Eureka Moment / Live-Action TV

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• The Afterparty: Danner has an epiphany about the murder in episode 7 that she explains in episode 8. After Culp brings up an old case of hers involving a woman who was murdered when she opened the door, Danner realizes that the closet door in Xavier's bedroom was closed in every story except Aniq's, meaning the killer could have hidden there and killed him before Aniq went upstairs. She quickly pieces who it could have been and guides Aniq to the same conclusion in the finale.
• Angel
  • Lampshaded when Angel announces that they're waiting for Wesley's Eureka Moment — at which point Wesley promptly shouts "Eureka!"
  • And in the episode "She", Wesley is looking through a Tome of Eldritch Lore when...
    Wesley: Aha!
    Cordelia: That better be an "Aha!" of triumph.
  • Gibbering Genius Fred puts it more poetically.
    Angel: Listen, listen, listen... What are you listening for?
    Fred: The click. When it all comes together and makes sense. There's like a click in your brain and then you understand things again.
• The Dutch Detective show Baantjer featured, in each and every episode, a Eureka moment when the protagonists were in their usual bar, when the barman makes an offhand remark. The Eureka moment always looks and sounds the same too. Eventually Lampshaded, when the barman asks if he doesn't deserve be put on the police payroll.
• This trope was regularly parodied in the 1960's Batman TV show. "That's it, Robin! The man in the grey suit was whistling the Star-Spangled Banner BACKWARDS! The Joker's lair must be in the old fireworks factory! To the Batmobile!"
• Battlestar Galactica ("Scattered"). Gaeta comes up with the idea to network Galactica's computers by lining up soap bars in the latrine.
• Bones:
  • In the pilot, Brennan is sitting down to have a drink and discussing a book written by the episode's original patsy, when they come across the patron saint of fish, and Brennan realizes who the real baddie was, based on the fact that he kept tropical fish tanks that used a certain type of diatomaceous earth, and runs off to take him down by herself.
  • "The Maiden in the Mushrooms" has a C-plot involving Hodgins using the last of Finn's late grandmother's special hot sauce and trying to recreate the recipe using the lab equipment to analyze its contents. He succeeds and Finn starts digging into the catfish that's just like his grandmother used to make, and Hodgins tells him to slow down or he'll choke on a bone. Finn says that that's not a worry with a baby catfish because their bones are too malleable. Cue realization that the victim was young enough that hanging wouldn't necessarily have snapped her hyoid bone.
• Breaking Bad:
  • In the penultimate episode of Season 4, Walt is sitting alone in the backyard absentmindedly spinning his pistol trying to think of some way to save his family from Gus's wrath. After a few spins, the gun barrel points to a potted plant next to him, which gives Walt an idea of a plan to kill Gus, although the plant's role doesn't become clear to the audience until the very end of the next episode.
  • The midseason finale of the final season ends with Hank realising his brother-in-law Walt was Heisenberg all along by comparing Gale's notes to Walt's book. On a toilet.
  • Few episodes later, Jesse figures out what happened to the ricin cigarette after trying to smoke his other cigarette, and deduces Walt did poison Brock.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • In "Innocence", Xander has an idea how they can defeat the Nigh-Invulnerable Judge when Willow gripes that they need an army to defeat him (the idea is to steal a rocket launcher from an army barracks).
    Xander: Whoa, whoa. I... I think I'm having a thought. Yeah, yeah, that's a thought. — Now I'm having a plan!
    (The lights cut off)
    Xander: Now I'm having a wiggins...
• Castle is beginning to show an aptitude for Eureka Moments, usually inspired by his daughter. In a reversal, he gave one to his daughter in one episode.
  • Castle and Beckett will often have these moments simultaneously (or near simultaneously) in order to demonstrate how they click (in more ways than one). For one example, Beckett was writing something on The Big Board when she suddenly had a brainwave... and Castle at the exact same time ran in from the elevator, having obviously had the exact same brainwave.
  • Beckett has even been known to intentionally trigger Castle's Eureka Moments when she wants him to think he's figured something out by himself. One episode involves a bet between them over who will figure out the connection between the victim and suspects first. If Castle wins, he gets to stay with the team, and Beckett's not ready to admit she doesn't want him to go, so she prompts him to discover the counterfeiting operation by saying "They make a lot of money..." In another episode, she's set up an overly-elaborate surprise party for Castle, so when he hasn't quite figured out where he needs to be to advance her plot, she awkwardly asks him if he wants "a soda from the fridge" to make him realize where the "killer" could have hidden the "body."
• Charmed (1998): In the episode "Y Tu Mummy Tambien", after Phoebe is kidnapped by Villain of the Week Jeric, Piper and Paige turn to Cole for help only to find him holed up and trying to find a way to kill himself. Piper suggests he take therapy, to which Cole retorts that he'd "rather chop his head off than have it examined"... which gives him the idea to summon a guillotine and do just that. He never gets to actually use it, however, as he decides to team up with Jeric afterwards.
• Happens with astonishing regularity in The Closer. Brenda has them all the time... in fact, she had one when she was at her father's hospital bed, and another when she was trying on her wedding gown.
• Frequently used in Columbo where the detective would see something that would inspire him and would only be revealed at the end, once that critical detail had been used to lure the killer into revealing their crime unwittingly.
• Criminal Minds:
  • In the episode "Compulsion", Gideon has a friendly conversation with a student who broke up with his girlfriend for another guy. The student says that his ex told him he would suffer the wrath of God, leading to the conclusion that the episode's unsub is religiously motivated.
  • And in a later episode, Reid figures out how to get back a lost childhood memory while having a chat with a hooker in front of an automatic poker machine.
    Girl: So, did it work? Did she quit smoking? Because I've tried everything. The patch, pills...
    Reid: You should try hypnosis. They've had great results with... hmm. [gets up and walks away]
    Girl: Hey, wait, you won, like, two thousand dollars on this machine!
    Reid: [distracted] Keep it.
    Morgan: You do realize that you just gave two thousand dollars to a hooker, right? What were you talking about, anyway?
    Reid: How to quit smoking.
• Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa:
  • While puzzling over a coded poem that his landlady left him, Himura overhears one of his students saying that she has a problem with comparing herself to others and looking for what she doesn't have. This allows him to figure out the solution to the poem, which is to write down the letters that aren't present in it.
  • Tokie inadvertently provides the solution to the "Dali's Cocoon" case when she says how easy it is to notice the absence of something that's usually always present. With this clue, Himura realises that the victim was the would-be killer, who shaved his distinctive moustache so he wouldn't be recognised while buying the murder weapon.
• The Crowded Room: Rya realizes while watching a show with a character who has multiple personalities on TV that Danny might have the same condition.
• Later seasons of CSI have relied heavily on episodes in which evidence gathered for one case provides the Eureka Moment for one or more of the other cases in the episode.
• CSI: NY:
  • In one episode, Hawkes watches a Jennifer Lopez video during his lunch break. While admiring her, um, assets, he remembers they are insured, helping him figure out the case — it's an insurance scam.
  • In another, Flack has to open the door to leave the room he's been in with the CSIs. Doing so makes him remember the door at the crime scene had been locked from the outside, so the killer would've had to have had a key.
• Danger 5: Any time Danger 5 suddenly realise they're amongst the enemy.
  Tucker: I've only ever traveled on one other airline that had this many canine cop shows.
  Jackson: Yeah? What was it?
  Tucker: It was a...a...before the war, and a... My God! This is a German airline! (stewardesses stick MP-40 submachine guns in their faces)
• This is a staple of Death in Paradise. Towards the end of each episode, the investigation will have hit a brick wall until a seemingly innocuous object or statement from one of the others will prompt this in our British protagonist. Usually, this results in confusion from the rest of team, especially in Season 3 as Goodman tends to talk to himself while making the connection and prompting Dwayne to comment that Goodman is crazy.
• Doctor Who has it happen so many times, it's practically a drinking game at show marathons.
  • "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" makes fun of the word itself: the Doctor claims that it translates from Greek as "This bath is too hot."
  • "Forest of the Dead": The Doctor has a couple.
    • When he realizes the meaning of the Exact Words of the cryptic message: "You don't say saved, nobody says saved! You say safe!" The reason why there can be 4,022 saved but "no survivors"? They've been saved to the hard drive.
    • At the end, after River Song's death, it suddenly occurs to him to wonder why his future self, knowing when she was going to die, would give her a sonic screwdriver. The answer? Because he'd included a way to save her.
      The Doctor: Why?! Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that?
  • "Time Heist": In Karabraxos' vault, the Doctor figures out who the Architect is. As befits his Large Ham style, he strikes a nearby gong just to accentuate the moment.
    The Doctor: I hate the Architect!
  • "The Pyramid at the End of the World": The Doctor is just about to confess his blindness to Bill when it dawns on him how to figure out which lab the Monks are watching.
  • "Kerblam!": Trying to figure out how to get inside the Kerblam! warehouse complex and find the person who left a "HELP ME" message in her package, the Doctor hits on posing as new workers after Ryan, who works in a warehouse back in Sheffield, comments that the site reminds him of his workplace.
• This is also a Once per Episode occurrence on the 1975-6 Ellery Queen TV series. In the final act Ellery will be in some mundane activity, usually with his police Inspector father, say "Of course!" and break the fourth wall to ask the audience if they've solved the mystery.
• Sheriff Carter solves problems with literal Eureka Moments, followed by saving the town with an It's Up to You sequence. (Especially ironic since he's the supposedly only normal person in a town full of geniuses.) Sometimes, however, the Eureka Moment moments come from the geniuses after the sheriff suggests a Muggle solution.
• Inverted in Everybody Loves Raymond, when Ray lies that he has a great Christmas present ready for Debra, which he got the idea for on a trip they took to Manhattan a while back when she shouted "Oh my god!". On his brother's advice he gets her a First Edition copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, then has to blunder his way through an explanation of what she shouted "Oh my god" at in Manhattan that caused him to think of the book.
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo: Young-woo's flashes of insight are signaled by the scene shifting to soft lighting and a wind machine blowing her hair before fading to shots of whales or dolphins.
• In Farscape: Not so much a mystery as a scientific puzzle, but while John tries to figure out how to save Earth from the Scarrans at the end of the regular series, Aeryn tells him not to beat himself up over it. Because of the way she phrased it, he gets an idea for a solution, kisses her, tells her to "Never change!", and runs out. Aeryn gets a half-pleased, half-bemused look on her face.
• The F.B.I.:
  • In "Slow March up a Steep Hill", Ward is talking to Erskine about Erskine's daughter's engagement. He uses the phrase 'king of the hill', and Erskine suddenly has an insight into the bank robbery he is investigating and abruptly leaves the room.
  • In "Courage of a Conviction", Erskine and Jim are sticking pins in a map to mark all the locations where a notorious forger has passed forged cheques. Jim comments that the only connection he can see is that they are all major cities. Erskine says that he is certain there is something they are missing. Jim replies "Well, you play your hunch and I'll play mine. That's what makes a horse race". At that Erskine suddenly realises that all the cities marked have major race tracks and, on checking the dates the bad cheques were passed, learns the cheques were all passed around the date of major horse races at those tracks, and deduces that the forger is a gambler who follows the big money horse races round the country.
  • In "The Hijackers", Lew's uncle Walter makes a comment about how everything became worse once he retired and had nothing to fill his time. This causes Lew to rethink the case and realize that the hijack was never about the loot; it was about the company.
• The Finder has Walter Sherman having these in the middle of a Dream Sequence.
• In one episode of Flashpoint, while the team is escorting a serial killer across the border, a soldier whose daughter was one of the victims kidnaps Sam, intending to set up a prisoner exchange so he can get his hands on the killer. SRU figures out how to foil the plan and it appears they have all the involved parties in custody — until Sam gives the guy a brief Where Do You Think You Are? that references the man's service in the Sudan. Earlier in the day, Parker had been talking to a customs agent on the case about her service in the Sudan, and he quickly realizes this is unlikely to be a coincidence.
• Forever:
  • Henry has them so often Lucas can call it out.
    Lucas Wahl: And, cue the "ah hah" moment.
  • In "Punk Is Dead" Lucas declares "It's my turn for the 'ah-hah!' moment!" when he realizes a large nail may have caused the wound in Lucy's skull.
• In Fringe, due to Walter Bishop's mental fogginess, he frequently has difficulty remembering certain things. He frequently paces around and mumbles various mnemonics and unintelligible fragments of an idea until someone, often Astrid Farnsworth, happens to say something that jogs his memory.
• Corporal Agarn's abilty to inspire these was one of F Troop's many Running Gags. There would be an impossible situation, such as O'Rourke's annoying Irish father visiting the fort and overstaying his welcome. Cpl. Agarn would make a comment like "He'll never leave unless the Little People show up and convince him to go back to Ireland." Someone else, realizing this was a great idea, would say "Agarn, I don't know why they say you're so dumb!" Moments later, Agarn, Wrangler Jane, and Cpt. Parmenter would be dressed as leprechauns and sneaking into the old man's bedroom. Suddenly, Agarn would say "WHO says I'm dumb?"
• Galileo: Yukawa gets a particularly hammy one every case, involving him writing equations of uncertain relevance on the nearest available surface, while the show's guitar theme starts playing and snippets of previous scenes zoom past, and ending with him in a characteristic pose with his fingers over his face. At that point, we can be fairly certain he's figured out the case (or at least, the scientific part of it that he's interested in).
• Game of Thrones:
  • Ned has one in "A Golden Crown" when he realizes the truth Jon Arryn died for. The differences in medium (tv series vs. book) is nicely shown in this case. In the books, we saw his mental process as he realized the truth. Here, his facial expressions show viewers he's realized something, but he can't talk about it in front of his children.
  • Theon has one in "The Ghost of Harrenhal" when he considers that attacking Torrhen Square would draw out the garrison of Winterfell.
  • While explaining geography to his foreign wife, Robb realizes that his forces stand between the Lannisters and their home at Casterly Rock.
  • During a reading lesson with Princess Shireen, Davos tells her about a nearly fatal run-in he had with the First Sword of Braavos, who was working for the unbelievably wealthy Iron Bank of Braavos. This reminds Davos of the Iron Bank of Braavos, and how they have the gold to fund Stannis in hiring sellswords to make another attempt on the Iron Throne in the aftermath of Joffrey's death.
  • The moment Yara sees her uncle Euron Greyjoy at the Kingsmoot, she immediately realizes that he killed her father and openly accuses him of this.
• Spoofed in Garth Marenghis Darkplace ("The Apes of Wrath") when people start devolving into monkeys due to contaminated water. The hero suddenly puts all the pieces together (the fact that his friends turned into monkeys after drinking a cup of water, the only two people who haven't turned into monkeys aren't drinking the water, and that the water's a sickly green color) and concludes... that he's thirsty.
• The heroine of Ghost Whisperer seems to have moments like this now and then when trying to figure out the identity of the Ghost of the Week.
• On Good Eats, Alton was agonizing on what to do for an avocado-themed episode (while his assistants are suggesting varieties of guacamole) when one rolls into a sink full of water. He shouts "Eureka!" when he sees that the avocado floats.
• Parodied on The Goodies.
  Tim: But nobody could move at that speed!
  Bill: Yeah, that's... inhuman!
  Graeme: Yes... maybe that's exactly it!
  Tim: Why, what do you mean?
  Graeme: ...I dunno, I shall have to think.
• The Good Place:
  • In the Season One finale, watching her friends argue with one another about who has to be sent to the Bad Place causes Eleanor to think "God, this is torture", which makes her realize the truth: They've been in the Bad Place all along. Thanks to in-universe reboots, the first episode of the second season leads up to the same realization (though in a different context and much sooner in-universe)… and the second episode has an entire montage of them (one time with Jason being the one to figure it instead of Eleanor).
  • In the Episode "The Book of Dougs", Tahani struggles to mend Jason and Janet's relationship while Michael tries to figure out why no one has gotten into the Good Place in 500 years. When Tahani explains her situation to Michael, she claims that "There are so many unintended consequences to well-intentioned actions", which Michael then realizes is why no one is good enough for The Good Place.
• Gotham: In "All Happy Families Are Alike", Bruce and Alfred tear Thomas Wayne's study apart looking for some clue as to what he had been secretly working on. After failing to find anything, Alfred attempts to persuade Bruce that he is on a wild good chase and remarks "There are none so blind..." This suddenly gives Bruce the inspiration for where he should be looking.
• All the characters of Graduados, except the seniors and the teenagers, attended high school together in the eighties, and they are now in their forties. Unknown to them, Patricia Longo is Jimena Benitez, the fat girl of the class that everybody insulted and mocked. She got thin, she changed her name... and wants revenge. Several hints of her true identity were released here and there. And one day... a comment from Patricia left Loli pondering. She had a wave of flashbacks in the night, and got her Eureka Moment: Patricia is Jimena!
• Harrow: In "Aegri Somnia" ("Hallucinations")", Harrow is discussing Francis Chester's death (an event unconnected with the Body of the Week) with Dr. Laurie Badcoe, when Badcoe says that Chester was a dangerous beast who "died in captivity". Harrow repeats "in captivity" and experiences a Eureka Moment regarding the Body of the Week.
• Hogan's Heroes: Colonel Hogan gets most of his ideas this way. A typical scenario involves pacing while the others discuss a problem. He then pauses, smiles, and says "Wait a minute," before outlining the plan.
• In Homeland, Carrie has one when watching some musicians play at a bar and realising that Brody doing the same might be a signal.
• House does this every episode, most of the time inspired by Dr. Wilson. It's actually stated on the show that House will seek out Wilson to talk about unrelated subjects because it helps to jog his mind and inspire Eureka Moments.
  • The show isn't above lampshading it in other ways, either:
  Wilson: Who the hell chats about their blood type? You had to have tested me.
  House: (to himself) There's no reason to ask anyone their blood type...
  (House pauses, and as usual starts staring into space as if he's working something out in his head)
  Wilson: You're about to run out of here now, aren't you?
  (House gets up and leaves immediately)
  • Or, in another episode:
  Wilson: ...and you aren't even listening to me anymore, because I just gave you the solution to your case, right? And now you are going to leave without saying anything else.
  House: (as he leaves Wilson's office) No.
  • House once actually showed up outside Wilson's apartment after they'd had a falling out in the hope that if he could get Wilson talking long enough, he'd eventually say something that would give him an epiphany. It didn't work.
  • Wilson had one once as a result of noticing an obscure detail about a patient. He referred to it as a "House Moment."
  • Lampshaded in season 6 episode 13, Moving the Chains. House walks into Wilson's office declaring he's had an epiphany. Wilson, who is still upset with him, points out that that usually precedes House walking away with purpose, hinting that he should do so right now as well.
  • Taub had one in an 8th season episode while being chewed out by House for not being objective about a patient. He said "... I think I just had a light bulb." House immediately stopped ragging on him and said "You can trust light bulbs."
• Happens often in House of Anubis, usually thanks to Amber.
  • The riddle was "where yesterday always follows tomorrow":
    Amber: Don't try and confuse me with your fancy words.
    Patricia: It's in the dictionary, Amber, it isn't fancy.
    Nina: [suddenly jumps up] Dictionary... of course!
  • Victor is their main enemy for this season and Corbierre (his stuffed raven) is his "pride and joy":
    Fabian: [reading riddle] Inside the core of my enemies' pride is where the final relic hides...
    Amber: Core... core...
    Patricia: You sound just like Corbierre, Amber. Coo... coo...
    Nina: Patricia, Amber! Geniuses...
    Amber: Thank you! Wait, why are we geniuses?
• iCarly:
  • In "iStakeout" when Sam mentions aside why the detectives are being lazy over getting evidence over a supposed pirated DVD guy and they should get the evidence themselves, this inspires Carly to get the idea for the gang to enter the convenience store undercover and interrogate him.
  • In the climax of "iEnrage Gibby", Gibby is about to fight Freddie on the web show after accusing him of attempting to kiss his girlfriend Tasha; when Carly brings up the rotting peanut butter and jelly sandwich from last week being recorded by the corresponding surveillance camera, Freddie realizes the camera caught footage of Tasha tripping and falling on him, and he uses such to prove to Gibby he's innocent.
• Done frequently in Inspector Morse with a inconsequential remark by Sergeant Lewis providing the inspiration for Morse to solve the mystery. In an ITV3 trailer for Sequel Series Lewis, Inspector Lewis actually refers to "that eureka moment".
• Jonathan Creek actually used this so much that at one stage another character actually anticipated that a totally random object would trigger a Eureka Moment in Jonathan, and so caused a distraction.
• Kamen Rider Build: Hearing Kazumi complaining about how Gentoku has ruined his pasta dish recipe despite having the same proportions of the same ingredients to hand makes Sento realise that the Hazard Trigger and the Evol Trigger share enough of a design that the latter likely shares the flaw Shinobu demonstrated in the former, which would allow him to paralyze Evolt in the same way.
• Played with in an episode of Kate & Allie; Kate's daughter Emma receives an ugly Aztec statue from her dad for a birthday gift, only to have various people trying to buy the statue from her or threaten her if she doesn't give it up, without explaining why they wanted the statue. At one point, Allie finally shouts, "Just take the money, Emma! The way they're chasing after it you'd think it was The Maltese Falcon!" With that clue Emma realizes that the statue must contain something valuable and breaks it with a rolling pin, revealing that the statue contained a ruby pendant and a note from Emma's dad. It turns out that the "interested parties" were friends of Emma's dad, who staged a mystery for Emma to solve, and that Allie was in on it from the beginning.
• In Killing Eve, Eve is at a dead-end when trying to track down the assassin she's hunting for. Then, while looking in the mirror and tying back her hair, she suddenly remembers the last time she did this — specifically, she remembers the young woman she met in the bathroom who saw her pulling her hair back, and told her to leave it down. This causes Eve to realize that this young woman (and, indeed any other people who were near that bathroom at the time) may have seen something she didn't. Then it turns out that the young woman is the assassin in question.
• In one Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode involving the murder of an astronaut, the investigation is stalled, until Elliot's son makes an offhand comment that, "I'd do anything [to get to the moon]. Anybody would." This causes Elliot to realize what might have motivated the murder, which in turn (combined with other evidence) suggests the identity of the killer.
• In the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Outlaw Country", Ray realises Turnbull will be transporting his dwarf star alloy cross-country by railroad, which in turn leads him to figuring out Turnbull's entire plan, because he got a little carried away with his train of thought.
• In the Malcolm in the Middle episode where it looks like Hal is going to prison after the executives at his his company used him as their Fall Guy, he confides in Malcolm that he was terrible employee who barely did anything, and took Fridays off. When Francis is talking to Malcolm about having himself legally emancipated, and that he and Piama can take care of Jaimie and Dewey, Malcolm has a realization and needs to tell Hal immediately, but decides to wait until he's done having sex with Lois. At the trial, Hal testifies that he took Fridays off without permission, and when he's asked how's that relevant, Hal states that Malcolm figured out that the days where he was supposed to be conducting illegal pay offs, and other shady white collar crimes, were all Fridays. When asked if he could prove himself, he shows his "memory box" is full of souvenirs and memorabilia from all the places he visited on the Fridays he didn't show up for work.
• Married... with Children: Kelly Bundy once gets one of her rare moments of insight and announces it with "Urethra!"
• Classic example, from M*A*S*H; Hawkeye and BJ challenge Winchester to join them in a poker game with Col. Potter, Major Houlihan, Father Mulcahey and Radar, only to have Winchester way ahead halfway through. While Winchester is taking a break, the others complain about his annoying whistling, with Radar commenting that he keeps whistling even louder when he's bluffing. A few seconds later...
  Hawkeye: A-ha! He whistles louder...
  All: ...When he's bluffing!
• A staple on Midsomer Murders, where DCI Barnaby regularly receives the inspiration for solving the murder case from unrelated conversations, often in chats with his wife about whatever happens to be their personal side story (preparations for a county fair, talking with a real estate agent, etc.) in the episode. In one case, he was at his daughter's big play, when the moment came from one of the actor's lines. Cully goes onstage just in time to see her dad running towards the exit, knowing exactly what's happening.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: In the 1950s segments. Whilst Monarch know that the Titans exist and have existed since before humans walked the Earth, they still can't work out how such gigantic creatures are moving around in the 20th century without anybody detecting them. Until Bill, while mulling over a map, sees an ant crawl into a hole on the map and out the other side, leading him to realize that the Titans must be traveling the world via a network of underground passages.
• Monk: In one episode, the date on a ketchup bottle let him work out a whole case he hadn't even known existed! In earlier seasons, this frequently led to some humorous non-sequiturs, such as "If he's 37 years old, then I know how the judge was killed."
• Jessica Fletcher gets them a lot on Murder, She Wrote.
• A common occurrence with William Murdoch in Murdoch Mysteries.
  • Lampshaded in "Convalescence" when Crabtree is standing for Murdoch as acting detective. Having reached a seeming dead end in the case, Crabtree starts staring The Big Board. When Higgins asks he what he is doing, Crabtree says that whenever this happens to Murdoch, he stares at the board and everything suddenly falls into place. He then adds that it is not as easy as Murdoch makes it look and all he is getting is a headache.
  • In "The Kissing Bandit", Julia Ogden's sister is trying to explain to Murdoch that, even though Julia has settled for marrying someone else, that doesn't mean she doesn't love Murdoch, if he would only act on his own feelings, rather than resign himself to the situation. She then uses the reaction of a woman kissed by the Bandit as an example of being swept away by one's feelings.
    Murdoch: I wasn't aware I had resigned myself to anything, Miss Ogden. But you have given me some insight into this case.
    Ruby Ogden: I have? I didn't intend to.
• Parodied in Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the "Philosophers' Football Match" sketch, there is a literal "Eureka!" moment from Archimedes, who suddenly realizes that he's on a football pitch and shouts it to the heavens, before starting a quick attack in the dying minutes of the match that allows Socrates to score the game-winning goal.
• In NCIS, McGee got one while taking a polygraph test when the examiner mentioned that the regulars on her morning train were worried when they didn't see her.
• Happens in nearly every episode of NUMB3RS, with camera effects indicating the mathematical wheels turning in Charlie's head. Usually followed up with the strangely PBS-like explanation of the relevant analogy. Somewhat less common in the last two seasons, though it still happens.
  • Lampshaded at one point by Amita, who had been talking to Charlie about a break in at his house until Charlie suddenly makes a connection to the case.
    Amita: Are we not talking about the same thing anymore?
  • Larry has a literal one in "All's Fair", complete with multiple similarities to the Trope Namer. He even yells Archimedes' name in triumph as he runs across campus. In his bathrobe.
  • Don gets one in "The Janus List". Charlie is somewhat taken aback at actually seeing from an outside perspective what a Eureka Moment looks like.
    Charlie: Is that the face that I make when I...?
• Padre Coraje has a Non-Powered Costumed Hero, Coraje, who poses as the priest of the village. Clara Guerrico remembered several details about both of them, and realized his secret identity.
• In the Parks and Recreation episode "Eagleton", Leslie is struggling to overcome her rival Lindsay in the neighboring town, who put up a fence in the middle of a shared public park. Ann offers to beat Lindsay with a baseball bat, which gives Leslie an idea. Cut to a few days later, when Leslie has turned Pawnee's side of the park into a baseball field using the fence as a convenient boundary.
• In the Power Rangers in Space episode "Five of a Kind", T.J.'s watching video footage of the Rangers' last fight against The Psycho Rangers (who the Rangers have struggled badly against up to this point, as each Psycho copies their individual fighting style) when the color disappears from the video. The monochrome footage gives him the idea to disguise the entire team in the same color uniform, so the Psychos won't know who is who.
• In Prison Break, Mahone puzzles over a clue to where Michael is going that ends with the word "woods." After seeing the badge of a cop whose last name is Rivers, he realizes that the clue does not refer to a place but a person.
• Probe:
  • "Computer Logic": When Mickey tells Austin that the broken rose petal reminds her of a piece of glass, he finally makes the connection to what happened; this episode's death was caused by liquid nitrogen.
  • "Computer Logic, Part 2": Michelle tells Austin to think about who can dial a phone, but doesn't like to talk, and knows all of Austin's unlisted telephone numbers. He immediately realizes that the mysterious figure who has been prank calling him and causing the mysterious electrical behaviour must be Crossover, the Artificial Intelligence.
  • "Untouched by Human Hands": When Mickey points out that Austin can't be aware when every acorn falls, he thinks of tea. That chain of random thoughts helps him realize that there was something wrong with the tea in the radiation lab. The glass of tea in the video was full, but they sent the robot in when it was half-empty.
  • "Metamorphic Anthropoidic Prototype Over You": While decoding Josephine's writings, Austin realizes that she thinks all of reality is just like on television. Her morality is based on things like Soap Operas, where killing romantic rivals is acceptable behaviour. He immediately calls Mickey and tells her to lock down the warehouse for her protection.
  • "Plan 10 from Outer Space": Reading the letter from the lightning rod company helps Austin figure out what really happened to Truman. He tells Mickey to get the other two characters and he's going to show them who "Rexel 14" and the murderer really are.
  • "Quit-It":
    • Austin provokes Mickey into insulting Lou to figure out why the neighborhood didn't like him. One of the things she mentions is that he was reluctant to talk about children, even with his wife. At that moment, Austin realizes that the kids were in control, and responsible (somehow) for the Brainwashing.
    • Another realization hits Austin when Mickey tells him he's been listening to the same song for too long. He checks a cassette from the neighborhood for Subliminal Seduction, finding a message for him specifically.
• Shawn Spencer in Psych frequently has major Eureka Moments very early in the episode. Usually he's figured out the particularly far-fetched explanation very early (such as figuring out that a victim had been bitten by a T-Rex... don't ask), but the whole episode then revolves around him and Gus trying to find the evidence to prove the outlandish theory correct. Reverse Detective Work, maybe?
• Sam induces one in a doctor in the pilot episode of Quantum Leap. When the leapee's pregnant wife goes into early labor, Sam uses his medical training to recommend certain drugs to stop the labor. Unfortunately, these drugs do not exist in 1956, leading an air force physician to assume that he is pulling a stunt. Sam then remembers that the technique (developed in the 1960s) originally used alcohol; when he tells the increasingly irate doctor to think about what an intravenous solution of 5% alcohol and glucose would do, the doctor considers the implications and then realises that the idea is sound.
• Radio Enfer: When Laplante becomes principal instead of Giroux, he starts abusing his power, which makes Giroux comments that, at this rate, Laplante would become someone like Pinochet, Napoleon, or Stalin, and how big his ego had become. Maria then gets an idea on how to have Laplante be fired from that job, which consists of making him say what he really thinks of the school inspector Carole Péloquin without knowing of the latter's presence.
• Red Dwarf: In "Quarantine", Lister, the Cat and Kryten are stuck in quarantine and on edge from five days stuck with each other for company. As the situation gets tense, Lister points out they've been there and showed no signs of any symptoms of anything, allowing Kryten to realize that by Space Corps regulations they can demand Rimmer give them a re-screening and let them out, since Rimmer is Bothering by the Book. Sadly, it turns out Rimmer was listening, and is... not his usual self.
• This trope regularly occurred on Remington Steele, with Steele being reminded of an old movie which somehow resembles the case he is working on. Sometimes used as a Red Herring when Steele's movie references end up providing a plausible but entirely incorrect solution.
• In one episode of Seven Days, a scientist discovers a cure for cancer by seeing some water on her morning jog. The discovery is apparently averted when Frank goes back and interrupts her right before she sees the water — but she discovers it anyway after receiving a similar Eureka Moment from some coffee Frank gives her.
• Scrubs uses this regularly as well. JD often sees his friends solve their problem of the week and realizes this can be applied to his own situation.
  • Beautifully lampshaded here:
  J.D.: Oh, I'm just doing this thing where I use a slice of wisdom from someone else's life to solve a problem in my own life.
  Jordan: Seems coincidental.
  J.D.: And yet I do it almost every week.
  • Parodied in one episode using paint. It was a parody of House.
• Sherlock Holmes does this all the time on Sherlock.
  • "PINK!!!!"
  • A memorable example; in the third season episode "The Sign of Three", during a long, rambling best man's toast at John Watson's wedding, he mentioned a case that he was not yet able to solve, highlighting how John had helped save the life of the intended murder victim, an Army officer. At the end of the speech, when he called for a toast for "John Hamish Watson", he realized that a woman involved in another case knew John's Embarrassing Middle Name and that he was getting married, and followed that thread to uncover that one of the guests at the wedding, John's old army commander, was a target for the same attempted killer. He decides to tell John about it, and than Sherlock, John and Mary solve the case together, and John's old Army commander doesn't get killed.
• Hong Kong prime time dramas seems to love this trope. Case in point, the period drama Song Shijie, where the eponymous character is a court lawyer who seems to be surrounded by people and incidents that randomly give him pivotal clues.
• A simultaneous example occurs in the Square One TV Mathnet mystery "The Case of the Mystery Weekend". While playing a game of color 8-ball, where the player must sink balls in the order red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple-black, George Frankly realizes that guests have been disappearing in a similar order, going by the decorations of the rooms they were assigned. Later, fellow guest and sax player Miles Reed reveals he deduced the same thing, presumably inspired by "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", the song Reed had been practicing throughout the weekend.
• Stargate SG-1. If Jack O'Neill is going to solve the episode's problem without shooting his gun a bunch, he'll say something random and Carter'll build a solution out of it.
  • The moment in Window Of Opportunity where O'Neill finally realises that he can, in the words of Daniel Jackson, do anything without having to worry about consequences.
  O'Neill: ...excuse me.
  Teal'c: <puts the chalk down, bows his head and follows Jack out of the room.>
  • When Anubis attacks Earth with a weapon that will cause the Stargate to explode, everyone is desperately trying to find a way to stop the process. Until alien visitor Jonas Quinn notes that the Stargate is much bigger than the doors to the gate room, and asks how they got it in. Carter tells him the ceiling opens, and the gate was lowered down. He asks if could go back up. She repies doing so won't disconnect the gate, and there's nowhere on the planet they can take it... This brings about the sudden realization that they don't have to shut down Anubis's weapon, they just have to get the Stargate off the planet and let it explode somewhere else.
    • Another one later in the same episode when, after O'Neill is unable to get the Stargate to a safe altitude with the X-302, he realizes that for these purposes the unstable hyperdrive is just as good as a fully functional one: it doesn't matter where the gate is sent, so long as it's not here. This hadn't even been considered as a backup plan; it just suddenly occurred to O'Neill when he ran out of fuel before reaching escape velocity.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • In "Darmok", Picard finally figures out that the Tamarians communicate purely through metaphor. The Tamarians use the expression "Sokath, his eyes uncovered!" to refer to realization or understanding.
  • In "Hero Warship", the Enterprise is caught in the same gravitational wave that destroyed the Vico. Timothy, the Sole Survivor, tells Data that everyone else on the ship kept saying "more shields", making the android realize the shields might have something to do with the wave. Thankfully, he's fast enough to realize what was going on and convinces Picard to drop the shields in time.
  • In "The First Duty", Picard tasks La Forge and Data to go over the flight data recorder from Wesley Crusher's shuttle to figure out what caused an devastating crash that took the life of a squadmate. La Forge is skeptical, but does it anyway. After awhile, Picard approaches them and it seems that they're coming up with the same conclusion Starfleet Academy was - no idea what was going to happen and things seem sketchy, but no concrete proof. La Forge does note that the plasma interlock on Wesley's shuttle was opened, which is extremely dangerous as it could ignite the warp drive plasma. This little bit of information makes Picard realize what Nova Squadron was trying to do — a Dangerous Forbidden Technique known as a Koolvord Starburst. Forbidden because the last time it was attempted at the Academy, all five cadets were killed.
  • In “Thine Own Self”, Troi is taking the Bridge Officer qualification test. Having failed the test three times, Troi seeks Riker for help, asking whether the test is actually an Unwinnable Training Simulation or a Secret Test of Character. But Riker tells her "I can't. As much as I care about you, my first duty is to the ship. I cannot let any bridge officer serve who's not qualified. I'm sorry." Troi then realizes that the true purpose of the test is telling whether she’s willing to send an officer to their death to save the ship, even if that officer is her friend, as she sends Holographic!Geordi to a deadly assignment.
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Court Martial", Kirk idly mentions to Spock that he might be able to beat his next captain in chess when it seems that the evidence against Kirk seems airtight and he might be punished for seemingly killing a crewmember. Spock utters "Chess..." and heads out. When McCoy finds him later, the doctor's incensed that Spock's just playing a leisurely game of chess while his best friend is in danger before Spock adds in that he just won four games in a row, an impossibility. After winning a fifth, he tells McCoy that he had been with Kirk the entire time everything had happened and that while a computer can be "flawless", something didn't add up. Winning five games in a row gave Spock the proof he needed that the computer, and thus the evidence, was tampered.
  • ...That could be thought of as a philosophical bookend paired with Kirk's Eureka Moment in "The Corbomite Maneuver," where Spock uses an analogy to chess as a way of signifying their lack of options, but then McCoy idly mentions bluffing, and Kirk suddenly realizes that an analogy to poker is much more suitable to their situation.
• Stranger Things: In Season 2, Murray tells Nancy and Johnathan that no-one will believe that they caught Hawkins National Laboratory admitting to a cover-up, even though they have a recording, because what they're covering up is too surreal. People would look for any excuse to disbelieve it. Murray gets his idea when he says that the vodka he's drinking is too strong and he needs to water it down a bit - they need to sell a 'watered-down' version of the story, where the lab is painted confessing to a far more believable crime.
• True Detective: In the first Season Finale, the protagonists try to crack the Yellow King conspiracy once and for all. Cohle says they'll need to look at the old files with fresh eyes, "like we're totally green." This reminds Marty of a child's description of her attacker as a "spaghetti monster with green ears". Digging through the files, he finds a relevant photo of a house...with a suspiciously fresh coat of green paint.
  Cohle:...Fuck you, man.
• UFO (1970): Early in the episode "The Dalotek Affair", a meteor falls on the Moon as part of an alien plot. Late in the episode, Commander Straker remembers a single word from a 10-year-old TV broadcast ("fireball") and realizes that his subconscious mind is trying to tell him about the meteor's significance.
• Ultraman Mebius has such a moment in episode 34, when watching Ryuu light a campfire by twirling a stick on a piece of wood allows him to develop the drill kick technique he uses to defeat the Kaiju Of The Week
• Vera: Vera experiences one in "Natural Selection" when Aiden mentions that the cells are full because it is a full moon, and she suddenly realises what has been bothering her about the video tape showing the beach. The moon was almost full on the night of the murder, but the middle section of the tape shows a waxing moon, meaning that someone had swapped thhe middle section of the recording for a footage taken a week earlier.
• The West Wing has a few episodes where most of it is spent by the characters trying to come up with a solution to an apparently-impossible-to-solve dilemma until an off-hand remark leads to a novel solution.
  • One has Josh struggling with trying to determine a solution for an unfavorable rider to a long-fought-for bill that will result in a piece of land being used for strip-mining. After wracking his brains all episode without success, a chance comment from Donna about antiquated computer systems reminds him of a long conversation with the President earlier in the episode about national parks, and he comes up with the idea of using the Antiquities Act to have the President declare the region a national park.
  • Another one concerned judicial nominees after the death of a Supreme Court Justice, and the declining health of the Chief Justice. Although all the characters were unhappy that they couldn't get the nominees they wanted confirmed, it wasn't until Donna told Josh the story of how her parents got their cats (they went to an animal shelter, and they couldn't decide between two, so they got both) that he has the idea of letting the Republicans name whoever they want for the open seat, if they will accept the Democratic nominee for Chief Justice.
  • "Hartsfield's Landing" has one invoked by Bartlet upon Sam during the denouement of the overaching plot regarding the diplomatic crisis between the US and China over Taiwan. Taiwan intends to test-fire the US-built PATRIOT missile defense system while China responded by organizing a massive military exercise designed to simulate an invasion of Taiwan, the end result is over 400,000 troops on high alert around the Taiwan Strait, not including the US 7th Fleet which was ordered to the Strait by Bartlet and a second fleet en route; all this is on top of the Chinese ambassador expressing displeasure at the US continuing to sell Taiwan advanced military weapons, including the prospect of the US selling four Aegis-equipped destroyers but which the Bartlet administration refuses to roll back for several reasons (Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the impending announcement of Taiwan holding its first free elections) and the threat of China test-firing their own missiles if Taiwan does. Eventually, word gets to Bartlet and Sam, who has been following all this from his office, that the issue was resolved diplomatically and that the fleets the US Navy sent were ordered to return. Sam elects to try to figure out how it was done with Bartlet watching: the deal was that China would stand down from the exercises and allow Taiwan to test-fire one PATRIOT missile, while the US agreed not to sell the Aegis destroyers to Taiwan for ten years (Sam had guessed five, but the gist was there). What Sam couldn't figure out was why Bartlet was seemingly willing to risk war with China when Eisenhower had balked at sending ships to resupply Quemoy and Matsu (island groups in the Strait controlled by Taiwan but less than a mile from the Mainland) back in the 1950's, plus the fact that each Aegis destroyer cost $800 million and four alone would eat half of Taiwan's defense budget and the fact that selling them to Taiwan risked China getting ahold of the advanced radar technology if Taiwan did get taken. Bartlet simply prods Sam to carry on the conclusion: Bartlet had never intended to actually sell Taiwan the destroyers, it had been a bluff designed to allow China to back down while saving face. The distinction between intention and what's actually happening had been hinted at earlier when Bartlet sees Sam make the mistake of assuming that "the US Navy is in the Strait" and "the US Navy is on its way to the Strait" are the same thing.
• Yes, Minister: During the special "Party Games", Sir Humphrey and Sir Arnold meet to discuss the possibility of a new Prime Minister, and being civil servants wish to rig the situation so they'll get the man the civil service would prefer; non-controversial, liked by both sides of the split, easily led, has no ideas of his own... as they talk, they come to the realisation that Jim Hacker would be the perfect man.
• Young Sheldon: In "An Introduction to Engineering and a Glob of Hair Gel", Sheldon is working on his engineering assignment outdoors when the wind flips the pages on his notebook. That's when he realizes that he wasn't taking wind into account when designing his bridge. Maybe when Boucher said "this bridge is in pieces" he actually meant that the wind would tear apart a bridge constructed from Sheldon's design.

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