| 1 | %%% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %%% |
| 6 | ---- |
| 7 | !!Series with their own pages: |
| 8 | [[index]] |
| 9 | * ''ChekhovsGun/DoctorWho'' |
| 10 | [[/index]] |
| 11 | ---- |
| 12 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[folder:A]] |
| 15 | * ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'': In one episode, TheDragon escaped from a jail cell and leaves the keys to the cell on the cell's cot. Naturally, the fact that the keys to the cell are ''inside'' the cell becomes important later when someone needs to escape from the jail. |
| 16 | %%* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfLanoAndWoodley'': At the start of "The Two Men" Frank and Colin trip over a signpost, causing them to drop a woman's television several stories off the top of a car park. Later on the sign saves them Humanities building is ideal -- otherwise please make sure it's a building that's easy to find and that will be unlocked and accessible at the specified time. ...what the hell does that even mean? This entry is in desperate need of rewording to ensure it MAKES SENSE. |
| 17 | * ''Series/AgathaRaisin'': In "Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam", Gemma tells Agatha that a good cleaner always carries a squirt bottle of 3-in-1 disinfectant to ward of the amorous advances of any male householders. At the end of the story, Agatha stops the killer by spraying them in the face with 3-in-1 disinfectant. |
| 18 | * In the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E3MakingFriendsAndInfluencingPeople "Making Friends and Influencing People"]], Skye is practicing her shooting, and May mentions she needs to try the sniper rifle, as she may need to use it one day. Sure enought, she uses it at the end of the episode to take down VillainOfTheWeek [[AnIcePerson Donnie Gill]]. |
| 19 | * ''Series/AlexRider2020'': Tom's phone goes on quite the journey. It's confiscated in the first episode, and Alex gets caught stealing it back. This gets it ''re''-confiscated by Ian Rider and gives Alex a way to find his car when he doesn't believe the official story of how his uncle died and goes investigating. Tom is left without a phone at inconvenient moments until Alex demands that it be returned, which is ''good news'' because it allows Tom to take a selfie outside the Roscoe building, [[spoiler: thus leaving a social media trail when the Roscoe duplicate takes him prisoner]]. It's also ''bad news'', because [[spoiler:Roscoe finds evidence on it that blows Alex's cover]]. Finally, [[spoiler:Duplicate!Alex uses it to send Real!Alex an IHaveYourWife video when ''he'' takes Tom hostage]]. |
| 20 | * ''Series/{{Alias}}'': Happens with the Bond-like gadgets that Sydney gets, particularly in early episodes, though most of them have a specific and outlined use within missions. |
| 21 | ** Also, Chekhov's Earrings: the pair of earrings Irina brings with her to the CIA, leaves for Sydney in "A Dark Turn", and transmit a message to her in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Truth]] [[TitleDrop Takes]] [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Time"]]. |
| 22 | * ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'': In a late-season episode, three crewmembers receive prophecies from an oracle that is "never wrong". By the end of the series (it took two seasons), all of the prophecies have come true. None were disproven or broken. |
| 23 | * ''Series/TheAndromedaStrain'': At the start of the story, Dr. Chou turns away when a car with a flashing siren passes, mentioning he suffers from light sensitivity. This becomes relevant at the climax when the lab's SelfDestructMechanism is activated and he ends up being incapacitated due to all the [[EpilepticFlashingLights flashing lights]] that suddenly turn all around the facility. |
| 24 | * ''Series/AnotherPeriod:'' The "Pageant" episode begins with sisters Lillian and Beatrice Bellacourt making plans to appear in a local beauty pageant, while their mother practices her dart-blowgun technique on passing American eagles. During the actual pageant, Lillian realizes that Beatrice may actually win, and uses the blowgun to sedate her sister mid-singing performance. |
| 25 | * ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Chock full of Chekhov's guns. Nearly every episode has at least one, and there are a few that don't go off until several episodes (or ''seasons''—remember Buster's hand chair?)—have passed. |
| 26 | * ''Series/{{Astrid}}'': In "Invisible", Astrid waxes poetic to Raphe about composer Music/JohannSebastianBach, specifically that [[https://www.kusc.org/culture/arts-alive-blog/musical-cryptograms/ he ciphered his own name into two pieces using the German musical scale]]. [[spoiler: When she's kidnapped by the SerialKiller, he makes her re-shelve the files on his kills lest they be used to identify him, but she leaves them shelved in a pattern imitating Bach's cipher and spelling out the killer's name (he's one of their own forensics techs).]] |
| 27 | [[/folder]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:B]] |
| 30 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 31 | ** "Grey 17 Is Missing" referenced this by having Garibaldi discuss an antique gun extensively in Act I, which was then not used in the rest of the episode. This was a bit of an in-joke for the people who hung out in rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5; series creator/producer Creator/JMichaelStraczynski frequented the newsgroup and often cited "Chekhov's Gun" when talking about TV writing. |
| 32 | ** This becomes a double-subversion (partially) when Garibaldi uses the bullets for the gun, which he conveniently put in his pocket, later in the show to defeat the MonsterOfTheWeek. |
| 33 | ** The alien healing device is used in one episode in season 1, brought out for an episode in season two, and then never mentioned again until the end of season 4. |
| 34 | ** Other Chekhovian Gunnish-like items include the old one found in the first season, Londo's learning of when Minbari may lie, Babylon IV's fate, and the extinction of the Markab. [[InnocuouslyImportantEpisode Many, many seemingly Trek-like one-off episodes become useful plot-points in later episodes]]. |
| 35 | ** JMS is arguably the king of this trope. He quotes it frequently on his commentaries for various episodes, along with the little-known corollary: "If you shoot someone in Act III, there better be a gun on the mantle in Act I." |
| 36 | * ''Series/{{Banshee}}'': |
| 37 | ** The final scene in episode 3 showed a man uploading the fight between Sanchez and Lucas onto [=YouTube=]. [[spoiler:TheStinger of the season finale showed Jason Hood (the real Lucas' son) watching said [=YouTube=] video.]] |
| 38 | ** Throughout the first and second seasons, various uniformed marines are seen throughout the town, and there are passing references made to "Camp Genoa". In Season 3, Camp Genoa is revealed to be a USMC base in Banshee County, with [[spoiler:the money stored there and the corrupt commander in charge]] becoming the main focus of the season. |
| 39 | * ''Series/TheBarrier'': |
| 40 | ** The appartement in which Julia and her boyfriend Carlos live finds itself deserted early in the series due to some of its events. Later, the protagonists find themselves in need for a place to meet with [[spoiler:the parents of children taken away by the government under false pretenses]], and start using the empty appartment for that purpose. |
| 41 | ** Iván is sometimes seen in a lime green convertible, distinct from both Luis' car and the one Hugo was asked to repair. Iván later uses that car to [[spoiler:take a sick Manuela to Alejo's camp]]. |
| 42 | ** The footage of Alejo's camp that Julia finds Marta and Sergio watching allows her to recognize the place when she and Hugo wind up in it. |
| 43 | ** Luis asks for the ambulance that was used to [[spoiler:bring a sick Iván from Alejo's camp]] to be parked behind the house so neighbors won't see it. It's later used to [[spoiler:smuggle Luis out of Sector 1 after he uses his televised speech to alert people of the government's true intentions towards their children]]. |
| 44 | * ''Series/{{BattleBots}}'': In many fights, bots use a variety of tactics, strategies, and potential weapons or weaponized surfaces. If a bot demonstrates an obviously powerful weapon before the fight begins- say, a very strong flipping mechanism, a flamethrower, a fast spinning blade, etc.- you can be sure that specific weapon will be used in the fight. For example, in Blip's first playoff fight (against Valkyrie in 2022), it unofficially scored 18 flips in victory according to the commentators. |
| 45 | * ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica 2003}}'': The finale. [[spoiler:Racetrack's nukes]]. |
| 46 | ** Then there's [[spoiler:Tory's murder of Cally]], which looked for all the world like it would never be brought up again before becoming a key element to the war's resolution [[spoiler:or lack thereof]]. |
| 47 | ** Another one is early on in the show, when Baltar asks for a nuclear bomb (As per Head Six's order) from Adama, claiming that it's to help his research. The bomb is then detonated and the fallout becomes the most important tool for the Cylons to track down the location of the humans, who settled in a cold but habitable planet. |
| 48 | ** This is a pretty subtle and minor one, but early in Season Two when Chief Tyrol, while attempting to prove he isn't a Cylon ([[HilariousInHindsight lol]]), is listing the battlestars he's served on he mentions the Pegasus, which showed up a few episodes later. |
| 49 | * In Season 1 of ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', after Jimmy explains his brother's illness to a doctor she shows him that Chuck's a {{hypochondria}}c and tells him that he needs to be institutionalized before he burns his house down with the fuel Jimmy brings him to help him avoid leaving home. [[spoiler:Two seasons later, Chuck [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself by setting his house on fire with it]] after realizing that he's ruined both their lives for nothing.]] |
| 50 | * ''Series/BigLove'': Subverted when Lois hints that Wanda should kill the DA. We see Wanda packing Lois's gun to take to the courthouse, presumably to shoot the DA. She actually just hands it over to Bill and tells him that Lois was going to shoot the DA. |
| 51 | ** Also when Bill insists on giving his three wives guns for Christmas. Many fans speculated that before the season was over, someone would be shot with one of them. Indeed, Bill ''was'' shot, but not by anyone in the house and not with any of the aforementioned guns. |
| 52 | * ''Blue Heelers'': In an episode of the Australian cop drama, early in the episode a police officer loses their pen due to it rolling off and falling behind a filing cabinet, to which another officer offhandedly remarks that the cabinet doesn't sit straight. Later on a major plot point develops with another police officer suspected of stealing a vial (containing a blood sample of a suspect) which had mysteriously disappeared - in the end it's revealed the vial had been left on the aforementioned filing cabinet sometime during the episode and had rolled off and fallen down behind it. |
| 53 | * ''Series/BreakingBad'': In all honesty the show should be renamed "Chekhov's Gun: The Series". |
| 54 | ** In the first episode, as Hank and the DEA are raiding a meth lab, he discusses to Walt the fact that when amateurs try to cook meth, they run the danger of accidentally producing lethal gases if they mess it up (Walt, being a chemistry teacher, already knew this). At the end of the episode, [[spoiler:Walt is able to incapacitate Emilio and Crazy-8 by intentionally messing up a demonstration of how to cook his meth to gas them to death.]] |
| 55 | ** In the episode "Cancer Man" Brandon Mayhew aka Badger brings a crossbow when he and Jesse go out to the desert to cook meth claiming they can use it to hung javelinas. After the two get in a fight he ends up firing it at the RV as Jesse drives away. |
| 56 | ** In "Crazy Handful of Nothin", Walt teaches about fulminate of mercury when he tries to explain reactions to his high school students. At the end of the episode, Walt uses the same chemicals to blow up Tuco's lair. |
| 57 | ** There's also [[spoiler:the hollow-point bullet in the episode "One Minute". The arms dealer gives it to Marco as a freebie, but during the shootout with Hank, he accidentally drops it, and Hank is able to retrieve it and [[BoomHeadshot turn the tables]] on his would-be assassin in the nick of time.]] |
| 58 | ** The season 4 opener "Box Cutter" introduces, well, the eponymous box cutter. Used in an innocent fashion in the cold opener, it finds a much more macabre use before the end of the episode. |
| 59 | ** Walt buys a gun in the second episode of season 4, but it doesn't become useful until near the end of the season, and not in the way you might think. [[spoiler:He notices the plant which he uses to poison Brock when he's mindlessly spinning the revolver on a table thinking of a way to kill Gus, and the barrel happens to point at the plant in the background.]] He also uses it more conventionally in the season finale. |
| 60 | ** When Walt falls out of Gus's favour after [[spoiler:killing Gale]], Gus sets up security cameras in the superlab to keep an eye on him and Jesse. After [[spoiler:the lab is destroyed in the Season 4 finale, the DEA confiscate Gus's laptop containing the footage from the cameras, leading to Walt, Jesse, and Mike trying to find a way to destroy the laptop before the police can see the footage implicating them.]] |
| 61 | ** The character of [[spoiler:Hector/Tio Salamanca.]] Played a minor role in the first season, only to show up in season 4 [[spoiler:as Gus Fring's mortal enemy, and Walter's weapon against him.]] |
| 62 | ** How about in season 4, where [[spoiler:Jesse carries around a dummy cigarette filled with ricin, intended to poison Gus. Instead, Jesse's girlfriend's son Brock ends up with a mysterious illness...]] |
| 63 | *** Connected to that is [[spoiler:the random potted plant that Walt eyed in his garden the episode before. It turns out that Walt had actually poisoned Brock with the toxic berries from the plant and blamed it on Gus to get Jesse to help him kill Gus. This isn't revealed until the end of the season 4 finale in a WhamShot though.]] |
| 64 | *** Also connected to this is Jesse's Roomba vacuum. [[spoiler:Walt plants the ricin cigarette in the vacuum so that it would seem as though Jesse had simply dropped it accidentally rather than Walt having gotten someone to swipe it from Jesse.]] |
| 65 | ** Season 5 opens with Walt [[spoiler:purchasing a very literal example in the form of a high power machine gun. This ends up being the weapon he uses to massacre the Neo-Nazis as revenge for killing Hank, and is also what kills him in the end (via a stray bullet).]] An unusual example in that it was written into the story [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants before the producers knew what it was meant to do]] and almost ended up being a RedHerring. |
| 66 | ** Ted's rug. He momentarily trips on it early in the episode "Crawl Space", foreshadowing what happens to him later in the episode. |
| 67 | ** The ricin was first mentioned in season 2 and attempted its use on Tuco and Gus, which both ended in failure. The ricin was ultimately used successfully on [[spoiler:Lydia]], the final death caused by Walter in the [[GrandFinale final episode of season 5 and the series]]. |
| 68 | ** Gale's favourite author is Walt Whitman (yes, the fact Walter White and Walt Whitman have the same initials does come up), and he gifts Walter a copy of one of Whitman's books, ''Leaves of Grass''. In the season five episode "Gliding Over All", [[spoiler:Hank picks up the book while looking for something to read on the toilet in the Whites' bathroom, only to see a dedication from Gale "to my ''other'' favorite W.W.", leading him [[InternalReveal to finally realize]] that Walt is Heisenberg]]. |
| 69 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In particular, Season 5, when they faced an unstoppable god. Almost every single episode in that season, including the ones that looked like filler (Warren's [=BuffyBot=], the angry troll who had once been married to Anya) turned out to have a Chekhov's Gun that got used in the big finale. |
| 70 | ** ''Everything'' in Season 5, including one of Spike's insults. Spike calls Xander all kinds of things, including a 'glorified bricklayer' for working construction, and Xander defends himself with his bowling skills. In the final battle against Glory, Xander [[spoiler:demonstrates his skill with construction equipment by hitting Glory with a demolition ball and shouting, "And the glorified bricklayer picks up a spare!"]] |
| 71 | ** In the season 3 episode "Band Candy" Giles, under the influence of the childishness-inducing candy, steals a gun from a cop. It becomes a literal Chekhov's Gun when he uses it later on in the episode. |
| 72 | *** Not to mention that, shortly after stealing the cop's gun, he begins making out with Joyce "Buffy's Mom" Summers. In the Season 3 episode "Earshot", this little gem crops back up. |
| 73 | ---->'''Buffy:''' You had sex with Giles? On the hood of a cop car? TWICE!? |
| 74 | ** In Season 2, when Jenny purchases an Orb of Thesulah, the shopkeeper mentions he had previously sold two as "new-age paperweights". After Angelus smashes Jenny's orb [[spoiler: and kills her]], we find out that [[spoiler: Giles]] was one of the people who had bought these "paperweights". |
| 75 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'': It's easy to miss and the gun gets fired right away, but at the very opening, 4x14, Mike and Sam are sitting in a car and Mike is fiddling with a pair of sunglasses. A few minutes later Narrator!Michael says that getting caught with a lockpick set in a police station is a bad thing, but a pair of cheap sunglasses will do the trick. If you've [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent prepared them beforehand]], it's a moment's work to get your lockpicks ready and if you get caught, you're just a guy with broken sunglasses. |
| 76 | ** In the final episode, packing their emergency on-the-run bags, Sam grabs a bunch of duct tape, "[[DuctTapeForEverything just in case]]". Later, pinned down in a gunfight, he throws the duct tape to distract the guard pinning him down long enough to get a shot off. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:C]] |
| 80 | * Near the beginning of one episode of ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'', Castle is unsuccessfully attempting to befriend a gaggle of 2nd graders. Among the mean things they do to him: take a polaroid picture of him that looks like he peed his pants, and throw a bowl of marbles to make him trip. [[spoiler:The [[MonsterOfTheWeek murderer of the week]] is looking for a picture hidden in the camera that took that picture, and Castle throws the same bowl of marbles at the end of the episode to trip the guy as he's getting away with it.]] |
| 81 | ** The season 8 opener has a literal gun used this way: at the beginning of the first episode, Castle shows off all the neat PI toys he built in his new office, including a hidden spring-loaded gun in his desk. At the end of the second episode, during a tense standoff, Castle gets to use it. (Neat toy!) |
| 82 | * ''Series/{{Casualty}}'': When the show was still a medical drama (before it became a soap) whatever you first saw after the credits was either going to cause horrific injuries or end up being removed from some unlucky extra in surgery. |
| 83 | * ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': |
| 84 | ** The pilot has a scene where Chuck and other employees are talking about a new virus making the rounds, which infects via porn website. With said knowledge, Chuck later disables a laptop and a bomb along with it, replete with a ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting (in this case, Looking for Porn) moment. |
| 85 | ** This becomes a ChekhovsBoomerang in the series finale, when Sarah [[spoiler: whose memories have been erased]] remembers the virus, enabling Chuck to disarm another bomb, powered by the same type of laptop. |
| 86 | ** In a later episode, Chuck and Morgan talk about a guy that sometimes sells them fireworks. Later on Chuck needs to create a distraction in the same general area that the fireworks are being sold. You probably have a vague idea about what happens next. |
| 87 | ** Subverted in another episode. Morgan accidentally gets stuck in the Buy More's storage cage and calls Chuck to get him out. Later, a pair of thugs come by looking for Chuck. He leads one of them to the storage cage and closes the door, presumably locking it. However, the thug opens it easily and Casey subdues him. Immediately afterward, Chuck runs into Morgan who tells him the lock was fixed. |
| 88 | ** The season 3 premiere has Chekhov's [[spoiler:'''Minigun'''. Casey remarks that he never got to fire a certain minigun while clearing out their secret base. When Chuck and Sarah are rescued at the end of the episode by helicopter, Casey is (quite gleefully) using the minigun, now mounted to the helicopter's door.]] |
| 89 | ** In episode 3x06 [[spoiler:Chuck sees a pair of sunglasses in Manoosh's briefcase. He passes over them, believing them unimportant. They turn out to be a new Intersect, the weapon in question throughout the entire episode.]] |
| 90 | ** A later season 3 episode has Chuck give [[spoiler:Casey a handgun stolen from Castle as a thank-you gift for helping him survive to the point where he has a chance become full-fledged spy. Casey winds up using it to both save Chuck ''and'' help him cheat on his final spy test.]] |
| 91 | ** The season 4 premiere has an [[spoiler:EMP device that Casey and Sarah recover in the opening sequence that is eventually used to disable the automated defenses in the climax.]] |
| 92 | * ''Series/TheColbertReport'': In A Colbert Christmas: [[ChristmasSpecial The Greatest Gift of All]]'', a crossed sword and lightsaber are seen at the beginning hanging on the wall of Stephen's cabin ({{Continuity Nod}}s to the [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Aragorn]] appearance and the [[ChromaKey Green Screen Challenge]]s respectively). Stephen grabs the lightsaber about halfway through to defend himself against [[spoiler:what he thinks is]] a bear. |
| 93 | * ''Series/ColdCase'': Often during the flashbacks, sometimes from the very first once, something was said, seen, or done that would prove relevant as to why the victim was killed and/or to the identity of the murderer. In the present day scenes as well--in the episode "Sandhogs", the unique cigarette lighter seen in the possession of one of the suspects is revealed to have been given as a present to the ''victim'', thus revealing the man to be the killer they've been looking for. |
| 94 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': Annie's Class Recorder in the episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E24EnglishAsASecondLanguage English as a Second Language]]. [[SarcasmMode I'm sure this has no impact on the rest of the episode's plot.]] |
| 95 | ** Additionally, Annie's Boobs. No, not Annie's actual bosom. The monkey. He first appears in [[Recap/CommunityS1E21ContemporaryAmericanPoultry the chicken episode]], is released and then vanishes entirely. [[spoiler:In the BottleEpisode, he's the culprit who stole Annie's pen.]] Amusingly, the reveal at the end of ''that'' episode is itself a ChekhovsGun when it becomes the basis for a later ClipShow. |
| 96 | ** In "Epidemiology", Troy shows up for the Halloween party dressed as [[Film/{{Aliens}} Ripley]] in the power loader mech. When this fails to get him the attention of the ladies, he ditches the costume for another one. After the other partygoers start turning into zombies, he puts the power loader costume back on and reenters the infested library to initiate a cure. [[SubvertedTrope The zombies gang up on him and easily rip off his costume.]] |
| 97 | --->'''Troy:''' Okay, I don't know why I thought this would work! |
| 98 | ** A somewhat more literal example occurs in [[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Remedial Chaos Theory]]. In the first timeline explored, Troy finds a gun stashed away in Annie's bag, as a short gag. This goes on for the rest of the episode unaddressed, until one of the last timelines explored, where it plays a role in the "Darkest Timeline". |
| 99 | * ''Series/CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey'' uses this in "The Electric Boy". Michael Faraday keeps a lump of malformed glass as a souvenir of when Humphry Davy forced him to work in optics out of professional jealousy. Years later, Faraday struggles to find a medium through which polarized light would be affected by a magnet and tries all sorts of gases and liquids. In desperation, he picks up the glass, and hey presto.[[note]]It's not explained in the show, but the metal impurities of the glass itself is what did the trick.[[/note]] |
| 100 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': |
| 101 | ** In the episode "L.D.S.K", Hotch's second gun. Mentioned casually in the first act, it comes back with a [[BoomHeadshot bang]] in the third. |
| 102 | ** In the episode “Ex Parte”, there’s a scene at the beginning in which Simmons’s wife Kristy tells Simmons she got him a new phone to replace his outdated one. He says he’s fine with his current phone, and leaves for work without taking it. Later on, when Kristy’s workplace becomes the site of a deadly hostage situation, her having this extra phone in her purse and using it to livestream what’s happening there to the BAU ends up being imperative to the plot. |
| 103 | ** In the season 14 finale “Truth or Dare”, there’s a brief scene at the beginning where Alvez and Reid return from the shooting range. Alvez says Reid got a 100% on his exam and jokes that it almost seemed like he had two guns, to which Reid simply shrugs and says “Maybe I did”. It just seems like a random throwaway line… until the episode’s climax, where it’s revealed that Reid really ''does'' keep a second gun in an ankle holster, and uses it to save JJ’s life by shooting the unsub. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:D]] |
| 107 | * ''Series/DefendingTheGuilty'': Caroline's favourite website, [=MoreLaw=].com. When Danielle and Liam fail to start a sensational Twitter account to ruin [[TheRival Pia's]] reputation, Will uses it to anonymously tell her the truth about the fact that she gave her boyfriend a handjob [[ItMakesSenseInContext into the chambers' coffee pot.]] |
| 108 | * ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'': Done very nicely with [[spoiler:a malfunctioning boiler room and some barrels marked "flammable"]] |
| 109 | * ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': Given the mystery-based arc plots, has plenty of these. |
| 110 | ** A very subtle one occurs in the pilot: during the ColdOpen showing a montage of the chores Mary Alice did on the day of her suicide, the very last one is fetching the mail. We learn later that she was DrivenToSuicide by an anonymous note she received. |
| 111 | * ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the season 4 episode "Remains to be Seen", Dexter forgets where he hid a body after suffering a head injury in a car crash. While reviewing the kill site for clues, he spots a drop of blood that he missed. He laments being off his game, cleans it up, and forgets about it. Later, still frantically looking for the body, he comes back to the kill site and sees the drop of blood again. Confused, [[spoiler:he looks up and realizes that the body had been in a bag strung up to the ceiling the whole time]]. |
| 112 | * ''Series/DocMartin'': If someone coughs, scratches an itch, or sneezes in the beginning, they're probably the victim of this week's medical mystery. It happens at ''least'' OnceAnEpisode. |
| 113 | * ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': |
| 114 | ** In season 1 Ms. Lonely-Hearts who is joked about much early on eventually is revealed to be [[spoiler:Adelle.]] |
| 115 | ** In Season 2, [[spoiler:many of the imprints from Season 1 begin reappearing as necessary to the plot.]] |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:E]] |
| 119 | * ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': In the opening of "The Rat Race", Watson complains that she can't read Holmes' texts because he uses too many abbreviations. [[spoiler:After the killer of the week kidnaps Holmes, she sends a text from his phone so Watson wouldn't worry. However, Watson realizes it wasn't from Holmes because [[OutOfCharacterAlert it didn't read "like a teenager on a sugar high.]]"]] |
| 120 | ** In "The Deductionist", Holmes points out to Watson several continuity errors in the porno that her sub-letter made, which was part of the reason she was being evicted from her apartment. One of these errors would help Watson realize that [[spoiler: her landlord was in on it.]] |
| 121 | *** Also, [[spoiler: Sherlock's single stick practice]] would save his life later on in the same episode. |
| 122 | * ''Series/EmeraldCity'': Mombi's dagger, last seen in [[Recap/EmeraldCityS1E3MistressNewMistress "Mistress-New-Mistress"]] later shows up in [[Recap/EmeraldCityS1E7TheyCameFirst "They Came First"]] when West [[spoiler:recognizes that the dagger previously belonged to King Pastoria]]. |
| 123 | * ''Series/{{Emmerdale}}'': From Nancy Banks-Smith's review of a November 1998 episode (reprinted 04.02.10): "When someone points to a box of fireworks and says, 'They should be in the cellar', you know the whole place is about to go up in a dazzling racket of rockets. Trust me. I'm a critic. No one in the history of drama has ever pointed to fireworks and said, 'They should be in the cellar', and next day put them in the cellar." |
| 124 | * ''Series/{{ER}}'': In one episode, an African woman gives a necklace of the cross to one of the doctors tending her daughter. He claims that he doesn't deserve it, but she calls him a "man of God" for being here, helping them when no one else would. Later on, when captured by the rebels and as they brutally murdered each of their hostages, they were about to execute the doctor, when they realize he was praying and was wearing the cross, thus believing he was a priest. The woman who gave him the necklace quickly said that even the rebels wouldn't dare harm a "man of God". And so, the rebels let him go. |
| 125 | * ''Series/{{Eureka}}'': In the beginning of one episode, someone shows off a superpower portable bass amp they just built, but Carter doesn't have time to stick around to hear about it, suspicious things are happening [[OnceAnEpisode down at the lab]]. The end of the episode, guess what Carter needs to disrupt the monster of the week? |
| 126 | ** Usually within the first fifteen minutes of a given episode, two experiments will be shown and explained. One of them causes this week's catastrophe, the other (using Carter's inimitable stupid logic) is the solution. |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:F]] |
| 130 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': In the episode "Bone to be Wild", M'lee notes that Zhaan "smells like out there" (out there being the jungle), causing a shocked Crichton to exclaim, "You're a VEGETABLE!?" Turns out this is kind of important, when the botanist Br'nee tries to frame M'lee for Zhaan's disappearance, even though M'lee only has interest in animals. Crichton calls him on it. |
| 131 | ** Farscape had a bit of a thing for these, on both an episodic and series-wide scale; the best and most notable example is probably [[spoiler:the chrysthereum blossoms, which are visible in the season three episode "Incubator" but do not pay off until very late season four. Going back even further, the place that Stark mentioned having seen in season one was probably the chrysthereum chamber, only seen in season four.]] |
| 132 | * ''Series/FatherTed'': |
| 133 | ** Lampshaded in one episode where Ted criticises a fellow priest for buying useless objects, in particular a pair of false arms and a remote controlled wheelchair. "What sort of situation would require the use of a pair of fake arms and a remote controlled wheelchair? Only a completely ludicrous one". Later on in the episode, however... |
| 134 | ** Lampshaded in the plane episode, when Ted complains to Dougal that he bought a squeaky phone for a dog, and a tape dispenser which tells you how much you use. ("You have used three inches of sticky tape, god bless you.") The former is used twice for comedic effect, the latter [[spoiler:comes in handy when Ted has to repair a vital fuel line to stop them from crashing.]] |
| 135 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", Jayne offers up his very favorite gun, Vera, for the new blushing bride. The Captain refuses, and when the bride betrays them, Jayne happily uses Vera to shut down the electric "net" that would kill them all. Another example in Firefly is Kaylee repeatedly referencing the need for a new part for the engine so they don't get stranded in space. Lo and behold, guess what happens in a later episode. |
| 136 | * ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'': At the end of the episode "A New Life", Jules and Sam (who are secretly dating in violation of SRU policy) have what seems to be a throwaway conversation about the honeymoon they'd like to have. Several episodes later, it comes back to haunt them in a big way; it turns out they were having said conversation [[IsThisThingStillOn without turning their headset microphones off]]. Nobody else overheard at the time, but it was picked up by the auto-transcriber and ended up in the official transcript. |
| 137 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': A seemingly insignificant comment or action by one of the characters will often inspire the plot resolution (or at least drive it forward) later on. The show was always very subtle about the way it handled such things. |
| 138 | ** Also, the more literal example of Maris borrowing the antique crossbow at the beginning of Maris Returns. |
| 139 | * ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Humourously subverted in one episode, where Peter decides he needs some protection and buys himself a shotgun at the end of the first act. It never appears again.. all the more effective because this show has quite a few Chekhov Guns usually. |
| 140 | ** Also subverted when Walter implants a tracking device into his neck after getting lost. When he's kidnapped an episode or two later, Peter and Olivia can't use the tracking device to find Walter because his kidnappers tore it out. |
| 141 | * ''Series/FullHouse'': In the episode "Knock Yourself Out," Stephanie gives Danny a colourful tie tack as a present. Later that night, while on TV as a sportscaster, he interviews a boxer called "The Sandman" and asks about his wife leaving him. Apparently, the boxer never knew this and gets knocked out in the next round. Danny later apologizes to him on the air, and the boxer forgives him, but then fires his trainer for keeping it from him. Infuriated, the trainer punches Danny in the abdomen, but Danny is still standing and unhurt while the trainer holds his fist and moans in pain as he walks off. Looking in the camera, Danny opens his suit jacket and reveals the tie tack pinned to his tie, and thanks Stephanie on the air. |
| 142 | [[/folder]] |
| 143 | |
| 144 | [[folder:G]] |
| 145 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 146 | ** In a first season episode, Ros casually mentions that Tyrion gave her a necklace with a Lannister lion on it as a tip. Late in the second season, Cersei kidnaps Ros because of the necklace, believing it to be proof that Tyrion is in love with her. |
| 147 | ** The Moon Door in the Eyrie, on multiple occasions. Whenever they show it, you know someone's going through it within 1 episode. |
| 148 | ** Olly, on season 5. Because his parents were killed and eaten by a wildling clan called Thenns, he hates wildlings. When the Lord Commander tries to make peace with wildlings against a great threat, he obviously gets pissed off and in the end [[spoiler: he stabs Jon Snow, the Lord Commander]]. Despite not being a character from the books, every book reader guessed he was going to play a part in the act. He has been given the names Olly Chekhov, Chekhov's Shotgun due to its plain obviousness. |
| 149 | ** When Jaime notes Jory Cassel's scar, Jory explains that a Greyjoy man-at-arms nearly took his eye at the siege of Pyke. A few episodes later, when their swords become locked, Jaime pulls his dagger and stabs Jory in the same eye. |
| 150 | ** Jorah Mormont explains to Rakharo that a Dothraki ''arakh'' won't pierce plate armour. Qotho discovers the fatal truth of this in "Baelor". |
| 151 | ** Daenerys' dragon eggs turn out to be far more than just priceless curiosities and her resistance to heat come into play in "Fire and Blood". |
| 152 | ** Gendry's bull helmet, introduced with the character, comes in very useful for faking his death. |
| 153 | ** Littlefinger eventually makes good on his threat to sell Ros to a murderer when he finds out who's been spying on him for Varys. |
| 154 | ** The cache of obsidian blades buried on the Fist turn out to have a lethal effect on the White Walkers. |
| 155 | ** Upon becoming Master of Coin, Tyrion discovers Littlefinger has been financing the kingdom with loans from the Iron Bank, who will fund their enemies if they don't meet their payments. In "The Laws of Gods and Men", Davos convinces the Iron Bank to help keep Stannis' cause alive just in case they need such an enemy. |
| 156 | ** Tyrion presents Shae with a golden chain in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair". He strangles her with it in "The Children". |
| 157 | ** Joffrey's custom crossbow becomes the medieval equivalent of the TropeMaker when Tyrion uses it to kill his father. As per the quote, it's even hanging on the wall. |
| 158 | ** The iron coin Jaqen H'ghar gave to Arya in "Valar Morghulis" buys her passage to Braavos in "The Children". |
| 159 | ** Those caches of wildfire that the Mad King wanted to detonate, before Jaime shanked him? Cersei used all of them in the destruction of the Sept of Baelor in the Season 6 finale, "Winds of Winter". |
| 160 | ** The necklace Ser Dontos gives Sansa, which he claims is an heirloom of House Hollard but was in fact a cheap imitation made by Littlefinger. When Sansa arrives aboard Littlefinger's ship after being secreted out of King's Landing by Ser Dontos, he takes off the necklace. One of the fake gems is missing. In the next episode, he confirms to Sansa that he hid the poison that Olenna Tyrell used to kill Joffrey in the missing stone. |
| 161 | ** The corkscrew Sansa grabbed in "The Gift" comes into play in the finale when she uses it to pick the lock of her room in Winterfell, ultimately managing to escape with Theon. |
| 162 | ** The ballista that Qyburn shows to Cersei in the crypts beneath the Red Keep in the first episode of season 7. Hell, you might as well call it Chekhov's Ballista, because we all know that ballista is going to kill one of Daenerys' dragons during the inevitable attack she will conduct on King's Landing in a fit of rage or desperation. In any case, that ballista is going to kill somebody, and it's not going to be a random Dothraki who unfortunately passed in the path of its trajectory. |
| 163 | ** Early in the series, Tyrion mentioned that his father gave him the task of designing the sewers beneath Casterly Rock, the Lannister family home, in order to humiliate him, and boasts that he made them extremely efficient. Several seasons later, he reveals that he'd installed secret passages meant for sneaking whores into and out of the castle, which become equally effective at sneaking a small sabotage squad of Unsullied into the castle later on. |
| 164 | * Parodied during Robert's "Acting Masterclass" on ''Series/TheGoesWrongShow'' when he explains why he has a gun with him onstage, which he can and indeed ''must'' use. (He later makes good on this by shooting [[SitcomArchNemesis Chris]] at the end of an unrelated ballet piece.) |
| 165 | --> "I can have a gun and I must have a gun. That's the rule of Chekhov's Gun: ''have a gun.'' And now it's been seen, I am going to have to shoot someone, before the end of the play." |
| 166 | * ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': |
| 167 | ** "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics was playing continuously in the [=IPod=] of the first victim in one episode. When the killer begins to absently hum the song in front of Nick, it tips him off. |
| 168 | ** In one episode, Juliette asks Nick to boil some water she had set on the stove. Later, when [[spoiler: an orge attacks Nick]], Juliette runs into the kitchen and the first thing she grabs is the boiling water [[spoiler: and uses it to defend her and Nick]]. |
| 169 | ** Rosalee's box cutter. Just before her brother's murderers return to the apothecary she was in, she was sifting through boxes to find the herbs that the murderers wanted. When one of them tries to grab her, she frees herself by stabbing him with the box cutter. |
| 170 | ** In "Leave it to Beaver", Nick was seen practicing with a crossbow. He uses it to [[spoiler: kill a Reaper]]. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[folder:H]] |
| 174 | * ''Series/HawaiiFive0'': Lou Grover's son William is given a pocket knife in the season 6 episode "Malama Ka Po'e", at which point it's already obvious the episode will end with the Grover family outnumbered and fighting for their lives. William gives Lou the knife during that showdown, telling him very presciently that he might need it. |
| 175 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 176 | ** Does this numerous times. One particular example is the train wreck in the first episode. For the first two and a half seasons, we just know it as the train wreck where Claire tests her power by walking through fire and saving a man. However, in Volume Three's flashback episode "Villains", we discover that the train wreck was actually caused by Meredith trying to escape Thompson and the Company. |
| 177 | ** This also commonly is used with Sylar's stolen abilities. Whenever he takes an ability, it will play a part in a future episode (or in some cases, the graphic novels), often after people tend to forget he got the power. One example is his cryokinesis, which is shown once in the second episode, then doesn't appear again until two of the last four episodes of the season. |
| 178 | *** Another example is his ability to know an object's entire history by a single touch early on in Volume 3. That power then [[spoiler:becomes the most important element into his transformation as Nathan at the end of Volume 4]]. |
| 179 | ** Prior to Isaac's death, he gave his sketchbook to a seemingly random comic book geek. After going the rest of the season, all of season 2, and most of season three without it, it seemed like a dropped plot line. However, in episode 10 of Volume 3, we find out that this sketchbook is what Matt, Daphne, and Ando need to find out what will happen to Hiro when he goes 16 years into the past. |
| 180 | ** A relatively minor one, but in Volume 2, Claire had gotten a car while she and her family lived under a false name while in hiding from the Company. Eventually, her car ends up stolen. When Maya breaks Alejandro and another guy out of prison, the other guy offers to help by using his car to get to New York (long story short, they wanted to see Surresh Sr.). It then pans in much focus to the license plate and a bumper sticker with "Go Conquistadors!", revealing that "his" car actually belongs to Claire Bennet, and that ''he'' was the one who stole the car earlier. |
| 181 | * ''Series/HomeImprovement'': A holiday episode started with Tim and Al practically blinding the ''Tool Time'' audience with some sort of halogen setup. It seemed like a basic opening gag and so it was surprising when Tim's sons' activation of the house's Christmas lights (itself a subplot) ''allowed the airliner he was on to land in previously blinding fog''. |
| 182 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': Happens roughly OnceAnEpisode. House sends the young guns to investigate the PatientOfTheWeek's home, where they find some detail which is either the cause of the disease or evidence that leads House to figure out what's wrong. |
| 183 | ** He once solves a case based on the fact that the patient had ''Tic-Tacs''. It's not so much Chekhov's Gun as it is Chekhov's Secret Satellite Beam Weapon, in that it can ''really'' come out of nowhere. |
| 184 | [[/folder]] |
| 185 | |
| 186 | [[folder:I]] |
| 187 | * ''Series/ICarly'': |
| 188 | ** Whenever the main characters seek help in searching something, the webshow itself is their main form of problem solver. |
| 189 | ** Spencer's episode-acquired possessions usually join the main plot like the fishing rod, the Proton Cruiser and the mechanical bull. |
| 190 | ** In "iEnrage Gibby", Freddie sets up another camera to examine how two pieces of bread rot in a period of time for the iCarly webcast. At the end of the episode, this camera also provided proof that the incident between Tasha and Freddie was an accident. |
| 191 | ** In "iHave a Lovesick Teacher", the titular teacher mentions in the first half of the episode that "Well, the Pear Pod wasn't cheap, but I just got the songs off one of those music-sharing websites." It is not spoken about until the end, when she gets arrested for downloading music illegally. |
| 192 | ** Used lazily with the mood app in "iOMG" to reveal Sam is 'in love'. |
| 193 | * ''Series/ILoveLucy'': |
| 194 | ** In the episode "The Freezer", for example, in the first few minutes Fred tells Lucy and Ethel that the furnace is off as he just replaced the fire brick in it and the mortar needs to set. The deactivated furnace then gets used later by Ethel to eavesdrop on Ricky and Fred and again by Lucy to hide seven hundred pounds of beef in. And finally at the end the furnace gets relit, cooking all the hidden beef. |
| 195 | ** Also, the infamous [[IntoxicationEnsues "Vitameatavegamin"]] episode. The guys are talking about the Vitameatavegamin, and one picks it up and notes all the ingredients, one of which is "Alcohol 23%" (at which he does a double take.) As Lucy rehearses the commercial (unaware of how potent the stuff is), she becomes very, very drunk. |
| 196 | * ''Series/IntoTheBadlands'': In the episode "Dragonfly's Last Dance", the Narwhal head mounted in the [[spoiler: River King's]] library, which Sunny later uses to [[spoiler: impale the River King]] at the end of the episode. |
| 197 | * ''Series/ISpy'': The pendant given to the wife of a not-so-late traitor actually contains the secret photos that supposedly had burned up. |
| 198 | [[/folder]] |
| 199 | |
| 200 | [[folder:J]] |
| 201 | * ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Brig Break", Lt. Kate Pike and Lt. Meg Austin have a minor disagreement whether the proper title of the visitor's registration form for the brig is -77401 or -77501. At the climax, the gunnery sergeant in charge of the brig has activated a nuclear weapon and it can only be deactivated by entering a five digit code. Since the Gunny had perversely tormented Meg by telling her the 5-digit code he picked "has a seven in it", Meg, Harm and Kate desperately try to choose a string of numbers with a seven in it that Gunny might have used on a regular basis. |
| 202 | [[/folder]] |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[folder:K]] |
| 205 | * ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Before dying, Kiriya gives Hojo Emu his [[TransformationTrinket Game Driver]]. Later in the series, when [[BigBad Kamen Rider GENM]] irreparably damages Emu's Game Driver, Emu is still able to fight him and transform using Kiriya's Game Driver. |
| 206 | * ''Series/KnightRider'': If KITT has a new gadget installed, you know Michael will be activating it by the end of the episode. In fact, it'll probably get used ''twice.'' |
| 207 | ** Subversion: In the fourth season premiere, KITT gets a new button marked "C". You might think it was going to be some new weapon or defensive mechanism, but at the very end of the episode it was revealed to stand for [[spoiler:convertible]]. |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | [[folder:L]] |
| 211 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Near the beginning of one episode, Bobby Goren "buys" a brick from a homeless man (in order to take it before said homeless man hurts someone). Halfway through the episode, he uses the same brick [[spoiler:to destroy the window of a car shop belonging to a small-town judge in order to get himself arrested so he can go undercover in the local prison.]] |
| 212 | * ''Series/LazyTown'': In "Sportacus Who?", the absurdly long scarf that Sportacus knits helps him save Robbie when he gets in trouble. |
| 213 | * ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Loves playing with this in various ways, but "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job" features a very obvious example. At the beginning of the episode, a character remarks: "Do you know how ''long'' it took me to hide that pipe wrench in the library?" At the end of the episode, guess where Ford ends up needing an improvised weapon? |
| 214 | * ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': |
| 215 | ** Prior to the battle with Adar, Arondir gives Bronwyn the same alfirin seeds that she had given to him as a gift in “A Shadow of the Past.” After the battle, Arondir uses the seeds to save Bronwyn's life. |
| 216 | ** The tilt Theo found in a LooseFloorboardHidingSpot under Walndreg's barn, in the first episode, turned out to be an ArtifactOfDoom belonging the DarkLord. Waldreg use it to activate an ancient mechanism that provokes [[spoiler:Orodruin's Eruption]]. |
| 217 | ** Halbrand own a pouch with a bird symbol on it. Later in Numenor, Galadriel finds that it belongs to a line of kings native to the Southlands and that Halbrand is the apparent heir. [[spoiler:Halbrand/Sauron actually found it on a dead body, and took it with him for unknown reasons]]. |
| 218 | ** The mithril found deep in Moria turns out to be the very thing that could save the Eldars from fading away. |
| 219 | ** Finrod's dagger is made of silver and gold originary from Valinor, and is later used with the mithril to create the first elven Rings. |
| 220 | ** The constellation the Stranger keeps on drawing for unknown reasons turns out to be a map about the land of Rhun where he heads out at the end of Season 1. |
| 221 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Subverts this concept by introducing roughly two million potential Chekhov's Guns and then only making use of about one million of them. |
| 222 | ** Used while [[spoiler:travelling back in time to 1954,]] Daniel Faraday is called upon to [[spoiler:disarm an undetonated H-bomb,]] but instead suggests it [[spoiler:be sealed with lead and buried under the logic that, fifty years in the future, it hadn't gone off and destroyed the island, so why worry?]] Anyone who doesn't think it'll come back into play by the end of the season doesn't read this wiki. |
| 223 | ** There are countless examples, here is one of the more subtle ones. In Season 3, the Others task Sawyer and Kate with clearing rocks from a dirt region for no discernable purpose. It turns out that they were [[spoiler:clearing a runway, which a plane uses to land on during Season 5.]] |
| 224 | *** In a more rapid-fire example, Fake Locke tells the Losties they can't use [[spoiler:that same plane]] to take off because [[spoiler:Widmore loaded it up with C-4]]. Take a guess what's in [[spoiler:Jack's backpack]] when he boards [[spoiler:the sub]]. |
| 225 | ** In the season 1 episode "Confidence Man", it is revealed that Shannon has asthma and her inhaler has run out of medicine. This becomes problematic since the refills were in Boone's bag, which he lost in the crash. Exactly 100 episodes later, Jack and Hurley comes across it on their way to the lighthouse. |
| 226 | [[/folder]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | [[folder:M]] |
| 229 | %%* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'': Angus [=MacGyver=]. |
| 230 | * ''Series/MadMen'': Of all shows, had a Chekhov's ''Tractor''. Ken Cosgrove brings a John Deere riding lawnmower into the office ([[FridgeLogic how was he able to fit it in the elevator]]?)[[note]]Service elevator? Assembled from parts? It's a small lawnmower?[[/note]] and goofs around with it. At the end of the fairly lighthearted episode [[spoiler:a clumsy secretary riding it ''hacks through the foot'' of a suave British redshirt, covering everyone's GorgeousPeriodDress with ''tons of blood'']]. This one event sets into motion the events that conclude the season. |
| 231 | ** A ([[BlackHumor very dark]]), but also BloodyHilarious moment! |
| 232 | ** See also the list on the trope page; there are a lot of cases where things that wouldn't exactly be Chekhov's Guns in any other setting (e.g. the date of a wedding) become ''massive'' Chekhov's Guns thanks to [[CallForward the setting being the early to mid 1960s]] (e.g. the date of said wedding being [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy 23 November 1963]]). |
| 233 | * In the third episode of season 2 of ''Series/TheMandalorian'', Mando, Cara, Greef and Mythrol—their landspeeder driver—enter an Imperial base to destroy it. As they enter through the garage, Mythrol points at an armored speeder under a tarp and says: "Look, it's a mint Trexler Marauder!" Nice job [[LampshadeHanging hanging that lampshade]] on Chekhov's Gun, Mythrol. (Yes, they later use it to escape with. And it does have mounted guns on it, which come in handy.) |
| 234 | ** Chapter 13 confirms that Beskar can block a lightsaber strike, an attribute it has in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''. Mando receives a spear made of pure Beskar at the end of the episode, and it’s one of the few things that survive [[spoiler: the ''Razor Crest''’s destruction]]. When Mando approaches Bo-Katan for a raid on Moff Gideon’s cruiser, she tells him that the Moff is in possession of a weapon that can cut through anything except pure Beskar, known to the audience to be the Darksaber, and so Mando brings it with and [[spoiler: uses it to fight and disarm Moff Gideon, making him the rightful owner of the Darksaber and setting up conflict between him and Bo-Katan]]. Oh, and it’s the only weapon in his arsenal that can destroy a dark trooper. |
| 235 | * ''Series/TheMentalist'': In the third season, it takes on the form of a literal gun. Earlier in the season Jane is given a gift of a pistol. He has never owned a pistol and is not the kind to own one, but he holds it in his hand pensively. It's seen again once more briefly but is more or less forgotten about. [[spoiler:That is until the very end of the season finale, when he keeps it hidden in his suit pocket and uses it to kill a man who claims to be Red John.]] |
| 236 | * ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Subverted in one episode. We see a character unpacking a backpack and pulling a pistol out and setting it on the table. Later on, we see the killer looking in his window as he has a revelation and rushes off to call the cops. As he leaves the room the camera zooms in on the gun laying on the table. Once in the phone booth, the man is attacked by the killer wielding ... a hammer. The gun never appears again. |
| 237 | %%* ''Mistborn Chronicles'': Vin's earring. |
| 238 | * ''Series/MondayMornings'': When Dr. Jorge Villanueva ("El Gato") goes to the first M&M meeting in the pilot, he brings a cup of coffee and a newspaper. It seems like he's going to read through the meeting, casually drinking his coffee, not paying too much attention to the meeting itself. M&M stands for morbidity and mortality, and the purpose of these weekly meetings is for the doctors to explain to the Chief of Staff why exactly they killed their patients or how they screwed up. But remember "Gato"'s newspaper! While Dr. Martin ("Double Oh Seven") is getting fired for a misdiagnosis, "Gato" takes the newspaper and reads him an obituary of his patient, a lovely woman adored by her family. When "Gato" learns that Dr. Martin's fired from the hospital, but his medical license will stick, he angrily tosses the newspaper in "Double Oh Seven"'s general direction, and leaves in disgust. |
| 239 | * ''Series/{{Monk}}'': Has these in several episodes. Minor details are pointed out that serve to help the audience solve the case along with Monk. A ''massive one'' is [[spoiler:Trudy's Christmas present]], which is pointed out in several episodes, but doesn't get fully explained until the finale when it proves [[spoiler:who killed Trudy]]. |
| 240 | ** In general, if Monk notices anything that's mentioned in a seeming throwaway line, it's essential to the case. |
| 241 | ** There are also instances where Chekhov's guns are shown where Monk isn't the one who noticed it. A notable example is in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife": During the scene where Captain Stottlemeyer is going [[BerserkButton berserk]] with rage in trying to find the person who shot the tow truck driver and thus hospitalized and nearly killed his wife at the police department, a detective mentions a bank job in which a 22-year old clerk was killed, that Stottlemeyer dismisses. Turns out, that culprit hid the gun he used in his car, which was being repossessed by the tow truck driver on the morning of the shooting. |
| 242 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward", Monk makes a point of reminding the police station's cleaning lady to clean ''under the tables.'' As it turns out, [[spoiler:the lost million-dollar diamond is hidden under a table in an interrogation room with a wad of gum, and the cleaning lady finds the diamond by accident after Monk has figured out where it is.]] |
| 243 | ** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", they spend plenty of time showing Monk being hit by a blue beach ball. Which turns out to have the incriminating evidence. |
| 244 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", Marilyn Brody mentioning to Monk and Natalie that she was adopted and had an aunt in Texas. The word "aunt" is important, since she pronounces it differently ("awnt" vs. "ant") later, allowing Monk to deduce that she has a twin. |
| 245 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", they do the job of showing you a security panel in the house Monk and Natalie are paid to sneak into, which clearly says is from a security company founded in 2003. Since the person who is paying Monk has been presumed dead for seven years, after Monk overhears Julie reading off a ketchup bottle from a producer that has been making it since 1840, Monk realizes he's been a DetectivePatsy. |
| 246 | %%* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': Apparently the main employer of Cabot Cove is a factory that makes Chekhov's Guns. |
| 247 | * ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': |
| 248 | ** DoubleSubverted in the episode "The Kissing Bandit", wherein Murdoch tries to catch the title character by installing an exploding dye pack in with the money the bank will give the Bandit. It fails to catch the Bandit [[spoiler:because the Bandit is actually reporter Paddy Glynn, who saw Murdoch explain the plan]], but it ''does'' help identify the CostumeCopycat who murders an innocent woman. |
| 249 | ** Played straight in another episode, when an apprentice hangman shows Murdoch and Dr. Ogden the physics of hanging. If the rope's not measured and tied correctly, the person being hanged can either end up being slowly strangled, or end up being ''completely decapitated''. Guess which one applies to the murderer of the week when he goes to the gallows. (Note that [[spoiler:he was hanged by said apprentice (for the murder of a judge) and he had implicated the hangman's boss in that crime, which strongly suggests the new hangman did it on purpose.]]) |
| 250 | * ''Series/TheMusketeers'': Aramis leaves his mistress's house in a hurry and leaves his pistol behind. It later leads to her death as ordered by her other lover, the jealous Cardinal Richelieu. |
| 251 | * ''Series/MythBusters'': Since a single episode can only showcase a certain number of myths, some of the equipment created for certain myths may appear in the background of certain episodes aired before the episode where it is used is aired. For example, the Faraday Cage used for a myth in the seventh episode of the first season appeared in the background of the same season's first episode. |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:N]] |
| 255 | * ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In one episode, Tony steals [=McGee=]'s apple, munches on it, and tosses the core away in Abby's trash bin. Just yet another example of Tony treating [=McGee=] like the ButtMonkey, right? Yes, except two episodes later we find out that [[spoiler:Chip stole the discarded apple in order to get a copy of Tony's teeth marks, and used them to frame Tony for murder]]. |
| 256 | ** Actually, [[spoiler: Chip]] uses a few Checkhov's Guns from earlier episodes. [[spoiler: In one episode he drives Tony's car around, enabling him to get the fibers from the carpeting. Tony gets a bloody nose at one point that gives Chip access to his DNA. And those silent shoes that spooked Abby in his introduction surely came in handy while he was setting all this up.]] |
| 257 | ** After a treasure hunter is killed, the team discover that the killer was after a map of an forest area in Virginia where a treasure might be buried. Tim then metntions that Gibbs's cabin is not that far from that area. At the end of the episode, the team tricks the killer by providing him with fake coordinates of the treasure site. The coordinates are actually those of Gibbs's cabin where the agents await the killer's arrival. |
| 258 | * ''Series/{{Nikita}}'': In a flashback to Nikita's "first kill", her target mentions to Nikita (who is posing as a prospective nanny for his newborn) that he worries his daughter will inherit his peanut allergy. This comes into play later when it turns out her victim faked his death and is now the head of a gang specializing in human slavery. When Nikita is captured, he proves his dominance by forcing a kiss on her, unaware that she was wearing lipstick laced with peanut oil. |
| 259 | * ''Series/NirvanaInFire'': |
| 260 | ** The book Mei Changsu keeps reading and writing in that showed up episode 1. It's the key to Consort Jing figuring out that Mei Changsu is actually Lin Shu. |
| 261 | ** The letter Xie Yu writes is actually a confession of the entire process by which the Chiyan army and Prince Qi were framed which is later used as the spring board on which to re-launch the investigate into the old case. |
| 262 | [[/folder]] |
| 263 | |
| 264 | [[folder:O]] |
| 265 | * ''Series/OddSquad'': |
| 266 | ** During Olive's flashback in "Training Day", when she and a few other agents-in-training see Precinct 13579 for the first time, Oscar is shown pulling a large circular vault and telling everyone that a pienado is coming through. Todd then asks what a pienado is, and Obfusco explains that it's like a tornado but made out of pies. Sure enough, Todd wields it when he completes his FaceHeelTurn and launches an attack on his former coworkers, opening the vault and letting the pienado loose. |
| 267 | ** At the beginning of "Disorder in the Court", Otto and Olive are discussing the Soundcheck concert that was held earlier that day at the mall, with Otto lamenting that he couldn't go followed by Olive asking him why he likes the band so much. That Soundcheck concert ends up playing a key role in proving Olive innocent during her trial...because ''she'' attended the concert in her partner's stead. |
| 268 | ** In "Oscar Strikes Back", Oona tests a Tiny-Note-inator as a gadget that could potentially help Oscar and Oprah. Later on, when President Obbs has a group of {{Brainwashed}} Scientists search the garage in order to find the person working with Oscar and Oprah, Oona uses the gadget to [[ChameleonCamouflage cover herself, and the ice cream van she came to Lab-Con in, in sticky notes.]] It works, and the group passes her on by, allowing her to make an escape for the nearby elevator. |
| 269 | ** The Season 3 premiere, "Odd Beginnings", has two. |
| 270 | *** The Bag O' Machines, which Arctic Mr. O gives to Opal and Omar in lieu of gadgets. |
| 271 | *** Omar's New York City souvenirs. His Empire State Building replica helps him measure a painting for Oswald's test, and later on, it helps him open the map containing the location of the [[ArtifactOfPower 44-leaf clover.]] Along with his "I Love NY" shoelace, it also helps him measure the stick that tells him, Opal and Oswald what door to use to enter the ancient Odd Squad Headquarters. |
| 272 | ** In "Box Trot", Orla and Osmerelda are shown consistently discussing high-fives throughout the episode. When the Form-Changer, in the form of Osmerelda, [[ImpostorForgotOneDetail high-fives Orla with her non-dominant right hand,]] it manages to tip Orla off as she exposes the Form-Changer along with Star Wipe, Monsieur Papier-Mache and Lady Bread, who are working with her. |
| 273 | * ''Series/OrphanBlack'': The pilot shows security footage of Beth's suicide, in addition to showing it from Sarah's perspective. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Art uses it to figure out that Sarah took over Beth's identity. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder:P]] |
| 277 | * ''Series/PartyDown'': Somewhat lampshaded in the episode "Investor's Deal". A prop gun is brought out and assumed to be real, a scuffle occurs so they decide to hide the prop gun. Casey delivers the line "Well, you know what they say about a gun in the first act". Later a real gun is pulled on party guests and assumed to be the fake prop gun. This turns out to be a real gun while the prop gun remained in the bag. |
| 278 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 279 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'': The rangers came from the year 3000 which was later revealed to be a razed earth with cities few and very, very far between. Fast forward ''eight'' years later to ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' where we are shown as to how it happens. |
| 280 | ** WordOfGod states that ''[[Series/PowerRangersRPM RPM]]'' is set in a different continuity, but that was said previously about ''[[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Lost Galaxy]]'' before it was [[RetCon RetConed]] into the established timeline, so this could still work. |
| 281 | * ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'': In "Escape from New York" our heroines have found refuge in the middle of the night at an empty theatre. On the theatre set is a gun that a character remarks is real. Later the gun is used to kill the bad guy... via blunt force trauma. |
| 282 | * ''Series/PushingDaisies'': Emerson's [[ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting knitting needles]] in episode two, and his shovel in episode five. |
| 283 | [[/folder]] |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[folder:Q]] |
| 286 | * In an episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' Sam leaps into a member of a fraternity that is seen using old bicycle tubes to launch water balloons. [[spoiler: That same catapult method is used to dispose of a bomb planted in the chemistry building.]] |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:R]] |
| 290 | * ''Series/{{Reacher}}'': |
| 291 | ** Tony Swan's guitar, which is briefly seen in some early season 2 flashbacks, becomes unexpectedly prominent in a later flashback when the man who sold it to him turns out to be a criminal who recognizes Swan during a sting operation. |
| 292 | ** When Detective Russo arrests Reacher, he makes fun of a boxed toy in the back of the cop's car. Two episodes later, it turns out [[spoiler:he bought that toy for SacrificialLamb Franz's son after getting to know the family during his investigation.]] |
| 293 | * ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Aaron's brandy tin. Later used in a rather neat ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' moment a la Marty [=McFly=]'s similar version in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''. [[spoiler:Specifically, it's used as a shield to keep the holder very much alive when bullets are incoming.]] |
| 294 | * ''Series/RobinHood'': In an early episode of the 2006 show, the outlaws come across a ledger that details how to experiment with GreekFire (that is, explosives). Robin throws it into the campfire, but the episode ends with Djaq discreetly saving it from the flames. It isn't seen or referenced again until the end of Season 2, where it turns out she was going to give Robin the gift of a pig's head stuffed full of black powder for his birthday. She uses it to [[spoiler:scare an army of mercenaries into delaying their attack, buying the gang enough time for help to arrive.]] |
| 295 | * ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'': In the episode "Profit and Loss," there is an ongoing side plot involving Jim's broken garbage disposal that has nothing to do with the case he is investigating. Several objects are theorized to have fallen in, but it never seems particularly important. However, [[spoiler:when the main villain takes Jim's gun, he misses five times before having a clear shot with the sixth and final bullet. Luckily there is no sixth bullet. It fell into the garbage disposal when Jim was cleaning the gun]]. |
| 296 | * Averted on the May 16, 1997 episode of ''The Rosie [=O'Donnell=] Show''. Singer Music/ToniBraxton was the guest. Her June/July ''VIBE Magazine'' was face-down on Rosie's desk. It was never mentioned because her pictures would have been subjected to {{Pixellation}}[=/=]{{Censor Box}}es, which would not have fit with the kid/family-friendly nature of the show. |
| 297 | [[/folder]] |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[folder:S]] |
| 300 | * ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': The bracelet engraved "12:36" that Harvey gives Sabrina in "As Westbridge Turns". |
| 301 | ** It first seems a slightly eccentric gift from Harvey (12:36 is the time Harvey and Sabrina first spoke back in the "Pilot" episode). However, when Libby steals Mr. Pool's engagement ring and attempts to frame Sabrina for the crime, the bracelet turns out to be key to establishing an alibi for Sabrina. |
| 302 | ** The bracelet finds a place in Sabrina's jewelry box, and it isn't seen again until the [[GrandFinale series finale]], "Soul Mates". Morgan swiped it from the box and gives it to Sabrina as her "something old" for her wedding to Aaron. Sabrina recognizes it as a gift from Harvey, and remembers the significance of the inscription 12:36. This prompts her to call off her wedding to Aaron. At 12:36 exactly, she leaves the church to find Harvey waiting outside, realizing that he's her soul mate. |
| 303 | * ''Series/TheShadowLine'': Has [[spoiler:the BriefcaseFullOfMoney in Gabriel's wardrobe]]. While it's revealed in the very first episode, it only becomes important in episode 6 when it's revealed that [[spoiler:it is marked and was used to buy drugs, implicating police officers in drug trafficking.]] |
| 304 | * ''Series/TheShield'': Subverted with the "MAD Document", a notebook/dossier written by Shane Vendrell during season six that contained EVERY single dirty deed that the Strike Team ever engaged in up until that point in time. Conceived as a means to keep Detectives Vic Mackey and Ronnie Gardocki from retaliating against him after the two discovered that Shane murdered their fellow Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky, the notebook is ultimately given to Vic in season seven, when Shane and Vic are forced to work together to save each other. As the alliance fell apart and Shane dragged Vic's estranged ex-wife into their war, Vic ultimately made the decision to beat both Shane and Ronnie to the punch and narced on both subordinates, via a cliffnotes confession to the first three seasons worth of crimes the Strike Team engaged in. After doing so, Shane contacts Vic and informs him that he's going to narc to the police on everything the Strike Team did, oblivious to the fact that Vic beat him to the punch for the immunity card. Knowing that Shane could find holes in Vic's confession via revealing new crimes that Vic didn't confess to (which would violate the terms of Vic's immunity deal, as far as loopholes go), Vic mockingly told him that not only had he already gotten immunity for his crimes, but added the lie that Vic had used Shane's own MAD Document as the basis for his massive laundry list of confessed crimes, which Vic then promptly badmouth by way of pointing out that it wasn't even as comprehensive as Shane bragged it to be. Shane then promptly went home and murdered his family, then himself after finding himself checked and checkmated by his own plot device. |
| 305 | ** In season 4, when Shane enlists the help of the Strike Team to help him clear his name (due to his involvement with Antoine Mitchell), Lemansky ends up beating up a Russian mobster in an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of the body of an informant he was looking out for. During the raid, Lem takes a brick of heroin and stashes it in his car (which leaves the Russian's female accomplice, who "cut" the heroin, on the hook for it). As the season progresses, Vic and Lem make amends with the Russians by returning the heroin to a Russian higher-up (in exchange for information) and put the female accomplice in protective custody, wherein they're both forgotten about. Once Mitchell is arrested, it's assumed everything is tied up...until Monica Rawling learns in the final minutes of the season that the female accomplice was really a DEA informant, and they have Lem dead-to-rights because he stole the heroin. This motivates the plot of the rest of the series, as it sets off the Internal Affairs investigation and Lem's death in season 5 and the fallout between Vic and Shane in the final seasons. |
| 306 | ** Aceveda is [[spoiler:sexually assaulted]] in season three by two Latino gangbangers who take a cell phone photo during the incident. After Aceveda kills one of the two assailants during a botched convenience store robbery, the surviving thug (who is arrested) tries to blackmail him, wherein Aceveda pulls his own blackmail stunt and sends the man to jail. It's assumed that the plotline has been tied up...until the end of season 4, where the thug, Juan, returns and tries to blackmail Aceveda again by threatening to release the cell phone photo unless he's paroled. Aceveda then uses Antoine Mitchell to take care of Juan by killing him before his scheduled court date. Everything's settled...until two seasons later, when it's revealed the cell phone photo was passed to another prisoner. Aceveda just can't catch a break. |
| 307 | * ''Series/TheSopranos'': SubvertedTrope. The grenade in Tony's cupboard is teasingly never used. The Russian never returns. |
| 308 | * ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': In the pilot episode, John Sheppard is drawn to a necklace lying in the dirt of a tunnel. Teyla tells him she lost it as a child while playing and her father gave it to her. In a later episode, there is much suspicion that a spy in Atlantis has been given away the details of team missions, Teyla is the prime suspect. It turns out [[spoiler:the necklace has a Wraith beacon in it, which has been giving away their position whenever they step through the gate, and Teyla has indeed been the spy - though all unaware.]] |
| 309 | ** Later, in season 3 when Rodney is hit by a beam from an Ancient machine that makes him have super powers [[spoiler:and also force him to either Ascend or die, which he manages to avoid by using a sample of his DNA to fix the changes the machine made]] he becomes smarter than usual and he mentions to Elizibeth that he's designing a hyperdrive for the Jumpers. Later in the first of the fourth season, the expirimental drive becomes very important when [[spoiler:they fly Atlantis to another planet and get stranded in space when they have too little power to finish the trip. They use the Jumper to steal a ZPM from the Asurans before the sheild fails and they all suffocate.]] |
| 310 | ** A conspicuous non-firing of a Gun occurs in another episode: A new species of cactus is discovered, and conspicuously given to (and named after) Rodney, with the warning "Careful: the needles can break the skin". A bacteria of unknown origin is affecting the entire base, and nobody can figure out where it's coming from. The cactus, however, isn't brought up again, despite it being set up as the explanation. They never do explain the delivery vector or infection method (only that it was brought to the planet a long time ago and that the 'soil samples' didn't have it). |
| 311 | ** ''Atlantis''' parent series ''Series/StargateSG1'' is an example of ChekhovsArmory, but "Emancipation" features a literal ChekhovsGun, namely O'Neill's Beretta M9 sidearm. Early in the episode he fires it into the air to frighten off some wild dogs, then to startle some [[SpaceRomans Space Mongols]]. [[spoiler:He later trades it to a chieftain named Turghan in exchange for him letting Carter go.]] |
| 312 | *** The punchline being that it was almost out of bullets. |
| 313 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': "The Trouble With Tribbles" establishes early on that tribbles ''hate'' Klingons, squealing abominably when brought near one. [[spoiler:When they have this reaction to a (seeming) ''human'', a quick tricorder scan reveals he's a disguised Klingon, and thus the most likely culprit for the various issues of the episode.]] |
| 314 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "Reunion", in which Worf's son expresses interest in an ancient weapon called a ''bat'leth'' which is hanging on the wall in Worf's quarters. By the end of the show, the ''bat'leth'' has been taken off the wall and has been used to kill [[spoiler:Duras]]. |
| 315 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': |
| 316 | ** In the episode "The Darkness and the Light", Kira is taking herbs for her pregnancy that render sedatives ineffective, which later allows her to turn the tables on her kidnapper. |
| 317 | ** In "Profit and Loss", Odo grills Quark about a cloaking device. Quark denies having one until it's needed for the bittersweet ending. |
| 318 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 319 | ** The rifle used in Season 2 is briefly seen in the pilot, while Will is looking for a place to hide in the shed. |
| 320 | ** Hopper mentions to one of his officers early on that falling into the quarry from the top would break every bone in your body, as you would hit the water at such a speed it would be like cement. This is one of the things that leads him to believe something isn't right when he sees Will's intact and unscathed "corpse" in the morgue. |
| 321 | ** The Wrist-Rocket – '''not''' slingshot – is introduced early and gets some use in the final episode of Season 1, though it proves completely ineffective. |
| 322 | ** Steve sings into a baseball bat while trying to woo back Nancy. He later uses the bat to rescue her. |
| 323 | ** Mr. Clarke's ham radio is introduced early on and is used by Eleven in a later episode. |
| 324 | ** Subverted with the hairspray as weapon in Season 3. We only see it as a sight gag in the first episode, when logic might dictate parts of the Mind Flayer could be fought with a HairsprayFlamethrower. It doesn't happen. |
| 325 | ** In the first episode of season 3, Dustin sets up a powerful radio in order to communicate with Suzie, his girlfriend in Utah. The radio is all but forgotten until the last episode, in which Dustin uses the radio to communicate with the rest of the teams, ''and'' even manages to finally talk to Suzie who helps the heroes. |
| 326 | ** The flamethrower seen in Yuri's warehouse in Season 4 is used against the monsters in the season finale. Doubles as a possible ShoutOut to ''Film/TheHidden'', which also features a Chekhov's Flamethrower. |
| 327 | * ''{{Series/Succession}}'': the Brightstar Cruises sexual misconduct scandal. |
| 328 | * ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': In the episode "Let us Entertain You", Zack, Cody and Marie go on vacation on the S.S. Tipton. Guess where the boys end up in the spin off ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck''? |
| 329 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean has an [[IconicItem amulet]] that he wears at all times. In the third season episode "A Very Supernatural Christmas," we find out that Sam gave it to him as a Christmas gift years ago. For many fans it [[MementoMacGuffin represents]] the (sometimes disturbingly) [[HeterosexualLifePartners close]] [[HoYay relationship]] between the two brothers. This was highlighted when Sam was shown to have worn the amulet while Dean was dead (Sam returned it when they were reunited at the beginning of the fourth season). Fast-forward to the second episode of the fifth season, when [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] reveals that he needs to borrow the amulet, because [[spoiler:God is missing, and it can be used to find Him, since it glows hot in His presence]]. |
| 330 | ** The rings of the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen]] turn out to be [[spoiler:the keys to Lucifer's cage, and are used to seal him away again]]. |
| 331 | [[/folder]] |
| 332 | |
| 333 | [[folder:T]] |
| 334 | * ''{{Series/Taggart}}'': Played straight in one episode. A suspect's brother has a conviction for modifying replica guns into working firearms, and Burke mentions that one of his guns recently blew up in the face of the user. At the end, the Criminal of the Week points one of these guns at Burke, pulls the trigger... and it blows up in the crim's hand. |
| 335 | * ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': The first season has several conspicuous scenes where electricity is used to disable Terminators, and Cameron shows the Connors exactly how to remove the processor chip from a Terminator by removing it from Vic. In the premiere for the second season, when Cameron is damaged in the car bombing and goes berserk, the Connors end up using both of these methods against her. |
| 336 | * ''Series/That70sShow'': In the episode "Black Dog" ([=S5E9=]), Kelso's BB Gun is a literal example of this trope; it is discussed early on that it went off previously and shot Eric's hamster in fourth grade, and sure enough, it accidentally goes off again and [[spoiler:wings Hyde.]] |
| 337 | * ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'': Parodied in the 'Get Me Hennimore' sketches, which parody old timey sitcoms. A preposterous back story (i.e. a giant jam jar for an Eastern European president, a giant wasp, Hennimore's boss' wife going to a fancy dress party as a wasp) results in a Gilligan Cut to the fallout of a mix-up (Hennimore hitting his boss' wife with a bat). |
| 338 | * ''Series/Tracker2001'': Mel finds a strange artifact among some things of her grandmother's that initially is regarded as unusual but not terribly important. Later, it turns out to be the key to the vault beneath the bar containing the alien weapon. The diary they find also counts, later proving to be a big clue to the key and the vault. |
| 339 | * ''Series/TracyBeakerReturns'': We have [=S2E5 Money=] concering a bag of stolen money. Frank keeps some of it for his grandad. [[spoiler:In [=S2E12 Grandad=] Frank tries to use this money to get a gravestone when Grandad dies.]] |
| 340 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': |
| 341 | ** Near the beginning of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E30HocusPocusAndFrisby Hocus-Pocus and Frisby]]", Frisby is playing his harmonica, and someone asks him to stop because of its poor sound. Near the end of the episode, he plays it while he's being held prisoner by aliens, and the music acts as a "[[BrownNote death sound]]" on them. |
| 342 | ** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E16TheSelfImprovementOfSalvadoreRoss The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross]]", the title character mocks Mr. Maitland for displaying his collection of guns on the wall of his apartment as he was injured in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After trading his compassion to Ross for $100,000, Mr. Maitland shoots him with one of those guns. |
| 343 | * ''Series/TwoSentenceHorrorStories'': In "[[Recap/TwoSentenceHorrorStoriesS2E8ElMuerto El Muerto]]", the faulty fluorescent lamp. Laura is trying to signal "I LOVE YOU" to her mother with it using Morse code. |
| 344 | [[/folder]] |
| 345 | |
| 346 | [[folder:U]] |
| 347 | * ''Series/UglyBetty'': A literal example in "A League of Their Own", where Claire takes a rifle off the wall of the house she and Yoga are staying at and almost shoots Wilhelmina with it. |
| 348 | %%* ''Series/UnnaturalHistory'': Chekhov's [[spoiler:Muffins]]. |
| 349 | * ''Series/TheUntamed'': Early on, Wei Wuxian creates a talisman that explodes into small flashes of light, which is best for creating distractions. Lan Wangji uses this when the Wen Clan arrives to attack the Cloud Recesses, and is revealed to hold onto another when they arrive at Yunping City and Wen Ning gets harassed (albeit harmlessly) by some young boys. |
| 350 | [[/folder]] |
| 351 | |
| 352 | [[folder:V]] |
| 353 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': |
| 354 | ** Damon tries to dispose of a body with a flamethrower. It doesn't work, but the weapon comes in quite handy later in the episode. |
| 355 | ** Meredith's stash of blood in the Season 3 Finale. |
| 356 | ** Elena's necklace becomes very important in Season 3 after two seasons of just being a way to prevent compulsion. |
| 357 | [[/folder]] |
| 358 | |
| 359 | [[folder:W]] |
| 360 | * ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'': Has several instances of this: |
| 361 | ** At the beginning of the first-season episode "Guts", when Rick Grimes prepares to escape the tank, he offhandedly picks up an Army-issue grenade off a ledge and stuffs it in his pocket. The grenade is seemingly forgotten about (as Rick gets to the survivors' camp and has his clothes washed) until the first-season finale "TS-19", when the survivors are trying to escape the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. When the attempts to break the bulletproof glass fail, Carol suggests that Rick use the grenade, which she's been holding in her bag. Rick then uses the grenade to blow the window, allowing the survivors to escape in time. |
| 362 | ** In "Guts", during the scene when Andrea, T-Dog and Jacqui flee the department store roof, Merle Dixon is still chained to a radiator. As T-Dog flees, he drops a pack of tools (in a split-second shot) in his haste to flee the roof. In the opening of the next episode, "Tell It To The Frogs", Merle manages to use his belt to reach a hacksaw that fallen out of the same bag of tools and escape by sawing off his hand. |
| 363 | ** In "Tell It To The Frogs", Dale tells Rick that he's looking for radiator tubing for his RV, and to bring any he finds in Atlanta back with him. Rick and the rescue team fail to find any, and when the convoy sets out in "Wildfire", they're forced to stop and find tubing because the radiator has overheated. In the second season, [[spoiler:the radiator overheats again while the convoy is traveling down a highway, forcing the survivors to stop, which leads to an encounter with a horde of walkers]]. |
| 364 | ** The passing helicopter that Rick follows into the Atlanta city core in the pilot episode is seen once again in the second-season finale, "Beside The Dying Fire", where it's seen by a group of walkers. The group follows the noise and sound of the helicopter, growing in size along the way, and eventually break through a thick fence onto Herschel's farm, where they end up attacking and forcing the survivors to abandon it. |
| 365 | ** The rendezvous point the survivors set up for Sophia in "Cherokee Rose" ends up being used in "Beside The Dying Fire" as a way for the scattered group to find each other. |
| 366 | ** In "Seed", Daryl finds and kills an owl in the opening sequence, in order to feed the group. Later on (during the prison assault sequence), he is notably seen firing arrows that are using the owl's feathers as fletchlings, the first of which he fires into the head of a walker to stop it from sneaking up and attacking Rick as he makes the run to the guardtower. |
| 367 | ** Early on in the third season, the group discovers a cache of flashbang grenades and tear gas in the prison, and mention how it won't be very effective against walkers. They use them several episodes later in "Made To Suffer", during the raid to rescue Glenn and Maggie. In the next episode, "The Suicide King", Rick and Maggie use the rest of the tear gas and grenades to rescue Daryl and Merle from the Governor's arena. |
| 368 | ** In "Killer Within", [[spoiler:Andrew]] activates the prison's generators, which sets off a number of alarms that draw in walkers from the surrounding area. In the third-season finale, "Welcome to the Tombs", the group employs this same strategy to lure the Governor's men into the prison and draw in walkers to ambush them. |
| 369 | ** In "Internment", Rick and Carl pull out a pair of rifles from a trolley of guns that is located near the outer fence, and use them to dispatch the horde that has broken through into the courtyard. Three episodes later, in "Too Far Gone", Daryl hands out weapons from the same trolley to the prison group while Rick is talking to The Governor, and they use the same weapons during the ensuing battle. |
| 370 | ** The bottle of alcohol that Bob Stookey takes from the animal hospital in "Indifference" is used six episodes later, in "Inmates", by Glenn as a makeshift Molotov cocktail which he uses to [[spoiler:escape the destroyed prison]]. |
| 371 | ** The "hitchhiker's pack" gets a level of prominence unmatched by few other items in the series, and its importance carries across a whopping ''seven seasons''. The (orange) backpack is originally carried by a random hitchhiker who tries to flag down Rick, Michonne and Carl at the beginning of "Clear" -- and when they leave King County at the end of said episode, they pass the hitchhiker, who has been consumed by walkers, and take his backpack as they drive off. A half-season later, when [[spoiler:the prison falls]], Glenn finds and loads the backpack with supplies (including the aforementioned Molotov) and takes it with him as he escapes. It is later carried by Glenn (and Maggie) during the Terminus arc, and then used by Rick to stow supplies during the mission to Atlanta to rescue Beth and Carol in the fifth-season episode "Crossed". Finally, it's brought to Alexandria and placed in the group's supply cache, where it is utilized at several points in Season 8 -- Rick carries it with him when he and Michonne have to flee Alexandria, and it is later filled with supplies by Carl and left for the "mystery survivor" (Siddiq). It then makes a return in Season 10 during [[spoiler:Michonne's last episode]], where she envisions a dream sequence where ''she'' has become the hitchhiker left behind by Rick and Carl in "Clear". It is also implied (but not confirmed) that Virgil, who appears in Season 10 and 11, carries a similar distinctive orange backpack, which he had found at some point prior to his first appearance and which was returned to him by Michonne in "The World Before". |
| 372 | ** The webisodes do this retroactively for the "red machete", a weapon carried by the Claimers (and later, Rick) during the fifth and sixth seasons. The "Red Machete" webseries establishes that it was a weapon owned by a father and his two daughters, eventually coming into the ownership of the man's daughter Mandy (due to her being the SoleSurvivor of her family), up until it's stolen by a group of scavengers. From there, the weapon passes through various circumstances until it's found by the Claimers, who use it up until Rick takes it from them in the fifth-season finale. The weapon is then stored in the Alexandria armory and subsequently seized by a member of Negan's army, who makes his way back far enough towards Georgia that when he is inevitably killed, Mandy discovers said machete and uses it to dispatch two walkers before placing it at her father's grave. This then turns into a case of ChekhovsBoomerang when it's revealed that an unknown individual (implied to be Alpha, of the Whisperers) takes the weapon, with it being implied as her signature weapon (to the extent that she uses it to [[spoiler:beahead Tara, Enid and several other survivors]]) in the penultimate episode of the ninth season. |
| 373 | * ''Series/Warehouse13'' loves this trope. Very frequently, comments from past episodes will turn out to be significant, if not downright crucial to a future episode's plot; that episode will always have a flashback to the moment in the PreviouslyOn part of the show, never mind how many artifacts they have in the Warehouse that are fated to become [[RedHerring Red Herrings]]. One of the more dominant ones that has yet to be fired (that is, used in a major part of a plot) is that each Warehouse agent is allowed to have a SecretKeeper for the true nature of their work, but only one. |
| 374 | * ''Series/WayneAndShuster'': This trope was played for laughs on a parody of the siege of Troy. When Shuster's character suggests the Trojan Horse trick by hiding troops in a giant wooden horse, Wayne's character keeps complaining multiple times as a running gag that he preferred his idea of using a giant cake. At the end of the story, the narrator appears to finish his tale and make a cheap joke about it, only to be suddenly hit in the face with cake. Wayne and Shuster's characters suddenly appear in an inset window with Wayne triumphantly noting, "I told you that cake would come in handy!" |
| 375 | * ''Series/TheWire'': Has several instances of this, often taking place over multiple seasons: |
| 376 | ** Season 4 opens with a humorous scene where one of the characters purchases a nail gun. Several episodes later it becomes integral to the plot. |
| 377 | ** After testifying in a criminal case in the second season, a district attorney gives Omar a "get out of jail free" card for his help. In the fourth season, Omar calls in this favor after he is wrongly imprisoned for shooting a woman at a convenience store. |
| 378 | ** In season 4, Chris and Snoop [[spoiler:beat Michael's father to death after realizing that Michael was abused by him]]. Chris spits on him in rage after he's finished, and the spit eventually becomes DNA evidence used to convict Chris at the end of the fifth season. |
| 379 | ** Daniel's past corruption investigation, which is constantly hinted at throughout the series, but never explained until the fifth season (and then, there isn't much more revealed), when it's used as a way to force him out of his job. |
| 380 | ** The most important example takes place over ''two'' seasons. In season three, Detective Bunk Moreland sees a number of kids pretending to be stickup artist Omar and his crew. In particular, one young boy is playing with what appears to be a fake gun and repeatedly insists that he plays Omar. In season five, Omar passes the same boy, who stops what he's doing (''lighting a cat on fire'') and recognizes him. Omar goes into a grocery store to buy cigarettes, and is [[spoiler:shot and killed by the young boy]]. |
| 381 | ** Refrigerator and dead naked girl in Season One, anyone? |
| 382 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': |
| 383 | ** A future Harper is introduced in Season 2. She wrote books based on Alex and her adventures. Some of the things she says are used as plot points later on and guess what Harper's doing in Season 4. She's writing the books. |
| 384 | ** The fact that Mason likes to paint dogs takes on a whole new meaning when it turns out he's a werewolf. |
| 385 | * ''Series/WordOfHonor'': The hairpin that Wen Kexing gives Zhou Zishu is actually [[spoiler: the real key to the armory.]] |
| 386 | [[/folder]] |
| 387 | |
| 388 | [[folder:X]] |
| 389 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'': Used countless times in the series. For instance, in Season 5 Episode 4 "Detour", Mulder and Scully are on a trip to a teambuilding conference with two agents (which foreshadows the general theme of the entire episode). The other agents enthusiastically talk about how they built a tower from furniture and how awesome that felt. Mulder is bored and then beyond pleased when an off-side project pops up, which he immediately connects with another X-File case. Scully is worried about the conference, so Mulder promises her they can build a tower from furniture later in their motel rooms. They end up stranded in the woods and fall into a pit. They find there a lot of human bodies, both dead and barely alive. There is no other option than to utilize the bodies and build... a tower from the bodies so that they could get out of the pit. Other examples of Chekhov's Gun will be posted at the recap sub-page (''Recap.TheXFiles''). |
| 390 | [[/folder]] |
| 391 | |
| 392 | [[folder:Y]] |
| 393 | * ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'': Misty's syringe, last seen in "[[Recap/YellowjacketsS2E6Qui Qui]]" when she joined the "[[{{Cult}} intentional community]]" and turned in her personal belongings. It reappears in [[Recap/YellowjacketsS2E9Storytelling the season 2 finale]], where she retrieves and ends up [[spoiler:putting it to use by killing the friend she was trying to defend]]. |
| 394 | * ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': Humourously subverted (and possibly lampshaded) in one episode. At the end of one scene, the camera zooms in on an innocuous-looking matchbox...who then proceeds to say "Don't look at me. I'm irrelevant." And sure enough, it's never mentioned again. |
| 395 | [[/folder]] |
| 396 | |
| 397 | [[folder:Z]] |
| 398 | * ''Series/Zoey101'': |
| 399 | ** In one episode, Zoey's key (which she always wears on a chain around her neck) turns out to be way useful - it is used to stop the reactors in the school's new electric generators from blowing up the entire school. This is a more extreme example, though, as it was something that she did in one of the first few episodes, and this episode wasn't until season 3. |
| 400 | ** A straighter example in "Dance Contest": at the beginning of the episode, Michael is sentenced for taking the maintenance golf cart for a joyride. Later in the episode that golf cart [[spoiler: runs over Zoey's dance partner]]. |
| 401 | [[/folder]] |
| 402 |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext ChekhovsGun / LiveActionTV
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
