History Main / ConverseWithTheUnconscious

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Robocop 2014}}''. After his partner is shot during a failed arrest, Alex Murphy starts pouring out his guilt at his hospital bed over not waiting for backup, only to realise his partner is only pretending to be unconscious.

* In the first episode of series 3 of AshesToAshes.

* In ''Series/TheStrain'', episode 3x04, Eph has a one of these with, of all people, Quinlan. This being a [[GuillermoDelToro Guillermo del Toro]] show, we get Eph picking bullets out of Quinlan instead of a mushy declaration of affection. And it's still kind of touching.

* During season 2 of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Kate, believing that the spirit of the man she killed is somehow inhabiting an unconscious Sawyer's body, confesses her crime and says that every time she feels something for Sawyer, she thinks about him. Sawyer comes to, however, and says, "That's about the sweetest thing I've ever heard."
* It happened in ''Series/BabylonFive'' when Lennier was knocked out while saving Londo from a bomb. Londo sat by his side and spoke to him, and later Lennier woke up by finishing a joke Londo told earlier.
** Also, Neroon does this for Marcus Cole, after having beat him ''into'' the coma due to Marcus invoking YouShallNotPass to stop Neroon from interfering with Delenn's appointment as leader of the Rangers.
* In a first season episode of ''Series/{{JAG}}'', a Marine is lying unconscious in a hospital bed after being beaten severely by the gang he used to run with in Los Angeles. The Marine's CO comes into the room and proceeds to [[DrillSergeantNasty berate him for being a lousy Marine]], a coward, and ''orders'' him to wake up. Just as the medical staff are pulling the CO away, the Private wakes up.
* On ''Series/NewsRadio'', the staff take turns talking to a comatose Jimmy. He wakes up just in time to hear Lisa want a baby with Dave, and relapse from the shock. He finally revives after Bill plays Foghat's "Slow Ride" in a recreation of his college radio DJ gig.
* Not surprisingly, this is a time-honored trope that happens a lot in SoapOpera.
* Interestingly subverted in ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'', which shows this going on from the perspective of the guy in the coma.
* In ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', Echo talks to Paul even though he's brain-dead. Seeing Paul, even like that, is implied to be necessary for her mental state and she freaks out when he's moved.
* Not longterm unconsciousness, but in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' the [[AlmightyJanitor Janitor's]] conversation with Dr. Kelso bears mentioning:
-->'''Janitor''': ''[After Kelso slips on a wet floor]'' I liked the way blond-haired-doctor looked. She brightened my day. But you don't care, do you? 'Cause you're unconscious.

* Series/{{Monk}} once spent an entire episode talking to a comatose brother in a family that is being targeted by mail bombs (His regular psychiatrist was vacationing in Costa Rica, so he needed to commence a therapy session with someone). [[spoiler: He turns out to be the perp]].
* Invoked by the GenreSavvy MagnificentBastard Series/{{House}} in a fifth season episode. The team is taking care of a man who is conscious, but has lost all motor function. Each team member spends time by his bedside, monitoring him, and when he finally regains function, House reveals that he had planted a recorder under the patient's pillow. He now has his team's private thoughts on tape!
* In ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', Gwen speaks to Arthur while he's unconscious after having been bitten by the Questing Beast, telling him she know he's going to be alright because he's going to be king. A few scenes later it turns out he heard everything she said (though admittedly his memory seems a little hazy).

* In ''Series/TheStrain'', episode 3x04, Eph has a one of these with, of all people, Quinlan. This being a [[GuillermoDelToro Guillermo del Toro]] show, we get [[Squick Eph picking bullets out of Quinlan]] instead of a mushy declaration of affection. And it's still kind of touching.
* There is a touching scene from ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "One Breath" that invokes this trope. Scully is dying after being returned from her abduction, and Mulder spends much of the episode trying to save her. Her family decides to honor her living will and take her off life support. As she is slowly fading away, Mulder is at his home waiting for people from the Syndicate to break in and steal important files. Scully's sister Melissa arrives and encourages him (loudly and angrily) to stop wallowing and tell Dana how he feels. Mulder does, and he has a lovely conversation with the unconscious Scully:
--->'''Mulder:'''I feel, Scully... that you believe... you're not ready to go. And you've always had the strength of your beliefs. I don't know if my being here... will help bring you back. But I'm here.
** Scully wakes up shortly thereafter and tells Mulder that she had the strength of his beliefs.

* In ''Series/{{Limitless}}'' Ike ends up in a coma after being shot and Brian tries talking with him, promising to treat him better. Cut to Ike's dreams which, due to Ike's growing stress from having to deal with Brian, cause Brian's words to ''terrify'' him.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', ''Fever'', Chloe visits Clark when he is unconscious due to a [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite]]-induced [[TitleDrop fever]]. She [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove confesses that she is in love with him]] and while he is still in love with [[SatelliteLoveInterest Lana Lang]], she hopes he will one day come back to her, because she thinks he is worth the wait. [[spoiler:Becomes a huge TearJerker when he mutter's Lana's name.]] Clark is unconscious throughout, and doesn't know that Chloe came by to visit.
** Early in Season 4, Jason tells an unconscious Lana "If only you knew how much you mean to me..." Unfortunately, this is overheard by ComicBook/LexLuthor.
** Also in Season 4, Clark cradles the dead/dying body of [[spoiler: Alicia]], and begs her not to go.
** Heartbreakingly, Season 5 features both Clark and Martha [[spoiler: screaming for a dying Jonathan not to go]], after he suffers a heart attack.
** In season seven, Clark pleads with an unconscious Lana to fight off a painful coma she's been placed in by Brainiac. Then at the end of the same season, Brainiac does the same thing to Chloe. Clark apologizes to Chloe while she's unconscious. He then very satisfyingly beat [[spoiler:Brainiac]] into the ground on behalf of both [[{{ChildhoodFriendRomance}} Lana]] and [[{{PlatonicLifePartners}} Chloe]].
** In season eight, ''Abyss'' when he's about to restore all of Chloe's memories...except the ones regarding his secret:
-->'''Clark''': [[spoiler:[[TearJerker You're the best friend and ally I could have had, Chloe. The truth is, you saved me more than I could have ever saved you. I'm sorry to go back to hiding the truth from you, but the best way that I know to protect you... is to let you go. ''(kisses her on her forehead)'']]]]
** In season ten, ''Lazarus'', [[spoiler:Clark pleads Chloe to wake up when she is put into a coma after using the helmet of Dr. Fate]].

* Near the end of season 4 of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Connor tracks down the hidden and comatose Cordelia to explain his motives for the first time. When she eventually wakes up there's little to indicate she heard any of it though.
** Technically, [[spoiler: she didn't actually wake up, and Connor wasn't around at the time anyway.]]
** In "Birthday" Angel appears to be going to make an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to the unconscious Cordy, only to start railing on her for not telling him that the visions were slowly killing her.
** In "Orpheus" Lorne sings to an unconscious Faith, who hears the song in a dream she's having, playing on a jukebox.
* In ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'', Alan puts peanuts in Bill's sandwich as a prank, not believing he is actually allergic to them, and as a result Bill winds up in a coma in the hospital. Alan makes a heartfelt apology to him while he is unconcious because he believes Bill won't be able to hear. (Of course, Bill hears everything.)

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. Starbuck goes in to see a brain-damaged and comatose [[spoiler:Anders, admits that she doesn't care whether he's a human or a Cylon, and then pulls out her gun to give him the MercyKill, which is only averted by Anders suddenly grabbing her arm and babbling like a MadOracle.]]
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Battlefield", the Doctor cradles the apparently-killed-by-exploding-daemon body of [[spoiler: Brigadier, and later Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart]] bemoaning the pointlessness with the comment "you should have died in bed." Obviously he got better, gave the Doctor a tart retort "Really Doctor. Do you think I'd have been so stupid as to have stayed inside?" and went back to his gardening. As for his eventual fate (according to the expanded universe) - yeap the Doctor was right. In bed. Aged roughly 125 (after being rejuvenated by accident, and becoming a lord in the Human Dreaming (kind of like Avalon in the marvel Universe)).
** Happens again in New Who episode ''The Christmas Invasion'' where the newly regenerated Tenth has hit a bad case of regeneration sickness and Jackie Tyler is sitting with him, trying to get him to tell her what's wrong.
** ''Whenever'' the Doctor does this with a sleeping/unconscious Amy, she somehow manages to hear every word. It was a Time Lord mind meld ''once,'' but only once. It's unknown at this point if it's a side-effect of the [[spoiler: time cracks thing]] that makes her able to [[RippleEffectProofMemory remember parts of altered timelines]].

* In the first episode of series 3 of AshesToAshes.

* Lightly invoked in Episode 2x03 of ''Series/{{Glee}}'' ("Grilled Cheesus"), in which it's not Finn's grilled cheesus, the prayer circle or Rachel's soulless rendition of "Papa, Can You Year Me?" at his bedside that brings Burt Hummel out of a week-long coma, but (by implication) the moment when - harking back to their conversation/argument in the episode - his son Kurt says, "I don't believe in god, Dad, but I believe in you. I believe in us. That's what's sacred to me."
* A particularly tear-jerking example happens in the ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' "Cult Fiction", where a broken Shawn pleads with a badly injured, comatose Mr. Turner not to die on him before begging God not to ''let'' him die.
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' where the Firm tries a FakedRipVanWinkle ploy to convince Stringfellow Hawke to reveal the location of Airwolf. The nurse tells Hawke that his best friend (supposedly dead now) would sit by his bedside and talk to him for hours, convinced that he could somehow hear him.

* In ''Series/{{Merlin}}'', Gwen speaks to Arthur while he's unconscious after having been bitten by the Questing Beast, telling him she know he's going to be alright because he's going to be king. A few scenes later it turns out he heard everything she said (though admittedly his memory seems a little hazy).

* In ''FreaksAndGeeks'', Alan puts peanuts in Bill's sandwich as a prank, not believing he is actually allergic to them, and as a result Bill winds up in a coma in the hospital. Alan makes a heartfelt apology to him while he is unconcious because he believes Bill won't be able to hear. (Of course, Bill hears everything.)

** In the ''GauntsGhosts'' short story ''In Remembrance'', both Corbec and Rawne talk to the severely wounded and unconscious Gaunt: Corbec saying that he thinks that Gaunt did the right thing on Tanith, and Rawne saying HowDareYouDieOnMe, he was TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou. Gaunt woke during the second.

* In the AdventuresInOdyssey episode "The Mortal Coil" Whit is rendered comatose after having a heart attack in the Imagination Station while in a program that explored the concept of the afterlife. Tom Riley pays Whit a visit in the hospital and begs him to "come back", correctly guessing that the program worked so well that Whit wanted to stay in the idyllic heaven he'd seen.

* Sandra Bullock in ''Film/WhileYouWereSleeping''. I think the movie title is pretty self-explanatory.

* In the ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'' fic ''FanFic/{{Eternity}}'' there are two shipgirls that still haven't answered the call to fight the Abyssals, Enterprise and Yamato, who in this story had [[GoingNative Gone Native]] after the WWII and became JDS Yonaga and USS Montana. Many tried to wake up by talking to them, both from their old and new navies, but failed. Hiryuu in particular tried to get at least some kind of reaction from Enterprise by arranging that all Kidou Butai (that attacked Pearl Harbor) carrier shipgirls would have their shoreleave time together on her museum ship, but no luck.

* Famously done in the climax of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': as [[PietaPlagiarism Ranma cradles Akane's body]], [[TalkingToTheDead thinking her dead]], he [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove finally admits his love for her]]. Of course, that's when she finally recovers and wakes up, having heard the whole thing (though the word bubbles are ambiguous enough that the reader can interpret them as a silent soliloquy or an outspoken shout.)

-->'''Trinity''': The Oracle told me I'd fall in love, and that the man I loved would be the One. So you see, [[HowDareYouDieOnMe you can't be dead]]. You can't be, because I love you. You hear me? I love you. Now, ''get up''!

* A particularly tear-jerking example happens in the ''BoyMeetsWorld'' "Cult Fiction", where a broken Shawn pleads with a badly injured, comatose Mr. Turner not to die on him before begging God not to ''let'' him die.

* Mr. T [[http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=69856 talked a young boy out of a coma]].

** Also done in ''WalkHard''.

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* Subverted in ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'', after Peter tells his brother Jason to get up on the roof to retrieve their football- then Jason falls down the ladder, getting knocked unconscious. Out of guilt, Peter stays by Jason's hospital bedside all night;
--->Peter: Jason?.... Jason I'm really, really, really sorry.
--->Jason: ....I heard that.
--->Peter: You're ''supposed'' to be ''asleep!''.
* ''MaryWorth'''s storyline from September-November 2009 featured Scott (new fiance of Adrian) participating in a drug bust, getting shot, then being comatose in the hospital with [[SoapOperaDisease non-specified injuries]]. While unconscious he is spoken to by Adrian's father Jeff, then Adrian herself. Concluded, of course, with him waking up just after Adrian has just concluded her speech about agreeing to marry him (he had proposed to her before the bust) and loving him no matter what.
* Subverted in ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}, where Mike talks to JJ about their relationship problems while she's in a coma, only to find that she was faking it. Furthermore, she was filming him talking to put in a movie.
* Played with in ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''. Lucy fell asleep on Schroeder's piano, and Schroeder began to confess his love to her. Of course, she was only pretending to be asleep--[[NotListeningToMeAreYou and he was just trying to make her blow her cover]].
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* Cody speaks to the ''TransformersRescueBots'' while they're paralyzed from radioactive space dust. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming They appreciate it once they're all better.]]

* Not longterm unconsciousness, but in ''{{Scrubs}}'' the [[AlmightyJanitor Janitor's]] conversation with Dr. Kelso bears mentioning:

** In the ''{{Literature/Eisenhorn}}'' novels, Eisenhorn never confessed to his love to Bequin while she was conscious -- "I was a psyker, she an Untouchable. That way pain and madness lay." -- but when she is rendered comatose, he confesses to her before leaving her under medical treatment. (She does not recover, not then, not even years afterward, in the {{Ravenor}} novels.)

** Also played straight in the ''Mazinger-Z versus Great General of Darkness'' movie. Shiro gets hurt cause a ceiling collapsing onto him, and falls into a coma. He needs a blood transfusion and Kouji insists on them using his blood. As the medics are performing the transfusion, Kouji talks to his comatous little brother, reassuring him everything will work fine.
* Famously done in the climax of ''RanmaOneHalf'': as [[PietaPlagiarism Ranma cradles Akane's body]], [[TalkingToTheDead thinking her dead]], he [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove finally admits his love for her]]. Of course, that's when she finally recovers and wakes up, having heard the whole thing (though the word bubbles are ambiguous enough that the reader can interpret them as a silent soliloquy or an outspoken shout.)

* In [[PoliceQuest Police Quest 3]], the main character does this on a daily basis after [[spoiler:the villain puts his wife in a coma.]] ItsPersonal, of course.

** He does this again in ''KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but to [[spoiler: Sora]] instead after [[spoiler: the latter is [[{{DeepSleep}} rendered comatose]] by [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} Young Xehanort]]]].