Screw This Im Outta Here / Live-Action TV

Screw This, I'm Outta Here in live-action TV.

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• Defied in American Horror Story: Roanoke. Once Matt and Shelby saw the supernatural horrors on the film and realised that their house was a former murder house, they immediately tried to bail and sell the house. Unfortunately, they were sold the house under false pretenses and in a contract they cannot back out of. The realtor wouldn't buy it back from them and couldn't without paying an absurd amount to the bank; unless they wish to incur a lifetime of debt and misery they'll never get away from.
• Angel: In "Not Fade Away", after being told his part in Angel's take-down-the-Black-Thorns plan, Lorne tells Angel that he would do it for the sake of their friendship, but after that, he was done and they would most likely never see him again.
• In Are You Being Served?, this is the reaction to the "second part of the prize" of the Holiday Girl contest in "Front Page Story".
• This is Michael Bluth's main bit on Arrested Development as he's the Only Sane Man amid his family of nutjobs. It kicks up in the pilot when his father makes his flighty mom CEO of the company instead of Michael. It turns out he did so as he was about to be busted by the IRS and Michael has to help the family out.
  • In the Season 1 finale, Michael announces he's had enough and is leaving, storming out. The first scene of Season 2 has son George asking if the family is sure Michael meant he was leaving for good. Calling the house, Michael poses as a lawyer asking for himself. Without hesitation, Lucille calls out Michael's name and Michael realizes no one there even knows he left.
  • It soon becomes a running gag of Michael trying to leave yet can't get rid of his family no matter what.
• One Attack of the Show! sketch has a Dumb Blonde TV host who can't pronounce "Cataclysm" ("Cuh-TACK-a-lism!"), and is handed a speech therapy computer program. After spending several minutes with her completely failing to catch on, the program says "to hell with this" and deletes itself.
• This is what Face tries to do in the fifth season of The A-Team. He gets fed up with Stockwell continually using the team and eventually walks out. Twice. And ends up coming back both times. Because as much as he hates Stockwell, he just can't bring himself to leave the team.
• In Auction Kings, Paul asks his sports memorabilia expert to appraise a pallet of baseball cards. The expert flat-out refuses.
• In Babylon 5, when Delenn shows up with a Minbari task force to protect the station in "Severed Dreams", she suggests the attackers be somewhere else. They quickly accept her advice.
  • In "Rumors, Bargains, and Lies" we find out that President Clark's entire cabinet resigned in protest of his bombing of civilian targets.
• Bar Rescue:
  • Mark, chef at Swanky Bubbles, gave up and walked away when told what changes were necessary.
  • Archer, the server/busboy at Piratz Tavern, got fed up with Taffer's yelling and quit his job after Taffer came in with the harsh reality that the pirate theme was not working. Juicanno, the head chef, walked out during the stress test, only to come back after the bar closed for the night.
  • The bartender Yum Yum from Chilleen's, after blowing off the mandatory training earlier that day and coming into work just as it was opening, gets so overwhelmed during the stress test that she quits her job.
  • Paul, Gipsy's owner, walked out shortly before the relaunch as SBLV. Ostensibly unhappy with Taffer's changes, he came back two days later and closed the bar permanently.
  • Brittany (a.k.a. "B.C.") from O'Banion's quit her job just before its relaunch when she wasn't getting any sleep and decided that it wasn't her top priority in her life.
  • The O'Face bar acts as Jon Taffer's equivalent of Kitchen Nightmares' "Amy's Baking Company". Bad food and drink? Check. Owners completely in denial about their problems? Check. Laying the blame of the problems caused by them on the Only Sane Employees and firing them? Check. "The Reason You Suck" Speech from the show's host? Check. Walk out without rescuing the location? Oh yea.
  • In what was supposed to be the first "re-rescue" of the show, at Second Base (formerly Extremes). Taffer gets too fed up with the owner (who is clearly not that interested in the welfare of the bar or its employees) and decides to not go through with it.
  • On the Chix On Dix/Power Strip episode, the hiring agent Chuck threw a tantrum and knocked over a glass display when Taffer argued with him before walking out on the job. He changed his mind after the episode and was rehired.
  • Black Light District Bar has become the third bar that Taffer has walked out and chosen not to rescue, after the owner, Dave, made it clear all he wanted from the show was the free publicity, makeover, upgrades, and that he had no intentions of keeping any of the cocktails or management or theme changes that Bar Rescue was providing.
  • Gary, the manager of the Bridge in Season 4’s “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat,” essentially rage quit after the stress test made it apparent to everyone that he was utterly useless as a manager and was taking advantage of the owner.
  • Taffer tries getting through to The Dugout and its owner Eddie in every way he can. Eddie's unwillingness to change his ways or even smile at customers angers Jon to the point of him reluctantly agreeing to do the makeover only because it was his obligation. When Eddie shows up to the relaunch drunk, Taffer and the entire staff finally abandon the rescue. Eddie is left all alone in the new bar, never once accepting blame for his failures, instead taking it out on Taffer and the staff.
  • On a "Back to the Bar" episode, Sal from Six Point Inn and Chef Pink (who butted heads in the original episode) have a gravy-making contest, with the audience picking a winner by blind taste test and voting by applause. Sure enough, Chef Pink wins (albeit by a respectably narrow margin)... and to say that Sal does not take it well is just a bit of an understatement.
  • At The Fifth, Elisa the bartender doesn't know how to make a Gimlet, insisting that no one has ever ordered a Gimlet in sixteen years. Instead, she is instructed to show how to make a drink she did serve: an Alice. Unfortunately, she refuses to make it. So Devon the manager makes the drink instead, seemingly on the fly. They taste-test it, but it's too punchy and the proportions are off. For Elisa, offended by the criticism, that's the final straw, and she leaves on the spot, complaining that that is exactly what she doesn't want. The owner of The Fifth tries to reason with her, but she won't have it, and he ends up letting her go. He doesn't fire her, though, just lets her go home.
  • The Hideaway Bar & Grill is the fourth site of a Taffer walkout. The employees said during interviews that the owner drank heavily enough to hurt the bar's business, but both they and the owner repeatedly denied it to Taffer's face even after he confronted them with the footage. Fed up with being called a liar, he pulled the crew out.
• A raptor pilot in Battlestar Galactica episode "The Hub" does this during battle. As he tries to jump out, a Raider shoots him. He does manage to perform a jump, but by the time his Raptor reaches the Fleet, he is already dead.
  • This is what Adama, Roslin and the whole Fleet did when they made the decision to run. The Colonies were being nuked to hell and what was left of the Fleet was fighting a losing battle by the time Galactica could even arm itself. As all communication from the Colonies quieted, the surviving Colonials realised they were better off fleeing.
• In the penultimate episode of The Big Leap, network executive Zach Peterman springs on Nick that they want to eliminate one of the castmembers the day before performance to bring back hype. Just before they announce who it would be, Nick storms out and brings the entire show with him, refusing to cut someone off after everything they've been through.
• Mr. Blackadder the third may have the stupidest master in all of London, but he knows when he's had enough, specifically when insulted by two pompous hams in "Sense and Senility".
• Blake's 7: In the episode "Weapon" Carnell the psychostrategist does a runner the instant he's belatedly informed that escaped weapon-scientist Cosar took a female slave with him, meaning that Carnell and Severlan's plan is about to collapse in smoking rubble.
• Breaking Bad: Saul Goodman breaks off with Walt and heads off to create a new identity in Nebraska when he realizes that Walt is heading for a crash and burn.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "Becoming, Part 2", Spike decides to bug out of Angelus' plan to destroy the world because he likes the world (because it has things like dog racing, Manchester United, and millions of people running around like Happy Meals for him). He quickly teams up with Buffy so he can grab his lover, Drusilla, and ditches out the second he has her. He comes back later.
  • There's a hilarious instance of this trope in "Crush", when Spike and Buffy bust into a vampire lair. The vamps get up, get ready to fight, and say "Slayer!" Then they run away.
  • Spike does it again in "Where the Wild Things Are", volunteering to help Xander get Buffy and Riley out of a haunted house, but realizes he doesn't like any of them and walks off.
  • In "Innocence" Angelus and Drusilla working for the Judge, a demon who thought he was invincible because "no weapon forged" could kill him. He didn't take into account several centuries of improvement in weapon technology, however. When Buffy pointed a rocket launcher at him (which was not forged), he didn't even know what it was. However, Angelus and Drusilla certainly did, and they couldn't run the other way fast enough.
  • Used again by him at the end of "Once More, With Feeling", when all of the Scoobies are sequence-dancing their "victory cheer" after Sweet's departure, Spike breaks off exclaiming "Bugger this!" and leaves.
  • Anya also decides that leaving town is her best option before the big fight with the Mayor in "Graduation Day Part 2".
  • In "Faith, Hope and Trick", Mr. Trick watches his master Kakistos getting a beatdown from Buffy, knowing that Faith (the other slayer) is there and that Buffy has already taken down many of the henchmen. Before exiting, he says to a female vampire next to him that the Master "could get killed... Well, our prayers are with them. This is why these vengeance crusades are out of style. You see the modern vampire? We get the big picture."
  • In "Bad Girls", Faith does this after meeting Wesley.
    Faith: New Watcher?
    Buffy and Giles: New Watcher.
    Faith: Screw that! (walks out)
    Buffy: Now why didn't I just say that?
  • A newly turned schoolmate named Sheila in "School Hard" wisely does this after seeing Buffy dust a fellow vampire and she turns her gaze to Sheila.
  • The opening to "The Freshman" sees Buffy and Willow at a graveyard of a recently deceased student knowing from the way he was killed that it was from a vampire. The two get so distracted in their talk that they don't see him rise from the grave. He creeps toward them to attack them, but notices the stakes next to Buffy and deduces she's the slayer. He wisely decides to leave them be and sneaks away with Buffy and Willow unaware of the vampire the whole time.
  • During the battle in Sunnydale during the Twilight crisis, Warren and Amy escape Spike's airship and run away. Amy considers going back to help and see if they can fake a Heel–Face Turn, but Warren shoots down the idea since he knew Willow would never allow them to join.
  • In "Empty Places", Clem leaves Sunnydale along with most of its population as the power of the The First grows.
• Control Z:
  • Immediately after the epic fight between Gerry and Luis (and the students with each other) begins, Isabela simply gives a sarcastic look and walks away from the scene.
  • Quintanilla resigns from National School out of anger and humiliation while giving the students his "The Reason You Suck" Speech after his farewell party gone awry due to the Avenger locking him up in a restroom to be stung by bees.
• Corner Gas features a couple of scenes like this. The first is when Brent and Hank face off against some children inhabiting their old treehouse:

Hank: You're comin' down one way or another!

Brent: All right, let's not get confrontational. Now, listen...ow! Was that pellet gun? You coulda shot my eye out!

Kid: Yes, that is a risk.

Brent: All right, Hank. It's time to get confrontational. Hank?

[Camera switches to a shot of Hank running into the distance]

Brent gets him back in another episode when they sneak into Old Man Hafford's yard to steal crab apples like when they were kids

Hank: Hey uh, we used to have a code word in case of danger. What was it?

Brent: [scared] Run!

Hank: No, was it "Picadilly?" Uh, "Picadilly Circus?"

Old Man Hafford: [standing behind Hank] It was pepperoni. Too bad you won't be able to use it because I caught ya.

Hank: All right, so you caught us.

Hafford: Us?

[Camera switches to a shot of Brent running into the distance]

• Peter from The Cosby Show managed to make wordlessly running out of the Huxtable house funny. Among other things, he's run from an exploding juicer, a loose snake, and Clair after she found out the kids had been watching a gross movie.
• Day Break (2006): The first thing Hopper does when he becomes aware of the temporal loop is not to fight the conspiracy that is trying to frame him but to take his loved ones and just run away from everything. It doesn't work, as he wakes up back at Rita's place when the daytime converges. He has to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Doctor Who:
  • Quite a few companions' decision to leave the group, although they usually wait until the fighting's died down. Tegan in particular was increasingly getting fed up with being hunted and captured and dragged around the universe and having to see people getting killed all the time, and ran off. Dodo left without even saying goodbye properly. Steven tried, but changed his mind five minutes later (after allowing the Doctor time to have some Thinking Out Loud about how lonely he was).
  • The Fifth Doctor pulls this at the end of "The Five Doctors" after Chancellor Flavia assigns him as the President of Gallifrey.
  • Margaret Blaine/Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen demonstrates a finely honed sense of self-preservation, with "Boom Town" both confirming that she used a personal teleport to escape the destruction of Number 10 Downing Street in "World War Three" and showing that her reaction to the Doctor coming to visit was to drop a teacup and do a bunk out the window.
  • "The Long Game": The Editor attempts to do this after Cathica's sabotage means the Jagrafess, his boss, is going to explode soon. "Actually, sir, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll resign. Bye!" It doesn't work because the corpse of Eva/Suki reanimates just enough to grab him by the ankle, preventing him from fleeing.
  • "Bad Wolf": Broff, one of the contestants on the killer The Weakest Link, attempts to flee after the first contestant is disintegrated at the end of the first round. He almost makes it to the door before the Anne-Droid blasts him.
  • "Doomsday": Rose's AU Dad pulls this on the whole dimension when a Dalek army appears.
  • The whole of London pulls this off during "Voyage of the Damned". After several Christmases with alien attacks and invasions, the city packs up and heads for the country until Christmas is over. Ironically, it wouldn't have done any good, as the bad guy of the episode was going to destroy the entire planet.
  • "The End of Time": Played for Laughs when Sylvia finds the Doctor and Wilf talking, and they both make a break for it in the TARDIS:
    The Doctor: You can't come with me.
    Wilf: Oh, you're not leaving me with her!
    The Doctor: Fair enough.
  • "The Vampires of Venice": When Rosanna enacts her plan to sink the city, her steward Carlo (who appears to be completely human) is last seen running away with a bag full of what appears to be everything valuable in the house that wasn't bolted down.
  • "Cold Blood": Eldane plans to pump the city full of toxic fumigation gas, killing anyone not inside a hibernation pod. When the PA system announces this, Restac's army does an about-face and marches back to their pods, abandoning their General Ripper of a commander.
  • "A Christmas Carol": Essentially the psychic paper's reaction to the Doctor claiming to be universally recognized as a mature and responsible adult.
• Family Matters: "I don't have to take this. I'm going home." ^note  Funny because what Urkel "doesn't have to take" is annoyed people telling him to "go home", meaning that he defies them by doing what they wanted him to do anyway.
• Fargo: Two instances of this occur during the Sioux Falls Massacre in the second season episode "The Castle". The first is from Ricky G, who upon realizing that they're ambushing out-of-uniform South Dakota State Troopers instead of the Kansas City Mafia, decides to bail on the ambush and take off. The next instance occurs minutes later, when Mike Milligan and Gale Kitchen arrive to see the Massacre's bloody aftermath. With one look, they simply get back in their car and drive away before the authorities get there.
• In Farscape John Crichton tends to do this on occasions when he's agreed to help Scorpius. It never works:
  • Crichton surrenders to Scorpius in "Liars Guns And Money" and tolerates the situation up until one of his Happy Places is invaded, whereupon he mutters "screw this", and walks away... only to get a knife to the back of his neck.
  • "Into The Lion's Den" has him working for Scorpius to ensure the success of his wormhole project: a few hours later, Crichton attempts to back out, whereupon Scorpius hammers his head against a desk and threatens to destroy Earth.
  • Finally, Crichton teams up with Scorpius to rescue Aeryn, only to abandon him on Katratzi in the getaway. Unfortunately, Scorpius was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later, and installed a failsafe to ensure that Crichton would return to rescue him.
  • A minor and non-Scorpius-related variation occurs in "Jeremiah Crichton" when John decides he's had enough of life on Moya and runs off in his module. He is promptly left (though accidentally) and is understandably upset when they finally return for him, since he never intended to leave for real.
• Game of Thrones:
  • When Ned refuses to back his bid for the throne or take decisive action against Cersei and Joffrey, Renly and Loras gather up their entourage and flee King's Landing.
  • When Barristan Selmy is forcibly retired by Cersei and Joffrey, he refuses to accept the nice seaside castle and servants they offer him and walks out. And no-one tries to stop him either, they're clearly too afraid to try.^note They do try in the books. Joffrey perceives his parting words as a threat and orders him questioned. Janos Slynt brings three Gold Cloaks to try and capture him. Barristan records his dismissal in the White Book (the history of the Kingsguard) and killed two of the Gold Cloaks unarmed before fleeing King's Landing.
  • Sandor "The Hound" Clegane:
    • During the Battle of Blackwater, the Hound has a Freak Out after seeing people burning alive (triggering his phobia of fire) and flees both the battle and the city, despite his position as a member of the Kingsguard, delivering his epic leaving line to the king's face no less!
      "Fuck the Kingsguard. Fuck the city. (beat) Fuck the king."
    • DVD extras for Season 2 show that this was actually the reason Sandor served the Lannisters more directly in the first place; the day his father died and Gregor took over their family keep, he got the hell out of there and rode to Casterly Rock.
  • When surrounded by Winterfell's army in the Season 2 finale, Theon Greyjoy gives an awesome Rousing Speech... then his men knock him out and escape, leaving him to his fate.
    Black Lorren: Thought he'd never shut up.
    Dagmer Cleftjaw: It was a good speech. Didn't want to interrupt.
  • In the Season 4 finale, after Varys helps sneak Tyrion out of the capital and onto a ship heading for the Free Cities, he starts to head back, only to hear the bells announcing that Tywin's murder has been discovered. He promptly turns around and gets onto the ship himself, fleeing Westeros, partly due to the fact that, since he knows the castle better than anyone, he's a prime suspect in Tyrion's escape.
  • Stannis' army spends much of Season 5 dwindling as men flee the northern winter. Fully half of what's left abandon Stannis after he sacrifices his daughter Shireen. Melissandre leaves him as well. When the remaining forces attack the Bolton army eagle-eyed viewers will be able to spot the soldiers to the rear of Stannis' army turning and running in the other direction.
  • In Season 6, the resurrected Jon Snow is done with the Night's Watch after all of the misery it's brought him (his own murder being the last straw). He leaves his Lord Commander's trappings with Edd, telling him he can burn it or wear it for all he cares, and leaves.
  • In another Season 6 example, after Euron becomes King of the Iron Islands, Theon and Yara gather up their supporters and flee with as much of the Iron Fleet as they can take with them. They knew their uncle had plans for them. Immediate plans.
  • Loras and Margaery leave the Stormlands after Renly is assassinated.
  • Arya Stark:
    • After the Red Wedding and the news that her aunt is dead, with the Hound beaten and battered in a fight with Brienne, ostensibly her mother's sworn sword but also a friend of Jaime Lannister's, Arya clearly has no trust or hope in anyone in Westeros, so she decides to cash in her Plot Coupon from Jaqen H'ghar and sail for Braavos. Even earlier, after she attacks Joff and throws his sword into the river, she and Nymeria hightail it.
    • Even after getting to Braavos, Arya doesn't like it. She takes the training, she takes certain jobs within the House of the Unknown, she takes the beatings. But in Season 6, when she has to kill someone simply because she's been hired to, she doesn't do it. And when her own mentor sends someone after her, Arya decides to head back to Westeros. After dealing with the assassin.
  • Once Robb loses Winterfell and the Lannisters win the Battle of the Blackwater, Roose realises that it's all downhill from there and orders his bastard son to destroy Winterfell. Then he conspires with Walder Frey, who's also working with Tywin Lannister, to massacre the Starks so that he can become the Warden of the North.
  • House Karstark's forces bailed on Robb after he executes Lord Rickard, which prevents them from getting an invitation to the Red Wedding.
  • Kevan refuses to be a puppet dancing on the strings of Cersei, quits the Small Council the very moment he's appointed Master of War, and returns to Casterly Rock, declaring he's willing to return if the King calls for him.
  • Bronn:
    • Bronn ends his partnership with Tyrion when he is given a choice between fighting the Mountain and marrying a noblewoman.
    • In Season 7, Bronn makes it clear to Jaime that going up against a mature dragon is where he draws the line, even when money and castles are involved.
  • Gregor Clegane abandons Harrenhal, but not before massacring all the North and Rivermen captive there.
  • During the slave revolt in Yunkai, one of the Wise Masters is scowling at an anti-Master death threat graffitied on the wall, when armed slaved come at him from three directions. His pair of bodyguards run down a tunnel past the slaves and leave him to be butchered.
  • Drogon:
    • After killing a child, he disappears, briefly returning to share a moment with Dany before next being seen at Valyria.
    • After being speared by several Sons of the Harpy, he flees with Daenerys on his back.
  • In the Season 7 finale, upon learning of the existence of the White Walkers and their impending invasion, Euron declares that he's taking the Iron Fleet and fleeing back to the Iron Islands. Subverted, when he was just pretending to flee as part of his and Cersei's plan, as he was working behind Jaime's back to go to Essos and hire the Golden Company for Cersei. Later in the same episode, Cersei reveals to Jaime that she has no intention of living up to her part of the alliance against the White Walkers, intending to let her enemies waste their strength fighting them instead. Disgusted by this, Jaime abandons her, heading north by himself to join The Alliance on his own.
  • In the first episode of Season 8, Euron admits to a captive Yara that should Cersei start losing to whomever wins the war in the north, he'll simply flee the first chance he gets.
  • In the Season 8 episode The Bells, after seeing Daenerys lead her forces in massacring the entire civilian population of King's Landing, Jon and Davos decide they're not going to be complicit in the war crime she's committing, and abandon the assault, taking their army and for good measure, as many civilians as they can save with them.
• Rachel from Glee is constantly storming out of glee club. Almost Once per Episode, really.
  • Not to mention Finn in 'Sectionals'.
    Finn: Screw this. I'm done with you. I'm done with all of you! [kicks chair]
• The Good Life: Margot and Tom get into yet another of their rather pointless little tiffs and she demands that Jerry do something!
  Jerry: All right. [stands up] Good night. [leaves]
• When it looks like the Apocalypse is inevitable in Good Omens, Crowley implores Aziraphale to run away with him to Alpha Centauri.
  Crowley: Even if all this turns into a puddle of burning goo, we can go off together!
• In the series 2 finale of Got Talent España (the Spanish version of Britain's Got Talent, just in case you hadn't figured that out already), when seeing that the victory of dancer El Tekila (whom he had rejected on the first audition but went on thanks to the support of the other three judges) was close, judge Risto Mejide chose to leave the studio rather than watch the crowning of a winner he considered unworthy. It has to be noted that El Tekila's win was controversial anyway since he had been dismissed as a silly novelty act right out of the gate, and website Forocoches had announced it was planning a coordinate action to vote massively for El Tekila in order to troll Mejide and the show as a whole.
• In Grey's Anatomy, when Alex laments his streak of troubled relationships:
  Alex: I get crazy, I get cancer, and now I got a psychopathic maniac! Screw it, I give up, I'm walking away.
• Hallo aus Berlin: In the "Rolli und Rita" sketch in "Familie", after Rita's snake accidentally destroys Rolli's living room, they hear Rolli's mother coming, prompting Rita to leave.
• In Hannibal, Bedelia Du Maurier does this just in time, as Hannibal breaks into her house to murder her only to find it empty.
  • Also pulled by the Verger-Bloom family in the series finale after Hannibal escapes.
• Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield decides the Confederacy is a lost cause in Hatfields & McCoys and decides to desert the Confederate Army over his then friend Randall McCoy's objections. Randall allows him to leave but the act ends their friendship and causes much conflict between the two families over the ensuing decades.
• Hoarders: Occurs with Linda (1/8/17), who was convinced that civilization was about to collapse and that she had to hoard in order to survive in the aftermath. She was so resistant and impossible to reason with that the crew left without removing a single item from her property.
• Hogan's Heroes: In "The Assassin", Hogan tries to goad Klink into thinking that the Gestapo are trying to assassinate him and asking what Klink plans to do about it. Klink dramatically orders Helga to call Berlin, and then puts in an application for leave so that he can flee the camp.
• Hotel Impossible: Anthony Melchiorri has no problem giving up when he realizes a hotel is beyond help.
  • One of the most epic was the Thunderbird Motel which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. From the moment he steps into it, Anthony is attacked by the stubborn owners for his work, called a liar and even getting death threats. The last straw is when he discovers that, rather than only relying on the hotel for the income, the owner is a real estate millionaire who could have easily fixed the hotel up a while ago but didn't want to use his own money. That blatant lie is enough for Anthony to walk.
  • The Anice Inn has a leaky roof, mold, bedbugs and even bees but when the owner refuses to spend the $250,000 needed to fix it, Anthony realizes she's beyond help and goes. (It would later be revealed the health department shut the place down).
  • The Rotting Woodstock owner refused to accept any of the help Anthony was offering, telling him to get out so Anthony did.
  • Barely averted in "Fire Island Meltdown" as the owner just managed to come around to how bad he needed help just as Anthony was literally about to catch a ferry to New York.
• Hungry Investors: Taffer manages to one-up Ramsay, by not only walking out on yet another location, but doing so during the first initial meeting with the owner of Elements, during the episode Diva Las Vegas. He makes it clear throughout the rest of the episode to the other two investors, John Besh and Tiffany Derry, that he is NOT going to invest in Elements, and then walks out on the investment discussion meeting with Besh and Tiffany when Besh expresses interest in trying to give Elements one more shot.
• Spencer on iCarly trying to give a brotherly advice talk to Carly.
  Spencer: Okay. There's two roads in front of you. Road A, and... the-the... one on the left. (Pauses, then runs out of the room).
• In the first season of Ice Road Truckers, Drew and Rick, plagued by mechanical problems and an unsympathetic boss, bow out mid-season.
• If It Moves, File It: In "Surveillance", Quick and Foster are ordered to supervise a house, only for criminals to burst out shooting for them. Naturally, the pair don't stick around and run for their lives.
• In the Dark: Jess and Stirling decide to hit the road, leaving Chicago behind, rather than staying trapped in the drug game.
• Joe Pickett: After Nate narrowly saves his fellow former operator Merle from Nemeck's assassins, Merle declines Nate's suggestion that they investigate what Nemeck is up to, saying that he intends to get out of the area fast and Nate should think of doing the same.
• In "The Sprites Save Grotto's Grove", from Johnny and the Sprites, Yolanda wants to build a hotel in Johnny's backyard, which also happens to be the Sprites' home. It seems she won't take no for an answer, so the Sprites decide to try to goad her into this using their magic, though it takes Root simply popping out and shouting "Boo!" to tip her over the edge.
  Yolanda: Flying up into trees, local rain, scary creatures...
  Root: Boo!
  Yolanda: Forget about hotel! I'm outta here!
  Root: Bye-bye!
• Judge Judy:
  • Along with other courtroom shows, has had its share of litigants who storm out of court if they don't like the way their case is going. Judge Judy almost always responds to this by instantly dismissing said litigant's case (with prejudice, as opposed to dismissing without prejudice which means the litigant can pursue the matter again in another court).
  • She also has a habit of doing this herself by simply dismissing a case when a litigant's case or defense is just so stupid or obnoxious it's not even worth her time to chastise them or explain why. Once such case had a man suing for damages to his vehicle after, in his own words, he "nudged his car forward to get someone to move" to which said person responded by striking and damaging their car:
    Judge Judy: So you moved forward, tried to hit him with your car! What did you expect him to do?!
    Litigant: Move!
    Gallery and defendant: (Laughs)
    Judge Judy: Case dismissed! We're done!
• Gordon Ramsay pulled this off in the "Amy's Baking Company" episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Between being insulted by owners Amy and Samy, watching as said owners blasted both customers and employees, Amy becoming a major Drama Queen, firing a waitress for making sure the order was going to the right customer, stealing people's tips (which is blatantly illegal), and Gordon learning from two former employees how horribly they were treated (one had her waitress duties cut back so far — she was reduced to just serving water — that she begged to be put into the kitchen, and the other had to wash Samy's car midway through a dinner service), that Ramsay realized they were beyond hope and walked out. Incidentally, Ramsay was quite upset about it, mostly because he wanted to help and there was no way to break through their Small Name, Big Ego. And just for good measure, the show took a second look at the company the following season. Ramsay opted not to come along, and it was for the best. They're still as unrepentant as ever.
  • Sometimes Gordon just threatens to do this, but opts not to or the staff convince him to stay and try and make it work. Sometimes it's the owner who does this: Billy of "The Handlebar" threw his hands up in exasperation on the first day and walked out declaring he would rather just sell the restaurant off than talk to Gordon or hear his criticisms anymore (Billy eventually changed his mind). Rachel from "Piccolo Teatro" of the UK version actually did sell her restaurant not long after Gordon left, leaving her young chef stranded in Paris without a job and her father facing a huge financial loss all because she didn't want to have to deal with the stress of owning a restaurant anymore.
• One episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple had a contestant so scared out of his wits by a Temple Guard, that he ran right out of the temple!
• Let's Make a Deal: The host (Wayne Brady) met a contestant who was apparently a trained martial artist, and — emphasizing repeatedly slowly, so as not to "damage" anyone involved — suggested a demonstration of what he might do if his co-host were an attacker; Jonathan tries to punch him in slow motion and receives a slow-motion Curb-Stomp Battle until around the point where Brady narrates that he's the attacker's friend — moving in — when the contestant mimes a finishing Neck Snap. "his friend" decides, never mind, he's going to leave.
• A plot arc in Season 5 of Lost involves some characters trying to reunite everyone in order to get back to the island, but when everyone shows up and sees that Ben was involved, they change their minds and go home for a few episodes.
• Pete Campbell attempted to do this at the end of the third season of Mad Men. Only Roger and Don recruiting him for the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce prevented it.
  • Cooper does it as well in Season 4 when Don's ad about SCDP no longer doing cigarette ads goes public.
• MADtv:
  • There's a sketch where an escaped convict invades a home party, only for the residents to creatively interpret his 'demands' (he hadn't even made any yet) as forcing them all to have sex with each other. The confused home invader vehemently protests this, but eventually becomes so disgusted by their antics that he runs off. They decide to keep going anyway just in case he comes back.
  • This is also the catchphrase of Reality Check hosts Tovah McQueen (played by Debra Wilson) and Belma Buttons (played by Aries Spears), who wrap up Volleying Insults at their celebrity guests with the line “We are through!” Some of their guests use the line too after they do some insult volleying of their own, but this usually doesn’t go over well. And then the sketch always ends with a literal Screw This, I’m Outta Here when Belma asks Tovah to go out to eat (and in one case, get drugs from Rexall) after the show; when the guest tries to join, the hosts say “Ain’t nobody invite you! You need to sit there and think about what we just said! This has been Reality Check, and honey, we are through!”
• Manhunt (2024):
  • David Herold decides not to stick around waiting for Lewis Powell to finish killing Secretary of State Seward after being unnerved by how loud the struggle is.
  • Peanuts Burroughs, the Unwitting Pawn theater worker who is holding Booth's horse outside the theater, is quick to flee down the alley after learning that he has unknowingly assisted in the getaway of a political assassin (although his explanation about what happened is quickly believed the next day).
• Twice so far in The Masked Singer:
  • After his first song, The Gremlin/Mickey Rourke willingly unmasked as he was uncomfortable.
  • Judge Ken Jeong walked off the set after the Jack-In-The-Box was revealed to be embattered former New York Mayor Rudy Gulliani.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe shows:
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
    • "T.A.H.I.T.I." reveals that since Coulson's little visit in "The Magical Place", Dr. Streiten has gone into hiding.
    • In "Providence", Coulson immediately realizes that Colonel Talbot's "peacekeeping" forces are actually on their way to shut down S.H.I.E.L.D. and arrest or kill them all, so orders an evacuation of the Hub.
    • In "Ragtag", Coulson sneaks aboard the hijacked Bus to rescue Skye and retake the plane from Ward... but the second he finds out that Deathlok is onboard, he decides to cut losses, simply grabbing Skye and jumping out in Lola.
    • In the Season 1 finale, "Beginning of the End", when Team Coulson attacks the Cybertek facilities, both Ian Quinn and Raina pack up their respective research and get the hell out of there. Though Quinn at least was also motivated by the fact that Garrett had by this point clearly been driven into the deep end by his new powers.
    • In the Season 2 premiere, "Shadows", the mission to the military holding facility goes to Hell when Isabelle grabs the Obelisk only for it to start killing her. Her team proceeds to abandon the rest of the mission and drags her out of there.
  • WandaVision: At the end of the series, Hayward tries to leave Westview after his attempts to invade the city and eliminate Wanda and Vision are foiled by Monica and Wanda's kids. His escape was stopped by Darcy, who crashes her van into his vehicle and trapping him inside.
• M*A*S*H:
  • "The General Flipped at Dawn", when General Bartford Hamilton Steele the Third finally loses it entirely at Hawkeye's preliminary court-martial hearing (by dancing off to the tune of 'Mississippi Mud'), the presiding legal affairs officer waits a moment, then wordlessly zips up his valise and gets up to walk out.
  • "The Late Captain Pierce", frustrated with the fact that he was unable to get a hold of his father to clarify that he didn't die. And the process of undoing the mistake would take weeks, Hawkeye makes the decision of leaving on the morgue bus to abandon the war as more wounded were about to be brought in. The bus only went a few feet before Hawkeye got off though.
• The panelists on Match Game would pull this after a contestant or another panelist would give answers of dubious merit or taste, but it was all part of the show's comedy.
  • One of the most famous examples of this, was in June of 1978, when the Star Wheel was added to the Head to Head match portion of the game. Up to that point, the contestant always chose the panelist that they wished to play with (aside from a brief rule change in 1975), and almost all of them chose to play with Richard Dawson. With the Star wheel, the contestant spun the wheel to determine which panelist he or she would play with, instead, but in its first spin, it landed on Dawson, prompting four of the panelists (including Dawson) to do this. They soon came back, but guest panelist Mary Wickes declared, "Do you know what that wheel cost us? And it's right back to Richard!"
  • About two months later, Richard Dawson, between burnout from being a regular panelist on Match Game and host of Family Feud at the same time, and disillusion from changes made to the game (including the Star Wheel), did this for real, never to return.
• In a Cold Open of The Millers, Nathan, at a particularly awkward dinner with his mother, sister and brother-in-law, gets up, walks to the door and says, "Let's see what's behind Door Number One. Why, it's an exit! I win!" and leaves.
• Mock the Week once had this when the panellists were discussing the most unlikely things to hear on a news programme:
  Hugh: This is the first time I have reported from the Pamplona Bull Run... FUCKING HELL!!! (runs away)
• Monty Python's Flying Circus had a segment with a man who speaks entirely in anagrams. He runs down the Shakespeare plays he's performed in anagram when he comes to "Ring Kichard the Thrid". The presenter notes that "Ring Kichard" is a spoonerism. The guest says "If you're going to split hairs, I'm going to piss off" and walks off the stage.
  • In the "It's the Arts" sketch, filmmaker Sir Edward Ross leaves the set as the presenter was getting irritatingly silly. He returns sheepishly when the presenter starts to behave. Inverted in the following "It's The Arts" segment as the presenter interviewing Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson and the previous presenter both show Jackson the door.
  Ross presenter: Get your own arts programme, you fairy!
• In an episode of Naturally, Sadie Arden, Margaret and Sadie get lost on a scavenger hunt and end up walking too far out of the park and encountering a bear. Sadie tells everyone to stay calm and back away slowly — only to look back and see that Margaret and Arden have already booked it.
• This happened twice on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, although only the second one was broadcast. Lemmy from Motörhead walked out on an early episode when they were filming retakes, and Preston from The Ordinary Boys walked out after Simon Amstell read extracts from then-wife Chantelle's biography.
• Subverted on The Nutt House. Charles heads to the airport when Big Jake shows up, but not to escape; he's grabbing the Swedish masseuses arriving for their convention and bringing them to the hotel.
• Odd Squad:
  • In "Night Shift", one of the Odd Squad's night shift challenges Olympia to a thumb-wrestling match for her papers, only to back out after realizing Olympia's better at thumb-wrestling than she.
  • In "Robert Plant", Olive gives up after looking through the instruction book for Robert Plant (Obfusco's plant, not the Led Zeppelin band member), which has complicated instructions for how to care for it. Otto's quick to revel in the fact that he's not the one acting unreasonable this time around, and is also quick to revel in the fact that making the plant grow out of control by watering it improperly is not his fault.
  Olive: Oh no. No way. [closes book] I'm out.
  Otto: What do you mean, "you're out"?
  Olive: We've been here for hours! Let's just dump the rest of the water on the thing and go home!
  Otto: That sounds like something I would say. In a bad way.
  Olive: Otto. It's a plant. It's fine!
  • As revealed in "O vs. the Ballcano", Oprah has abandoned Headquarters every time there has been a flood of balls from the Ball Pit most every single year beginning in 1984. In the episode proper, Olive and Otto work together with her to save the current Headquarters so she doesn't have to abandon yet another one.
  • This trope is how Odd Todd gets defeated in "O is Not For Over".
• On the House: When Dr. Stanley threatens the builders with nerve gas in "Take Me to Your Leader", Arnold, Old Fred, Harvey, and Derek all scarper, leaving Gussie to face him all alone. Gussie yells at them to come back but takes one more look at the spray guns and bolts too.
• The Outer Limits (1995): In the episode "Mind Over Matter", a doctor hooks a comatose woman to a VR machine so they can communicate with her. He enters the VR world several times and they start getting intimate. One of his colleagues is disgusted, and protests the unethical nature of what he is doing. He refuses to listen, and she gets fed up and leaves, and in doing so, escapes being involved in the bad ending.
• Following the suicide of Richard at the end of Season 2 of The Path, as Meyerist leader Cal Roberts is speaking at an outdoor gathering, we just barely glimpse behind him, a young black woman, rolling suitcase and knapsack in tow, marching resolutely off the property. Cal's losing followers and doesn't even realize it. She turns up later as one of the seekers at Eddie Lane's house, so she still believes in Meyerism, just not in Cal.
• Person of Interest:
  • In the Whole Episode Flashback, faced with a Government Conspiracy, Reese's predecessor Mr. Dillinger decided to quit and sell the MacGuffin to the Chinese.
  • In Search and Destroy when Sulaiman Khan tris to convince one of his employees about the conspiracy and ask fir the mans help to expose it, the guy leaves, telling Khan that if he's wrong then he doesn't want to be part of such pointless paranoia and if Khan is right then he really doesn't want to get on the bad side of someone with that much power.
• The Plot Against America: In this Alternate History, the Nazi-friendly aviator Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in the presidential election of 1940, prompting many fearful Jews to openly ponder fleeing to Canada if the Nazis get too many hooks into America. In spite of defiantly expressing his intention to stay in his homeland, Howard and his family look into getting Canadian citizenship, but discover that they're ineligible anyway. When antisemitic fervor reaches its height, Howard's friend Shepsie packs up all his belongings and drives through the night to Winnipeg, where he has a brother.
• Power Rangers
  • The Monster of the Week usually fights to the death... Usually. The Terror Toad was an early one in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers that tended to give viewers nightmares; he had swallowed every member of the team whole except Kimberly, who managed to plant an arrow in its gullet and make him cough up the others. At that point, he decided to make a run for it, but he didn't get far. In what was truly a Moment of Awesome for the Pink Ranger, she fired again, the arrow flying around the forest like a guided missile after the escaping Terror Toad, dodging around trees before striking him and blowing him to pieces.
  • That same season, Goldar, who had just escaped the destroyed Cyclopsis, begs Rita to pull her base away and back to the moon before the Rangers turned the Ultrazord on them. Rita wisely agreed.
  • Master Vile does this near the end of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, realizing that his plans weren't going to go anywhere, and he'd be better off sticking to the galaxy where he always wins, instead of that one weird planet where good somehow triumphs. Notably, he was the Big Bad at the time.
  • In Power Rangers Zeo, Prince Gasket tried to take over the Machine Empire when Mondo was believed to be dead, but unfortunately for him, Mondo was not. When he came back, Gasket fled rather than face his very angry father.
  • In Power Rangers Wild Force, Toxica and Jindrax, caught between two leaders who couldn't care less about sacrificing them as pawns and sought only personal gain instead of the good of the Org race, walk off into the sunset together just before the series' final battle. One of the series' arcs was about the Orgs' blind loyalty to any higher-ranked Org, and in the end, these two finally realized it wasn't worth it. (It may also be a case of Shoo Out the Clowns, as the next episode was part one of the dead-serious season finale.)
  • In Power Rangers Mystic Force, an underling, after getting utterly pummeled by the Rangers' Mid-Season Upgrade, tries to do this, but his boss is displeased, and winds up absorbing him into his new mech to power it up.
• Preacher: In the Season 1 finale, after discovering that God has abandoned Heaven, Jesse up and abandons his flock, simply walking out of the church with Tulip and Cassidy and leaving town without a second glance.
• Vicki Lawrence did this on an episode of The $100,000 Pyramid after a particularly rough round. She did it again here on an episode of The $25,000 Pyramid after host Dick Clark and opponent Nipsey Russell made less than flattering comments on her outfit.
• Radio Enfer: Mr. Giroux (the school's principal) tries to help Carl getting his driver's license, only to get hurt in a car accident. This results in the principal having his head wrapped around in bandage and unable to speak properly. When Carl mentions that he's thinking about getting a license to drive a motorcycle instead, Maria asks Giroux if he would be willing to help the teenager with that. The principal's response is to scream in panic and run out of the radio crew's room.
• Reacher:
  • In season 2, when Neagley and Dixon go to question Ambiguously Evil executive Marlo Burns, they find her house abandoned, with signs of frantic packing, a bag full of money left lying in a closet, and a jewelry box left behind, all indications that Burns fled with the bare essentials. A later episode reveals that she was really running from the villains and left behind the money to signal that she was refusing to help them anymore.
  • In "The Man Goes Through", Lieutenant Marsh a Dirty Cop who suspects Reacher is onto him and may come calling as part of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, is packing his possessions to go on the run when Reacher gets the drop on him. As a Death by Materialism Brick Joke, unlike Burns, he takes the time to pack his bag of bribe money and other valuables when there's a chance he might have gotten away if he hadn't lingered that long.
• Reba:
  • Played for Laughs early on in the episode "Switch". Jake tries to entertain Lori Ann with card tricks while she waits for Reba to get ready for a girls' night out, but, unfortunately, Jake is lousy at it. Once Reba comes downstairs, ready to go, so is Lori Ann, especially when he announces that he's fetching his magic hat for more magic tricks.
  Lori Ann: Oh, dear Lord, Reba, we gotta go! He's getting his magic hat!
  • After Brock and Barbra Jean buy a house near Reba's near the end of the second season, Kyra decides to move in with them. This is Played for Drama, as everyone in the family is left feeling emotionally charged by her decision, with Jake being the sole exception.^note Jake's lack of concern stems from him remembering how much Kyra loves tormenting him and the knowledge that she can still visit as frequently as she likes with Brock and Barbra Jean living nearby.
  • Played for Laughs near the end of the episode "The Great Race", where Brock insists on claiming he let Reba win and Reba accuses Brock of being a Sore Loser in return. Just as Reba and Brock are on the verge of a 5k race rematch, Cheyenne makes an announcement about her homemade dinner. This prompts Reba to suggest that they change the content of the rematch to a race to the nearest pizza place instead, with the loser footing the bill. Brock agrees to the terms at once, and the episode ends with them starting the race and running away from the house.
  • Played for Laughs again late in the episode "Issues". After viewing the video footage of Brock and Barbra Jean sleeping, discovering Barbra Jean hitting Brock repeatedly during the sequence (which turns out to be the reason Brock is sleep-deprived at the start of the episode) and that the reason Barbra Jean hitting Brock amounts solely to her resentment regarding Brock's treatment towards a pet hamster Barbra Jean won in a county faire, the doctor they see suggests for them to see a marriage counselor instead. Barbra Jean's statement that the first thing she'd say to the marriage counselor is how her "big, strong man can take a punch" does nothing to ease Brock's mood, as indicated when Brock checks to see Barbra Jean going down the hall for the marriage counselor before hightailing out of the building.
  • Twice in the episode "She's with the Band":
    • Played for Drama when Kyra decides to postpone college in order to perform and tour with her band, Reba decides to forbid her from doing so. Kyra promptly decides to move out of Reba's house and into the residence of "Stitches", one of her band-mates.
    • Played for Laughs at the end of the selfsame episode. After Reba and Kyra talk things over and Kyra agrees to move back with Reba, they enter Reba's house, where they witness Brock teaching Jake the dance moves Brock himself learned when he was in the production of a musical. This time, Kyra and Reba both decide to leave.
  Kyra: I think I'll go back to Stitches'.
  Reba: I'm right behind you.
• Red Dwarf: In "Emohawk: Polymorph II", in exchange for parts for Starbug, Lister must marry one of the GELF's daughters. Initially intending to flee into the night while the GELF bride is asleep, it turns out that the GELF bride wants to consummate their marriage that night... and won't take no for an answer.
  "Just gotta slip into something a little bit more comfortable. It's called Starbug."
  [as the rest of the crew head back to the shuttle, Lister runs past them]
  "CHANGE OF PLAN! LEG IT!"
  [they follow suit]
• Rise of Empires: Ottoman: Giustiniani valiantly defends Constantinople for several weeks of heavy fighting, but when he takes an arrow during the final siege, he flees the city and meets a rather ignominious end a few days later when he dies of infection. If he had simply stayed and fought to the bitter end, he would have been remembered as a hero.
• Played for laughs on Rock Profile, where Elton John frequently says "Right, I'm leaving" during the interview.
• In Rome, Vorenus decided to desert the 13th Legion after he helped Caesar march on Rome. Of course, Vorenus had always seen Caesar's actions as illegal and only went along with his orders because he was doing his duty.
  Vorenus: I'm a traitor and a rebel, why not a deserter also?
• In Roots (2016), Kunta Kinte and Carlton desert the battlefield once they realize the British are sending slaves to die against heavily armed American rebels. This ultimately leads to Carlton being shot to death and Kunta Kinte losing half of his right foot.
• Saturday Night Live:
  • They did a literal version of this, in a skit that parodied the various Time Life infomercials, featuring family arguments at Thanksgiving dinner. Each vignette features the family patriarch getting fed up with all the bickering and angrily declaring, "F*** this! I'm leaving!". One especially funny bit has him getting annoyed at all the happy chit-chat that's going on and promptly delivering the line.
  • Several months later, a similar skit, only this featured couples arguing on Valentine's Day.
  • Ashlee Simpson's infamous performance where she was caught lip-synching. She tried covering it up by doing a jig before walking off the set.
  • In another "Dysfunctional Family" skit, it's the child who gets fed up with the argument and storms out, declaring, "I'm going to Rob's house! I hate you both!"
• Saved by the Bell: The New Class:
  • Screech spends the entirety of the episode "Oh, Brother" getting someone to replace the teacher who has a tendency to rear-end Mr. Belding's parked car while trying to park her own. He holds a raffle at the gym towards the end of the episode, only for the winner to turn out to be the very teacher Mr. Belding wishes to avoid parking next to -- worse yet for Mr. Belding, the prize is the guaranteed parking spot lasting throughout the school year. When Mr. Belding turns to Screech at this turn of events, Screech, who feels at his wit's end, proceeds to run out of the gym instead.
  • Screech gets Ryan, Nicky, and Eric to bake a cake for the party he's throwing for Mr. Belding in "To Tell the Truth" after tasting their cake they present for their Home Economy class and feeling impressed by them. Unfortunately, Screech doesn't know that they merely bought the cake for the class and, therefore, can't bake. After Mr. Belding and Screech have a taste of the cake samples Ryan, Nicky, and Eric give to Screech (and run straight for the toilet as the result), the three of them decide to hightail out of there themselves.^note  That being said, they still remain inside the school ground, so it doesn't take long for Screech to find them and scrutinize the truth out of them.
• Scrubs:
  • This is what Ted does after everyone is punching him all day because of his orange tie.
  • The Janitor did this between the finale of Season 8 and the premiere of Season 9. With his favorite target (J.D.) no longer working at Sacred Heart, he drops his mop, walks out and vanishes.
• Short Ribbs: The man in a Goo Goo Getup does this at the end of the parody movie trailer "Three Invisible Gentlemen and a Baby". It is the eighth sketch in this compilation video.
• In Solitary, this is the only way to lose. When you've had enough of a treatment, you push the red buzzer. If you're first, you go home. If you're not, then you stay. But of course, you have no idea if anyone else has quit, so you can be stuck doing a painful treatment for a long time until VAL says otherwise.
• After finding out the true nature of the contest in Squid Game, the remaining participants decide to collectively quit and go home. While most turn back in a desperate attempt to clear their debts, 14 people decline to risk their lives again.
• Played with in Stargate SG-1. Jack and Teal'c are attempting to disable an Asgard ship infested with Replicators, and naturally gravitate to the main deck. Said deck is crawling with Replicators. Jack takes just one look and says, "Well, screw that!"
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • In "Battle Lines", Captain Sisko and some of his senior staff find themselves trapped on a desolate planet inhabited only by two Feuding Families who have been afflicted with a form of Resurrective Immortality that kills them instantly if they ever try to leave as a punishment for some ancient transgression, condemned to spend eternity fighting a pointless Forever War for reasons none of them can even remember anymore. Sisko sets Dr. Bashir to figuring out how to disable the nanomachines causing all this and makes a truly Herculean effort to get the two sides to sit down and agree to a temporary truce with a view to arranging their resettlement elsewhere... But the two faction leaders barely have time to exchange greetings before it transpires that both of them were planning to betray the other, and simultaneous mutual ambushes ensue. At this point Captain Sisko realizes exactly what these people did to deserve this terrible fate, and departs on the newly patched-up runabout without saying another word to any of them.
  • "Accession" has Worf declaring his intention to take a very long vacation a very long way from the station in a few months when he hears Keiko O'Brien is pregnant again. Given his experience when he helped deliver her first baby in Star Trek: The Next Generation, it's not entirely surprising. (It becomes moot anyway, given the way the pregnancy plays out.)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • Of all people, you'd never think Captain Picard would do this, but... In "The Hunted", after questioning a planet's treatment of the super soldiers they'd created when the war they'd served in ended and they were deemed unsuited to live in the "enlightened" society they'd defended, he was told by government leaders to butt out, since it wasn't his problem and the Prime Directive forbade him from interfering. At the end of the episode, he's in the middle of an armed standoff between said government leaders and the soldiers. When the terrified leaders ask him to do something, he cheerfully invokes the Prime Directive since it forbade him from interfering and it wasn't his problem. He transports out and leaves them to settle their dispute. One way or the other.
  • In "The Drumhead", when retired Admiral Norah Satie suspected that a single Romulan spy on board the Enterprise was a sign of a much larger conspiracy, she went so far as to call Picard to the stand to accuse him of treason. When Picard quoted her father, a renowned Starfleet judge, to condemn her witch-hunt, Satie flew into a rage, shouting "I've broken better men than you, Picard!" Admiral Henry, whom Satie had invited to observe the proceedings, quietly exited the courtroom in disgust, and the investigation (and likely Satie's career) promptly ended.
  • In "The Ensigns of Command", the Enterprise squares off against the Sheliak Corporate, a race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens who are known for an obsession with rules and contracts (for just one example: their singular treaty with the United Federation of Planets was written by 372 Federation legal experts). When some humans settle on a Sheliak planet unknowingly, the aliens demand that the Enterprise take them away immediately, refusing to hear Picard's protests that they need three weeks to safely transport them all. Eventually, Picard hits upon the idea to use the Sheliak's own legalese against them by citing a clause which allows him to choose a neutral third party to arbitrate the dispute...and then selecting a race that's currently in a six-month hibernation cycle. When the Sheliak representative sputters incoherently, Picard declares that they're no longer negotiating in good faith and shuts down the viewscreen. Then, just to twist the knife further, he deliberately delays turning it back on for an few extra minutes. The Sheliak capitulate and agree to the three-week deal.
  • Played for Drama in "I, Borg". The Enterprise crew discovers a recently crashed Borg ship, with three drones dead and one barely clinging to life. Worf—a Klingon who detests any sort of cowardice or running on principle—immediately suggests that they simply turn tail, get on their ship, and claim that all of the drones perished in the crash. The unusual behavior is a sign of just how much the Federation fears the Borg.
• Stargirl (2020): In the Season 1 finale, after the JSA take most of the Injustice Society out of commission and ruin their Evil Plan, the Gambler — who was acting as the ISA's Mission Control from elsewhere — wipes their computer systems to cover his tracks and flees.
• This was more or less the Catchphrase of Doug, one of Michael Showalter's characters on the MTV Sketch Comedy series The State. Doug would repeat it whenever he got exasperated with his father, meaning at the end of every. Flipping. Sentence.
  Doug: Forget it, I'm outta here...
• At the end of Season 3 of Stranger Things, the Byers family and Eleven move out of Hawkins, meaning they're no longer subject to all the supernatural happenings.
• In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21), Lily decides to leave the other Special Children and "get the hell out of Dodge". She gets killed by a demon the second she exits the town limits.
  • Kevin Tran attempts this in "Devil May Care" (S09, Ep02), only for Dean to persuade him to stay "because [he's] family". He should have left when he had the chance.
• In the Tales from the Crypt episode "Yellow", a prominent general's son tries to do this during a war. Desertion is a death-by-firing-squad offense. Once he is caught, his father promises him he will load all of the firing squad's rifles with blanks and hide supplies so his son can get away, if his son "dies" bravely. The son agrees. The next morning, he is marched in front of the firing squad. He sees the supply cache in a small ditch. He gives brave last words and stands proudly. But, when his father looks away, he knows he's going to die. He does.
• Temps de chien:
  • After the incident where Antoine ended up hurting a dog (named Biscuit) in self-defense while being live on TV, Manon orders him to immediately leave the studio with her. Antoine is reluctant as he wants to see the dog and help heal its wounds. However, Hugo Rivard (the dog's owner and the host of the TV show where the incident happened) immediately and angrily yells at Antoine from afar that the latter will pay for what happened to Biscuit, causing Antoine to change his mind and comment that he'll simply send a card to the dog instead.
  • Later on in that same episode, Antoine decides to run away when a news reporter and her cameraman arrive to interview him in regards to the incident.
  • Noticing how stressed Antoine is, Stéphane invites him to a meeting with a "healing group" as he calls it. Said meeting is pretty much a collective therapy where everyone expresses how they feel. However, Antoine is quite uncomfortable when the meeting turns into an orgy. Seeing his reaction, Stéphane tells him he doesn't have to partake in the orgy if he doesn't want to and can either watch it or leave. Antoine naturally chooses the last option. At the end of that same episode, he once again declines to partake in an orgy with the healing group and decides to leave.
  • When he starts replacing Armand as the vet, Antoine ends up having too much work to deal with, with the final straw being when one customer keeps pestering him over her dog even during his lunch break. He decides to quit the clinic, only to change his mind about one minute later upon hearing some radio hosts talking about all the praise he got since he's been replacing Armand.
  • During one night where he has to sleep in Stéphane's caravan, Antoine is awakened by the arrival of a woman named Louise, who then proceeds to have sex with Stéphane. It doesn't take long before Antoine decides to leave and instead sleep on the top of the caravan. However, it doesn't get better given that Stéphane and Louise having sex with each other results in the caravan shaking a lot.
• In a skit on That Mitchell and Webb Look, a pair of SS officers start to realize that maybe they're on the wrong side of the war and flee.
• In the World War II Mini Series Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter, Wilhelm attempts this, but he is arrested for treason and placed in a unit of would-be deserters who are forced to carry out the riskiest business of the Wehrmacht.
• Echoing a real-life event, on one episode of Vikings, a force led by Ragnar is sailing down a river and comes upon an enemy army on each bank. They choose to attack the smaller force first, wiping it out, then cutting off the heads of many of the fallen and mounting them from their ships before they start to sail over to the army on the other side, who has been unable to do anything but watch. Seeing the boats sailing towards them with decapitated heads tied to them makes most of the second army flee.
• Wellington Paranormal: Quinn the boat captain radios to Maaka that he's going home, once the second Taniwha appears in Wellington Harbour.
• Played for Laughs on "Enemies", a first season episode of The West Wing. President Bartlett is lecturing Charlie, his aide, about all of the national parks in the country. Josh, his deputy chief of staff, who endured the President's lecture earlier in the episode, comes in to announce Bartlett can add one more to the list. Charlie says he's leaving, to which Josh, in total sympathy, responds, "I hear ya."
• Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has pretended to pull this a few times when a contestant made a funny remark. Examples include:
  • November 1999: One puzzle in the category "People" was "A Group of Well-Wishers", but the contestant answered "A Group of Pill-Pushers", instead, which initially made Pat say "Good night, everybody!", before shouting This is 'Wheel of Fortune', Joe!".
  • February 2001: Pat asks a Hawaiian contestant, "What was that noise you made earlier?", prompting the contestant to look behind himself curiously as Pat shouts "Good night, everybody" and pretends to walk offstage
  • January 2011: A contestant loses the Bonus Round and, before Pat can reveal what prize he lost, the contestant blurts out "show me something small". The contestant takes the envelope after Pat drops it, and reveals that he lost $100,000.
  • November 2014: one team thought the answer to the puzzle was RIDING A BROWN HORSE, and the next thought it was RIDING A WHITE HORSE early in the round; Pat pretended to walk off-set and shouted, "Who said anything about a horse?!" (the actual answer was SEEING A BUDDY MOVIE).
• White Rabbit Project: Tory's ultimate response after the "crowdsourced GPS app" lead him through a frustrating drive through the back lanes of Los Angeles in the "GPS" legend of the "Invented Before Its Time?" episode was to forget about the experiment halfway through, hightail it and go AWOL with the supercar he was assigned.
• The Wire: In "Not for Attribution", McNulty and Freamon decide to connect a string of unrelated deaths to convince the police department a serial killer is at large in Baltimore. Horrified at their plan, Bunk leaves the room, saying "I'm out. I'm outta here!"
• WKRP in Cincinnati: In "Hoodlum Rock," a booking agent gets thrown out of a moving car by the eponymous musicians. When Andy tells Carlson that they can't cancel the concert just because of the band's rowdiness, the agent has this to say before departing.
  Steve: If you don't, you're nuts.
• The episode "Alice Quits" of Workaholics has two. First obviously, is Alice, who storms out in a rage, telling her superior in the company to 'eat a dick!'. Then later, after the new boss has altered the office extensively, and forced Jet Set to wash his hair gel out, Jet Set has had enough.
  Travis: Jessie, calm down.
  Jet Set: Bitch! My name is Jet motha-fuckin Set! But you can call me Patrick Swayze cause guess what? I'm ghost. Give my goddamn cactus... Have a good day.
• Worst Cooks in America: During Season 16 (Celebrity Edition 5), Taryn Manning lost her round in the second episode's knowledge challenge and was faced with eating chicken feet as her penalty. Instead, she walked off the set and the show.
• Young Sheldon: In "A Tougher Nut and a Note on File", Missy leaves the comic book store once Sheldon decides to reorganize the inventory since it was more work than her supervisor assigned.

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