History Main / FakeAssistedSuicide

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* In Creator/AgathaChristie's thriller ''Literature/DestinationUnknown'', a secret agent recruits a suicidal young woman, telling her that if she's decided to die, she might as well make herself useful to her country, and promising that at the end of the mission, he'll help her with it. Naturally, at the end she's found happiness with another agent and has no intention of killing herself (just as her recruiter intended).

* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'': After Maximilien's fiancee Valentine is poisoned, Maximilien is heartbroken and only the Count's intervention prevents him from shooting himself by revealing it was he who saved his father from bankruptcy and suicide, extorting from Maximilien a solemn oath that he won't make any more suicide attempts for a month. Having taken him to his private island in the meantime, the Count finds that Maximilien is still willing to die, and gives him a spoonful of haschich, which he claims will kill him painlessly. After Maximilien takes it and wakes up, he bitterly readies to kill himself with a knife... before Valentine makes her presence known to him (the Count had helped her fake her death in order to continue his revenge against her father, he was perfectly willing to let her die before he learned how important she was to Maximilien).
* In the Russian book ''The Poisoning'', a girl tries to commit suicide with her lover by asking her pharmacist friend for sleeping pills. The pharmacist suspects something's up and instead [[LaxativePrank gives her laxatives]], leading to a nasty surprise for the two. (In real life this is a terrible idea. Overdosing on laxatives is likely to still be lethal, not to mention [[CruelAndUnusualDeath slow, painful, and humiliating]].)

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* In ''Film/{{MASH}}'', a character becomes suicidal after discovering he is impotent. His comrades arrange an elaborate [[AttendingYourOwnFuneral living funeral]] for him, capped off by a putative suicide pill -- but instead of dying he wakes up in bed beside a willing nurse, who [[IntimatePsychotherapy cures his affliction]].

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

Can be seen as a subtrope of InterruptedSuicide (the interruption occurs during the planning process, rather than later), or as a way of [[InvokedTrope invoking]] BungledSuicide. Likely to lead to a HappilyFailedSuicide.

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* In [[Recap/AgentCarterS1E4TheBlitzkriegButton an episode]] of ''Series/AgentCarter'' SSR chief Dooley travels to Nuremberg to interrogate a Nazi imprisoned there and sentenced to be hanged. Dooley offers him a cyanide pill to die quicker and without the risk of mis-hanging if the Nazi spills about some classified information. A minute later, though, it turns out Dooley was lying; it was just a breath mint.

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[[AC:Western Animation]]

* In Creator/AgathaChristie's thriller ''Destination Unknown'', a secret agent recruits a suicidal young woman, telling her that if she's decided to die, she might as well make herself useful to her country, and promising that at the end of the mission, he'll help her with it. Naturally, at the end she's found happiness with another agent and has no intention of killing herself (just as her recruiter intended).

-> Why I do trifle thus with his despair
-> Is done to cure it.

* Inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' episode "[[Recap/ArcherS7E3DeadlyPrep Deadly Prep]]": Archer's SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp reveals he has terminal cancer, and asks Archer to kill him in a staged home invasion so he doesn't have to suffer or invalidate his life insurance by killing himself. Archer genuinely obliges, both because he's being paid and wants revenge, and it turns the one ''asking'' for the suicide was faking. It was really a plan to trick Archer into killing his ''other'' former bully for sleeping with his wife, then kill Archer so he can't bear witness.

* In the Russian book ''The Poisoning'', a girl tries to commit suicide with her lover by asking her pharmacist friend for sleeping pills. The pharmacist suspects something's up and instead gives her laxatives, leading to a nasty surprise for the two. (In real life this is a terrible idea. Too many laxatives can kill a person, just way longer and more painfully than sleeping pill suicide would.)

* In an episode of ''Series/AgentCarter'' SSR chief Dooley travels to Nuremberg to interrogate a Nazi imprisoned there and sentenced to be hanged. Dooley offers him a cyanide pill to die quicker and without the risk of mis-hanging if the Nazi spills about some classified information. A minute later, though, it turns out Dooley was lying; it was just a breath mint.

* In AgathaChristie's thriller ''Destination Unknown'', a secret agent recruits a suicidal young woman, telling her that if she's decided to die, she might as well make herself useful to her country, and promising that at the end of the mission, he'll help her with it. Naturally, at the end she's found happiness with another agent and has no intention of killing herself (just as her recruiter intended).

Could be seen as a subtrope of InterruptedSuicide (the interruption occurs during the planning process, rather than later), or as a way of [[InvokedTrope invoking]] BungledSuicide. Likely to lead to a HappilyFailedSuicide.

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