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History Series / MrAndMrsSmith2024

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** In an earlier episode, Jane asks John to promise her they'll never be like Gavol and her husband, even if everything goes wrong. They both agree to it and kiss to seal the deal. Within the same episode, they've broken that promise and had their first real fight. It's later broken in a much bigger way as their marriage starts to break down [[spoiler:and completely fall apart, until they reach a point where they are both finally completely honest with each other and reconcile once again]].
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* TheILoveYouStigma: Discussed in the first episode. The agency asks John and Jane if they've ever told someone they love them. Both of them have been in previous relationships, but Jane has never said it to anyone before, despite feeling it a couple of times, and John has said it to two women and his mom.


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* NiceGuy: Downplayed somewhat with John. While both of them are willing to do morally dubious things at times for the agency, out of the two, John is more likely to be nicer or take a more people-based approach to solving things than Jane is. He's also the one who goes rogue to try and save a target, despite the risk. This characteristic can make other moments where he's cold or harsh harder to watch.
-->'''Jane:''' You know, you're a lot nicer than this. It's something that I happen to look up to.


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* OperationJealousy: Downplayed example. Jane talks to Hot Neighbor because she likes it when John feels jealous of him.


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* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: When John and Jane go on a double date with another Smith pair, they're asked by Jane #2 if they believe they would still be compatible if they hadn't been matched together by the agency. In response, Jane says she really respects John and that he has a good heart.
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Removed unneeded spoilering from my added example.


* MommasBoy: Shown as positive for the most part with John and his mother. She's the one thing in his past he refused to give up, even if it puts his cover story with Jane at risk, and he calls her multiple times a day, but a lot of that is because he feels like it's his responsibility to take care of her and because he loves and respects her for being a good mother. Since Jane went no contact with her own remaining parent, she tends to find this behavior weird and vice versa, but his mother later ends up [[spoiler: giving Jane some good advice for their failing marriage.]]

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* MommasBoy: Shown as positive for the most part with John and his mother. She's the one thing in his past he refused to give up, even if it puts his cover story with Jane at risk, and he calls her multiple times a day, but a lot of that is because he feels like it's his responsibility to take care of her and because he loves and respects her for being a good mother. Since Jane went no contact with her own remaining parent, she tends to find this behavior weird and vice versa, but his mother later ends up [[spoiler: giving Jane some good advice for their failing marriage.]]
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* MisophoniaGag: Happens in both directions while John and Jane are operating undercover at a vacation spot. John gets annoyed that she chews loudly with her mouth open and Jane responds by loudly clinking their dishes and glasses with her utensils to mimic how he eats.

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Simplified a quote on an example I added.


-->'''John:''' [Only children] need, like...
-->'''Jane:''' What do we need?
-->'''John:''' You guys are like raptors. Where you need like 15 meters of space between.

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-->'''John:''' [Only children] need, like...
-->'''Jane:''' What do we need?
-->'''John:''' You guys
are like raptors. Where you need like 15 meters of space between.

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* TheNicknamer: John does this at a silent auction while quietly pointing out strangers to Jane as they try to figure out who their unknown target is.
-->'''John:''' Mole lady, seven million on the Warhol. Sweaty tits, ten million.
-->'''Jane:''' Oh, Jesus, please never give me a nickname.
-->'''John:''' American Psycho, fifty million on the Warhol.



** John and Jane always exclusively refer to their next door neighbor as Hot Neighbor.



* TheSwearJar: Jane has her own version of the this: each time she does something sociopathic, she places a marble in a jar. As of the first season finale, she is up to 78.



* TheSwearJar: Jane has her own version of the this: each time she does something sociopathic, she places a marble in a jar. As of the first season finale, she is up to 78.


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* TruthSerum: Truth serum functions as an important plot device in two different episodes of the series.
** In the first instance, John and Jane are directed by Hihi to use truth serum on an unknown target. They identify who it is, get him alone, and then... accidentally stick him with two doses instead of one because of a miscommunication. [[spoiler:The dose being too high ends up killing him, making them feel very guilty.]]
** The second time, after John manages to finally subdue Jane, he sticks her with a single dose of truth serum and then does the same to himself. This leads to them reconciling because it's the first time the two of them have ever been fully, truly honest with each other about everything, both good and bad.
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* AgeGapRomance: Lampshaded in John and Jane's first mission while they're trailing a target who happens to be an older woman. A younger man comes to sit down beside her on the park bench, talking to her. John assumes it's her son while Jane thinks it's probably her boyfriend. [[spoiler:Jane is proven right when they start making out.]]
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* ControlFreak: Jane can be very controlling, which causes issues for her work partnership with John but also for their personal relationship--to the point where it frequently bleeds into their sex life--even though he understands that she often does it out of anxiety.


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* OnlyInItForTheMoney: As they're getting to know each other, John admits that he wanted to get married in real life but chose to take on a new life and identity for the money. Jane is pleased because she did it for the same reason.


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* RomanticFakeRealTurn: A big part of the story's premise. The titular pair are brought together by a spy agency to take on new identities and be in a fake marriage as part of their main cover story, although John is more interested in it becoming a real relationship from the start. Discussed a few different times because neither of them can figure out why the agency put them together or why they created multiple Smith pairs.
-->'''John:''' Do you think the company wants us to...?
-->'''Jane:''' To have sex?
-->'''John:''' No. Well, yeah, part of it. To get together.
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* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Used in the season finale to highlight just how distant John and Jane have become.
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* HatesReading: Early on in the series, John pretends that a book called ''The Prophet'' is one of his favorites out of jealousy from hearing Jane and Hot Neighbor have that in common. In actuality, he's never even read it and doesn't enjoy reading in general. Jane figuring out it was a lie down the road puts further strain on their marriage.
--> [Jane] kept wanting to understand when her and John are so different, why are we paired? Maybe in some warped way, this company knew to put us together because we have the same favorite book. So the fact that it was all a lie shatters all of that.
** Ironically, while sharing life advice with John, Hot Neighbor asks him if he'd like to borrow his copy of ''The Prophet''.
--->'''John:''' She likes to read. I don't like to read.
--->'''Hot Neighbor:''' You don't have to like it. Just start reading, man.


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* MrSmith: A spy agency puts the main characters together in a fake marriage and assigns them new identities to live under: John and Jane Smith. We don't learn their real first names ([[spoiler:Michael and Alana]]) until the season finale.
** Through John #2 and Jane #2, the titular characters find out there are other Smith pairs that have been created by the agency.
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* CompetitionFreak: Although it's a bit more subtle than some other examples of this trope, by his own admission, this is one of John's worse traits. He reluctantly says that he is too competitive and can't lose an argument.


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* ConsummateLiar: Because John and Jane are both spies, the nature of their lifestyle is that they must constantly lie to other people. Out of the two, John is usually better at using charisma and misdirection to fool others while Jane is typically better at outright lying and manipulation. A few notable examples of her ability and willingness to lie include:
** Early on, Jane tells John a story about how she ditched a school trip in her early teens to get free lunch from a pedophile called Buddy Love. After Buddy paid for the check and left, she'd died laughing with a friend. But later that day, when they've bonded from experiencing their first mission together, she admits she had actually been terrified the entire time.
** John pushes Jane to give him answers for how she knew he'd had a month to kill Bev and she tells him she figured out his passwords. That night, she admits she hadn't done that and only found out about it because Hihi told her.
** In the middle of an argument, John asks how many times Jane has slept with a target. She looks him in the eye and says, "twice." Later, when they're both under the effects of truth serum, she admits that she was actually lying and just said that to hurt him, since he'd hurt her first by wanting to sleep with Bev. John then admits his was also fake.


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* EmptyPromise: When John is [[spoiler:bleeding out from a gunshot wound]] in the season finale, he asks Jane if it looks bad. She forces a smile and shakes her head. His only response is: "Liar."
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* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: The titular Smiths' original plan was to infiltrate a black tie silent auction while posing as two guests, but when John realizes he would stand out too easily that way because of his race, he decides to sneak in as catering instead.


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* TalkingInBed: Since so much of the series is about the relationship between John and Jane, this trope happens several times with them.


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* WeDoNotKnowEachOther: Undercover at a black tie event, John and Jane pretend to be strangers while posing as a waiter and guest respectively.

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More fitting trope.


* AmbiguousEnding: To season one. [[spoiler:Jane has only one bullet left. She goes to confront the enemy Jane and we hear, but don't see, multiple gunshots. FadeToBlack.]]


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* BolivianArmyEnding: The first season finale ends with [[spoiler:Jane who has only a single bullet, exhausted from her fight with John. John is mortally wounded. Jane leaves the panic room to confront the enemy Jane. Cut to an outside view and the sound of multiple gunshots. FadeToBlack.]]
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* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: Jane and John try marriage counseling, but believing they're computer programmers rather than secret agents for a mysterious and sinister company results in the counselor making a number of inaccurate conclusions. Notably she uses them choosing to remain together and seek counseling when they could just walk away as evidence of how much they care about each other, when in truth the company has a ResignationsNotAccepted policy and it's ambiguous whether their offer to "replace" John was to have him reassigned or murdered.


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* CoverIdentityAnomaly: The first season finale has John and Jane, a pair of government assassins, having been tracked and surveilled by an agent of...Southbey's. It turns out that while their covers can fool any law enforcement agency, real estate firms know something is seriously wrong about two "software engineers" being able to afford [[FriendsRentControl a Manhattan brownstone with garage and pool worth at least $2.5 million.]] That they were able to make expansions without any records of permits or even a city inspector report was another red flag.


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* OnlyChildSyndrome: Jokingly lampshaded by John after Jane points out that he always goes back to his own bed after sex.
-->'''John:''' [Only children] need, like...
-->'''Jane:''' What do we need?
-->'''John:''' You guys are like raptors. Where you need like 15 meters of space between.
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* ChokeHolds: Jane manages to put John in one of these while trying to kill him and is only stopped by three bystanders physically hauling her off of him. The moment briefly shifts to being PlayedForComedy when John turns on his rescuers after one of them insults him.
-->'''John:''' It's okay. It's okay. She's my wife. It's okay.
-->'''Man:''' Crazy motherfucker.
-->'''[[MommasBoy John]]:''' Don't fucking ''say that.''


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* FaceDeathWithDignity: Downplayed with [[spoiler:John's [[AmbiguousEnding possible death]]]] while he's bleeding out at the end of season one. He sheds a tear as Jane talks to him, but he otherwise accepts his death and tells her not to open the door so she doesn't risk dying with him.


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* ImprovisedBandage: John uses a scarf (and later some napkins) to keep his neck from bleeding too much while he and Jane chase after a target.


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* SinisterSuffocation: John starts choking to death after Bev attacks him by wrapping a bolito around his neck, cutting into his neck and giving him bloody fingers just from holding back the tightening wire. He survives by calling out for help from Jane.
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* MacheteMayhem: John and Jane have to use a machete to get out of a super high risk mission gone wrong. They look [[ThousandYardStare visibly disturbed]] by the ordeal afterwards.


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* YouNeverDidThatForMe: One of the reasons Jane gets angry at John and suspects he's having an emotional affair with his target Bev is that he didn't stop wearing the cologne she asked him to until Bev herself ''also'' asks.
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* DidYouThinkICantFeel: During a particularly bad fight with Jane, John lays into her, saying she doesn't understand feelings or what it's like to care about somebody and that she just mimics the behavior of other people. She stays quiet before finally asking who his emergency contact is. He admits that his emergency contact is his mother and Jane tells him he's hers.


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* DontTouchItYouIdiot: John and Jane are having a hushed disagreement in front of Toby about the cottage John bought without asking her--that is, until Toby picks up something out of curiosity, and they exclaim at the same time:
-->'''Both:''' Don't touch that!
-->'''John:''' It's dynamite, dummy.


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* InconvenientAttraction: Jane starts off the series avoiding sex and romance altogether to try and protect herself emotionally, even going as far as making a [[InevitablyBrokenRule "no sex" pact]] with John. By the start of the third episode, she is already sleeping with John and has entered a romantic relationship with him. The personality traits that made her avoid those things in the first place cause issues between them later however.


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* MommasBoy: Shown as positive for the most part with John and his mother. She's the one thing in his past he refused to give up, even if it puts his cover story with Jane at risk, and he calls her multiple times a day, but a lot of that is because he feels like it's his responsibility to take care of her and because he loves and respects her for being a good mother. Since Jane went no contact with her own remaining parent, she tends to find this behavior weird and vice versa, but his mother later ends up [[spoiler: giving Jane some good advice for their failing marriage.]]
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* FetishesAreWeird: Played for laughs when John snoops on Jane's personal computer. She has a tab open to a cannibalism and vore pornography site. Later, it turns out she was just using it to mess with him for lurking.
-->'''Woman #1:''' Don't put me in the oven and cook me. I don't want to go in there.
-->'''Woman #2:''' Come here and let me ''season you.''
** In the same episode, it turns out their mark has a thing for [[KinkyRolePlaying puppy play]], which leads to John and Jane having an [[AwkwardKiss awkward first kiss]].


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* KinkyRoleplaying: One of John and Jane's targets is into puppy play. They briefly go along with it to get him alone and close enough to inject with truth serum.


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* MenCantKeepHouse: Averted. John always puts the toilet seat up, cooks his own meals, and keeps the kitchen tidy by cleaning his pots and pans as he's cooking--in contrast to Jane who leaves them dirty in the sink afterwards.


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* WomenAreWiser: Subverted. John is depicted as adaptive, smart, and having a stronger sense for people than Jane, but because of his insecurities, he feels like she thinks of him as stupid, helpless, holding her back as a spy, etc. She doesn't. Jane states multiple times, even under truth serum, that she feels like he plays dumb or acts more incompetent than he really is.
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* FamilyVersusCareer: One of the points of contention between John and Jane. Justified since they're both spies who constantly take on high risk missions to make a lot of money. While John wants children and suggests that the two of them switch to doing low risk missions so they can start a family, Jane doesn't want children because she actually wants to go even higher risk down the road.


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* LaughOfLove: Used to indicate the state of John and Jane's relationship to the audience. When their relationship is doing well, they tend to laugh and make jokes with each other. When their relationship is more rocky, Jane doesn't react to his jokes or even gets upset that he found something she did funny. [[spoiler:In the final episode, they reconcile while under the effects of truth serum and the laughter makes a return.]]


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* MistakenForPregnant: At one point, John asks Jane if she's pregnant because he noticed she hasn't been drinking any wine, felt sick on the boat, lied to a family by saying she was pregnant so they'd be more willing to help them escape, etc.


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* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: Even though they're already having sex by that point, John and Jane don't actually sleep in the same bed together until they have no other choice but to do so while undercover at a vacation spot. This is briefly discussed by the characters.
-->'''Jane:''' You know we've never slept in the same bed?
-->'''John:''' That's not true. Is that true?
-->'''Jane:''' Yeah.
-->'''John:''' Mm, one bed, one bathroom... you sure you're gonna be okay?
-->'''Jane:''' I mean, you're the one that goes downstairs every time after we have sex.


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* WorkingThroughTheCold: Jane is visibly sick for the entirety of the seventh episode, which becomes yet another argument for her and John. Despite the way their relationship has degraded by then, he tries to make her stay hydrated on the mission while she handwaves it away as just being allergies.
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* BigShutUp: Jane does this to a couple of poor, unsuspecting tourists trying to make vacation friends after she sees her and John's target got away.
-->'''Jane:''' ''Shut the fuck up.'' Shut the fuck up, bitch. I have a gun and I will shoot you.


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* InterruptedIntimacy: John already accidentally killed the mood by murmuring he wanted to make Jane pregnant, but Toby knocking on the window to say he threw up was the final nail in its coffin.
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* CasualDangerDialogue: In one episode, John and Jane do this to each other in-between reloading their guns or reaching for new ones hidden all around the house.
-->'''John:''' You're gonna ruin all this expensive art you bought, babe.
-->'''Jane:''' Yeah, well, um, I don't think you're supposed to hit this Italian tile with a shotgun.


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* PoorCommunicationKills: Happens quite literally in the case of [[spoiler:Eric Shane]] as John and Jane misunderstand each other's signals and accidentally overdose him with truth serum, leading to his death.


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* RomanticRibbing: John tends to do more playful ribbing to Jane than she does to him, like teasing her for how badly her farts smell.


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* ShirtlessScene: Briefly lampshaded by Jane when John doesn't put on a shirt before coming to say goodnight to her.
-->'''Jane:''' You lost your shirt?
** Lampshaded again shortly afterwards by John as he tries to give her different reasons to justify why he wasn't wearing a shirt: it's warmer downstairs, it's colder in her room, etc.
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* BiteOfAffection: While under the effects of truth serum, in a bit of cuteness aggression, John confesses to loving Jane's cheeks and wanting to eat them because they're like pancakes. In response, Jane says she loves his nose and wants to eat it before biting the ridge playfully.


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* ConfidentialityBetrayal: Jane becomes even more upset when it turns out John told his target Bev about the two of them actually being spies along with some personal details about Jane and their relationship.


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* InstantTurnOff: As it turns out, John is very into the idea of having kids with Jane, even if it means the two of them stop doing high risk missions for good. Jane, not so much.
-->'''Jane:''' I want to make you come. So bad.
-->'''John:''' I want to put a baby in you... What? I'm sorry. Was that creepy?


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* LostPetGrievance: [[spoiler: Jane is devastated when her cat Max dies]] because someone shot him while trying to kill her. Believing John did it, she finally goes after him in earnest.
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* AwkwardKiss: Deliberately invoked by the writers for John and Jane's first kiss. During an undercover mission, they engage in some [[KinkyRolePlaying roleplay]] with a target who wants them to kiss while pretending to be dogs meeting at the park for the first time. The two of them make up for it later by kissing for real.


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* ThePromise: One evening, John and Jane make a series of vows to each other, starting with more lighthearted ones like her asking him to vow he would take allergy medicine for her cat Max and ending more seriously with John vowing never to kill her. In the last episode of the season, [[spoiler:Max does die because of someone shooting to kill Jane, leaving her heartbroken and believing John is the one responsible. He isn't.]]
-->'''John:''' I vow... never to make you feel delusional for thinking your cat's never gonna die. And I vow never to kill you.


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* SexlessMarriage: When John and Jane start going to a couples therapist for their marriage problems, it's implied by John in one of the sessions that they haven't been sleeping together like they used to.

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