History Main / NeverTheObviousSuspect

* Most episodes of ''Series/IZombie'' follow this formula, though it gets occasionally subverted when the obvious suspect is revealed to be the killer after all (such as in the episode [[spoiler:"Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?"]]).

* Shawn from ''Series/{{Psych}}'' has had a few of these. One example is Emily Bloom from "Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion". After her bosses (husband and wife fashion moguls) are murdered, she gets fingered as the prime suspect. She had motive (the wife was verbally abusive to her, the husband stole her designs, and she was next in line for company president), means (she made the wife's protein shake which contained the poison that killed her), and gives O'Hara a makeover when she comes to interrogate her (read: bribe). Not only is Bloom [[spoiler: not the killer ([[MutualKill the couple actually killed each other]]), she's almost the next victim when she accidentally drinks a poisoned shake.]]

* ''Series/{{Hunter|1984}}'' would always play this straight, except one episode that did the BaitAndSwitch. A woman dies during a gang rape, with the culprits let off on a technicality. When they are shot one by one, the victim's sister is the obvious suspect. Then it looks like a CorruptCorporateExecutive has a motive, and she's being framed as a patsy. Nope, it was the sister all along.
* This is a standard part of the average SoapOpera murder mystery, where the first person arrested for killing the AssholeVictim inevitably turns out to be innocent, despite him/her having had a HELL of a motive/means/opportunity. Series/PortCharles went for TheUntwist when the prime suspect in the so-called "General Homicide" turned out to be exactly who all the evidence had pointed to.
* In the ''Series/BlackadderGoesForth'' episode "General Hospital", Blackadder is tasked with finding a German spy in a British field hospital. There he finds an incredibly suspicious black-clad man with a heavy German accent who only states his name as MrSmith. Blackadder ignores him since he figures that "not even the Germans [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough would be stupid enough]] to send a spy with an accent". Sure enough, when Darling takes Smith to General Melchett at gunpoint, the latter reveals Smith to be a ''British'' spy who has spent so much time undercover in Germany that he developed a thick accent.

* ''Series/{{Hunter}}'' would always play this straight, except one episode that did the BaitAndSwitch. A woman dies during a gang rape, with the culprits let off on a technicality. When they are shot one by one, the victim's sister is the obvious suspect. Then it looks like a CorruptCorporateExecutive has a motive, and she's being framed as a patsy. Nope, it was the sister all along.

* Played for laughs in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' with the character of Mayo Mitama: it's so obvious she is a delinquent (because she looks exactly like one and tend to do delinquent things in absolutely plain sight) that everyone somehow believes she must be a living case of [[AcceptableTargets Acceptable Targets]] and [[FaceOfAThug Face of a Thug]]. Turns out, she is a thug in face, behaviour, and everything else.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/GeneralHospital https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neverobvious_9.jpg]]]]

#A crime is commited.

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': [[spoiler:Subverted. Although he's the person with the most obvious motive, Blanc and Helen quickly rule out Miles as a suspect in Andi's murder because doing something like that -- killing a legal opponent of his shortly after their trial ends -- would be too stupid on his part. Come TheSummation, it turns out that Miles really is that stupid and is the one who killed Andi.]]
* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' is probably the TropeCodifier. Dave Kujan is so focused on Dean Keaton and arrogantly believes that he's smarter than Verbal Kint, who thinks is just a stupid cripple, that he doesn't second guess the story he's told and automatically believes that Keaton is the legendary Keyser Soze. [[spoiler:It's not until the end of the film where it's revealed that Verbal's story was put together on the fly, that he's not crippled, and is actually Keyser Soze himself. Unfortunately, by the time Kujan realizes this, he's gone]].

** Sirius Black was caught at the scene of an explosion that killed twelve non-magicals and Peter Pettigrew laughing maniacally about how he killed the Potters. [[spoiler: It was actually Peter who killed those people and faked his death framing Sirius for it. Sirius was likely suffering from a mental breakdown from guilt about convincing James and Lily to make the real traitor Peter Pettigrew the Secret Keeper.]]

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* In ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject Restart'', the goal of the players is to kill the Evil King hiding among them, whose goal is to eliminate the other players. Melville murders several of them in secret over the course of the game, and she has connections to a former villain, so naturally she must be the Evil King. [[spoiler:Except she is just another player, and the real Evil King is Nokko, who never took direct action against everyone and was always cooperative, opting to manipulate them with her EmotionControl powers instead.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/AShotInTheDark''. CluelessDetective Clouseau ignores blatant evidence that the woman he's infatuated with is the killer, even though she keeps being found standing over a victim, holding the murder weapon, with no idea of what happened. Of course everyone except her turns out to be a murderer.

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' deals with the origins of various ComicBook/{{Batman}} villains and as such it is only a matter of time before ComicBook/TheJoker is introduced. Enter Jerome, a LaughingMad circus freak who murdered his own mother, who imitates the mannerisms of Creator/HeathLedger and Creator/MarkHamill. As "[[Recap/GothamS2E3TheLastLaugh The Last Laugh]]" shows, the Joker is someone else entirely.

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': When Amelia decides to investigate if her business competitor and rival, Edwina, was behind the fire at the former's mother's café, Joe [[spoiler:(actually [[TwinSwitch his twin brother Sam masquerading as him]])]] {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the trope by saying that "the real villain is NEVER the person [she thinks] it'll be." [[spoiler:He was right, Edwina didn't start the fire because she believes that Windmill Café is already falling behind, so she didn't feel the need to sabotage it.]]

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': When Amelia decides to investigate if her business competitor and rival, Edwina, was behind the fire at the former's mother's café, Joe [[spoiler:(actually [[TwinSwitch his twin brother Sam masquerading as him]])]] {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the trope by saying that "the real villain is NEVER the person [she thinks] it'll be."

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': When Amelia decides to investigate if her business competitor and rival, Edwina, was behind the fire at the former's mother's café, Joe {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the trope by saying that "the real villain is NEVER the person [she thinks] it'll be."

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': When Amelia decides to investigate if her business competitor and rival, Edwina, was behind the fire at the former's mother's café, Joe {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the trope by saying that "the real villain is NEVER the person you think it'll be."

-->--''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)]]"

** Subverted in ''Literature/TheHollow''. The guilty party is [[spoiler:standing near the shot man’s body with a pistol in her hand. Yes, just like that. She really is the one and only perpetrator.]]
** Subverted in ''Literature/LordEdgwareDies''. The criminal knew everyone was bound to suspect [[spoiler:her]], and took great pains in establishing a solid alibi, [[spoiler:thanks to the help of a double]], and demonstrating a seeming absence of motive. While in fact, [[spoiler:everything happens just as everyone thinks: she walks into Lord Edgware’s house and stabs him]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wadanohara}}'', the Blue Sea Kingdom has a traitor working to subvert the kingdom’s defenses against their enemy Tostasu Kingdom. Everyone suspects the shark Samekichi- he has an [[ThreateningShark intimidating]], [[DarkIsEvil “bad boy” appearance]], antagonizes Wadanohara and tries to keep her away from the sea, gets in the way of the mission to restore the kingdom’s defenses, and refuses to explain his reasons for doing so. His silhouette is also occasionally seen destroying the shields and doing other bad things. Because of this, everyone (save [[OnlySaneWoman Wadanohara]]) thinks it’s him. So naturally, he turns out to have been framed by [[spoiler:Sal/Syake-san, [[CainAndAbel his own brother]]]].

* ''VideoGame/PostMortem'': The prime suspect of the murder of the Whytes is a mysterious person who visited them at the hotel they were staying at and vanished. Every single detail that Gustave [=MacPherson=] finds about him seems to incriminate him. But when the man finally meets Gus, he explains that he was framed for the murder. Gus then goes on more investigation and uncovers the real killer as [[spoiler:Dr. Kaufner possessed by De Allepin]].

** Occasionally referenced by Literature/TommyAndTuppence in ''Partners in Crime'' as part of their ConversationalTroping of mystery tropes. For instance, in one story Tommy jokingly suggests the criminal is a woman in a wheelchair with no perceivable motive, because she's clearly the least likely suspect. In another Tuppence is disappointed that other evidence seems to rule out the wife, because she always suspects wives who were nowhere near the scene of the crime and couldn't possibly have done it.

* Franchise/StarTrek:

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. In "Wolf in the Fold", Scotty is found on three separate occasions standing over the corpse of an attractive woman with blood on his hands and no idea of what happened. Captain Kirk uses InsaneTrollLogic to argue that the [[ArkhamsRazor ghost of Jack the Ripper is responsible]]. He's right, of course.
* In the ''Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E09ThePassenger "The Passenger"]], a bad guy named Vantika escapes the death of his body by transplanting his mind to another person. The most obvious target for this mind transfer is [[spoiler:Kajada]], who becomes the main suspect because of this. But then it turns out Vantika actually resides in the brain of [[spoiler:Bashir]], whom none of the protagonists suspected, even though most viewers had probably guessed it long ago due to a very obvious hint dropped in the first act.

* ''VideoGame/BlightDream'' blatantly sets up Yuu, the AmnesiacHero Michiru's brother, as the killer terrorizing the hospital and coming for Michiru. He is creepy and mysterious, seems to know a lot more than Michiru and is obviously keeping things from her, keeps her from leaving the house, [[MemoryWipingCrew destroys]] whatever she wrote in her memory-keeping diary if he catches her snooping around, and turns out to be keeping records relating to the hospital killings. The ending, of course, reveals that he is not the killer- [[spoiler:[[TheKillerInMe Michiru is the amnesiac killer]], and he was trying to keep her from finding out the AwfulTruth]].

*** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' has Kyoko Kirigiri (whose Ultimate talent is unknown for most of the game, although she seems quite comfortable around corpses) and Toko Fukawa (who has a SplitPersonality that is an infamous SerialKiller). [[spoiler:Both survive to the end of the game. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by said split personality, who says she'd have to be a complete idiot to kill someone in this situation since she would be immediately found out.]]
*** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' has Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, the Ultimate Yakuza, and Byakuya Togami (a returning character from the first game who has [[FormerlyFit a significantly different appearance]] and [[TookALevelInKindness personality]], facts that are never brought up since the rest of the game's cast are new characters who wouldn't know Byakuya from the first game). [[spoiler:Byakuya (actually the Ultimate Impostor pretending to be Byakuya) is the victim of the first case, while Fuyuhiko survives to the end of the game (though it's implied he did try to kill Mahiru but had his kill stolen)]].
*** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' has Rantaro Amami (whose Ultimate talent is unknown for most of the game); Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin (who initially lies and claims her Ultimate talent is Child Caregiver); Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader (''what'' he is the Supreme Leader of is a mystery for most of the game, though he insists it's a NebulousEvilOrganization trying to conquer the world); and Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist (not an particularly murdery talent, but he's a pretty weird and creepy dude and even says outright in the first chapter that his appearance and behaviour is befitting of a culprit). [[spoiler:Rantaro is the victim of the first case, Maki survives to the end (though she does try to kill Kokichi but doesn't succeed), Kokichi is the victim of the fifth case and was actually the Supreme Leader of a group of clowns who only commit petty crimes and pull pranks on people, and Korekiyo... [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers is 100% guilty of two murders in the third chapter]]. Yeah, the MetaTwist is that for once, the obvious guy really ''did'' do it]].

** Occasionally referenced by Literature/TommyAndTuppence in ''Partners in Crime'' as part of their ConversationalTroping of mystery tropes. for instance, in one story Tommy jokingly suggests the criminal is a woman in a wheelchair with no perceivable motive, because she's clearly the least likely suspect. In another Tuppence is disappointed that other evidence seems to rule out the wife, because she always suspects wives who were nowhere near the scene of the crime and couldn't possibly have done it.

* In the ''Series/BlackadderGoesForth'' episode "General Hospital", Blackadder is tasked with finding a German spy in a British field hospital. There he finds an incredibly suspicious black-clad man with a heavy German accent who only states his name as MrSmith. Blackadder ignores him since he figures that "no even the Germans [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough would be stupid enough]] to send a spy with an accent". Sure enough, when Darling takes Smith to General Melchett at gunpoint, the latter reveals Smith to be a ''British'' spy that has spent so much time undercover in Germany that he developed a thick accent.