Internal Reveal / Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • "Turn, Turn, Turn" brought the show's characters (and any viewers who missed the movie) up to speed on what happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier: HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD, the Triskelion (SHIELD HQ) was destroyed, and Nick Fury was seemingly dead. The next episode had Coulson learn that Nick Fury was secretly alive.
  • Also in "Turn, Turn, Turn," the audience learns that Agent Grant Ward is The Mole. It's not until two episodes later that someone on the regular team finds out, and the rest of the main cast find out in the episode after that.
• The plot of Alias begins when Sydney reveals her status as a spy to her fiance, and he is promptly killed by SD-6.
• In the fifth season of Angel when Lindsey shows himself to Spike and calling himself Doyle, any viewers who followed the show know something is up because the real Doyle did the same thing for Angel.
• Boomer was revealed to be a Cylon sleeper agent at the end of the Battlestar Galactica (2003) miniseries. Most of the cast, including Boomer herself, didn't find out until the end of season one.
• In the second series of Being Human (UK), the audience knows that Lucy is Dr. Jaggat as soon as the latter appears on-screen. Mitchell remains in the dark until she's killed his vampire charges and the priest he's interrogating about her whereabouts refers to her by her surname.
• The Barrier:
  • For part of the series, the protagonists are persuaded Marta was taken away by the government because her father Hugo is unemployed, while the audience quickly finds out that Marta has actually been taken to a scientific institute. Several episodes later, the protagonists get their hands on a copy of a presentation from the institute that includes a photo of Marta. Only then does her grandmother start considering the possibility that Marta was actually taken away for reasons other than her father's employment status.
  • Upon handling an unconscious Marta, Alejo winds up being the first person working on the noravirus cure to notice her chip implanter scar. The Distant Prologue showed that chip being implanted into Marta's mother right before her grandfather was taken away by government agents.
  • After the children Alejo is detaining in a backwoods camp for scientific research are transferred to police headquarters, Pedro winds up having a brief discussion with Fernando, during which he's informed that the man he's talking with may be his father.
  • Julia spends most of the series masquerading as her dead twin Sara and thinking that she fooled the police. When Enrique gets around to arresting her, he pointedly calls her by her real name after having called her "Sara" during previous encounters. When he does so, there are people who were so far genuninely convinced that Julia was Sara within earshot.
  • Combining two of the previous situations, when Alejo calls his sister Alma to tell her about Marta and Julia's subcutaceous chips, he refers to Julia as Marta's aunt. The latter is news to Alma, who has been employing Julia while thinking she was Sara, by extension Marta's mother, for most of the series.
• Birds of Prey (2002): Harley Quinn doesn't learn that her patient Helena is the superheroine Huntress who's foiling her plant until it comes out in the series finale. After this, Helena in turn learns that Harley has been the Big Bad she is after all this time.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Half the drama comes from Walt trying to keep his new life as a meth cook a secret — particularly from his wife, son and DEA agent brother-in-law. Skyler is the first to figure it out, while Hank doesn't realize until halfway through the last season. Walter Jr / Flynn is the very last to learn the truth.
  • On top of that, the show sat on the reveal that Walt watched Jane die for three and a half seasons. Much of the tension between Jesse and Walt was heightened with the viewer's knowledge that the truth would eventually out. The episode where Walter reveals the truth is widely regarded as the best episode of the entire show (for a number of other reasons as well).
• The Brittas Empire: The identity of the father of Carole’s twins. The audience (and Helen) find out early on in Series 2 that the father is Gordon Brittas. However, neither Gordon nor Carole finds out until the very end of the show, in Series 7.
• Done to a frustrating level in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • One of the things that "Once More With Feeling" is notable for is revealing just about every secret the characters had to each other. Of course, by the next episode, there were another half dozen drama-sustaining secrets put into place.
  • Ben being Glory was played with, in that it was revealed that a spell stopped people from remembering the fact that they inhabited the same body. So even when they did find out, they didn't know.
  • Buffy having been in heaven prior to her friend "saving her" through resurrection was one of the internal reveals in "Once More With Feeling", and was one of the most emotional of the lot.
  • Spike kept his soul secret from Buffy for a couple of episodes, making for quite a powerful scene when she finally realized.
• This happens gradually for Chuck with his close circle. The only two people still Locked Out of the Loop? Jeff and Lester.
• The format of Columbo is built on internal reveals. Every episode begins by showing the audience exactly who murdered the Victim of the Week, how they did it, how they covered their tracks, and usually their motive as well. Then Lt. Colombo shows up knowing none of these things, and we get to watch him figure it out.
• The Company You Keep: Multiple times characters learn things the others (and the audience) were already aware of.
  • Connor Maguire discovers Daphne is his half-sister at the end of "Against All Odds".
  • Charlie discovers Emma is working for the CIA at the start of "All In".
• Dates: Erica comes out to her brother and Callum, after having already admitted she's lesbian with Kate.
• Doctor Who has done this several times, often using viewers' knowledge of the show before it was brought back.
  • Many classic series Dalek stories have the word Dalek in the title and end their first episode with the Doctor discovering that there are Daleks around.
  • Any time there are reasonably knowledgeable alien lifeforms in the show, we wait eagerly for them to realize that this is that Doctor.
  • "Dalek" has two for anyone who knew the episode title — first when the Doctor realizes that there is a Dalek, and then when the rest of the characters realize how dangerous Daleks are.
  • "Vincent and the Doctor" does this to powerful emotional effect. The episode features the Doctor meeting Vincent van Gogh, who is portrayed as full of self-doubt and insecurity. After the Monster of the Week has been defeated, the Doctor takes Vincent to the Musée d'Orsay in the present day, and leads him up to the van Gogh collection. There, he asks a tour guide, in earshot of Vincent, where he thinks van Gogh rates in the history of art.
    Dr. Black: Well... big question! But to me, van Gogh was the finest painter of them all. Certainly he is the most popular great artist of all time. The most beloved. His command of colour the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. To portray pain is easy, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world... no-one had ever done it before. Perhaps no-one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.
  • In "Asylum of the Daleks", we meet Oswin Oswald, a girl trapped on the Daleks' asylum planet who served as the Doctor's Voice with an Internet Connection. We see her in her base, but because we eventually learn she was forcibly converted into a Dalek, the Doctor himself never sees her face. Due to this, in a later episode, when the Doctor meets Clara Oswald, he fails to recognize her even though the audience is perfectly aware it's the same person. Only after Clara dies does the Doctor realize she was the same person and she died both times he encountered her, setting off the big mystery of series seven.
  • It takes until "Spyfall", over a season after she met her first companions, for the Thirteenth Doctor to admit to them what species she is and where she's really from.
• EastEnders has made this its main strategy for driving ratings over the past 10 years (or even longer). Examples:
  • Grant Mitchell finding out about the affair between his wife Sharon and brother Phil.
  • Kat Slater telling her "sister" Zoe that they were actually mother and daughter.
  • Bradley Branning finding out on Christmas Day that his dad had an affair with Bradley's wife Stacey when the two of them briefly split up.
  • Phil Mitchell finding out that his ex-girlfriend Lisa's daughter was also his daughter, not her new husband Mark's.
  • Phil finding out — on his wedding day — that his fiancee Stella was psychologically abusing his son Ben.
  • Bianca Jackson finding out that her boyfriend Tony was sleeping with her 14-year old step-daughter Whitney.
  • Ronnie Mitchell finding out that Danielle Jones was the daughter that she gave away as a teenager.
  • The audience found out who was blackmailing Syed before anyone in the story did. it was Lucy Beale.
• Everything Now: Cam only learns he got Becca pregnant and she'd gotten an abortion long after the audience does.
• Farscape got a nice bit of mileage out of this trope:
  • Moya's pregnancy, first revealed to the audience in the season one episode "They've Got A Secret," has significant implications for multiple villains of the week when they discover this over the rest of the season, such as sending Durka into a full-on Villainous Breakdown when he realizes Moya's condition prevents her from utilizing Starburst to escape a Nebari vessel he really doesn't want to go back to.
  • Harvey's existence has the distinction of not only getting played as The Reveal but an Internal Reveal as well. For the same character! Harvey first reveals himself to Crichton as a bizarre Enemy Mine to help Crichton escape capture by the Scarrans in "Won't Get Fooled Again," but by the end of the episode has erased his existence from Crichton's mind. Later in season 2, Scorpius himself reveals Harvey's presence to Crichton, which ultimately sets up the season finale.
  • Zhaan discovers Aeryn is still alive as The Reveal, sacrificing her own life to bring her back. The Internal Reveal occurs later in the episode when Aeryn pulls a Big Damn Heroes to save Crichton and D'Argo from a Scarran agent.
  • Chiana and Jothee sleep together. The following episode D'Argo finds out, which completely destroys his relationship with Jothee and isn't repaired again until the finale miniseries.
  • "Incubator" reveals Scorpius's backstory to the audience, which he later relates to Crichton in "Into the Lion's Den: Part I," to show him just why he's so desperate to construct a wormhole weapon. The revelation of just how dangerous the Scarrans are and Scorpius's drive to defend the galaxy (supported by the agreement of Harvey, who has Scorpius' memories and intellect, but "not his passions and his fears") almost convinces Crichton to go back on his plan to destroy the wormhole weapon project and consider helping him for real.
  • After Crichton is "twinned" in "Eat Me," a substantial part of the season splits the crews between Moya and Talyn, with one Crichton on each. Talyn!John dies, sacrificing himself to destroy a Scarran Dreadnought. Moya!John learning of this when the crews finally reunite several episodes later severely impacts his relationship with Aeryn.
  • A big one is set up by The Reveal that Aeryn is pregnant in the season 3 finale. Noranti tells Crichton immediately, while the Internal Reveal to various other characters (including Crichton revealing to Aeryn that he knows) drives a fair bit of interactions between Aeryn and the rest of the crew for much of season 4, as well as further damaging Crichton and Aeryn's relationship.
  • Crichton taking drugs supplied by Noranti over most of the season to suppress his feelings for Aeryn does not go over well with her when she finds out. Her furious confrontation with him and outright ordering him to stop taking them ultimately reconciles them and leads to them finally getting together for good.
• The Flash (2014):
  • The first episode reveals there's much more to Harrison Wells than meets the eye. As the audience learns more and more about him, the other characters gradually become suspicious. It all comes out in "Who is Harrison Wells", when the heroes find pretty indisputable evidence that the real Wells has been dead for years and the guy impersonating him is also the Reverse Flash.
  • There's also the moment where Iris realizes that Barry is the Flash, which the audience spent most of a season waiting for.
  • In the episode "Killer Frost", Cisco learns that his brother was alive before Barry reset the timeline, meaning that Barry is partly responsible for his brother's death. He does not take this well.
• Forever:
  • In the flashbacks of "The Ecstasy of Agony" Henry tells his wife Nora about his immortality. She has him carted off to an asylum.
  • Adam is aiming for this in "The Last Death of Henry Morgan" when he shoots Henry fatally, knowing Jo is nearby and intending for Jo to watch Henry disappear when he dies.
  • The final scene of the series has Jo confronting Henry with a photo of himself, Abigail, and baby Abraham from 1945, asking him to explain it to her. Henry appears to be doing so as he begins, "It's a long story…"
• Niles was in love with Daphne on Frasier for years and years before she finally found out.
• Friends:
  • "The One Where Rachel Finds Out" that Ross has a crush on her, followed by "The One Where Ross Finds Out" after Unrequited Love Switcheroo.
  • Monica and Chandler's relationship was treated like this a bit, too. The audience knew by the morning after, but they tried to keep it secret from other characters. Joey found out after several episodes so they were forced to confide in him, until the secret got out to Rachel and Phoebe in one episode, and finally Ross later that episode. Amusingly, Joey was the only one to figure it out just by connecting dots.
• Fringe — Peter finding out that he is Walter's Replacement Goldfish from the Alternate Universe. The reveal to the audience happens at the end of the first season, but once Olivia figures it out in the middle of the second, the audience knows it's only a matter of time until the beans are spilled, and the writers milked it for all the tension they could. Peter's reaction to the reveal does not disappoint.
• Game of Thrones does this constantly, due to the complicated plot and the slow speed at which news travels in medieval Westeros. Examples include:
  • The 1st and 2nd seasons had numerous cases of characters finding out the big reveal from the first episode: that the queen has been nailing her brother and all three of her children are his bastards.
  • Various characters finding out that other characters are dead or not dead.
  • Various characters finding out that Daenerys has dragons.
  • Various characters, especially Stannis and Davos, finding out that the White Walkers are real.
  • Jaime finding out that the capital was besieged by Stannis's army.
  • Gendry finding out that he's the bastard son of the late king.
• Hannibal:
  • Anyone who has been exposed to popular media in the last 20 years knows that the title character is a serial killer who will later be known as "Hannibal the Cannibal". Part of the drama in the series is when and how Will Graham will figure it out.
  • It's also played as a bit of a wink to the audience in one episode when Jack Crawford is having a meal at Lecter's and innocently asks what the meat is. Mads Mikkelson draws out the pause before saying it's just pork. Not to mention the lion in the room metaphor, and the little in-jokes Hannibal likes to make.
• Heroes:
  • The audience finds out that Nathan is Claire's father before Claire does.
  • Don't forget most of the second season, like Hiro finding out that Adam killed his father when it was already incredibly obvious in Peter's storyline.
• Into the Dark: The audience knows early on that the women we see in All That We Destroy are clones. However, the latest Ashley only learns it near the end.
• The Joe Schmo Show is built around this, with the ending of each of its seasons featuring the reveal to the chosen schmo (or schmoes in season two) that the entire reality show they've been participating in was fake and everyone they were supposedly competing against was actually an actor.
• In Kamen Rider Gaim, many members of the audience guess fairly early (earlier than the first character who discovered it actually) that Kouta's missing friend Yuya was turned into an Inves, and was the first one Kouta killed. Once Kouta learns, however, his reaction isn't pretty.
• Cops shows perform these all the time when a suspect is set up by police acting the part of a potential victim or co-conspirator. In one example from Law & Order: SVU, a social worker suspected of taking advantage of welfare-seeking homeless women starts making moves on undercover Benson, touching her from behind as he's showing her how to fill out an application for food stamps. Olivia reveals she's a cop by reciting aloud what she's writing in for "Most Recent Employer": Special... Victims... Unit.
• Legend of the Seeker: Richard doesn't learn why he can't be with Kahlan (it might cause the release of her power during passion, Confessing him) until long after the audience does (aside from book readers of course, who already know this).
• In the episode Legends of Tomorrow episode "Compromised", the Legends discover that Damian Darhk is working with a speedster, which the audience had learned four episodes earlier.
  • In general, the show has quite a few of these. The Legends keep a lot of secrets from each other.
• Let the Right One In:
  • Isaiah slowly realizes that Eleanor isn't an ordinary girl, as a result of her glowing eyes and never eating. She confesses that her eyes glow from seeing in the dark, and she's incapable of eating anything but blood. Though the word "vampire" isn't used, clearly Isaiah knows what this means from the look on his face. All this is after the audience had seen from the beginning that she's a vampire.
  • Isaiah and his mother Naomi also don't know what became of his dad at first. They don't learn he's dead (killed in the pilot) until the fifth episode.
• Lois & Clark had the episode where Lois Lane finally figures out that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Balrog revealing itself in the depths of Khazad-dhum, and nobody, but the audience knows about its existence.
• Lost: The audience finds out Claire is Jack's half-sister more than a season before Jack does. Plus, Richard's immortality, the extent of the Smoke Monster's abilities and influence, and characters like Christian Shepherd and Libby having met various Losties before their arrival on the Island. Mostly these are due to the flashback/flashforward structure of the story and the characters' inability to communicate whatever new information they've learned.
• Lucifer (2016): The audience knows from the beginning that Lucifer really is the Devil but no matter how many times he tells his human assosciates they assume he's lying or being dramatic. Dr. Linda finds out the truth in season two's "Monster" when he reveals his Game Face to her after she demands he stop using the "metaphor" during their sessions. In the third season finale Chloe Decker sees Lucifer with his angel wings exposed and realises he was telling the truth the entire time. It takes until season five for Dan Espinoza to catch up after Michael tricks him into seeing Lucifer's Devil face.
• The Mandalorian:
  • The first season finale ends with a shot revealing to the audience that Moff Gideon survived the crash of his TIE fighter. The titular Mandalorian and his friends don't learn that Gideon is still alive until the fourth episode of season two when they find a newly recorded message that was sent to him.
  • In the second season finale, Mando shows Grogu his real face, which audiences already saw twice by this point.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • The audience already know that Alan is secretly wearing a wig since episode 3 (and episode 34 reminds the audience who missed it). It's only revealed to the others in episode 35.
  • The other dorm residents find out about Bambang and Melani's secret relationship in episode 54, seven episodes after it started.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: It's clear to the audience from the start that Scylla was responsible for the terrorist attack at the mall and that she is Spree. It's only revealed to the other characters later in the season.
• My Dead Ex: Charley learns Ben lied about not knowing where Madame Fortuna is long after the audience had seen this.
• My Left Nut: It's only in the last episode that Mick confesses (while having a nervous breakdown) that he might have cancer to his school friends, who are all promptly horrified.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi: As shown in Part I, Obi-Wan, Owen and Bail are under the impression that Anakin Skywalker is dead. In Part II, Reva tells Obi-Wan that Lord Vader is looking for him, and he realizes that Anakin is still alive.
• The premise of the first season of Once Upon a Time is that all of the people in Storybrooke are fairy tale characters magic'd into thinking they're not. The audience learns this quickly. The Huntsman starts to understand, but then he's killed. Much later Emma gets a proper Internal Reveal, and then the whole town.
• Our Miss Brooks:
  • In "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton", Miss Brooks offers to pretend to be Mrs. Boynton in order to impress the dean of the local college. She thinks she's getting an opportunity to act as Mr. Boynton's wife, but the audience already knows that she has unwittingly agreed to play the part of Mr. Boynton's mother.
  • In "Mrs. Davis Reads Tea Leaves", Miss Brooks overhears a conversation between Mr. Boynton and Harriet and jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Boynton is finally going to marry her and move with her to honeymoon cottage on the edge of town. It turns out that he wants to open a summer camp. Cue her stunned reaction when he proposes they have twenty kids. Not to mention the fact that Mr. Conklin tries to outbid him.
  • In "June Bride", Walter Denton and the Conklins assume that Mr. Boynton has finally proposed to Miss Brooks, and the two are to be married that same day. In actuality, Miss Brooks had agreed to be the proxy for Monsieur LeBlanc's French bride.
  • In "Radio Bombay", a newscast on Walter's homemade radio forecasts the imminent arrival of a strong hurricane. Unfortunately, nobody is around to hear that the newscast originates from Bombay, India.
  • In "Spare That Rod", Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass alter a ten-year-old letter they find addressed to a previous principal. The letter was from the head of the board, accusing the principal of being "flagrantly dictatorial" in his management of the school. They use a typewriter to readdress the letter to Principal Conklin.
  • In "Bobbsey Twins in Stir" Mrs. Davis had been arrested after having unwittingly sold forged tickets to the policeman's ball, but fortunately released soon thereafter. Upset, she goes to visit her sister Angela. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, and Mr. Stone end up being drawn into the scheme as well.
• Power Rangers RPM: Doctor K creating Venjix. The Rangers don't find out until a few episodes after the audience did, and General Truman and co don't find out for quite some time after that.
• The Republic of Sarah:
  • In the pilot, we learn that Alexis is having an affair with AJ, but other characters take some time to.
  • Sarah learns Corrine suspects Danny may be her son's father only in 1x9, long after the audience did.
• A frequent Soap Opera trope. Viewers are often privy to things that the characters aren't, sometimes for years.
• Supergirl (2015):
  • The episode "The Darkest Place" has quite a few. Kara discovers that the head of Cadmus is Lillian Luthor, Lex and Lena's mother, Alex discovers James is Guardian, and J'onn discovers M'gann is a White Martian.
  • "Blood Memory" has several as well.
    • Nia tells Kara she's transgender, something that the audience already learned.
    • Nia reveals her dream powers to the rest of her family, though her sister doesn't take it well to say the least.
    • Kara reveals she is Supergirl to Nia so Nia won't feel alone.
• Supernatural first reveals to the audience that Sam's been powering up by drinking demon blood. Dean is the last person to know.
• In the Ultra Series, a common Internal Reveal involves the attack team of the season discovering the secret identity of the Ultraman protecting Earth at the time, usually near the climax.
  • Ultraman Mebius broke the tradition by having Mirai Hibino unmasking himself in the middle of the series. At that time, he was originally meant to leave Earth under Father of Ultra's orders, but after surviving the Imperiser assault, he was permitted by Ultraman Taro to stay on Earth up till the final battle against Alien Empera.
  • A non Ultra-host example comes off in Ultra Fight Orb, where near the end, a battered Reibatos try to revive Ultraman Belial with the last ounce of his energy, but discovered that Belial was still alive. To the audience, especially in Japan, Belial was already Back from the Dead at the end of Ultra Zero Fight.
  • In Ultraman Z, the fact that Captain Hebikura is Jugglus Juggler in disguise is revealed near the beginning of the series, but the other characters don't find out until near the end when he enacts his plan to steal the Ultroid Zero for himself.
• Watchmen (2019) If you've read the original Watchmen graphic novel (or the maxiseries from which it was compiled), when Senator Keene shows the video of the big secret briefing he received shortly after his election concerning the giant extra-dimensional squid attack to Wade Tillman (one of the few survivors of that same attack), you pretty much already know what big secret is going to be revealed to him, (i.e. the attack was a False Flag) albeit not necessarily how it's going to be revealed. (It turns out Adrian Veidt let his massive ego get the better of him as he bragged about it to the then-President-elect Robert Redford about using it to get him elected.)
• The Wilds: In Season 2, Shelby tells Rachel about what happened with Becca and her guilt over it, something the audience saw before.
• "It Chooses" from Yellowjackets has a few big ones among the adult survivors. Misty, Natalie and Taissa learn that Shauna's husband Jeff was actually the blackmailer and not her lover Adam. Natalie and Shauna learn that Jessica Roberts was actually hired by Taissa to see if anyone would talk and Misty reveals that she killed her. Lottie and Van, whose adult versions weren't seen in the first season, learn everything that's gone down, basically the evetns of the first season.
• Your Honor: Fia doesn't learn until the end of the series that Adam is the one who had killed her little brother Rocca. She's quite upset by this, chewing both her family and Adam's father Michael out for the fact they never told her, particularly since she'd dated Adam while in the dark on this, giving birth to a son by him too whom she'd named after her brother.

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