, the devious and powerful Mab remained a step ahead of everyone for almost the entire miniseries.
• Merlin (2008)'s "A Remedy To Cure All Ills": Edwin Muirden is a sorcerer posing as a physician, seeking revenge against Uther Pendragon for executing his parents. Using enchanted beetles that enter a person's ear, Edwin hides one in a bouquet of flowers for Lady Morgana, making her fall ill. With Gaius unable to cure the mysterious ailment, Edwin offers his services to the royal family and successfully 'cures' Morgana, impressing Uther. Discovering Merlin had magic, Edwin entices Merlin with an offer to mentor him. Edwin then discredits Gaius' competence as a physician, leading to Gaius being sacked and replaced by Edwin. Then prescribing a paralysis potion in place of Uther's medication, Edwin then reveals his identity and sends a beetle into Uther to eat through his brain.
• Minder's "Senior Citizen Caine": Cecil Caine is an elderly, flamboyant yet genial businessman and a legend within the community for dealing and grafting himself a fortune and far more shrewd than he appears. Freed of his last responsibility and knowing his lazy offsprings, Johnny and Sonia, plan to institutionalize him to steal everything and that the authorities are closing in, Cecil lets nothing interfere with his retirement. Transferring his businesses but none of his money to his children so they'll have to actually work or face bankruptcy, an ambushed Cecil manages to improvise an escape with all the cash on the premises and goes to ground. Banking on Johnny breaking Arthur, Cecil purposely lets him in and hires Terry. Gathering the rest of his hidden funds Cecil switches them with a decoy, then waits for Johnny and his goons to arrive, the fight spurring the authorities into action. Using the confusion to escape to his lover and real money, Cecil flees London leaving his children to explain the financial irregularities.
• The Mist: Wes Foster is a member of the mall survivors who hides a secret from the rest. Claiming to merely be a Private who knows nothing of the situation, in truth he is a member of the Arrowhead Project, sent into Bridgeville to locate Jonah Dixon and bring him in. After catching him looting, Wes plays dumb to catch him off guard and knock him out, revealing his true purpose inside the mall to him when he wakes up. After letting Jonah have power over him and releasing him, Wes reveals that the doctor at the Project can restore his lost memory, intriguing him enough to convince Jonah to ditch his newfound friends. After revealing that he knows more about the mist than he is willing to admit, Wes departs the mall and escapes the massacre with Jonah in tow.
• Monk:
  • "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger": Wendy Mass is a friendly, seemingly blind woman and the true murderer of Sonny Cross. Having lost her parents and vision in a car crash caused by Cross decades ago, upon having her vision partially restored, Mass sought revenge. Tricking Cross into meeting her in an alleyway, Mass shoots him in a way that's impossible for a blind person. When country singer Willie Nelson unexpectedly arrives, Mass quickly frames him for the murder by acting as a witness, continuing to fake her blindness to ensure nobody suspects her. When Monk reveals the truth behind the case, Mass thanks him for uncovering it, having been wrought with guilt for framing an innocent man. When Stottlemeyer suggests making a deal with the District Attorney, Mass asks that her only leniency be a window in her cell so that she can make the most of her newly regained sight.
  • "Mr. Monk and the TV Star": Brad Terry is a charming actor who aims to inherit the full fortune of $20 million that is due to be shared with his wife, Susan Malloy. To manipulate the paparazzi to follow him, Terry assaults a bartender while paying him $2,000 after to maintain his Nice Guy persona. To kill his wife undetected, Terry uses an audio tape of Malloy screaming while interviewing with the paparazzi to think she was already dead, before heading in to kill her. Using his charm, Terry is able to manipulate the team to avoid detection, even managing to deceive the lie detector. Despite being caught out by one small error, Terry calmly accepts his fate of being arrested.
• The Muppet Show's "Liza Minnelli": The unnamed critics, played by Statler and Waldorf, are a duo who absolutely despise the shows the nameless theatre troupe preform. Seeking to end their shows for good, they go about stealthily and systematically murdering the cast members with guns, knives, and poison. The two are only foiled when Liza O'Shaughnessy fakes her death, causing them to reveal themselves since they had no intentions of killing her. When O'Shaughnessy reveals she tricked them and has the two arrested, the critics take their defeat well, genuinely applauding her acting skills and even cracking a joke about their own imprisonment.
• Murdoch Mysteries:
  • "Murdoch and the Cloud of Doom": Russell Bowes is a chemical company employee whose fiancee Mary is sentenced to hang for killing her sexually abusive father. He plots to break her out of prison before her execution in the middle of a city-wide evacuation, posing as a masked extortionist with access to poisoned gas by faking receipts from his factory and discards dozens of gas bottles at the delivery address and sending a film that appears to demonstrate the lethal gas to the police. He leaves enough clues in the film for the police to find where he shot it, with Russell killing all of the grass in the area with bleach and suffocating several rats to make it appear that the gas is lethal to everything and far-reaching. In truth Russell has no desire to hurt anyone as part of his plan and takes his failure hard yet gracefully and wins the sympathy of the police with his story, causing them to work to get Mary a new trial.
  • "Murdoch and the Undetectable Man": Fiona Rossini is the former landlady and lover of Professor Bosworth, a scientist trying to make an invisibility device. After Bosworth is robbed and murdered by his investors, a vengeful Fiona kills them one by one while pretending that Bosworth survived and has turned himself invisible to seek revenge. Fiona thoroughly convinces both the police and her targets that Bosworth is indeed invisible, and kills her final target while he's in police custody while still maintaining the illusion that an invisible Bosworth did the deed. Fiona is resourceful, graceful, and unwilling to kill anyone besides her targets. Upon being caught, Fiona merely asks how Murdoch figured out her trick, showing no animosity towards the detective.
• My Babysitter's a Vampire: Horace "Jesse" Black is the former vampire master of Whitechapel, before being overthrown, even then ruling the vampire community from behind the scenes. As a top high schooler by day and cult leader by night, Jesse uses his position to organize a vampire attack to harvest the souls of his victims and resurrect his fallen flock, kicking it off by draining a girl in front of an audience, while considering the loss of his current followers only a small setback. Returning from the dead, Jesse comes out on top by forcing his ex-girlfriend Sarah to drink Ethan's blood after biting him. When exiled, Jesse returns when he learns of the threat Stern poses, out of ostensible altruism. It's revealed Stern is the descendant of a wizard that Jesse previously saved the community from, having sacrificed dozens of his followers to do so, keeping the Lucifactor safe and out to reach. When the Lucifactor has been found, Jesse directly helps fight Stern, nearly getting himself killed in the process. A charismatic, if manipulative vampire master who bounces back from his failures, Jesse manages to be a one of Whitechapel's more formidable figures, even with the loss of his power.

N - S

• Narcos:
  • Colonel Horacio Carillo is a Colombian police officer and the eventual leader of the task force to bring down Pablo Escobar. Having lost dozens of partners at the hands of the Narcos, he has become utterly ruthless in his pursuit of them, being not above executing or torturing prisoners who don’t talk. Cunning and brutally efficient, he avoids Escobars spies and soon deals him multiple heavy blows from arresting his bookkeeper, to leading a strike team that kills his partner Gacha, to brutally interrogating and killing his cousin and right-hand Gustavo when he refuses to sell Pablo out. Despite the government initially exiling him to Spain for being too brutal, he‘s soon brought back for being the only man Escobar ever feared. A Frontline General genuinely concerned for the lives of his men, he never wavers in his quest to bring him down, calling him a coward to his face even with his last breath.
  • Jorge Salcedo is the Deputy Chief of Security for the Cali Cartel. Faithfully serving the cartel for several years, he often uses his quick thinking and cunning to get out of sticky situations. When his boss/friend and wife are brutally murdered by the cartel Jorge decides to turn informant to the DEA. He manages several times to get them one of the godfather's locations, always using his wits to overcome unforeseen circumstances, even framing his friend as the rat, an act which causes him tremendous guilt. Eventually the godfather is captured and he then uses his skills to find the main accountant for the cartel who brings it down for good.
  • Amado Carillo Fuentes becomes a part of the Guadalajara Cartel as a pilot for his uncle Don Neto and kingpin Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. Amado is later promoted by Felix to restore order to the Juarez branch, before building a fleet of planes to transport cocaine from Colombia into the U.S. and effortlessly luring a DEA team targeting him into a deadly trap. Orchestrating Felix's downfall and imprisonment, Amado also assassinates his partner Aguilar to take over the Juarez Cartel. Amado decentralizes the organization to make it harder for law enforcement to target him and makes new deals with Mexico's corrupt kingmakers and the Colombian Cali godfathers to make himself the most powerful of all drug kingpins, even bribing the General leading the Mexican government's anti-cartel operations to wipe out his competitors. Saving his Cuban mistress from assassination, Amado moves his assets overseas before unexpectedly dying during a botched surgery to change his identity, with the suggestion that the "Lord of the Skies" might have actually faked his death.
  • Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is at first a personal driver for Felix-Gallardo in the Guadalajara Cartel. El Chapo undermines the Tijuana plaza by building a tunnel underneath the US-Mexico border on their territory to smuggle in cocaine, resulting in a Mob War before making peace with them in the wake of Felix's removal. When Tijuana continues to provoke the Sinaloans, El Chapo masterminds an assassination attempt on Benjamin Arellano-Felix, killing his brother-in-law in the process. El Chapo later escapes an attempt on his own life despite being outmanned and outgunned. When El Chapo is captured and sent to prison, he outmaneuvers both his more charismatic rival Hector Palma and his ostensible mentor Don Neto, having both men moved to different prisons so he can assume sole control over the Sinaloa Cartel and rebuild it into the deadliest of the narco-cartels.
• Night Gallery's "Room with a View": Jacob Bauman is a bedridden man who plots revenge on his unfaithful wife, while maintaining a witty, irreverent charm. Appearing to be helpless and frail, Bauman uses his binoculars to spy on people's movements, learning his wife is having an affair with another man, and that his nurse is also engaged to the same man. Manipulating his nurse to give him details about the relationship, Bauman skillfully controls the conversation until he learns that she is prone to jealous rage if she sees her fiance with another woman. Using this to his advantage, Bauman gives her a gun before sending her to her fiance's apartment to "surprise" him, knowing she will find him and his wife together. The plan goes off without a hitch, with his nurse shooting them both dead, while Bauman notes with satisfaction that there are some things he can still do on his own.
• No Good Nick: Nicole "Nick" Franzelli is a teenaged con artist seeking to avenge her father's imprisonment by tricking her way into the Thompson family by claiming to be a Long-Lost Relative. To attain funds for a lawyer for her father, Nick passes off discount wines as expensive vintages, talks the volunteer squad into fining students who show up in a offensive costume while secretly swapping the fine box with a box of her own sells stolen art equipment such that it cannot be traced back to her, and sets up an online charity fraud account.Gaining the Thompson's love which Nick begins to reciprocate, Nick still resolves to take them down out of bitterness for ruining her father and undermines them in various ways to slander them though she eventually comes to feel guilt and eventually cuts a deal with the police to restore the Thompson's name, remaining tricky even following her change of heart.
• No Ordinary Family's "No Ordinary Friends": Michelle Cotten is a loving wife and mother who lets herself be recruited for an art theft to support her family after her husband Dave gets laid off. She enjoys the lifestyle and keeps stealing long after Dave gets a new job. She uses hi-tech gadgets and her athleticism to get through hi-tech security systems and repeatedly escape from superhuman vigilante Jim Powell. She and her family drop by to thanks Jim, not realizing he's also her pursuer, after he saves Dave from being hit by a bus. The family members become close friends but this also lets Jim figure out one of the Cottens' is the burglar. Michelle is apologetic when confronted by her new friends, but isn't willing to turn herself in and stop stealing. However, she ends up Taking the Bullet for Stephanie when another art thief tries to shoot her. Michelle survives her wounds, apologizes to Stephanie, gracefully accepts her arrest, and hopes they can resume their friendship someday.
• NUMB3RS' "Jacked" & "Con Job": John Buckley is a charismatic Con Man, thief and kidnapper. Buckley highjacks a tourist bus for a ransom and sends the FBI on a wild goose chase after the wrong bus to mask his activity. Buckley is able to counter nearly every move the FBI makes and manipulates them into doing what he says using a Mole. Buckley is also the master of the bluff, as while he abhors using actual violence against people, he will use a threat against his victims to get them to do what he says, including letting him escape. After his arrest, Buckley tricks his cellmate Maddox into copying his bus hostage plan when Maddox is released. This causes the FBI to come to Buckley for help in order to stop Maddox, which Buckley uses instead to help him both pull off the heist and escape. Eventually betraying his cohorts, Buckley is able to get away with the money and even ends the episode with a video call to his friendly enemies Dom and Charlie, that he's looking forward to another round.
• Odd Squad: Baby Genius is a mysterious, yet exceptionally bright baby with adult-level intelligence. Typically accompanied by Russian nanny Rivka who translates his mannerisms, Baby Genius has constantly aided Odd Squad agents in need throughout the years, by providing them with items they need, or giving them clues for where to find villains. Yet at the same time, he often needs to be bribed for him to talk, and tends to be very picky, with some of his requests tending to embarrass or humiliate agents. He also follows the villains' "No Tattletale Code", prohibiting him from giving specific answers to agents, essentially making him an accomplice to said villains.
• Only Murders in the Building: Teddy Dimas is an old friend of Oliver Putnam who runs a grave robbing ring in the Arconia, using his jewelry shop as a front for his operation. While he puts on the appearance of an honest and benevolent businessman, he is willing to threaten others to keep his illegal activities hidden. Notably, when Tim Kono witnesses Theo accidentally shove Zoe off the Arconia's roof, Teddy scares Tim against testifying by threatening his life and Mabel's, resulting in his friend Oscar unfairly going to prison. When the trio find the connection between Tim and Teddy, he threatens them into ending the podcast and absolving him of any wrongdoing, only failing due to the trio finding incriminating evidence on Tim's phone and releasing it. Returning, Teddy seeks revenge against Oliver for getting him arrested, but upon learning that he is the biological father of Oliver's son Will, drops his grudge and makes peace with Oliver, admitting that he envies the latter's positive relationship with Will.
• The Orville: Pria Levesque is a time traveller from the 29th century who arranges to be picked up by the Orville by faking a distress call. After arriving on board, Pria quickly gains the crew's trust by saving them from a dark matter storm before bonding with Captain Ed Mercer, who is still recovering from a painful divorce with his ex-wife (now First Officer) Kelly Grayson, and seducing him into a one-night stand. Meanwhile, Pria installs a device in the engine room through which she can remotely take over control of the ship in order to pilot it into a wormhole to the future, selling the Orville off as an antique and forcing the crew to live out the remainder of their lives on a remote planet. When her scheme fails, Pria makes one last attempt to convince Mercer to cooperate before calmly accepting the fact that her current version will be erased from history. Pria is among the cleverest foes the crew of the Orville have faced so far, with few managing to emotionally get under Mercer's skin like she has.
• The Other Kingdom: Versitude is King Oberon's mysterious, two-faced advisor as well as a foe of Princess Astral and Winston Althazar. Viewing the "others" as little more than hers to mess with, she'd put on a facade of being a trustworthy ally in Oberon and Titania's presence, while secretly spying on Astral and interfering with her time on her "other walk" and making Winston's time in Athenia miserable, whether by tricking him into eating berries that nearly turned him into a donkey, framing him for "destroying" a summerberry bush, or placing him on trial for his life. On top of that, she went behind the Athenian king and queen's backs to work with King Reed of their enemy tribe Spartania. Winston attempts to expose Versitude's true colors, only for the latter to become aware she's being spied on, and intentionally set up a series of fake events that cause him and Peaseblossom to appeear suspicious, so King Oberon wouldn't listen to them.
• The Outer Limits (1995)'s "Zig Zag": Zig Fowler is a cyberterrorist in a near-future society where almost all data is controlled by the Department of Information Technology. Founding the Syndrome cell from the shadows with the mission to free people at any cost, Zig fakes his own death and assumes the meek Cliff Unger persona in order to infiltrate the department and gain access to its central processor room. After a year, Zig's implant reverts back to its original settings, whereupon he joins up with his old comrades again, who were not even privy to his real identity. Zig stages an armed takeover of the Department offices to bomb it, manipulating his former boss through word trickery into arming the bomb with his own implant, ultimately dying in a blaze of glory as the entire city is destroyed.
• Oz:
  • Ryan O'Reilly is an Irish convict in the Emerald City wing of the Oswald State Correctional Facility. More than any other inmate, O'Reilly is frequently at the center of whatever intrigue is going in the prison, forming alliances with other inmates to take over the drug trade inside Oz by arranging the deaths of various gang leaders and even becoming a major figure in a prison riot. O'Reilly also gets Dr. Gloria Nathan to fall in love with him after putting out a hit on her husband, later personally murdering a criminal who raped her, uses various dirty methods to ensure that his brother Cyrill will win the prison boxing championship, and has Officer Claire Howell—whom O'Reilly is sleeping with—kill his rival Stanislofsky after a dispute over a contraband cell phone turns sour. Ryan O'Reilly possesses a sense of charm and bravado unmatched by many of the thuggish inmates in Oz, and his uncanny ability to get others to do his dirty work for him and turning his enemies against each other makes him one of the few characters to successfully survive the entire run of the show.
  • Enrique Morales establishes himself as one of the most cunning and pragmatic prisoners on the show. After arriving in Oswald State prison, he usurped control over the Latinos by forcing the kindly old prisoner Bob Rebadow to kill his unpopular predecessor El Cid, then takes over the drug trade inside the prison with the Homeboys and Italians and proves himself more wary to attempts by the authorities to infiltrate the organization than his associates. When Morales develops a feud with Homeboys leader Burr Redding, he manipulates Chinese refugees housed in the prison against him with false claims of race hatred and attempts to have Redding framed for a murder. A capable fighter as well when the chips are down, Morales swiftly foils an attempt on his own life by killing the assassin, and lulls his late sister's abusive husband into a false sense of security before pounding the everloving crap out of him. Always a persuasive and purpose-driven man despite being a murderer and gang leader, under the clever rule of Morales, El Norte truly became a force to be reckoned with within Oz.
• Ozark: Camila Elizondro is the sister of Omar Navarro and a high-ranking member in the Navarro Cartel. Shortly after her son, Javier, was murdered, Camila set out to find and kill whoever was responsible. Believing Omar was to blame, she tried to have him assassinated in prison, later framing one of his lieutenants in the process. When Marty and Wendy Byrde propose a plan to have her run the cartel instead of Omar, she agrees, staging a breakout for Omar only to have him killed afterwards. Once she discovers Ruth Langmore murdered her son and not Omar, she immediately follows Ruth to a secluded location and personally guns her down, thus exacting her revenge all while becoming the new cartel leader.
• Parks and Recreation:
  • Jennifer Barkley is a brilliant political strategist from Washington, DC. In season 4, after being spooked by Leslie's growing success in the polls in the race for city council, Nick Newport pays Jennifer a small fortune to be the campaign manager for his son Bobby's campaign. Jennifer skillfully outmaneuvers the Knope campaign, easily anticipating Leslie's next moves and capitalizing on each of her missteps. She's also willing to take underhanded actions, such as swiping one of Leslie's ideas for the Newport campaign, all while continuing to be a Friendly Enemy to Leslie whenever she's off the clock. After Leslie ultimately wins the city council seat, Jennifer gracefully accepts the loss and even offers Ben a job working with her firm because she was impressed by how well he managed the Knope campaign.
  • "Greg Pikitis": The titular Greg Pikitis is a teenage prankster who vandalizes the statue of Mayor Percy every Halloween, and despite Leslie being aware of this, she is never able to find concrete evidence to back up her suspicions. When Leslie decides to keep an eye on Greg the whole day while he is at school, he waits for her to leave before infiltrating the Parks Department disguised as a janitor. He then steals Leslie's keys, hides in the dumpster till everyone leaves, and then vandalizes the interiors by covering it in toilet paper. Upon being taken in for questioning, he hires an actress from Craigslist to pose as his mother to get him out of trouble, and once again successfully vandalizes the statue.
• Penny Dreadful: Dracula, the final villain of the series, kidnaps and turns Mina Murray to manipulate the heroes into chasing her in order to lure his true quarry, Vanessa Ives, into his grasp. While also outplaying his brother Lucifer, Dracula becomes close to Vanessa under his mortal guise of Dr. Alexander Sweet, while genuinely falling for Vanessa. Even after she discovers his true identity, Dracula still wins her to his side with the strength of his charm and charisma. Dracula then sets about his conquest of the world, so powerful that none of the heroes are able to even touch him, only departing to honor Vanessa's promise not to harm her friends after Vanessa's Heroic Sacrifice.
• The People v. O. J. Simpson: Johnnie Cochran is a criminal defense attorney who considers himself a black advocate. Seeing the impending O.J. Simpson trial as a perfect opportunity to push his political agenda, Cochran manages to become lead council of the Dream Team by outmaneuvering his predecessor Robert Shapiro. Cochran further outwits the prosecutors repeatedly with clever schemes that damages their own case, confuses the jurors with a prolongued Chewbacca Defense, redecorates O.J.'s mansion before a guided tour to make O.J. appear to be an active member of the African American community, and uses political leverage to threaten a race riot over the release of the Fuhrman tapes. Cochran's fiery rhetoric and dominant personality allows him to secure a not guilty verdict for a double murderer, something he considers a small price to pay as he goes on to celebrate his triumph.
• Person of Interest:
  • Carl Elias, a New York City crime boss and the illegitimate son of Don Gianni Moretti, evaded his father's attempts to kill him after witnessing the latter having his mother killed and spent decades building his own power base, even using a job as a teacher to siphon off mob recruits. Evading arrest after killing his mother's assailant, Elias later assists, then double-crosses Reese, forcing him to give Elias his father's hiding place, going on to take control of much of the city's crime scene while having his right-hand man kill his hated father while Elias seemingly quietly surrenders to the police. In prison Elias expands his business, even helping Team Machine from behind bars and when nearly killed by Russian mobsters, prepares to calmly accept his fate. When rescued, Elias works with Carter to turn HR and the Russian Mafia against one-another and when faced with the challenge of yet another gang, prepares swiftly to fight them when they kill his loyal right-hand, even outwitting their leader Dominic while under torture. After surviving an assassination attempt by Samaritan, Elias goes underground with Team Machine's help and dies giving his life to protect Finch from the rogue A.I.
  • Samantha "Root" Groves is a cyberterrorist and Professional Killer whose first crime was framing a murderer for stealing from a drug lord. Learning about The Machine after an assassination coverup was foiled, Root puts a hit out on herself to lure Finch and Reese out, kidnapping the latter for information on The Machine while sending Reese to solve her friend's murder. Becoming the Machine's analog interface after searching for it, Root breaks out of a mental hospital and assists in Team Machine's fight against HR, running interference for The Machine and ensuring the team's continued survival by installing faulty servers when the malevolent A.I. Samaritan comes online, eventually giving her life to protect Finch. A Master Actor who can slip in and out of roles and pick up skills along the way, Root is one of Team Machine's deadliest foes and greatest assets.
  • Anthony "Scarface" Marconi is Carl Elias' right-hand man and close friend whose first crime was killing his father for beating him and his mother. Scarface frequently assists Elias in his takeover of the New York underworld by donning a cop's uniform to monitor operations, kidnapping Detective Carter's son as leverage, and assassinations, including personally killing Elias' hated father Don Moretti. While Elias was imprisoned and in hiding, Scarface remains at large as Elias' eyes and ears on the streets, occasionally helping Team Machine take out larger threats. When faced with death by the Brotherhood gang, Scarface persuades Elias to give up a code to arm a bomb, declaring that he dies unconquered as it detonates.
  • "Robert N. Hersh", real name George, is a high-ranking agent for Northern Lights, the government organization using the Machine's data. As The Fixer for Northern Lights, Hersh is responsible for many tasks, including the training of recruits, helping his bosses with leading long-term double lives, and snuffing out leaks about the Machine by any means necessary. Introduced sabotaging a murder investigation through corrupting the files and breaking the chain of custody, Hersh later infiltrates Riker's Island and subsequently escapes when his quarry does, then executes an assassination in a crowded street, his target only surviving because of Team Machine. His ruthlessness tempered by his regard for his colleagues, even former ones, and impersonal approach, Hersh's last moments are spent trying to stop a terrorist attack, coming within seconds of thwarting it.
  • "Foe": Ulrich Kohl was a ruthless Stasi operative before being betrayed by his teammates and imprisoned for 24 years. Escaping after his captors believed he'd grown too old and weak to be dangerous, Kohl set out to take revenge on his former comrades, blaming them for the apparent death of his wife. Using his formidable knowledge of spycraft, chemistry, and biology, Kohl methodically hunts his targets while evading pursuit, killing all but one of them. Learning of his wife's survival, Kohl seeks her out, easily subduing Reese when he interferes, and engaging in a calm discussion with Reese while torturing him. Eventually confronting his wife and hitherto unknown daughter, Kohl accepts the toll his past had taken on him, coercing Reese into shooting him and dying content that the best part of him survives in his wife and child.
• Perry Mason's "The Case of the Traveling Treasure": Leon Ulrich and Max Nolan smuggle a fortune in gold out of a gold mine, delaying the discovery of their theft by leaving fake gold bars behind. They plan to get the gold out of the country by infiltrating a scientific expedition and hiding the gold at sea under a kelp bed. When the businessman funding the expedition cancels the trip, Ulrich tricks him into changing his mind by posing as a debt collector out to seize all of his assets if he remains in the country. The two are uninvolved in the businessman's murder and after being exposed Max compliments Perry on thwarting them and makes sure to exonerate an innocent party suspected of helping them.
• Power: Joseph "Joe" Proctor is a criminal defense attorney who becomes entwined in Ghost's drug empire. After being pressured to serve as Tommy Egan's representative during a trial, Proctor easily convinces the judge and jury that the FBI illegally arrested him based off inadmissible evidence, allowing him to go free. Proctor later assists Ghost and Tommy by delivering them crucial information of witnesses or other criminals and representing Ghost once he's falsely imprisoned for murdering a federal agent. Proctor also keeps a recording of Tommy murdering a confidential informant as insurance should anything dire happen to him. As the FBI keep pressuring Proctor to give up Ghost and his allies, Proctor continues to play both sides, informing Ghost that the FBI wants to turn him whilst also refusing to give up key details that could lead to Ghost's conviction. Struggling to keep full custody of his daughter, Proctor drives his ex-wife, Lindsay, into relapsing and lets her succumb to a drug overdose before calling the police. Once Proctor finds himself seconds away from being killed by Tommy for giving up his name to the FBI, he defiantly tells Tommy that his death won't change anything, and the recording eventually will resurface.
• Profit: Jim Profit is an amoral sociopath whose life's goal is to become President of Acquisitions at the multinational company Gracen & Gracen Enterprises, thus giving him control over one of the most powerful economic entities in the world. He uses various schemes such as leaking bad stories to the press and blackmailing his predecessor's secretary in an attempt to get him fired before later having him framed for murder to permanently dispose of him. Jim also ingratiates himself with the company elites and their loved ones, zeroing in on their personal demons and shortcomings to use against them and sow discord, such as causing a falling out among the Gracen brothers to maneuver himself into becoming the CEO's right hand man and using his equally manipulative stepmother Bobbi to seduce and further control his boss. When the head of security catches on to his scheming, Jim forces her psychologist to perform hypnosis on her and then presents himself as her rescuer to discredit her claims against him. Jim Profit is an expert manipulator and schemer whose machiavellian plots allow him to get away with murder, extortion, and ruining people's lives multiple times and always has more cards left to play when faced with adversity.
• The Purge:
  • Season 1:
    • Miguel Guerrero is the older brother of Penelope, determined to find her no matter who gets in his way. Over the course of the evening, Miguel faces down insurmountable odds and crushes all resistance; whether that's through facing down the Gauntlet, getting inside the Carnival of Flesh by trafficking one of its members to them, killing Henry even while he's tied down, or even managing to track down Good Leader Tavis's bus, Miguel utilizes his quick thinking and tactical training to assess every threat, neutralize them, and protect his sister along the way. Later teaming up with Pete the Cop to track down Joe Owens, Miguel even manages to reverse engineer Joe's traps despite not being a bomb technician, getting rid of the Carnival's guards as well as killing Joe himself after the sirens had already gone off. Driven purely by his love for his sister, Miguel proves himself to be far more than the brutish Marine he originally seems to be.
    • Pete the Cop is a former police officer with such a legendary reputation that he's off-limits on Purge Night. Using this reputation to enforce a Truce Zone inside his cantina, where people may either seek safety or plan their Purges as they please, Pete utilizes his connections around the city to make him a valuable source of information. Originally only helping Miguel find his sister in exchange for his car, Pete later tricks Miguel into working with a collector for the Carnival, knowing Miguel wouldn't work with the man otherwise. Later shedding his caustic exterior to reveal the hero beneath, Pete helps Miguel track down Joe and deduces his plans from minimal information, later forming the plan to take down the Carnival's guards all at once before covering for Miguel's murder of Joe.
    • Madelyn is the leader of the Matron Saints, a group of women who spend their Purge Night protecting other women from dangerous men. Armed to the teeth and ready for anything, Madelyn is introduced saving Jane from an Attempted Rape by threatening the man into a retreat, later managing to flush out the drug he gave her with materials from her RV. When the group gets a call from a woman being abused, Madelyn leads the raid on the apartment with lightning-fast precision, taking down the danger within moments and caring for the wounded woman all the while. It is then revealed that the Matron Saints brand their targets with the word "PIG", ensuring that women recognize men who will hurt them when given the chance and giving out cards to others to continue protecting them.
  • Season 2:
    • Esmerelda "Esme" Carmona is one of the NFFA's leading agents who, unlike most of the party, genuinely believes in her cause. After witnessing a friend be Purged, Esme begins investigating the death, very quickly managing to uncover a conspiracy by the government to cover up negative Purge statistics and protect their own image. Despite being named a criminal, Esme stays one step ahead of them and allies with Ryan Grant, combining her plan to expose the government for its corruption with his plan to rob a plane. Working with a mole to place the NFFA's security away from her and Ryan, Esme manages to get inside the government's building and broadcast the truth to the public, encouraging the people to resist the Purge; when this gets her executed in spite of the Purge ending, it's revealed that Esme left the microphone on, tricking the NFFA into exposing themselves and making her a martyr to the resistance.
    • Ryan Grant is a former police officer turned brilliant bank robber. Introduced leading a successful bank robbery and outsmarting a rival gang along the way, Ryan spends the next year preparing for the next heist, discovering how the banks move their money and creating the plan to retrieve it. When forced to ally with his former co-workers, Ryan then leads them on while he works with Esme to ensure their plans go successfully, all while planning to escape the country. Come Purge Night, Ryan betrays his enemies to the rival gang, knowing that his crew is skilled enough to take the money back from the gang themselves, and successfully claims the money for his crew. When he then learns that Esme's going to expose the government, Ryan singlehandedly takes on an NFFA death squad to buy her the time she needs, ultimately protecting her down to his last bullet at the cost of his life.
• Reaper: The Devil is the charismatic and stylish lord of hell who tricks Sam's parents into selling his soul to him before Sam's birth. The Devil uses Sam as a Bounty Hunter to recapture escaped souls from hell while constantly exploiting his opponents by using Exact Words to get his way in his deals. The Devil arranges for Sam to get an apartment next to a pair of rebel demons whose plan to destroy him would actually have worked, and manipulates Sam into infiltrating the rebellion with a new (doomed) plan to kill him, he also signs Sam's lease with his name and sends him clues as to what is going on that Sam, Sock and Ben can only work out moments after it is too late to do anything about it. He then repeats this plan with the few survivors of the rebellion, and is still witty, charming and diabolically affable.
• Revenge (2011): Amanda Clarke is a clever and ruthless woman who goes to extreme lengths for revenge against the people involved in framing her father for terrorism when she was a girl. Having studied her targets under her new identity as Emily Thorne, she uses their flaws against them to cause their downfall, like when she uses a crooked hedge fund manager's love of gambling on risky investments to trick him into investing in a deal that bankrupts him. Even when plans derail due to unexpected factors, she is able to turn these new situations in her favor while staying three steps ahead of her enemies. She takes Conrad Grayson down by staging a kidnapping of his daughter, Charlotte, planting a bug on her, telling her how Conrad framed her father, and then releasing her, knowing that Charlotte will confront Conrad and he will confess to everything, which Emily can air via a hacked satellite on live TV. Later, figuring out that Conrad’s wife Victoria has deduced her true identity, Emily lures her to the local graveyard, where she confesses her true identity, knocks Victoria out with a shovel, and has her institutionalized for "delusions" about her being Amanda Clarke, as retribution for Victoria having institutionalized her when she was a child.
• Rise of Empires: Ottoman: Sultan Mehmet II, The Conqueror, is an Ottoman prince who ascends the throne after the death of his father Murad II. Descended from both Byzantine nobility and Ottoman warlords, Mehmet sets out to realize his ancestor Osman's dream of conquering Constantinople. Ensuring the fealty of his late father's vizier Halil Pasha to unite the empire, Mehmet orders the construction of great cannons to pummel the city with artillery bombardments to weaken the walls, and has his army build a path through the mountains north of Constantinople to move his navy across land to outmaneuver the Romans. Meanwhile, his beloved stepmother and ally Mara Brankovic keeps in contact with Mehmet from the Serbian court to apprise him of any alliance of Christian states buiding up around him. Feeling a genuine admiration for his arch-enemy Giovanni Giustiniani, Mehmet tries to offer him lordship over the Ionian islands if he joins the Ottomans. Ultimately, Mehmet's determination and sheer will secures a breach of the Roman walls, as he takes the city and converts it into the new capital of the empire, while ridding himself of the trappings of the past by executing Halil Pasha for conspiring against him.
• Rome: Gaius Julius Caesar conquers the entire land of Gaul, while masterfully manipulating the Roman senate into declaring him a criminal to give him an excuse to march on Rome, scattering the Senate and seizing ultimate power while acting humble to continue winning the love of the populace. Caesar continues a series of masterful political maneuvers to entrench himself while maintaining the loyalty of his soldiers and closest allies, even rewarding a veteran for defying his explicit orders when the man's actions win favor with the crowd, securing himself a trusted bodyguard in the process. In almost every moment, Caesar continues to show how he is the true master of Rome and is seen as almost divine even before his assassination.
• Sechs Auf Einen Streich's "Die kleine Meerjungfrau": Mydra is the mysterious and reclusive sea witch. Since she is fond of the mermaid princesses due to an implied romantic past with the sea king, she indulges Undine's wish when the latter begs her to give her legs instead of a mermaid's tail, but as payment, she takes away her voice. Mydra also tells her that, should she fail to win over her beloved human prince and thus gain a soul, she will dissolve into sea foam. Later, after the prince marries another, Mydra sends Undine a magical knife to stab him with: if Undine does it, she will survive and get her tail back. However, when Undine can't bring herself to do it, Mydra reveals it was all a Secret Test of Character: by refusing to kill her beloved, Undine proves she already has a human soul. Giving Undine's voice back, Mydra tells her that she is now free to pursue her dream of exploring the world and that she will be her guide, at least for the start. Enigmatic, claiming to be nigh-omniscient, and rarely giving direct answers to any questions, Mydra orchestrates most of the events in the episode.
• Seventeen Moments of Spring:
  • Max Otto von Stierlitz, real name Maxim Isaev, is a brilliant Soviet spy who has infiltrated the SD, the Nazi intelligence agency. Ordered by the Moscow high command to investigate Operation Sunrise Crossword, he learns that his SD boss Schellenberg and Himmler are involved with it. Stierlitz simultaneously helps them and alerts Bormann, Himmler's political opponent, about the operation. As an asset for the operation, Stierlitz recruits Pastor Schlag on Schellenberg's orders by threatening his sister and nephews, but then convinces him to help Stierlitz's own cause by promising to protect his relatives. Without the Nazis' knowledge, Stierlitz also recruits Professor Pleischner, a man broken by the Nazi regime and the death of his brother. When Stierlitz's radio operator Kat accidentally breaks her cover, he arrests her and places her and her baby son under the Nazis' watch, since their immediate evacuation would compromise his mission. Even though Pleischner is tricked and Driven to Suicide by the Nazis and Stierlitz's fingerprints are found on Kat's suitcase, Stierlitz manages to convince the Gestapo of his loyalty to the Nazi Party and is able to send his findings to Moscow and rescue Kat. Resourceful and always calm, Stierlitz retains his honor despite the years spent posing as a Nazi, sympathizes with the civilians he has to use as assets, and undermines the Nazi war effort while remaining Beneath Suspicion at the SD.
  • Walter Schellenberg is the chief of German intelligence whose level-headed worldview is a contrast to that of the fanatical adepts of Nazism. Despite his readiness to sacrifice assets who know too much if needed, Schellenberg is friendly, jovial, and pleasant-mannered. Realizing that Germany is nearing defeat in World War II, he convinces Heinrich Himmler to start secretly negotiating for a separate peace with the UK and US to at least minimize the losses. When Himmler tells him he has picked Karl Wolff to lead the negotiations, Schellenberg immediately comes up with a plan of safeguarding himself in case rivaling fractions of the Nazi high command learn of Wolff's mission. Schellenberg orders his subordinate Stierlitz to send civilian asset Pastor Schlag to Bern to keep tabs on the negotiations, holding Schlag's family hostage to ensure his loyalty. Even after Stierlitz, who is a Soviet spy, sabotages the negotiations and leaks the info on them to Martin Bormann and the Gestapo, Schellenberg is quick to use one of his Plans B for that occasion. He meets Wolff in full uniform so that Gestapo agents don't dare arrest the latter in his presence, and has it announced that other high-ranked officers, whom Schellenberg had selected beforehand, were behind the negotiations, while Wolff has infiltrated their ranks and uncovered the treasonous plot. A brilliant strategist, Schellenberg is thus able to turn his defeat into a great success for his department, effortlessly outmaneuvering his constant rivals, the Gestapo.
• Shaka Zulu: King Shaka Zulu was born into the Zulu tribe to an arrogant prince and a commoner girl. Defending his mother's honor, Shaka and his maternal relatives were expelled, but when Shaka returns as a young man he publically defies his father's wishes for him to become a Zulu warrior, fleeing from his soldiers to instead join the army of the Mhethwa Paramountcy, whose current King he once nursed to health. Shaka singlehandedly revolutionizes tribal warfare, allowing him to utterly annihilate rival tribes, gain revenge on his past enemies, and take over his late father's throne. Shaka manages to use the threat of an enemy tribe to bargain himself into becoming supreme commander, then declares himself King after his patron is unexpectedly assassinated. Shaka also cleverly uses the British expedition to his court for his own ends, using their technology to wipe out an enemy army, and to achieve immortality, or so he believes. He allows Lieutenant Farewell to return to Capetown with Shaka's representatives, but when he realizes that they tricked him he starts plotting revenge while damning the rest of the world after his mother dies. A powerful, dangerous, charismatic ruler, Shaka returns to his court only to Face Death with Dignity, with even his assassins remaining in awe of him after his downfall.
• Silent Witness:
  • "World Cruise": Doctor Josef Horowitz is a genial, respected academic who lost his entire family in Auschwitz and was forced to watch his twin brother Aaron die in a Nazi experiment. Now a frail, old man dying from lung cancer Josef vows to avenge Aaron dubbing it his "World Cruise". Killing his targets by injecting glycol into their hearts inducing a fatal attack, the same way Aaron was murdered. Tracking down the Dawidowicz brothers who betrayed them in the camp out of desperation, Josef charms them into inviting him to lunch then drugs, restrains and murders them. Horrified to discover an innocent man is being charged for the double murder, Josef subtly steers the investigation towards thuggish local Neo-Nazi Carl Martin. Luring Martin to Brussels the same day he murdered a former SS Doctor, Josef left the scene pointing at Martin, his efforts leading to Martin being exposed for drowning a kindly old Jewish man, just as Josef suspected. The final war criminal having successfully reinvented himself as a famous geneticist, to gain access to him Josef impersonated a reporter then sat with Professor Neumann as he died admitting "he didn't deserve a peaceful death."
  • "Legacy": Tom Hancock is a grieving father whose son Peter became gravely ill with multiple forms of cancer. Suspicious after all of his friends came down with the same ailments, Tom becomes convinced a government coverup was responsible for his son's death and is determined to expose it at any cost. Taking his comatose son "hostage" with a shotgun, Tom switches off his life support, but lets everyone else on the ward go. Contacting Professor Leo Dalton, Tom successfully manipulates him into investigating the cause of his son's illness. When Leo and the pathology team find evidence of a coverup involving a nuclear weapon stashed in an underground bunker by Sir William Embelton, Tom, despite growing to like and admire Leo, tricks him into taking him to the location. Determined to take revenge, Tom steals some lethally radioactive material and then breaks into Sir William's home to demand an apology. Upon Sir William spitefully refusing, Tom gains admittance to the office of Sir William's son James and uses his engineering skills to rig the lethally radioactive material into an air conditioning unit, all whilst disguised as an ordinary repairman. After the trap triggers and contaminates both James and corrupt government agent David Loader, Tom hands himself into the authorities, his revenge complete and the cover up exposed.
• Slasher (Season 5—Ripper): Regina Simcoe, aka "the Widow", is the killer stalking the streets. The daughter of Margaret Mehar, after Margaret was murdered by Basil Garvey and Regina's husband Alistair, Regina trained for years to avenge her. Searching for the truth, Regina married Alistair and eventually coaxed the entire explanation from him. Hunting down her targets one by one, Regina kills everyone involved in her mother's murder while deflecting all suspicion as a grieving widow by day. Regina even converts her lover, Detective Kenneth Rijkers, to her cause and lures Basil to his death, knowing without her, there will be no justice for all of Basil's crimes.
• Sleepy Hollow's "Whispers in the Dark" & "Dead Men Tell No Tales": General William Howe served in the British army during the Revolutionary War as a strategist and supernatural expert. He used mystical resources to try to bring down the rebellion, bonding a Whispering Wraith to a traitor and sending him to George Washington's spies, leading an army of Draugur to take control of Manhattan, and sending a spy to infiltrate and sabotage Washington's expedition to the Catacombs (this time coming close to killing Washington and Betsy Ross). Having Crane captured, he tempted his former subordinate with an offer of amnesty in exchange for naming Washington's spies. Resurrected as a Draugur by Pandora over 200 years after his death, Howe raised a new unit of undead to attack Sleepy Hollow before being lured into a trap so his soldiers could be destroyed with Greek Fire. He chose to incinerate himself rather than grant Crane the satisfaction of killing him.
• Slow Horses:
  • Jackson Lamb is the head of Slough House, who masks a truly dangerous spy beneath his slovenly, lazy exterior. Considered one of MI5's best agents, Lamb took the position at Slough House to escape the constant bloodshed and trickery he was engaging in, most notably fooling the entirety of the Soviet spy network by playing one of their moles. Lamb mocks and derides those in his employ, yet holds genuine care for them that he regularly expresses by saving them from trouble or avenging their untimely deaths. After skillfully evading an attempted frame-up on Slough House by MI5, Lamb helps take down a False Flag Operation and cover up MI5's involvement in it to preserve public peace. Later taking on the return of infamous Russian spymaster "Alexander Popov" and his Cicada sleeper agents, Lamb uses his spies to weed out Cicada agents across London. Confronting "Popov"—aka Katinsky—in-person for a final battle, Lamb reveals he has utterly outdone his foe, leaves him a gun with which to commit suicide, and departs with words of genuine respect for Katinsky's work.
  • Season 2: Nikolai Katinsky created the fictional persona of "Alexander Popov" to mask his true identity as Russia's greatest spymaster during the Cold War. A brilliant machinator with webs extending all over the world in the form of his Cicada sleeper agents, Katinsky was forced into hiding when Lamb ousted one of his moles and soured Katinsky's reputation. Genuinely mournful of the loss of one of his subordinates, Katinsky schemed for years at paying Lamb back, and eventually allies with the corrupt Arkady Pashkin to rob the Glasshouse and humiliate Lamb in one swoop. Katinsky eliminates several MI5 agents with his Cicadas and sends Slough House on several wild goose chases, culminating in fooling them into calling in a false bomb threat to leave the Glasshouse defenseless. Meeting with Lamb for a final confrontation, Katinsky comes within a hair's breadth of killing all of Lamb's allies and solidifying his victory. Even when he's beaten by Lamb, Katinsky stoically chooses to end his own life rather than face prison, having long accepted his death after a cancer diagnosis that sparked his crusade of vengeance.
• So Weird's "Troll": Astrid is a pleasant-seeming old woman who is in truth a ruthless troll. Astrid runs a comfy inn in Minnesota where she plays riddle games with travelers. Unfortunately for them, Astrid is very good at riddles and anyone who fails to get seven questions right in a row is turned into a vegetable for her soup. Upon the arrival of Fi's family, Astrid targets the lot of them and gauges their weaknesses to ask any question she wants, even tricking Fi's brother Jack when he answers a question without even realizing he's playing and rejects the notion of fairness thanks to what the trolls have endured.
• The Sopranos: Special Agent Dwight Harris is assigned to monitor the DiMeo Crime Family. Spying on the Sopranos and their allies, Harris flips several of those close to Tony to serve as FBI informants with little care of the danger it puts them in, including Adriana la Cerva whom he manipulates into being an FBI asset. Harris later uses Tony himself to gain information on potential terrorists and assists the Sopranos with the murder of the violent Lupertazzi head Phil Leotardo.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand:
  • The nameless Thracian general who is later known as Spartacus rises to become the finest gladiator of the House of Batiatus, before learning Batiatus had his wife murdered. Arranging a coup for the Gladiators' freedom, Spartacus kills Batiatus and leads his followers to safety, even infiltrating the arena in a scheme to save his gladiators. Trapping a Roman force under his nemesis Glaber, Spartacus engages the Roman general and kills him after seeing his force annihilated. With followers in the thousands, Spartacus infiltrates and takes an entire city, before engaging with Marcus Licinus Crassus, forcing captured Romans to fight in gladiator games in honor of their fallen comrades. Spartacus later faces a fatal wound against Crassus, dying happily at the prospect of seeing his beloved wife once more and knowing he has become a true symbol of freedom for all who stand against tyranny.
  • Marcus Licinius Crassus is a self-made Roman aristocrat who showcases an odd respect for slaves and gladiators. Having his gladiator teacher fight him to the death to truly understand Spartacus, Crassus gives him nothing but respect when Hilarus dies, even having promised to free him and make him rich should he kill Crassus. Directing his rivals to die at Spartacus's hands, Crassus later introduces decimation to the roman ranks to make his men fear him more than Spartacus. With a series of intelligent strategies, Crassus slowly wins the Servile War, ending in single combat with Spartacus, and ending with Crassus's victory.
  • Gaius Julius Caesar himself is a cunning soldier who proves his mettle by infiltrating a city taken by Spartacus's rebels as a freed slave himself. Playing the freed slaves perfectly, Caesar ends up repulsed when he sees one of the rebel leaders Nemetes is keeping a Roman woman captive, and only gives her a Mercy Kill when she begs for it. He then turns them into an opportunity, having gladiators kill Roman prisoners to increase tension between rebel factions. Later embracing his role in the legions, Caesar proves a brilliant and deadly combatant, even defeating the nearly unparalleled warrior Gannicus via tactics by using his legions.
• Stargate Atlantis: Todd is an old Wraith who has proven himself far more pragmatic and cunning than the rest of his ilk. After circumstances force him and Colonel Sheppard together and agree to team up to break out of a Genii prison, Todd would continually make alliances with the Atlantis expedition for his own benefit and to improve his position among the Wraith, even while sacrificing his fellow Wraith in the process. Todd's alliance-brokering hastens the demise of the Asurans, almost gains him access to a Wraith cloning facility and a super-hiveship, and puts him in charge of the largest Wraith faction in the Pegasus Galaxy by having Teyla pose as his Queen and usurp the position of the Queen Primarch. Todd is remarkable for the degree to which he can improvise his plans when faced with unexpected circumstances, leading Sheppard to remark that working with him is like walking around with a live grenade. At the same time, Todd has a charismatic and poetic side to him unmatched by other Wraith, and has managed to stay alive for almost 10,000 years of scheming.
• Storm of the Century: The courteous yet menacing Andre Linoge is a demonic sorcerer in search of an apprentice to carry out his legacy after his death. Arriving at Little Tall Island, Linoge murders an old woman and allows himself to be arrested so he can demonstrate his power to the town by revealing knowledge of the citizen's dark secrets, as well as magically influencing others into committing murder and suicide. Breaking out of his holding cell, Linoge demands a child, and threatens to kill everyone on the island if they do not fulfill his wishes. Ultimately getting what he wants in the end, Linoge thanks the inhabitants of Little Tall Island and leaves them to live with their guilt.
• Strike Back:
  • Vengeance: Craig Hanson is Michael Stonebridge's Arch-Enemy throughout the season. After his brother is killed by Michael during a botched SAS training mission, Hanson retaliated by murdering Stonebridge's wife, Kerry. Not long after, Hanson decided to become a mercenary and auditioned to be part of Karl Matlock's crew. When Matlock refuses to hire him, Hanson single-handedly neutralizes Matlock's security detail and sneaks into Conrad Knox's mansion; Knox then convinces Matlock to hire him. As Knox's mercenary, Hanson assisted Knox with his schemes, using all of his skills to elude Section 20, attempt to kill Michael several times, and eliminate any law enforcement officers or soldiers in his path. After Knox's initial plans fail, Hanson helps Knox escape minutes before he can be captured. After getting arrested, Hanson escapes from police custody and later murders Matlock when he tries to abandon Knox, taking his place to set off nuclear bombs in Johannesburg. During his final confrontation with Stonebridge, Hanson tries to convince him that they're not so different before attempting to kill him.
  • Shadow Warfare: Leo Kamali is the true mastermind behind all the events of the season. Longing for revenge over his wife's death, Kamali became an undercover CIA agent working for a mysterious terrorist known as al-Zuhari. While undercover, Kamali murdered Liam Baxter and supplied al-Zuhari's coconspirators with the weapons and funds needed to continue their illegal operations. After being captured by Section 20, Kamali escapes, and later reveals his CIA identity once he's recaptured. While working for Section 20, Kamali frequently played both sides to his advantage, engineering the deaths of al-Zuhari's wife and Rachel Dalton, the bombing of a British embassy, the death of his CIA handler, and the torture or deaths of various soldiers and law enforcement agents. Upon discovering al-Zuhari planned on creating weaponized smallpox, Kamali acquired a sample before fabricating his own death so he could proceed with his schemes. Once he had the smallpox, Kamali intended on releasing the virus into Ramstein Air Base to cause an outbreak in America. When his plans fail, Kamali instead tries to release the virus in Berlin.
  • Vendetta: Arianna Demachi, also known as Elena Stabokina, is a prominent crime lord within the Albanian Mafia. Knowing that her family is drowning in debt, Arianna pushes for her husband, Edon, to go through with dealing a bioweapon to terrorists. After Edon is killed by Section 20, she vows for revenge against the whole team. Teaming up with Zayef, Arianna has him kill Thomas McAllister, and later uses her resources to assassinate other members within the Albanian Mafia so she can take over. As she acquires access to an arms cache to exchange with Zayef for millions of dollars, she also lures Section 20 into a trap and continues to secure her position in the syndicate, even going as far as murdering her son, Loric when he attempts to overthrow her. After being called back to work for her Russian superiors, Arianna has a team kidnap Manisha Chetri, where she and her cohorts interrogate Chetri to try and acquire a hard drive containing valuable information. When Chetri destroys the information, Arianna simply kills her moments before Section 20 can rescue her. Knowing her superiors will eventually have her killed, Arianna betrays the Russian government, stealing $250 million and swapping it out with counterfeit cash.
• Succession: Rhea Jarrell is a "subtle dagger" in the world of blunt force that the Roy family occupies. The CEO of Pierce Media (PGM) who orchestrates a merger between PGM's owners the Pierce family and Waystar RoyCo's owners the Roys, Rhea plays both sides to earn herself the highest payday. When the Waystar cruise scandal causes the deal to fall apart and the Pierce family to fire her, Rhea quickly manipulates herself into the good graces of Logan Roy, isolating him from his kids and turning him against them one at a time to set herself up as his successor. Even though she is announced as Waystar's new CEO and set to gain new levels of power, Rhea ultimately rejects the position when she sees how truly awful and toxic the company is, and Rhea abandons the Roys with her dignity intact after Logan tries to force her to silence abuse victims.

T - Y

• Taboo: James Keziah Delaney is a brooding Byronic Hero who returns to London after the death of his father to take over his trading business and his land claim to Nootka Sound, a strategic area in the Pacific Northwest contested between the British Crown, the East India Company, and the United States of America. James proceeds to play all factions against each other to set up his own monopoly trade, enlisting figures in the city's underworld to do his bidding, surviving multiple assassins going after him, executing a daring raid of an EIC compound so he can manufacture more explosives, and using various mind games to gain access to his half-sister Zilpha's bedchambers. After being captured on orders of the King and tortured in the Tower of London, James refuses to break and secures his own release. James emerges from the intrique as the triumphant party, leaving London with all of his allies on a ship bound for the new world after killing The Mole who spied on him for the EIC and ensuring that his chief enemy, EIC director Sir Stuart Strange, will be bombed in his own office.
• Taken: Dr. Chet Wakeman is a childish but brilliant scientist working on the United States Air Force's secret UFO project to discover the aliens' goals. Using his experiments on humans and animals alike, Wakeman is able to swiftly learn about the dangers of the alien implants and correctly deduces the importance of the Clarke and Keys families in the aliens' plans. After capturing the half-alien child Allie, Wakeman builds a helmet capable of nullifying her powers and blocking her psychic signals from the aliens in order to try and use her as bait to draw them out, reacting only with glee and amazement when the seeming ship is revealed to be a projection created by Allie's powers. Deducing that the aliens wish to use hybridization to evolve and reclaim their emotions, Wakeman attempts to warn Allie and her family, and when killed by his lover and partner Mary Crawford has a pre-recording message sent to her which convinces her to give up her hunt. Arguably the most intelligent human in the series, Wakeman was ultimately content with allowing the aliens to finish their work uninterrupted, acknowledging that mankind was not ready to handle such knowledge and technology.
• Tales from the Crypt: With its heavy twist-based format, some characters in this EC Comics-based series show themselves as truly ingenious masterminds.
  • "The Sacrifice'': Gloria Fielding and her secret lover Jerry Jasper arranged for Gloria to marry rich dullard Sebastian Fielding, while directing the easily-influenced James to Sebastian so Gloria could seduce him. Luring him into murdering her husband, Gloria fakes not knowing Jasper who "blackmails" James to have sex with Gloria whenever he wishes. Consumed by guilt, James eventually kills himself with a note taking the blame that Gloria burns, she and Jasper complimenting one another on his brilliant planning and her brilliant acting before heading off.
  • "Dead Wait": Peligre, the Voodoo priestess is an intelligent and subtle woman in the employ of plantation owner Duvall. Peligre assists the con artist Red when he arrives and guides him on how to take the black pearl out of seeming respect for his red hair, which is a sign of greatness to her people. Playing Red for her own ends and seeing him murder Duvall, Peligre then kills Duvall's unfaithful wife Kathrine before she can murder Red. Promising to guide Red to safety, Peligre proceeds to lead him to her village where she reveals the truth of what she wants: Red's hair. Decapitating him, Peligre then throws away the pearl and victoriously takes Red's head to rejoin her people.
  • "Two for the Show": Officer Fine centers in on the ostensible protagonist when he murders his unfaithful wife Emma and places the pieces of her body in a suitcase. Fine manipulates him, making him panic while promising that teams of agents will arrive to search the bags. After he disposes of the suitcase and switches tags, it turns out that Fine left an identical bag on the train with the corpse of his own wife, who was having the affair with Emma, framing someone else for his crime and escaping scott-free.
  • "Comes the Dawn": Corporal Jeri Drumbeater lives a solitary life in Alaska when Colonel Parker and his right-hand Burrows show up, desiring her help for illegal poaching. When she learns Parker unknowingly shelled her unit in Desert Storm, Jeri lures the two into the local nest of vampires who serve her, her own poisonous blood inedible to them. Jeri attempts to turn Burrows against Parker, while also withholding the vital fact that the sun the far north in Alaska will not rise for another two months just in case one believes he has escaped.
  • "Fatal Caper": Fiona Havisham is the beautiful lawyer for the Amberson family. When old Mycroft Amberson has it in his will that his disowned child Frank must be found before he seemingly dies, Fiona plays his sons Justin and Evelyn against one another, clandestinely working with Mycroft to eliminate them. When Mycroft tries to seduce her after, Fiona reveals she is "Frank", actually a transgender woman who transitioned after being disowned, before having Mycroft executed with her partner in crime to inherit the fortune.
  • "A Slight Case of Murder": Mrs. Trask is an aspiring murder writer who bounces ideas off her callous neighbor, bestselling mystery writer Sharon Bannister. To get real life research for her own book, she fakes letters from Sharon to her son to lure the man into falling for her, making it look like Sharon is having an affair to her jealous husband, poisons the cookies she sends her son to take over and sets them all against one another to eliminate themselves while remaining totally free of suspicion, ending by taking Sharon's latest manuscript for herself.
  • "Escape": Major Nicholson is a British officer disgusted by the venal, treacherous POW Luger after Luger leads his own companions into a trap in exchange for reward. Sneaking a British spy into the prison camp and letting Luger see manufactured coffins while also placing a survivor of Luger's treachery nearby to panic him, Nicholson ensures the desperate Luger places himself into his grasp just when the war has ended so Nicholson will not have to endure releasing him, having decided Luger is "definitely worth a bullet".
• Tales from the Darkside's "The Grave Robber": Tapok is the Lord Chamberlain of the Pharaoh. Awakening from his slumber when archaeologist Doctor Harold Gormley and his girlfriend Aileen enter his tomb, he kills their guide Ahmed before revealing himself to be more Affably Evil enough to engage the two in a series of games. Despite being dismissed as a brainless monster, Tapok proves himself to be smarter than he looked by reading the cards during a round and successfully switches places with Harold as well as taking Aileen, nothing that she reminded him of his lost love.
• TerrorVision (1988)'s "The Craving": Dr. A. Cula, in reality Dracula himself, poses as a chipper dentist to turn his patients into vampires. A competent dentist who lures his victims in with a charming demeanor, when his latest victim Mr. Greenfield manages to escape his office full of vampires, Dracula uses a disguise to catch Greenfield off guard long enough to bite him, turning him into a vampire, while still sending him away with his toothache fixed.
• The Thick of It: Malcolm Tucker, the Prime Minister's foul-mouthed director of communications is willing to do nearly anything short of actual violence to ensure his party's victory. When Julius Nicholson makes a play for power with the intent of firing Malcolm, Malcolm starts a rumor that Julius is vying for Foreign Secretary and then tells the PM that Julius started the rumors and thus needs to be punished. While Malcolm's rival Steve Flemming briefly manages to get Malcolm fired, Malcolm is quickly hired back because he is indispensable and gets Flemming fired instead by tricking the media into believing that Flemming is corrupt. When leadership of Malcolm's party falls to the incompetent Nicola Murray, Malcolm engineers her downfall in favor of the more competent Dan Miller while making Nicola think that Malcolm is her ally up to the last minute. When a Parliamentary inquiry finds that Malcolm committed perjury, he turns himself in and decides to resign from politics at the cost of great humiliation to himself so he can protect his party.
• The Tick (2016): Ms. Lint is a powerful super villain in The City who served as The Dragon to The Terror before abandoning him once his plans falls apart. Striking out on her own in Season 2, Ms. Lint would become the superhero Joan of Arc and work for A.E.G.I.S. to eliminate her competition in the criminal underworld and gain The City's trust, even attacking her own henchmen to deter suspicion away from her true identity and exploit the 28th amendment to prevent Tick and Arthur from doing such either. She would ally herself with The Duke, Agent Doctor Hobbes, in the latter's efforts to take over A.E.G.I.S only to steal all of his gear before leaving him at the heroes' mercy.
• Thunderbolt Fantasy: Rin Setsua is the beautiful, playful young man who involves himself in Tan Hi's quest to keep a magic sword holding back a demon god out of the hands of the wicked Betsutengai. Rin Setsua manipulates fighters into joining the quest, including the vicious Screaming Phoenix Killer by promising him a match at the end. Rin Setsua then proceeds to double cross the team for Betsutengai's Onyx Demons, then betrays the Onyx Demons again after luring out potential traitors in Tan Hi's group. Finally facing Betsutengai, Rin Setsua proceeds to utterly humiliate him in combat, revealing his greatest pleasure is to humiliate and humble the proud and haughty.
• Top Boy: Dushane Hill begins as the crime lord of Summerhouse and when his drugs are stolen masquerades as the funeral attendee of the cousin of the man who stole his drugs to capture and kill him. Taking over Summerhouse, Dushane smooth talks his way out of a police interrogation and saves his best friend from the wrath of a furious man by convincing the man to kill another criminal instead. To avoid being incriminated, Dushane has his lawyer Love Interest work for a woman prosecuting him for killing her boyfriend and holds her son hostage to force her into dropping her accusations. In season 3, when forced to be paying off a murderous crime boss, Dushane manages to outmaneuver and kill both the boss and his enforcer and ends it making a deal with an incarcerated crime lord, intending to cut a deal and consolidate London's criminal underworld under their joint rulership.
• Tokyo Vice: Hitoshi Ishida is the noble yet stern upfront leader of the Yakuza clan Chihara-kai. An aged mobster who has danced around rival gangs and dogged police for years, Ishida quickly sees the potential in reporter Jake Adelstein and twists him into a puppet to turn the media and cops alike against Ishida's foe Tozawa, who disgusts even Ishida. Ishida weeds out Tozawa's moles in his organization and disrupts Tozawa's drug operations, later killing several assassins sent after him. Calculating and quick to capitalize on any prospects, Ishida rebels against typical Yakuza strategy by endorsing Samantha's idea for a female-owned hostess club, Ishida planning to test the waters to see if the club is successful before sinking his claws into Samantha and siphoning the club's profits for himself.
• Trace:
  • "The Dangerous Turn": Inna Babayeva is a woman who plots the murder of her abusive, cheating Control Freak of a husband. She devises a Make It Look Like an Accident plan of sabotaging his airbag and then blinding him with a firework when his car is at a dangerous turn. To put the plan into motion, she hires their employee Fyodor, promising him half of her enormous inheritance and – in case he, against all odds, gets caught – the best lawyer available. She also tells Fyodor that, if he is found out, he should claim he did everything out of secret Courtly Love for her. Fyodor's involvement is indeed eventually discovered by the FES, he spins his romantic cover story and looks sympathetic, though he is still sent to prison to await trial. Babayeva, however, becomes free and wealthy overnight, and nobody has even an inkling of suspicion that she could be involved in the murder.
  • "Anatomy according to Glück": Andrey Veresov is a student who decides to kill his Old Flame's sadistic husband, an anatomy professor. Taking advantage of the fact that his classmate decides to spike his group's food with a strong hallucinogenic drug but, being in love with him, warns him about it, Andrey waits for the drug to take effect during an anatomy test and slits the professor's throat while all the other students are high and therefore useless as witnesses. He hides his gloves in one of the internal organs preserved on display in the class and eats a drugged pie himself, establishing his own alibi. His gloves, the single definite clue against him, are found by the FES only thanks to a chance "Eureka!" Moment, and after a momentary shock Andrey accepts his defeat with grace and calmly says he is ready to answer for the crime.
  • "Diagnosis: Blonde": Alyona Karova plays the role of a vapid Trophy Wife of a wealthy businessman to manipulate the FES squad members. Plotting to murder her husband, Alyona crafts a meticulous plan while keeping the agents in the dark, even manipulating Danilov to her benefit during their investigation.
  • "The Last Tour": Polina Lebyazhskaya is an elderly actress who learns that Christina, the wife of her grandson Oleg, cheats on the latter with Polina's son-in-law Vasily, which almost leads to the suicide of Polina's daughter Yelena. Enraged, Polina decides to kill Christina and destroy her squeaky-clean reputation. Forging a note from Vasily, Polina lures Christina to a cheap motel doubling as a brothel and, in a disguise, obtains a sample of semen of one of the brothel's clients. Posing as a deliveryman, Polina brings Christina BDSM supplies and drugged liquor, and later, dressed up as another man, kills the sleeping Christina, placing the semen on her body. She calls the police herself at once in an altered voice to make sure Christina's Undignified Death isn't hushed up by the brothel. Found out only thanks to obscure and hard-to-analyze clues, Polina accepts her defeat calmly, only asking that her grandson is never told about his wife and father cuckolding him.
  • "The Man-Legend": Nadezhda Somova is a woman bent on killing Alexander Varshavsky who left her sister pregnant after a brief affair and refused to acknowledge his son after the sister died in childbirth. Inspired by a news report about a serial burglar, Nadezhda has her husband Kirill kill Varshavsky, imitating the burglar's style. To enhance the deception, Nadezhda and Kirill stage their own burglaries and give the FES the criminal's description from the news report. The plot is revealed since the description turns out to be fake, but Nadezhda remains calm and collected after her arrest and regrets nothing, since her sister has been avenged and her little nephew will inherit his father's wealth.
  • "The Last Asylum": Irina Arsenyeva is a seventy-six-year-old handicapped retirement home resident who is eternally grateful to nurse Lyudmila Pozdnyakova after the latter saved her life. When the new director Dubravin starts harassing Lyudmila and asks the worst-tempered patient Kopylov to purposefully make her job unbearable, so that Lyudmila would be left with the choice of accepting Dubravin or quitting, Irina decides to make Lyudmila's tormentors pay. Irina poisons Kopylov's vodka with crushed sedative pills, which results in a near-fatal poisoning of Kopylov and a fatal one of another patient, and frames Dubravin by leaving traces of his shoes and scattering the sedative powder in his office. Despite her age and failing health, Irina plans the crime so meticulously that the one nigh-imperceptible clue that points to her involvement is for a long time dismissed even by the FES as irrelevant. When Irina is found out, she accepts defeat calmly and even gets disappointed she is allowed to stay under house arrest until trial, since getting jailed would have brought a refreshing change.
• Training Day:
  • Detective Frank Rourke is a loose cannon of a cop dead set on avenging the killing of his best friend Detective William "Billy" Craig. Happy to bend the law to take down crooks, Frank notably allies with crime boss Menjivar to thwart a monstrous rival, then sets up the more noble Menjivar up to take control of all the city's crime in a more peaceful way. Frank will further manipulate or even threaten suspects with death to secure confessions, even impersonating a lawyer to trick one into confessing. Frank works with Billy's son Kyle to begin closing in on the former's murder, meanwhile coercing a corrupt councilman to gain a high profile informant to probe into his boss Joy Lockhart. Also deflecting Lockhart's investigation back on to her by playing Kyle, Frank discovers Lockhart's innocence and joins forces with her to take down Billy's killer. Setting up a bank robbery as a diversion to steal the evidence of "Project Leviathan", Frank resists the effects of a truth serum under interrogation and turns his captors on each other before shooting his way out of the cartel base to murder a ranking member of Leviathan and preparing to unmask the conspiracy.
  • Detective Rebecca Lee was once a child nearly sold to a horrific fate by a vicious child trafficker until she was saved by Frank. Devoted to her father-figure, Rebecca assists him as he bends the law for the greater good, even threatening to kill new recruit Kyle if she deems him a threat. An expert hacker, Rebecca gets Frank access to top secret information for his cases and even threatens to feed a Yakuza member to a shark with a fellow Detective unless he gives up information on his boss. Impersonating Lockhart to break a crook out of prison under Frank's orders, Rebecca's devotion to him even overcomes her anger at his lie in the final episodes, aiding her mentor in a shootout against the cartel and saving him to return him back to Los Angeles so he may confront and execute Billy's killer.
  • Detective Tommy Campbell is a former surfer and adrenaline junkie who, after surviving a great white shark attack, dedicated himself to a higher purpose and joined law enforcement. Serving as one of the right-hands to Frank, Tommy regularly serves an invaluable role in Frank's various schemes, using his gunplay expertise and skilled deduction abilities to ensure Frank claims victory after victory. Able to piece together the true victim of a seemingly random drive-by shooting as fast as he can spot a merciless killer in a crowd of civilians, Tommy faces even capture with stoic dignity and uses code words communicated to Frank to scheme an escape. Tommy is part of the coalition that works to save Frank from the vengeful cartel in the finale, and continues to serve at Frank's side in further endeavors.
  • "Tehrangeles" & "Elegy: Part 2": Lina Farzan is the former head of Muammar Gaddafi's Amazonian Guard. After the fall of the Libyan regime, Lina works as a mercenary with her "sisters", hired to kidnap the daughter of a crooked businessman owing her employer money. Killing her subordinates for overstepping their role in negotiations, Lina manages to outdo her boss when Frank sells her out to be killed, murdering the man with Frank's gun to prevent him from tracking her. Forming a begrudging respect for Frank, Lina returns to help him rob a cartel bank, even doubling back when Frank is caught to aid him in a shootout.
  • "Trigger Time" & "Elegy Part 2": Artemis is a dangerous assassin who uses a crossbow and prides herself on rarely missing. Having killed over a dozen men, she targets and nearly executes Kyle and Frank unnoticed by using an ice cream truck as cover. When she shifts targets, Artemis uses the duo to her advantage by having them draw out her true bounty so she can kill him and slip away. Meeting up with Frank some time later, Artemis teams with him to pull off a bank heist, then helps uses her skills to help save Frank when he is temporarily captured by the cartel.
  • "Blurred Lines": Henry Hollister is a charming robber alongside his beloved son and Getaway Driver Bobby. Hitting a jewelry store to steal chips to enter a high stakes criminal poker game, Henry is forced to kill a security guard when their idiot partner tries to rape a hostage and the guard draws. Nearly killing his treacherous partner later, Henry hits the poker game to successfully rob it before being confronted by Frank and agrees to give himself up when promised security for Bobby. Fatally stabbed while talking with Frank by the vengeful poker host, Henry dies with Frank, who restates his promise to give Bobby a good life.
• Trilogy of Terror: Julie Eldridge is a sadist who enjoys leading men to their dooms for fun. To sate her urges, she pretends to be a mild-nannered English teacher, dropping subtle hints to make sexual predators think she's the perfect target. She then plays the scared victim, letting the guys think they're in control for a few weeks at most. Once Julie gets bored, she drops the act and explains her manipulations before killing her mark and moving onto the next target.
• The Umbrella Academy (2019): Hazel is the more laid back yet pragmatic of the Commission assassins sent after Five. Ruthless in conducting murder and torture on countless innocents yet empathetic enough to let witnesses escape, he and Cha-Cha go up against the Hargreeves to ensure the apocalypse, destroying Fives' one lead to uncovering the mysterious culprit and kidnapping Klaus in their raid on the Umbrella Academy. However, despite his synergy with his partner, Hazel decides to quit upon falling in love with Agnes, outsmarting Cha-Cha's subsequent efforts to kill him and giving aid to the Hargreeves in preventing the apocalypse before escaping with Agnes to safety. Living out a happy life with her, Hazel promises to help Five undo another apocalypse, bringing him far enough into the past and giving him the starting lead needed to save the world.
• Under the Dome: James "Big Jim" Rennie is the most cunning, devious man inside Chester's Mill when the dome comes down, and desires to secure the town's safety no matter what. Using his position as Councilman to charm his way into leading the town, Jim routinely faces down natural disasters and selfish townsfolk to keep Chester's Mill prospering, all while ruthlessly covering up any proof of his involvement in a local drug ring. Taking down rivals, dealing with his unstable son and overcoming emotional turmoil of his own, Jim faces down the military occupation inside Chester's Mill by playing them to his advantage, then escaping imprisonment from them with nothing but sly words and a soup can. Jim winds up allying with his longtime rivals Julia and Barbie to take down the alien invasion force known as the Kinship, and though forced to kill his own son in the process, Jim uses his experience inside the dome to secure himself a position as a beloved congressman once free, ending the series in the best spot he's ever been with all the power he wants.
• The Vampire Diaries Universe:
  • Original Show: Silas, an ancient Traveler and the first immortal, manipulates Professor Shane into freeing him from his tomb. Desiring to destroy the Other Side so he can be reunited with his mortal love in death, Silas tricks Bonnie and Caroline into killing twelve witches to complete the expression triangle, uses his psychic power to convince Klaus he is dying to force him to find the cure, and tricks Bonnie into thinking he has shown her his true face. Eventually revealing himself to his doppelganger, Stefan, Silas traps Stefan at the bottom of a lake. Silas spends the next three months building his strength before compelling Mystic Falls to find Katherine for him so he can consume the cure from her blood. When Qetsiyah finds a way to suppress his psychic powers, Silas finds a way to turn them back on by temporarily killing Stefan to get information on where the anchor to the Other Side is. Finding out that his love Amara is the anchor, Silas decides to kill her so they can be together in death and returns after death to teach Bonnie and Liv a spell to bring people back from the Other Side as it's being destroyed.
  • Legacies: "Dark Josie" is an evil alternate personality of Josie Saltzman and the self-described "Supervillain" of the Super Squad. Figuring a way out of the prison world, Dark Josie rewrites the rules of the noir simulation that the Squad enter, trying to put her sister into a comma. Later teaming up with the Necromancer, Dark Josie forces Lizzie to agree to merge, but keeps her word about letting the rest of the student body go. When Hope enters her mind, Dark Josie takes the role of the evil queen, tracking her and good Josie, before being defeated by the good Josie. Returning one final time, Dark Josie tries to convince Josie that she can't live a human life before helping to save Hope after getting her good half to admit that she still cares.
• Veronica Mars:
  • Clarence Wiedman is the head of security for Kane Enterprises and The Fixer for the Kane family in general. Wiedman helps the Kanes cover up the murder of Lily Kane when they believe their son Duncan to have accidentally killed his sister, tampering with the crime scene and paying off a terminaly ill Kane employee, Abel Koontz, to take the blame for the murder and repeatedly scuttling Veronica's private investigation into her friend's death. Wiedman also moonlights as an assassin for the Kanes, tracking down and killing the boyfriend who murdered Koontz's daughter after she tried to extort more money from the Kanes at the boyfriend's behest, and on Duncan's order, executing the despicable Aaron Echolls for his murder of Lily. A very dangerous man who is only loyal to his employers, Wiedman can easily match wits with Veronica herself.
  • Clyde Prickett is an amiable ex-convict who used to rob banks without actually using a gun. Sentenced to ten years for racketeering, Clyde pays off some other inmates to threaten the recently imprisoned real estate mogul "Big" Dick Casablancas Sr., so Clyde can offer him "protection" in exchange for getting a job at Dick's company out of prison. Clyde becomes Dick's highly efficient Fixer, as well as engaging in some extralegal activities by paying the PCH biker gang to increase petty crime across Neptune to drive down real estate prices, which are then bought up through shell companies owned by Casablancas. Clyde becomes unlikely friends with Keith Mars, even as Clyde becomes a major suspect in the spring break bombings. Disgusted with Dick's involvement with the bombings, which Clyde had been kept out of the loop on, and worried that he won't keep his promises to Clyde, he arranges his death by selling Dick out to the Mexican cartel. Clyde gets away scott-free, ending his friendship with Keith on reasonably amicable terms, and starting a classic car shop.
• Vikings:
  • Ragnar Lothbrok is a bold young Viking who schemes his way into being challenged by Earl Haraldson of Kattegat to kill him and take his place. As the Earl, Ragnar faces threats from men such as Jarl Borg and King Horik of Denmark, but manipulates, betrays and destroys them too, in the case of Horik even allowing the king to believe he has turned Ragnar's allies against him before revealing they were secretly Ragnar's spies against Horik. Even managing to sack Paris by faking his own death so his "body" will be brought before the rulers so he can take Princess Gisla hostage and force the city's gates open. Ragnar becomes broken in his later years, but schemes to create a new Viking age by turning himself over to the Saxons for execution so his sons will avenge his death, achieving everything he sets out to accomplish. A cunning, ruthless, occasionally brutal man who is dangerous to friend and foe alike, Ragnar exemplifies both the best and worst of the Viking age.
  • King Ecbert is the ambitious ruler of Wessex who, upon learning of the Viking's invasion into Wessex, causes their retreat by orchestrating a devastating counter attack. Ecbert forms a truce with Ragnar Lothbrok and allows his Northmen to farm in his kingdom, where he has his son trick the lords into attacking the Northmen's settlements, allowing Ecbert to arrest them for treason and take their lands for himself. Allying with the queen of Mercia, Kwenthrith, Ecbert kills her to take over her kingdom. Complying in Ragnar's wishes to be handed over to King Aelle to be executed on the promise that Ecbert will be spared from Ragnar's sons' vengeance, Ecbert, well aware that Ragnar would have his sons attack him too, hands over his crown and power to his son before the Vikings arrive, where Ecbert fools them into believing that he's giving them land before convincing them to allow himself to choose his own death.
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: "No Way Out": Victor Vail is an Eastern Bloc assassin who is introduced succeeding at a training mission in a replica of the Seaview and then has a friendly chat with his handler while dismissing the revelation that he killed one of the instructors by hitting him too hard. He kills and impersonate an official who will be on the Seaview at the same time as Anton, a wounded defector, by posing as a chauffeur and booby trapping a car seat. Victor's attempts to be alone with Anton and kill him are constantly interrupted, and he maintains his cover as an impatient but ultimately reasonable official. He attracts little suspicion until he has to take a call from his cover identity's superior. He tries to bluff his way through the conversation, and when that fails, kills or incapacitates many sailors while fleeing through the ship. He makes it to Anton's room through an air vent and learns that there is another deep cover agent aboard who he didn't know about. He is amused rather than slighted and doesn't protest when the other agent lets him get captured to sell a Wounded Gazelle Gambit after they fail to kill Anton together.
• The Walking Dead Television Universe:
  • The Walking Dead (2010): “Vatos”: Guillermo is the leader of a nursing home group who stayed alongside many other family members and friends when the staff abandoned the place. Creating a system to fortify and gather supplies, Guillermo and his men play up a violent gang to scare off any raiders. After Glenn gets kidnapped, Guillermo threatens his life to gain control of the situation, attempting to get Rick Grimes and his friends to give up their supplies, escalating in a Mexican Standoff where he keeps his cool and a level head, standing his ground. When the cover is revealed, Guillermo shows to be a noble and polite person who simply wishes to protect the elderly people within the outbreak, and parts amicably with Rick and his group.
  • Fear the Walking Dead: “The End Is The Beginning”: Emile LaRoux is a ruthless, charismatic and determined assassin by hire who never stops chasing his target, showing a charismatic yet ruthless personality with a tracking dog and a well trained axe. Showing an efficiency to tracking people, finding his brother in a forest fire even before the apocalypse, he searches to find Morgan Jones under the orders by Virginia, chasing him down through Texas, using his wits and resourcefulness to try and get one over on him. When faced with Morgan and Isaac, he nearly succeeds in taking them both down, and shows no fear in death, simply taunting Morgan as he died.
  • Tales of the Walking Dead: “Evie; Joe”: Evie is a Badass Pacifist and a capable survivor who wishes to find her husband and get to a safe haven on her friends farm. Devising expert traps to catch humans and walkers, she’s introduced catching Joe in a trap and tying him up, planning on stealing his motorcycle. Seeing she can’t be able to ride it, she makes Joe drive her to where she needs to go, becoming amazing friends while revealing herself to be an intelligent and kind hearted individual, and manages to help track down the exact location of Joe’s friend Sandra. After separating during a fight and finding her peace with her husband, she goes back to try and find Joe. Immediately getting suspicious of Sandra and figures out she drugged her brownie due to her weed tolerance and deduces Sandra is insane. She manages to save Joe while taking down Sandra, while she, Joe and their pet goat Skipper leave for a better future together.
• Wallander: Anders Lindström, the Big Bad of the Swedish film adaptation The Revenge is a corrupt military general who, after losing his beloved son while he was fatally sick and the doctors were too lazy to cure him, went on a killing spree to murder those who were involved in it. Posing the killings as racially motivated, Anders kills multiple controversial figures to turn the attention to Islamic terrorists and frame them for the killings, before adding even more proof of that by committing terrorist attacks and blowing up cars, manipulating the entire country of Sweden into believing the framing. At the end, when Anders manages to hold Wallander hostage, they talk with each other, until Anders genuinely starts respecting him and lets him get out of the car, before jumping into the sea and blowing himself up, with everyone there watching sadly as he accepts defeat.
• Warehouse 13:
  • Helena G. Wells is the world renowned scientific mind H. G. Wells and a former agent of Warehouse 12, who invented her time machine to try to save her daughter, before voluntarily being bronzed. Awoken by James MacPherson in the present, the two team up to steal her items from the Escher Vault. Wells successfully tricks Pete and Myka into activating a trap, while she escapes with the Imperceptor Vest, before stealing back her items and killing MacPherson. Deciding that the modern world is worse than the one she left behind, Wells ends up joining Warehouse 13, while secretly siphoning funds from it to pay some teenagers to find the lost Warehouse 2, knowing that they would die. Stealing a part of the Minoan Trident, Wells plans to use the trident to start a second Ice Age, eventually being talked down by Myka and accepting her arrest. Forced to reunite with her body by Walter Sykes, Wells solves the Ancient Regent Sanctum's chess puzzle, before sacrificing her life to shield the others from Sykes' bomb. After reviving from death, she returns several times to help the heroes afterward. Wells eventually parts ways with Myka, promising to meet up for coffee afterwards.
  • Season 4A: "Brother Adrian", aka "Evil Artie", is, in reality, an evil alternate personality of Artie caused by using Ferdinand Magellan's Astrolabe, who seeks to use it again. To this end, he traps the real Brother Adrian in a painting, leads the heroes on a wild goose chase to keep them distracted, and sends dangerous artifacts to their loved ones before being revealed. Once the truth is discovered, Evil Artie decides to use the Chinese Orchid to force the heroes to hand over the Astrolabe. When detained in Budapest, Evil Artie escapes by stopping time. Staying one step ahead of the heroes, and coming close to succeeding, Evil Artie knew exactly how to get under the Warehouse 13 gang's skin like no other enemy they faced.
  • Season 4B: Bennet Sutton was once a 16th century noble, who along with his family, was made immortal by his vile brother, the alchemist Paraceslus. Disgusted at his brother's crimes, Bennet secretly sold him out to the Warehouse 9 agents and stopped his crimes. Becoming a charming Con Man and thief, Bennet would play various cons and even impress Marie Antoinette as the Count of St. Germain. Playing the Honey Trap con, Bennet would seduce and become engaged to a rich noblewoman before stealing all of her jewels during their engagement party. In the present, Bennet masquerades as a professor with knowledge of the Count and aids the Warehouse 13 agents well, secretly playing them into getting the priceless jewel of Marie Antonette, even faking his death to throw them off. Bennet also aids the agents in stopping his monstrous brother and ultimately shows his softer side by going in peace with his son to build a better life.
• Warrior (2019) (Season 2): Rosalita Vega runs an illegal fighting pit on the Barbary Coast and has been planning her revenge on Elijah Rooker for killing her parents and stealing her family's land. To her wits, Vega has her sister, Marisol, marry Rooker to manipulate him into handing over his land and wealth to Marisol should he die and persuades Ah Sahm and his friends to travel to Rooker's Hill with her when they learn Rooker is hosting a fighting tournament there. Being invited to have lunch with Rooker, Vega uses this opportunity to kill Rooker and has Marisol sneak her, Ah Sahm and his group out of Rooker's Hill on the guise of being captured. When Rooker's bodyguard, Smits, shoots Vega, Vega dies happy having accomplished everything she wanted and hands over the prize money to Ah Sahm and his friends as gratitude for helping her.
• Wednesday: These two members of the Addams family are on point in their utter brilliance:
  • Wednesday Addams herself remains as astute and prodigious as ever. First mauling a bully with piranhas who attacked her younger brother Pugsley, Wednesday then nearly sneaks away from Nevermore Academy successfully while also threatening to torture Thing for trying to become her chaperone in her parents' absence and later charmingly coaxes him to her side. Wednesday uses a combination different supernatural visions, fighting, combat training and her investigative skills to find the murderous Hyde monster; clear her father Gomez of a murder accusation; and also arranges a fire that destroys a statue of Jericho's evil founder Joseph Crackstone. Investigating, accusing and then getting Xavier Thorpe arrested as the Hyde, Wednesday eventually tries to torture Tyler Galpin, the true Hyde, into confessing; while also convincing Principal Larissa Weems—a shapeshifter—to help her expose Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates for plotting against the school and then killing a resurrected Crackstone who nearly burns Nevermore to the ground.
  • Uncle Fester Addams is a stealthy and eccentric criminal mastermind and the most beloved and respected of the Addams Family by Wednesday herself, having taught her all she knows. Fester has successfully performed numerous high stakes robberies and heists everywhere he's gone while also evading authorities and even endangering some in the process. He's also traveled in a pet grooming disguise to constantly be "incognito" as well. In his one appearance, he helps Wednesday with her investigation while providing the info that the creature is a Hyde and then uses his electricity absorbing abilities to save a seriously wounded Thing by means of defibrillation.
• Westworld: Dr. Robert Ford is the brilliant creative director of the titular theme park, Westworld. Having created the park alongside Arnold, the two argued over how to treat the hosts that inhabit the park, leading to Arnold's suicide. After grieving over his partner's death and showing disgust for how the park's guests abuse the hosts, Ford decides to complete Arnold's dream of making the hosts fully sentient and free them from humanity's control. He does so by creating a new narrative for the hosts, instructing them to rebel against their oppressors and kill everyone inside the park, including himself. It's also revealed that Ford downloaded his consciousness into the Cradle so he can observe the events after his death, still manipulating hosts and guests alike.
• What We Do in the Shadows (2019)' "Werewolf Feud": Evie Russell is an Emotional Vampire, a type of energy vampire that feeds on the pity of others. Joining Colin's workplace, she comes up with sob stories to make her coworkers sympathize with her, draining their energy in the process. After Colin confronts her and engages in a psychic vampire duel with her, they agree to work together to acquire sustenance. This partnership lasts for a few weeks, till Colin realizes that their relationship is unhealthy and breaks up with her. She accepts this, though not before taking an opportunity to feed off of him one last time.
• The White Lotus:
  • Greg Hunt is a frequent guest of the White Lotus resorts who first meets Tanya McQuoid in Hawaii where he begins a relationship with her. Eventually marrying Tanya, Greg plots to have Tanya murdered when their relationship turns sour so that Greg can inherit her money. Greg invites Tanya to Sicily with him before leaving Sicily himself to establish an alibi, while hiring the Sicilian hitman, Quentin, to kill Tanya while Greg is away, which proves successful for Greg.
  • Sicily: Lucia Greco is a High-Class Call Girl native to Sicily who, along with her friend Mia, seduces wealthy men into paying them large sums of money for their services. Taking an interest in Albie Di Grasso, Lucia plots to scam him of 50,000 euros by using her beauty to charm him while having her friend, Alessio, play the role of an abusive stalker to make Albie more vulnerable to her manipulations. Successful in scamming Albie of his money, Lucia celebrates her success with her friends while planning to con more men out of their fortunes.
• The Wire:
  • Omar Devon Little is a "stick-up man" in Baltimore who robs drug dealers for a living. His first episode has him robbing one of Avon Barksdale's stash houses. Avon puts out a hit on him and his crew and manages to succeed in killing one of his crew and torturing Omar's boyfriend to death. Over the course of the next three seasons, Omar retaliates against the Barksdale organization, culminating in him killing Stringer Bell, Avon's right-hand man, becoming a major reason for the fall of the Barksdale organization. In season 4, Omar robs Marlo Stanfield, a new West Side kingpin. Marlo, wanting revenge, frames Omar for murder though Omar beats the charge, and then blackmails Proposition Joe, another kingpin, into giving up Marlo's new drug shipment, only to double-crosses Joe and steal a much larger shipment instead of Marlo's. Omar then sells it back to Joe and announces his retirement until Marlo kills Omar's mentor for revenge. Omar returns to Baltimore, but he is briefly outgunned. He then goes on a warpath and calls Marlo out to face him. While he dies before this can come to fruition, the taunts prove to be very effective, as by the end of the series Marlo has faded into obscurity whereas Omar has become a legend.
  • Brother Mouzone, a legendary hitman from New York, is called down to Baltimore by Avon Barksdale to deal with Proposition Joe's drug dealers in season 2. He first shoots Cheese, Joe's nephew, with a rat shot, and is then able to intimidate Joe's gang into staying away with his presence alone. Stringer Bell, Avon's right-hand man, had cut a deal with Joe, and manipulates Omar into attacking Mouzone, claiming Mouzone tortured Omar's lover to death. Omar shoots Mouzone but realizes the man is innocent and calls an ambulance for him. While in the hospital Mouzone is able to deduce that Stringer was responsible but keeps this information to himself. Returning in season 3, he tracks Omar down, asking him for help killing Stringer. He then blackmails Avon into giving up Stringers location. Together, he and Omar ambush Stinger and kill him at his condo developments. Affably Evil and Wicked Cultured, Mouzone showed why he was so feared as a hitman.
  • Slim Charles is one of the most skilled and effective enforcers the Barksdale Organization has. Coordinating a series of hits on Marlo Stanfield's operations, Charles is even able to get close to Marlo himself. Intelligent enough to balk at a hit on a politician, Charles holds to a number of standards including being disgusted at an attempt to kill Omar Little during the "Sunday Truce" while he takes his grandmother to church. Managing to stay active even after the downfall of Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell, Charles joins Proposition Joe's Co-Op where he advises young dealer Bodie Broadus to stay clear of Marlo and builds up his own organization. When Joe is killed, Charles calmly executes his treacherous nephew Cheese and uses the chance to take over the organizations, a rare example of a pawn who crossed the board and has become a queen.
  • Michael Lee is a kid just trying to make his way in Baltimore. Looking not to be beholden to anyone, he stares down Marlo Stanfield, who, suitably impressed, tries to recruit him. When his stepfather, who is strongly implied to have molested him, comes home, he becomes desperate to get rid of him and takes Marlo up on his offer. Growing into a criminal, he still constantly questions Marlo's orders, until he finally questions too much. Marlo orders his execution, but Michael realizes this and outwits the assassin. Going on the run, he makes sure his friends and family are safe and with Omar dead decides to become Baltimore's next legendary Karmic Thief.
  • Lester Freamon is one of Baltimore's finest detectives. Once taken off Homicide to be put on the Pawn Shop Unit over pettiness, he shows his brilliance constantly, breaking cases wide open due to his intellect. In season 5, he decides to help Jimmy McNulty fake a serial killer, giving him the idea to sensationalize it. Using the resources they have gathered, he sets up an illegal wiretap on Marlo Stanfield and then after a couple of weeks breaks the code. In the meantime he blackmails Clay Davis into giving up info on Marlo's lawyer, Maurice Levy. While the case falls apart, they're still able to use the info on Levy's dirty dealings to charge most of Marlo's crew. While being forced to retire, he still takes it in stride, and happily retires with his girlfriend to make luxury dollhouse furniture for the rest of his days.
  • Kimmy is a clever crook adept at robbing drug dealers who becomes one of Omar Little's best allies. Kimmy works with her partner and lover Tosha to use their looks and wits alike to scope out stash houses, lower the defenses of the guards, and hold up the places to rob them of their money and drugs. Conscripted by Omar, Kimmy continues to use intelligent ploys like the sympathy for a little girl or dressing herself up as a hooker to get the drop on enemy goons and help Omar stage heist after heist. Upon losing Tosha in a gunfight, Kimmy murders Barksdale minion Tank and departs from Omar, returning later for one final heist that earns her a fortune to see her off into retirement, Kimmy being smart enough to take her earnings and get out of the game for good.
• The Worst Witch (2017 series): Agatha Cackle is Ada's evil twin sister who desires control over Cackle's Academy. In the series premiere, she puts an obedience spell on the soup being served at the school celebration. When her scheme is discovered, Agatha challenges Ada to a Witches' Deal which she manages to win. After getting her powers removed, she spends the rest of the year occasionally masquerading as her twin sister in an attempt to restore her powers, eventually regaining her magic and teaming up with a vengeful ex-teacher to sow discord across the school. When the students rebel against her and take back the school, Agatha is sealed away inside a painting. She manipulates Ethel Hallow into freeing her, then impersonates Miss Cackle and secretly changes the rulebook, tricking most of the students into transporting themselves into a place called Vanishment where they would all be killed, and ultimately decides to kill herself when she is defeated.
• The X-Files' "Bad Blood": Sheriff Hartwell seems to at first be an ally to Mulder and Scully, but is in reality a cunning yet polite vampire. Charming and gentlemanly in Scully's interpretation yet foolish and simple in Mulder's, Hartwell deceives both and leads them away from the vampiric Serial Killer Ronnie Strickland, effortlessly cloaking his vampiric nature all the while and delaying them until they seemingly kill Ronnie. When they return to hunt down Ronnie once again, as he remains alive, Hartwell politely works alongside them. Nonchalantly sending Mulder into a trap, leaving him unconscious, Hartwell explains to Scully the truth, admitting that the entire community is composed of vampires. Hartwell states that while he cannot approve of Ronnie's murderous actions, he is nonetheless a community member who must be protected. Drugging Scully and leaving both herself and Mulder unharmed, Hartwell disappears with his community, Ronnie included, fully achieving his goals and escaping any form of justice.
• XIII: The Series (2011) (Season 1): Rainer Gerhardt is an elderly, powerful billionaire hunting for the Renelco superweapon. After XIII thwarts his attempt of stealing the superweapon from Renelco corporation, Rainer has everyone there killed to stop the weapon from being replicated, then tracks XIII down and uses him to find all components of the superweapon. Easily deceiving everyone around him and manipulating people in the US government to get what he wants, Rainer succeeds in forcing XIII to surrender the superweapon to him. Using the superweapon to stop the pipelines of entire countries and thus cutting them off from energy, Rainer forces them to trade with him, easily evading the heroes at every turn. Getting dangerously close to enriching himself all the more, Rainer was only captured when XIII forces his assistant to lure him into a trap.
• You Season 4: Elliot Tannenberg is a hitman working for Ray Quinn who has grown tired of killing. Tasked with killing Joe Goldberg, he successfully tracks him down in London. Elliot offers to set Joe up with a new identity as a university professor named Jonathan Moore located in London and trick Ray into thinking he has killed him. Elliot then tells Joe to kill Marianne - with him detailing her location at the train station and the time she is going to leave - and contact him via text once the job was completed. Despite Joe deciding to trick him by sending him a picture of her necklace, Elliot’s plan of tricking Ray still succeeds and is living his best life in retirement. When Joe decides to contact Elliot in his new identity, Elliot destroys his phone when the call is over, showing he is good at covering his tracks.