SPOILER WARNING: The nature of this trope means that spoilers abound. Tread carefully.
Then Let Me Be Evil moments in Live-Action TV series.
- In 24, President Charles Logan committed some horrible things on Day 5, but at worst he was a Well-Intentioned Extremist who was trying to secure America's economic future. After he was forced to resign, he tried to atone for actions by helping Jack Bauer on Day 6. In the process, he had to meet up with his ex-wife who spent the entire time, not undeservedly, mocking his attempt at redemption and, in a psychotic break, stabbed Logan. That slammed the door on him, so when he reappeared on Day 8 he had shifted into being a straight up evil bastard, who was willing to commit any crime in the name of both killing Jack Bauer and regaining some good publicity to feed his ego.
- Dylan in American Vandal is eventually exonerated of the crime he was accused of, spray-painting penises on cars in the faculty parking lot. However, after being told that he'll never be anything but a stoner idiot, he does spray-paint a penis on a teacher's driveway, reasoning that he might as well be what everyone thinks he is.
- Better Call Saul shows how Saul Goodman (real name Jimmy McGill) began his law career, as an ex-conman trying to go straight and follow his brother Chuck's path as a legitimate attorney. However, Chuck believes that he'll never truly go straight and works to deny him opportunities at every turn, until Jimmy gives up on the straight and narrow and decides to do things his own, much darker way.
- In Black Sails, it is revealed that Captain Flint is nothing more than a persona, adopted by him so that he might survive in the new world he was forced into, and so that his true self could survive what he was going to have to do to be a part of it. However, after revelations about the true nature of how he came to be exiled from England, and with the death of Miranda, James all but quotes this trope title, before escaping captivity and declaring outright war upon the rest of civilisation.
- Interestingly, this is later turned around on him by Woodes Rogers, who is offering all that Flint ever wanted: unconditional pardons for all of Nassau. However, Flint has lost so much by this point that peace with England is an anathema to him. So Rogers has this to say:
"I am reasonable in seeking peace, but if you insist on making me your villain, I will play the part." - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Spike tries to enlist in the good fight after falling in love with Buffy, who regards this Heel–Face Turn with suspicion, especially after discovering his true motive. However he gains some trust by protecting Dawn with his life in Season 5 and acting as her confidante in Season 6, but as Buffy finds herself growing increasingly attracted to him, she begins reverting back to treating him as though he was still a Big Bad. This includes all manner of verbal and physical abuse, the most significant of which being her continued insistence that he is a monster, a "thing", who cannot change—never mind the fact that he was a soulless vampire who had been putting active effort into defying his nature just because he loved her. As Buffy refuses to let him be good, he decides the only way to get Buffy is to drag her down to his level, leading to their Destructive Romance.
- He eventually pulls himself out of this and arranges to have his human soul restored, becoming a hero for real. Though he's a decidedly snarky one.
- Spike tries to enlist in the good fight after falling in love with Buffy, who regards this Heel–Face Turn with suspicion, especially after discovering his true motive. However he gains some trust by protecting Dawn with his life in Season 5 and acting as her confidante in Season 6, but as Buffy finds herself growing increasingly attracted to him, she begins reverting back to treating him as though he was still a Big Bad. This includes all manner of verbal and physical abuse, the most significant of which being her continued insistence that he is a monster, a "thing", who cannot change—never mind the fact that he was a soulless vampire who had been putting active effort into defying his nature just because he loved her. As Buffy refuses to let him be good, he decides the only way to get Buffy is to drag her down to his level, leading to their Destructive Romance.
- In Charmed (1998), Cole may have been half-demon, but his love for Phoebe was enough to motivate him not only to wake up his humanity and then to fight the Source for control of his body, but later to amass enough random powers from other vanquished demons to escape hell and return to her after his death. However, no matter how he tried to convince her that he wasn't evil anymore, she and her sisters drove him away, and attempted to kill him, (which turned out to be impossible, even for him when he tried to commit suicide out of grief). All of this eventually drove him insane, and he started committing evil deeds again; sometimes in a misguided bid to reclaim Phoebe, and other times just For the Evulz.
- In The City Hunter, Lee Jin-Pyo's sole purpose is to find and punish five corrupt and murderous politicians; not an unworthy cause in itself, although he knows from the beginning that his method of revenge — kidnapping his best friend's infant son and raising him as an instrument of vengeance—is unforgivable. But since that's what he started, he's damned well going to finish it.
- One unsub in Criminal Minds is revealed to be this. The unsub had been arrested by the FBI years prior for murders he did not commit, which resulted in his wife and children leaving him, him losing his job, and the occasional beatdown from people who still believed him to be a criminal. This led him to murder several nurses years down the line, which caught the FBI's attention. Ironically, while he was a murderer, it's revealed that he was not the guy they were looking for this time either. (The unsub had no idea about another set of crimes the team was investigating) The guy overdosed on his medicine soon after.
- In the Season 1 finale of Daredevil (2015), Wilson Fisk is talking with the FBI agents who have arrested him about the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. He reasons that for all his previous efforts to be like the Samaritan who cared for the injured subject of the parable by developing Hell's Kitchen, he ultimately ended up like the "man of ill intent" who robbed and beat the person in the first place. This is a Deconstruction; Fisk was already a ruthless evil crime lord; all that changes now is he gives up the delusion that he was ever a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- One arc on Desperate Housewives had Lynette trying to stir concern about the fact that there was a possible pedophile living with his sister on Wisteria Lane. However, the attempts to stir up hysteria drove the sister to suffer a fatal heart attack, at which point the guy told Lynette he'd kept his urges under control because of her. And now he was going to leave Wisteria, and had no reason to curb his impulses... and he wanted her to know it was all because of her (however, since it was never really confirmed that he really was a pedophile, it is possible he's just messing with her head).
- The Flash (2014): This is eventually revealed to be Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash's origin story. Born in 2151, Thawne admired the 21st century hero The Flash and wanted to be a great hero like him. He managed to acquire super speed and the ability to time travel. One day, his time traveling adventures revealed to him that he was destined to become Flash's arch enemy. Filled with despair and rage, Thawne declared that if he cannot become a hero, he'll be the best villain he can be, and be the Reverse of everything Flash stands for.
- Game of Thrones:
- Jaime's Jerkass personality partially grew out of this. He later develops a kinder personality, but after Myrcella's death in Season 5, he backslides into this rationale. In his own words: "fuck everyone in the world who isn't us."
- Tyrion at his trial in the Season 4 episode The Laws of Gods and Men, after Shae testifies against him.Tyrion: I wish I was the monster you think I am. I wish I had enough poison for the whole pack of you. I would gladly give my life to watch you swallow it.
- In The Children, he tells his father that he is Tywin's son, right before killing him.
- In the final two episodes, Daenerys has almost made it to the very end of her campaign to take the Iron Throne, but after word about Jon Snow's parentage starts to get out, she feels she's been betrayed by everyone close to her (everyone that isn't dead, at least). In Season 8, Episode 5, she says to Jon: "I don't have love here. Only fear." When she's not satisfied with Jon's response, she drops this trope name, almost word-for-word: "Let it be fear, then." In the next episode, during the attack on King's Landing, her hate finally consumes her, and she acts. Turning her dragon on the mostly civilian population of King's Landing. Although she did mention burning cities to the ground more than once...
- In the final episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney goes back to his womanizing ways after his divorce from Robin. When Lily calls him out on it, he rationalizes that if it couldn't work with Robin, just let him be the guy that "straightens his tie, says something dirty, gives himself a self-five, and [hits on younger women]."
- In Season 2 of Justified, Boyd Crowder finally gives up on going straight and conspires to rob a mine. When Ava asks him why after the fact, he explains: "Because it's what I do. It's who I am, Ava. As hard as I've been trying to pretend otherwise. Everybody else seems to know that but me."
- Kamen Rider Gaim: Team Red Hot's reaction to the citizens calling the Beat Riders crazy psychotic monster summoners is to... well... be crazy psychotic monster summoners.
- Legends of Tomorrow: After two seasons of being everyone's whipping boy, near the end of Season 4 Gary is revealed to have deep-seated resentment towards the Legends and the Time Bureau. This leaves him easily targeted by Neron, who convinces him to pledge loyalty in exchange for finally getting some respect (and regaining the nipple that a unicorn bit off at the start of the season).
- My Name Is Earl: Grizelda Weezmer aka "Crazy Witch Lady" (played by Betty White) has spent years being tormented by the populace of Camden because she looks, well, like a crazy witch lady. After Earl comes to her asking for forgiveness, all of that pain is brought back, and Griselda lures her aggessors to her house, knocks them out and chains them in her basement, essentially becoming what everyone believed her to be. Then when the basement starts getting crowded, she decides to start killing them off. Thankfully, she is taken to a mental institution and is eventually able to reform.
- Explicitly referenced in Once Upon a Time "Witch Hunt". By this time Regina has stopped trying to kill everyone and has become some combination of the Token Evil Teammate and The Friend Nobody Likes. However when everyone assumes that she must have cast the most recent curse and begins to turn on her ignoring her protests that she's innocent...Regina: If you all want me to be the Evil Queen then fine. That's exactly who you'll get. (causes an earthquake and then warps out).
- And subverted in that that was just a show that she and Emma were putting on. In any case, it's repeatedly made clear that while everyone blaming Regina certainly annoys her she also doesn't particularly care what any of them think. The only person she does want acceptance from is Henry.
- Invoked in the Season 6 midseason finale. Emma goes to a world where she wasn't the Savior, and, as such, is princess of the Enchanted Forest. Regina follows and tries to make Emma remember who she really is. When that reality's Rumplestiltskin points out Emma became the Savior to fight the Evil Queen, Regina begins to act like the Evil Queen (in all her glory) to do so. It doesn't work. Emma only remembers who she is when Henry is about to kill Regina, and acts just in time to save her.
- A major theme in Smallville. Lex Luthor makes several efforts to do good and often helps Clark and others save the world, but several characters — especially Clark's parents, no less — treat him with suspicion at best because he is the son of local Corrupt Corporate Executive Lionel Luthor, who himself had been trying to mold his son into another ruthless Magnificent Bastard (whilst simultaneously letting Lex know just how much of a disappointment he was). The latter stuff really had put the seed of evil in Lex's heart — Oliver Queen knew Lex at school and saw him beat up his best friend (though Oliver had been a bit of a dick to both of them, mind), and a horrified Lionel covered up the fact that as a boy, Lex had murdered his own baby brother, though it turns out that Lex only took the fall for his mom, who wanted to spare the child Lex's horrible childhood. There is a lot of tension between Lex's natural bad side and his desire to genuinely do good getting screwed over; he is particularly annoyed that Clark, his best (and only) friend, is obviously hiding stuff from him — Clark, for his part, has thought about revealing his secret to Lex but has been dissuaded by, amongst other things, hallucinations, that make it seem like a bad idea. Not helped by the fact that the two of them are aware of a prophecy about a mortal man fighting a godlike alien and Lex believing that to Beware the Superman might actually be sensible; after all, how can anyone be trusted with that much power?
- Several episodes are devoted to Lex's own internal struggle. One such story inverts A Christmas Carol- Lex, having been shot at Christmas, meets the ghost of his mother who shows him what happens if he changes his ways: he has a loving and happy marriage with Lana and is finally treated like a friend and family member by the Kents; Clark holds no grudge about the two of them marrying either and is happy for them and remains his best friend. Then Lana gets seriously ill and Lex can't afford it, so he goes back to his dad to ask him to help...and is promptly brushed off, meaning Lana (and their baby) both die because Lex gave up his money and his wicked father's fortune. When he wakes up, Lex decides that money and power are the only things that really matter in life, because then you can protect the people you love.
- Lionel himself gets some of this. Early in Season 4 he is in prison, and tries to escape by swapping bodies with Clark. His plan fails and he ends up back in his own body by the end of the episode, but having Clark inhabit his body leaves him a changed man and after getting out of prison on a technicality anyway, tried to convince the rest of the suspicious cast, meeting the most resistance from Lex himself, who is also trying to earn everybody's trust. Things hit a head in one episode when Black Kryptonite splits Lex into his good and evil halves- the good Lex lets his father know he'll trust him and encourages him in his do-goodiness; the bad Lex goads Lionel into assaulting him with a poker, then says that proves he hasn't changed at all. Turns out Lionel really had changed, but by the end of that episode, and never finding out about the whole split-in-two thing, he tells the now whole Lex that he was right- "we're Luthors", and they should embrace the Card-Carrying Villain within, though to his credit Lionel is never quite as evil again and after being possessed by Jor-El in order to bring Clark back from the dead (and retaining his memory of the incident and thus knowing Clark's secret, despite feigning amnesia), generally deciding he'll help him from now on.
- Eventually Good!Lionel becomes Clark's new father figure, and does all the things for Clark he never did for Lex, leaving by-now-lost-to-the-Dark-Side Lex justifiably frothing at the mouth at the unfairness of the universe.
- The Sopranos: Tony Blundetto in Season 5. Once out of prison, he's the only one out of the Class of 2004 who tries to go legit and start anew. He tries to do so by becoming a professional masseur while also raising his two sons. However, it all eventually falls apart, and when Tony Soprano won't let him do more in his crew, he accepts an offer to assassinate Joey Peeps, and the resulting tension leads him to try and assassinate the Leotardo brothers, managing to kill Billy Leotardo and wound Phil. This eventually leads to Tony Soprano being forced to kill him in order to calm the tensions, and prevent Tony Blundetto from suffering a worse and more painful death at the hands of Phil Leotardo. However, Tony B's actions have a lasting impact, as they are the catalyst for the mob war in Season 6.
- When Ashur of Spartacus: Blood and Sand gets berated at for his slimy Manipulative Bastard behaviour, he pulls this line of defense, pointing out that everybody treated him like pig feed and that nearly every git move he pulled benefited his master, doctore, and the ludus, so screw the gladiators and their honour.
- "Michael" from Stargate Atlantis was a Wraith who the protagonists forcibly converted into an amnesiac human. The fact that Michael has to eat people to survive, and the virus that can transform a Wraith into a human (thus removing the need to kill people to keep him alive) inherently causes amnesia, explains why they felt the need to brainwash him, though. His introductory episode has the characters mistreating him for no clear reason (mainly Ronon, who utterly despises all Wraith due to their wiping out his planet and putting him through years of torture), before he realizes that he's a Tomato in the Mirror and breaks out to return to his people... but they won't accept him either, since he's still partly human. He desperately returns to the protagonists and offers valuable aid, just begging them that they don't brainwash him again. They brainwash him again. When he recovers again, he's fed up of saying What the Hell, Hero?, and he snaps completely and becomes an Evilutionary Biologist.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- A variation also occurs in "For the Uniform" when Sisko goes after the traitor Eddington. He realizes that Eddington sees himself as a hero fighting for a noble cause and decides that he has to embrace his role as the villain in Eddington's mind in order to beat him. He eventually engineers a situation that plays to Eddington's nobler instincts, forcing him to turn himself in to stop Sisko's villainy. This consists of poisoning a Maquis planet in such a way that humans couldn't live there (but Cardassians could), essentially just balancing out the nearby world Eddington had just poisoned to Cardassians but not humans, and then threatening to do so to every Maquis settlement he could find.
- In "Waltz", Gul Dukat tries to convince Sisko (and himself) that they really were friends all along and that he has always been misunderstood as merely an Anti-Hero, not a true villain. Eventually, with some subtle goading from Sisko to drop his facade, Dukat realizes that he has always been a villain and decides to embrace his role by destroying Bajor and everything Sisko cares about.
- Winn Adami considers herself a very spiritual person, one who has sacrificed for her religion. In truth, she's a political manipulator, and because the Prophets know this, they have never given her visions. However, when the Pah-wraiths, the equivalent of demons in her religion, start giving her visions, she's terrified that this marks her as evil and corrupt. Kira tells her that she can achieve redemption simply by ceding her political and spiritual authority as Kai (the head of the Bajoran religion). Winn cannot bring herself to do this (couching her political machinations as "Bajor needs me."), and chooses instead to curse the Prophets and follow the path the Pah-wraiths laid out for her.
- In Supernatural, Crowley is a crossroad demon and the current King of Hell, but he REALLY likes the Winchester brothers and wants to be part of Team Free Will with Sam, Dean, and Castiel. He spends several seasons doing them favors that actually work against his own interests, hoping it will endear him to then. However, in Season 10, despite all the favors Crowley has done, Sam attempts to kill Crowley in order to save Dean. This causes Crowley to experience a Villainous BSoD and decide that if being good doesn't garner loyalty from the good guys, what's the point?
- In Those Who Cant, Abbey Logan tries to convince the new principal Cattie Goodman in the second season that she's not a witch. Eventually after a series of coincidences, she just declares "screw it, I'm a witch".
- Used in the climax of the first season of The Umbrella Academy (2019): Viktor finds out that Allison was complicit in making him believe that he had no superpowers, and in a rage accidently slashes her throat with a violin bow, nearly killing her. Luther refuses to acknowledge the "accidently" part of it and locks his brother in a soundproof chamber, and once he breaks out immediately decides to use force to subdue him. This causes Viktor to become the White Violin and instigate the apocalypse.
- Adam Wilson from The Young and the Restless has ended up invoking this trope. It's hard to escape the fact that, before he came to Genoa City, Adam was relatively moral and well-adjusted. It was only after prolonged exposure to the chronic backstabbing and underhanded business dealings of the city that he started his horrific revenge plan — and at the end of that, he lapses into a My God, What Have I Done? moment and tries to reform. Then even this is completely undercut when the Newmans and Abbotts confront him in the cabin and treat him like a monster, even though they don't have any idea what he did — plus how hollow their moral superiority sounds, considering all the crimes they've committed in the past, which Adam and later DA Owen Pomerantz call them out on.
