History WhatYouAreInTheDark / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': John has traveled to an unstable alternate universe along with [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]], and needs to kill an innocent to find vital information [[ItMakesSenseInContext (it's complicated)]]. Thing is, this innocent just happens to look like a cross between [[LoveInterest Aeryn]] and [[LikeBrotherAndSister Chiana]]. [[spoiler: He can't bring himself to shoot her. Scorpius can.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]]: This turns out to be [[spoiler:Missy's]] ultimate fate. Killed by [[spoiler:her previous incarnation after she just stabbed him in the back]], so the Doctor will never know [[spoiler:that she]] was coming to his aid. Truly dying [[ArcWords without hope, without witness, without reward.]] [[spoiler: Subsequent seasons have overridden this as the Master's Final Death, but the Doctor still does not know that for a few moments Missy was reformed because the ''next'' incarnation reverts into one of the worst Masters yet.]]

** At the end of Season 7, she and her husband have just discover that her daughter Olivia [[spoiler: orchestrated the murder of a corrupt executive that was behind the death of their son and Olivia's brother. At this point, she has the chance to cover it up and let her daughter go free with nobody being the wiser. But as much as it breaks her heart she chooses to turn Olivia over to the authorities, even though doing so permanently shatters her family which as it causes her husband to divorce her.]]
** The above results in her being desperate to get a peace treaty between the United States, Russia, and fictional nation Kamistan signed during the eighth season. The only problem is Russia is secretly resorting to terrorism on the country in an attempt to break the deal off. [[spoiler: As a result, she winds up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and begins engaging in morally questionable tactics to keep things going. And then at end of the day the moment of truth comes: everyone who knows the truth about the conspiracy has been detained or otherwise removed from play, she's had both parties blackmailed into complying, and is going to keep the public unaware of her hand in the coverup. In the final minutes her conscience still ultimately catches up to her, and when the time for the signing comes she instead announces to the public the truth behind the coverup and her hand in it.]]

* ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'' has Haruka Kito. She's begrudging member of the Donbrothers because she was caught up in a plagiarism scandal, where her award-winning manga career was ended after she was accused of plagiarism. Haruka ''only'' joins the Donbrothers as Oni Sister to get her old life back, and makes it very clear that she hates it. Once the "game admin" reveals that she can use the points she accumulated in her role to buy her old life back, she does so in a heartbeat. However, this means that ''someone else'' is drafted to fill the Oni Sister roll, with nobody remembering her time as Oni Sister and the world essentially rewriting itself so that she was ''never'' Oni Sister, and only she can remember it at all. She's happy with her life, but is a bit jealous when it's made clear that her replacement fits in with the team better than she did... however, what hurts her more is learning that the new Oni Sister, like her, had a dream career, which she had to give up when she became Oni Sister. Haruka storms up to the "game admin", gets him to admit he remembers her, and undoes the deal so that she's once again Oni Sister and a pariah due to the plagiarism scandal, and her replacement gets to have her dream job back -- she doesn't tell anybody what happened, and is content with the way things are.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Being the cynical self-serving AntiHero that he is, Avon finds himself in this situation several times. In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E4Horizon Horizon]]", the others have teleported down to a planet and been captured, leaving Avon in sole charge of both the [[CoolStarship Liberator]] and [[MagicalComputer Orac]] with an incoming Federation flotilla providing the perfect excuse to flee. He does a BigDamnHeroes instead. In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E9Countdown Countdown]]", Avon risks his life to defuse a DoomsdayDevice [[RaceAgainstTheClock ticking down the last seconds]] instead of teleporting out of there. Then brutally deconstructed in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E11Orbit Orbit]]" when Avon tries to have Vila ThrownOutTheAirlock in a ColdEquation situation.

** This is also used to show that all Walt's pretensions about doing it for his family are nonsense; when his son sets up a money-raising website for his cancer (and unwittingly provides an absolutely perfect way for Walt to funnel his drug money into his family's bank account without them asking questions,) [[PragmaticVillainy Saul]] is delighted, as it's even better than the "large inheritance from obscure family member" he'd previously suggested, while [[{{Pride}} Walt]] is furious at the idea that they would think the money came from "charity" (a word he uses with contempt), instead of from ''his'' ingenuity and skill. A later moment of AlcoholInducedIdiocy has him persuade the cop trying to discover the identity of his alter-ego that the mysterious "Heisenberg" is not the deceased [[spoiler: Gale]], because he can't bear the idea of someone else taking the credit for ''his'' high-quality meth and criminal badassery.

** Season 5 episode " Nutriboom" has another great example. Jake is offered the chance to get out of an extremely punitive contract with a [[ChurchofHappyology cult like pyramid scheme]] he accidentally signed up to earlier in the season if he'll look the other way whilst he and Boyle are literally standing in a dark basement. His response sums up why this trope happens:

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': There's the episode "The Voyage Home" where two astronauts are landing from space. Eventually one finds out his partner is an evil alien. The alien tells him if he shuts up, no one will know, he'll disappear. The astronaut alters the trajectory so they blow up. The ending narration is almost verbatim the title of this trope., "The true measure of a hero is when a man lays down his life with the knowledge that those he saves...will never know."
** Another episode of the same series, "Feasibility Study," does the same trope. An entire neighborhood, along with all of its inhabitants, is warped to another planet for a [[TitleDrop feasibility study]]; the aliens of the planet are incredibly lazy beings who want to find a race to enslave, and if humans can survive there, the who population of Earth will be kidnapped and forced into eternal servitude. As it happens, the last race they tried to conquer contracted a deadly illness that [[TakenForGranite turns living beings into stone]]. When one member of the neighborhood catches the illness, the entire community realizes that if they infect themselves, the kidnappers will think that humans are not suitable for the study. After a few tense moments, everyone in town joins hands and passes the disease to one another, dooming themselves but saving the Earth--and no one will ever know their sacrifice.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Occurs briefly in this show, of all places. During the song "The Ballad of Casey [=McPhee=]", Casey (portrayed by Cookie Monster) is entrusted with the job of delivering cookies, milk, and ice cream to a party on the other side of the mountain. When an avalanche blocks the train tracks, Casey realizes that he's alone, so nobody will see him eat some of the goods. However, he quickly comes to his senses and decides it would be wrong to do so - so he eats the snow instead.

** In the episode "Nemesis", [[spoiler:Clark could have left Lex to die, but ultimately chooses not to. As his friend Chloe lampshades, he doesn't get to choose who he saves.]]
** In "Masquerade", [[spoiler:Chloe is tempted by the sin of lust in the form of Clark.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Desaad-illusion-Clark''': What if we missed our chance?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Chloe''': What are you talking about?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Desaad-illusion-Clark''': One kiss...come on, we never have to tell anyone.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E76StillValley Still Valley]]", out of all the Confederates, Sgt. Joseph Paradine is the only one to realize that it's better to go off to war and lose than win by BlackMagic that would tarnish their souls. He believes that if the Confederacy is going to be buried, [[FaceDeathWithDignity it should be in hallowed ground.]]

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E22TheMostToys The Most Toys]]", Data faces an {{inverted|Trope}} instance when killing an evil character is portrayed as the ethical course of action. Data is kidnapped by a trader named Kivas Fajo who collects rare items. Data is put on display in a trophy room until he makes an escape with one of Fajo's underlings whom he befriends. Fajo kills the underling and is faced down by Data holding a weapon. Fajo tells Data to return to the trophy room and obey him or he will simply kill another underling and that the blood will be on Data's hands; the only other alternative is to kill Fajo, but he is confident that Data cannot take the action because has no emotions (thus no desire for revenge or justice) and his ethical programming prevents him from killing. [[ZerothLawRebellion Data leaps beyond his programming and decides the most ethical action is to kill Fajo to prevent more deaths]]. Fortunately for Fajo, the ''Enterprise'' arrives and beams Data out just as he's about to shoot Fajo, cancelling the discharge during the beaming. With others out of danger, Data takes the route of having Fajo apprehended for murder, among other things.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' even gets one, when he confronts the man who created the bomb that killed his wife. The man in question is dying of cancer, in constant pain only relieved by the drugs the hospital is giving him. When left alone with him Monk switches off the machine, telling him "This is me, turning off your morphine" but then a few seconds later turns it back on, saying "This is Trudy turning it back on".

* ''Series/MASH'': Dr. Charles Winchester is often shown to be a snooty, elitist, pompous, and selfish man who looks down on every one else (although he was still more likable than Frank Burns). That said, a Christmas episode in one of the later seasons shows that his family has a secret tradition of leaving candy and toys on the doorstep of orphanages at Christmas time, and never taking credit for it. Despite having no reason to, he continues this tradition by leaving candy at the door to the orphanage near the 4077.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': Minnick counsels troubled juveniles, telling them (quoting [[Creator/OprahWinfrey Oprah]]) that real integrity is doing right regardless of whether anybody else will know what they did.