History Main / FakeDefector

* [[spoiler: Zecora]] in FalloutEquestria. Tragically, her plan to assassinate the Zebra Caesar might have worked if [[spoiler: she hadn't ran into [[BadAss Applesnack]] during her 'escape'. He beat her to death.]]

* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' has an episode where Goren is forced on leave and ends up working with some bad cops, and his partner nearly shoots him. Yeah, it was all planned by Goren and the captain.

* Mulder of {{The X-Files}} does this in season five's "The Pine Bluff Variant". He even had to hide it from Scully, who was not pleased that she was kept out of the loop.

* Steve Jinx in ''Warehouse 13'' is fired after pulling a gun on Mrs. Frederic when she insisted on torturing a detainee. He's then recruited by TheDragon to work for the BigBad. The whole thing was planned by Mrs. Frederic and Jinx off screen, and they were the only ones in on it until Jinx revealed the plan to Claudia late in the game.

* In ''Anime/{{Beelzebub}}'' Himekawa pretends to desert his TrueCompanions in favor of s stronger guy. Turns out the thing everyone thought was helping his new crew out was actually storing up Babyb Beel's energy until it was enough to handle Takamiya and Lucifer. Himekawa proceeds to destroy the million-dollar machine to release the energy the second he has confirmation that it is enough and dismisses the loss as "pocket change" before revealing he held Beel's third crest all along.

* The trope is used as a minor MindScrew to the audience and a major one to the protagonist in ''TotalRecall'', as [[spoiler:Hauser]] tricks Quaid [[spoiler:who ''is'' Hauser, post memory wipe]] into thinking he has betrayed Cohagen when in fact it's all an elaborate gambit ''by'' Cohagen. Throw in [[spoiler:not one, but two moles]] and you've got one hell of a manipulative conspiracy.

* Lara of the ''[[XWingSeries X-Wing]]'' series started off as a bad guy playing TheMole in the New Republic. She caused the near-total destruction of an X-wing squadron, then went back to the Imperials, got disgusted by her newest boss's insistence that WeHaveReserves, and engineered his death. Then, awaiting another chance, she went undercover among the New Republic again, joined an X-wing squadron, and started BecomingTheMask and finding that GoodFeelsGood, so she switched sides and started getting close with the only survivor of the X-wing squadron she'd destroyed. ''Then'' her true origin was revealed and she was forced to flee and rejoin the bad guys as a FakeDefector, contributing to a major New Republic victory. It ends [[spoiler: on a bittersweet note, and it's definitely implied that things become happier.]]

** In another episode of The Next Generation, a Romulan officer falsely claims to be a middle-ranking clerk of negligible importance who had come across some important information about a secret base which the Romulans planned to launch an attack on the Federation from. [[spoiler:His defection was sincere, but he was lying about his identity. He wanted to warn the Federation about the attack so a war could be prevented, but he did not want to further betray his homeworld. He finally admits that he is an Admiral and agrees to hand over any required information to the Federation. Tragically, it turns out that he is the UnwittingPawn, [[FeedTheMole fed false information]] by [[MagnificentBastard Commander Tomalak]] to lure the [[CoolShip Enterprise]] into crossing into the Neutral Zone first so they could ambush them and justify an invasion of the Federation. Fortunately, [[BaldOfAwesome Captain Picard]] arranged ahead of time for the [[TheCavalry Klingons]] to sneak in with them in case they needed rescuing. Both sides retreat without a war starting.]]

* [[TheSpock Spock]] did this in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' to help Kirk steal a Romulan cloaking device.

* In the {{Sentai}} show ''KousokuSentaiTurboranger'' Pink Turbo winds up joining the bad guys in attempt to recover an antidote for the poisoned Blue Turbo by fighting alongside the monster of the week and "accidentally" getting poisoned by it as well forcing it to give her the antidote. Oddly enough this didn't seem to be planned in advance at all, she just happened to take a hit to her head during a battle and decided to [[FakingAmnesia fake memory loss]] to join the bad guys. The other guys had no idea what she was doing until the Reveal when Blue was shown to be healed. She even was perfectly willing to shoot a machine gun at them as part of her plan.
** ''ChourikiSentaiOhranger'' repeated this plot only this time had it fail. Ohyellow joins the bad guys in attempt to recover an antidote however unlike Pink Turbo faking amnesia Ohyellow faked cowardice and surrendered instead. Ohyellow also lets herself get hit by the poison darts and tries to get the antidote however she wore a bulletproof vest to protect herself unlike Pink Turbo who allowed herself to be poisoned. Since Ohyellow doesn't take as many risks the bad guys aren't fooled and give her a fake antidote instead. They then need to use a backup plan instead.
** A not-so-much copy-paste-from-Turborangers Fake Defector plot is also shown in ChoujinSentaiJetman, the 'fake defector' none other than [[TheHero Red Hawk]] himself, pretending to join the bad guys so they will return his girlfriend-turned-evil. Turns out he was trying to sneak into their base and destroy their mean to transport themselves into the real world. Plan failed, but in the end, their chief praised him and his teammates for being powerful and cunning enough to break through the enemy's defenses.
** Happens again in ''BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger''; Maharo (who was [[TheDragon a dragon]] for the villians before her HeelFaceTurn) makes a deal with Abarekiller and rejoins the villians with all of her former power restored. The heroes quickly learn that this is all part of her plan to A) free Asuka from the dark armor and B) get close to the Big Bad and wait for a chance to strike. The first half of her plan goes smoothly, but not the second half.

* Rogue does this is {{Wolverine and the X-men}}, but the X-men actually don't believe her at first and lock her up when she comes to warn them about the Brotherhoods plan, until they start doing exactly what she said they would do. This is because it seemed she had done this in an earlier episode only to lure the X-men into a trap. It's ambiguous as to whether she was pulling a FakeDefector all long, or legitimately joined the Brotherhood, only to later change her mind and claim it so the X-men would take her back.

*** Other than the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder moments, Ocelot's backstory is that he originally worked for the NSA until he and a colleague of his defected to the Soviet Union. However, it was suggested to be a fake defection due to still working for the CIA.

* This also happens in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''. However, the [[spoiler:Boss' fake defection is complicated by the actions of BigBad Volgin, making it necessary for her to be killed by Snake, to cover up the entire affair]] (and not to mention prevent WorldWarThree from erupting). [[TearJerker Tragically, Snake only learns of the full story afterward.]]

*** Other than the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder moments, Ocelot was stated in his backstory that he originally worked for the NSA until he and a colleague of his defected to the Soviet Union. However, it was suggested to be a fake defection due to still working for the CIA.

** [[spoiler: Slade gave him vicoden?]]

** In an earlier episode, Angel {{Neck Snap}}ed his teammate (who was part demon and able to survive such an attack) to get a Nazi-like team to accept him so he could figure out their plans.

* [[spoiler:Wolf]] of ''TheTenthKingdom'' is a particularly well-done version of this trope. This editor was guessing, even right up to the very end, which side he would truly turn out to be on. It helps that, as a deconstruction of many fairy tale tropes, Happy Ever After was not guaranteed by any means, and the ending [[BittersweetEnding still remains rather dark]]...

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' did this one too. In the episode "A Star is Torn" has Homer acting as Lisa's agent in an ''AmericanIdol''-like contest. After a fight, Homer pretends to desert Lisa and team up with [[strike:Cameron]] Johnny Rainbow. At the end of the episode, Homer is revealed to actually be [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop sabotaging Johnny Rainbow's chances all along]].

* In the GrandFinale of ''SailorMoon'', [[spoiler: Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune do this, and even [[ShootYourMate kill Pluto and Saturn]]]] in order to gain Sailor Galaxia's trust. Of course, as it turns out, they only did it because the AppliedPhlebotinum handed out to Galaxia's henchmen was the only weapon that could defeat her. [[spoiler: Or so it seemed.]]

* In ''LuckyStarr and the Rings of Saturn'', Lucky Starr allows himself to be captured by Earth's enemies, the Sirians, and then gives away one of his fellow Councilmen of Science to the Sirians and testifies about his betrayal for Sirius at an interstellar conference. [[spoiler:Of course, it's all an elaborate ploy to get on the stand and present testimony that is devastating to Sirius.]] The act is especially hard on Lucky's sidekick and best friend Bigman, [[WeWouldHaveToldYouBut who believes Lucky is turning traitor in exchange for his, Bigman's, life]].

* In OrsonScottCard's novel ''Shadow Puppets'', Suriyawong spends most of his time working his way up to being the BigBad's second-hand man [[spoiler: so that when the time comes he can give the good guys a chance to shoot the BigBad in the head.]]

* In the DresdenFiles novel ''Changes'', [[spoiler: Martin]] pretends to defect to the Red Court, serving as a DoubleAgent and setting up [[spoiler: their total destruction]]. The protagonist was incredibly surprised, naturally.