Not So Stoic / Live-Action TV

• Lexa from The 100 believes that feelings are a weakness and has deliberately repressed her emotions. After spending enough time with her, Clarke is able to tell that Lexa's not as emotionally numb as she'd like people to believe, and pushes her to admit her feelings. Lexa responds, first with anger at Clarke for dredging up her emotions, then by finally admitting that she's developed feelings for Clarke, and kisses her.
• Angel:
  • The stoic and controlled Angel has had a few episodes of this. He nearly smothered Wesley to death for betraying him and costing him his son, completely blew up one time on Buffy after she dealt him some very harsh words, and later with Connor after he locks him in a safe and lets him starve in the bottom of the ocean for 3 months. Season 2 and Season 5 in particular were nothing but a non-stop sliding scale of undoing for him, pushed to the very edge by Wolfram & Hart.
  • Wesley, famed for his rationality and calm, had two cases of Cynicism Catalyst. First, torturing a woman after being exiled and isolated from Angel's team. Second (and most famous), Fred's death where he stabbed Gunn, shot Knox, and shot a Wolfram & Hart employee.
• Bones: Temperance "Bones" Brennan is sometimes accused of being an Ice Queen, due to her emotionally distant manner and lack of social skills. When Tempe loses it, you get to see the Broken Bird inside.
  • In one of the early episodes her uncaring attitude was being used against her in a court case. Booth has the attorney bring up her vanished parents in order to show this trope to the jury.
    Brennan: How I feel doesn't matter. My job doesn't depend on it.
    Levitt: But it's informed by it. Or are you as cold and unfeeling as you seem?
    Brennan: [in a raw emotional tone] I see a face on every skull. I can look at their bones and tell you how they walked, where they hurt. Maggie Schilling is real to me. The pain she suffered was real. Her hip was being eaten away by infection from lying on her side. Sure, like Dr. Stires said, the disease could contribute to that if you take it out of context; but you can’t break Maggie Schilling down into little pieces. She was a whole person who fought to free herself. Her wrists were broken from struggling against the handcuffs. The bones in her ankles were ground together because her feet were tied. And her side, her hip, and her shoulder were being eaten away by infection. And the more she struggled, the more pain she was in. So they gave her those drugs to keep her quiet. They gave her so much it killed her. These facts can't be ignored or dismissed because you think I'm boring or obnoxious, because I don't matter. What I feel doesn’t matter. Only she matters; only Maggie.
  • It's especially jarring in an episode where she begins to associate herself with a dead woman who was, like her, a loner with no friends outside of work and a Love Interest she spurned. She even keeps hearing the woman's recorded voice as her own and seeing herself in all the pictures of the victim. She realizes that she has screwed up her one chance to be happy with Booth. This episode is all about her stoicism slowly slipping.
  • Interestingly played with in the season 7 finale when Brennan is being framed for the murder of the victim of the week. Brennan remains hyper-logical throughout, while other characters fall apart. It's pretty predictable that Booth and Angela will get emotional, but when Cam starts crying because she doesn't want to turn over evidence that will get Brennan arrested, you know the situation is serious.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Mike is an extremely professional associate for Gus' drug empire, and doesn't let his emotions interfere with his work, including not even blinking an eye when he's told to kill any number of people that might endanger their operation. However, there's a few moments where even he gets rustled, such as when Gus suddenly slits Victor's throat, which was so unexpected that Mike instinctively pulls his gun on his own boss.
  • Gus himself, who holds himself to a high standard and gives off a very polite, unwavering background, even when he's murdering people. However, there are two major moments in the show when he's legitimately shocked: the first is a flashback where his former partner is gunned down right next to him, he's so shellshocked and enraged he runs at the killer to try and kill him with his bare hands without a second thought. The second moment is when he realizes Hector has a bomb under his wheelchair that he's just triggered. He screams and jumps up, but he regains his composure after the blast just long enough to step out of the room and straighten his tie before slumping over dead.
• The Bridge (2011): After experiencing a Trauma Conga Line in series 3, Saga has one of these moments when she collapses in tears after almost committing suicide.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Oz is famed for his utter lack of emotional response to pretty much any intense situation, reacting to both realizing he's a werewolf and finding a submarine on his doorstep with a mere "huh". Push him over the edge, though, and things will get broken. Or beaten up. Or possibly killed. For most seasons, this Berserk Button consisted of Willow—either seeing her threatened, hurt or faced with the prospect of losing her. And after he did lose her, there were tears. Both times. Later on this focus shifts to his wife and son.
• Crisis on Earth-X: When Professor Stein dies of wounds getting the team back to Earth-1, Sara Lance, a League of Shadows-trained assassin, gives him a quick kiss goodbye in the WaveRider med bay. Later, she is almost crying at his funeral and thanking him for placing his trust in her as leader of the Legends.
  • At the funeral, Mick Rory sheds a couple of manly tears, which Earth-X Snart tells him, "It's ok, let it out, big guy." Mick then claims it was allergies.
• Aaron Hotchner of Criminal Minds is usually the embodiment of stoicism, which makes the events of the episode "100" all the more heart-wrenching.
• Dallas: The Season 7 episode "Swan Song" was supposed to be Patrick Duffy's swan song in the series, for good, when Bobby Ewing is struck by a speeding car (driven by the homicidal maniac Katherine Wentworth). At the hospital – in one of the cheesiest-in-retrospect "death scenes" in TV history – the entire cast is in tears ... including Bobby's older brother, that monster J.R.! (Incidentally, tears are seen rolling down J.R.'s cheek, but otherwise shows very little emotion in the final scene, where everyone is gathered around Bobby's bedside as he mumbles his final words.)
• After JT is Killed Off for Real on Degrassi: The Next Generation, the usually stoic Liberty is in shock at first and Mia even calls her a robot because she had yet to shed any tears. She finally breaks down at the school's memorial service for JT (which just happened to be right after she learned that he still had feelings for her and was on his way to tell her when he was killed).
• Bree van de Kamp from Desperate Housewives shows her emotions very rarely, but when she does that, she usually breaks into painful sobs ( like when her husband Rex dies) or has sudden bursts of anger.
• Dexter's title character very rarely shows emotion, genuine or otherwise. This makes the very rare outburst all the more interesting.
  • Particularly shocking was in the Season 5 premiere, when while grieving Rita's murder, he flies into a rage and savagely beats a man to death in a restroom. Much like the example with Vulcans in Star Trek, this is a small glimpse into what he would be like without the careful control provided by the Harry Code.
• Doc Martin: Martin after hearing the news about Joan's death. Despite outwardly remaining his typical aloof self, as he walks around her empty house, his eyes betray how utterly heartbroken he is.
• Used to devastating effect in the Doctor Who episode "Dalek." The titular alien creature comes from a race of omnicidal maniacs long considered the Arch-Enemy of the Doctor that despise and try to kill all other life forms simply because they aren't Daleks. They have absolutely no capacity for emotion beyond blind hatred for the unlike and view any sort of feeling or compassion as sins against their kind. This Dalek, though, is quite old and has been held on Earth for years, leaving it unable to function. It manages to trick Rose Tyler into touching it with a Wounded Gazelle Gambit; that touch restores its energy and gives it the power to seek deadly revenge on its tormentors (along with hundreds of other innocent people). However, Rose's touch also fundamentally alters its DNA and gives it the capacity to feel, which drives the alien into an existential crisis—it wants freedom and a purpose beyond thoughtless rage, but also knows that it is no longer a "pure" Dalek and, thanks to centuries of mental conditioning, immediately decides to kill itself for this "crime." Since it can't kill itself without being ordered to do so, it demands that Rose command it; when she does, it chokes out a heartbreaking set of last words:
  Dalek: ARE YOU...FRIGHTENED, ROSE TYLER?
  Rose: ...yeah.
  Dalek ...SO...AM...I. EX-TER-MIN-ATE...
  • Earlier in the episode, the revelation that this Dalek is, to the best of both its and the Doctor's knowledge, the last of its kind is enough to genuinely devastate the alien, as it realizes that it's completely alone in the universe. The sadness doesn't last—it falls back on the "default" Dalek programming of killing and destroying every living thing in sight—but the brief flash of emotion proves that there is more to the creature than meets the eye, and foreshadows the future developments of the episode.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Despite their villainous ways, Boss Hogg grows genuinely worried every time Lulu or even his avowed enemies from the Duke family are in serious trouble. However, Rosco has outright cried when Boss, the Duke boys, or his beloved basset hound Flash were in trouble. (Rosco's emotions are spelled out perfectly in the Season 2 episode "Granny Annie" and the final episode, "Opening Night at the Boar's Nest" – both times, when Boss was in serious trouble and the villains had every intent to kill him.)
• Elementary: Sherlock is usually calm and collected about everything, but he has his moments of shock, anger, and sadness. For example, when Irene turned out to be Moriarty or when his father was murdered.
• Farscape: Aeryn Sun, though originally The Stoic on Moya, gradually moves away from this as her relationship with Crichton blossoms. When she and Crichton are fighting for whatever reason, she usually reverts to The Stoic as a defense mechanism.
  • In an episode, this gets flipped, when they are on break from their relationship. Crichton seemingly takes something that Noranti gives him for pain and is very cold and uncaring towards Aeryn, while she is the one who is pleading with him. It turns out to be an act to prevent Scorpius from using Aeryn against him. It fails.
  • Scorpius himself has a few of these moments, most of them revealing that he has a downright vicious temper underneath his cool, calm exterior.
• In Firefly Simon is always doing this with River.
• Game of Thrones:
  • When Ned Stark is around friends and family, he's a lot more relaxed and cheerful.
  • Once The Chains of Commanding start tying Robb down harder, his stoic demeanor begins to slip on occasion when his men harm the war effort or commit despicable acts. When he finds out Ned has been killed, he also ruins a sword by smashing a tree in pure rage.
  • The normally reserved Jon Snow breaks down after burning Ygritte's body in the forest.
  • Brienne generally keeps her calm, even when slicing down a gang of murdering rapists. However, when she witnesses Renly's murder or is dragged off to be raped by some Bolton bannermen, she starts to scream.
  • Roose Bolton is visibly caught off-balance by the news of Bran and Rickon Stark being still alive.
  • Stannis Baratheon:
    • He loses it once he realizes his men are retreating. He also loses his steely resolution when alone with Melisandre in the leadup to his offensive, admitting to her that he cannot succeed without the soldiers his brother Renly stole from him.
    • His mouth visibly twitches as if suppressing a smile, when he realises that Davos did not die at the Battle of the Blackwater.
    • In the Season 3 finale, he's enraged by Davos's treason and later laughs when Melisandre is the one who saves his life by acknowledging Davos as a needed ally.
• The Great British Bake Off: Paul loves to play doubt-instilling mind games with the contestants, and will often pause meaningfully after receiving a contestant's reply to a specific question about their bake, or stand still at the end of their workbench and silently watch them carry out the challenge. In the series 6 finale, he tries to do this to Nadiya by asking her if she's happy. Nadiya responds that she is, and then asks Paul the same question back—to which he just bursts out giggling and walks off.
• Hanna: Hanna, who usually shows no emotion and acts unruffled by things, begins to cry when a Utrax member pretends that they're her dad over chat as part of socialization training, remembering losing her real one.
• JAG: Sarah MacKenzie is mostly portrayed, as part of the Marine persona, as The Stoic. However, in "Second Sights" when finding her estranged father in a coma at a hospice, and at the same time meeting her even-more-estranged self-centered white trash mom, she turns out to be Not So Stoic. But it turns out to be a Double Subversion: after her father has passed away, Mac coldly tells her mother that she never wants to see her again — because it was she, not her father, who once abandoned her.
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
  • Taiga Hanaya started out as selfish, apathethic Jerkass. Then he was stuck with Nico Saiba, who proved to be skillful at provoking this reaction in him. Getting him so mad at her that he had to be dragged out of the room definitely takes the cake.
  • Hiiro Kagami established himself as an extremely aloof Pragmatic Hero who goes through everything in a precise, nearly mechanical way. First thing he does upon seeing Taiga is a rushed attempt at punching him.
• Letterkenny: Played for laughs whenever the hyper-masculine and stoic Wayne has to speak in public settings. When hosting a public access show, he mutters and stammers his way through the show's introductions. Seasons later, when hosting an intervention seminar for local youth hoodlums, he repeatedly clears his throat with awkward, hacking coughs each time he steps up to speak.
• Juliet Burke from Lost, originally of the Others, was first seen as having a cold and expressionless demeanor and carried out her orders from Ben. She even aimed a gun at Kate's head when Sawyer didn't do what she asked. Sawyer commented that she would have actually shot Kate "No problem." Then another one of the Others was shot and Juliet rushed to save her life with Jack, which sparked her Not So Stoic persona. Juliet panicked the whole time when she and Jack were removing the bullet and trying to stitch her up. When they failed in saving her, Juliet broke down in tears and explained that being a fertility doctor she still hasn't gotten used to death. Which, based on her Flashbacks of her work with the Others, is quite surprising.
  • Actually it has been shown that any time Juliet deals with death or her sister she gets very emotional. The rest of the time she's the token Stoic.
  • This comes to define her at the end of Season 5. Throughout the finale, she acts as though she has a strategy in place regarding the Jughead and the Island until she breaks down completely and confesses that she's only going along with Jack's plan because she can't bear to lose Sawyer.
• Love and Destiny: Jiu Chen is very stoic, but he does have his moments, such as when Ling Xi is repeatedly blowing up her medicine room or when Si Ming is being annoying.
• Prince Arthur from Merlin (2008) is quite good at keeping his cool, save on two occasions: once when he learnt the truth about his mother's death (his father was responsible) and again when his father sentences his beloved Guinevere to be burnt at the stake.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers has this in the last part of the three-part pilot for Season 2, when Big Bad Rita Repulsa is replaced with her master, Lord Zedd, who locks Rita back in her space dumpster for failing her mission to conquer earth. Once the Rangers have, with difficulty, defeated Lord Zedd's first Monster of the Week, they wonder what happened to Rita. Using the Viewing Globe, they see her in the dumpster, drifting aimlessly through space, and singing "99 Bottles of Slime on the Wall". Zordon, ZORDON, starts singing.
• While not exactly stoic per se, Joel of Mystery Science Theater 3000 pretty much always takes his captivity with a certain laid-back good nature — so when Joel loses his cool and even gets angry, you will notice:
  • In "Lost Continent", shortly after admonishing the Bots for yelling at the movie's endless rock-climbing sequence:
    Joel: Who are you? Where are we? Can we get a FRAME OF REFERENCE, please?!
  • During "Attack of the The Eye Creatures", he apologizes on behalf of the male sex and berates one of the movie's characters:
    Joel: [angry] You know what? You are one sick mamma-jamma.
  • In "Manos: The Hands of Fate", during one particular drawn-out Leave the Camera Running scene of the movie:
    Joel: DO SOMETHING! GOD!
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: May, a hacker who is bitter at Kentaro over their failed relationship, at first seems to have all the emotional range of a plank suffering from laryngitis, and she seems to be the calmest of the main cast in the 2015 storyline. From episode 3 onwards, she shows a lot more emotion and angst, making clear to Kentaro just how upset she is that her whole life has been uprooted and she's now on the run, and that she (justifiably) blames him for it.
• NCIS: Los Angeles: Hetty and Callen are normally very cool and collected. Then Callen notices an alarming trend of Hetty recruiting lonely orphans and training them to be lonely operatives. He gets increasingly agitated when he confronts her about it. They end the conversation shouting and near tears.
  Callen: How many were there?
  Hetty: [quietly] This conversation is over.
  Callen: How many?
  Hetty: [exploding] A LOT! ''[pause; she fights tears; more quietly] There were... a lot. Is that what you wanted to hear?
• Odd Squad: Otis is often stoic and very rarely shows emotion, but when he does, it's usually a sign that things have taken a turn, for better or for worse.
  • In "Extreme Cakeover", when Olympia dies by way of performing a Heroic Sacrifice and willingly letting the cake-itis virus infect her until it "kills" her (read: makes her turn fully into a cake), Otis gives a grief-stricken Big "NO!". Luckily, it ends up being a Disney Death — the virus is successfully contained in the vial attached to the helmet Olympia was carrying at the time, causing her to come back to life and turn back into a human. Otis is quick to rush to her side and worriedly asks if she's all right.
  • A more dramatic example occurs in the first part of the Season 2 finale, "Who is Agent Otis?". When Otis is suspected of still being a villain and put on trial in Odd Squad Court, he is forced to spill his Backstory to everyone, much to the chagrin of Oprah, who wished to keep it secret as part of an unexplained deal. While he tries to remain stoic, that facade gradually breaks, and he begins to get emotional. In the backstory, he isn't portrayed as stoic as a child but does start to grow emotionless as he gets older. However, he starts to lose his composure when he betrays his villainous duck family and rats them out to Odd Squad, at which point sadness and regret is clearly shown in his actions and facial expressions, to such an extent that he is on the verge of crying when Oprah and a team of Security agents capture the ducks. It only gets worse when he is found guilty and is fired from Odd Squad as a result, along with Oprah, as he is struck by despair.
• Person of Interest:
  • Reese broke his stoic façade precisely once: when an infant child was about to die from freezing.
  • Shaw holds it together as best she can, but even she can't hide how much Root's death utterly breaks her. She doesn't manage to pull herself together until she helps the team save the world and she personally executes Root's killer.
• Mark Antony warns Vorenus about this in Rome. Averted as Vorenus is the only one who does not turn to debauchery in the Egyptian Palace and stays a true Roman.
  Antony: You won't turn to drink will you? You stoic types often do when disappointed in life.
• Takeru of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has such a moment in episode 18, when he's reunited with his old friend, Genta, and has to step out of the room to make sure his "retainers" can't see him when he starts cracking up at Genta's antics.
• In Sherlock, the title character is never shaken in the face of violent crime — up to and including murder — but has a general tendency to lose his cool when someone he is fond of is being seriously threatened — notably, Mrs. Hudson and John.
  • Lampshaded by Molly during a conversation in "The Reichenbach Fall":
    Molly: You remind me of my father [...] He always pretended like everything was fine, but whenever he thought nobody could see him, he'd look really sad. You look sad...when you think he [John] can't see you.
  • He also doesn't want John to lose faith in him and, ironically, even though he calculates how to get to John in "The Empty Hearse", he's the only one who saves John's life by physically getting into and pulling him out of a bonfire.
  • Plus, he's not so stoic when he shoots Magnussen in "His Last Vow" — the rage in his face is scary.
• Ronnie Gardocki from The Shield was always the most impassive member of the Strike Team; even when attempting to kill Shane out of revenge he never lost his cool... until the final episode when he found out how thoroughly he was betrayed by Vic. He was dragged kicking, screaming, in a violent rage, out of the courthouse.
• Silicon Valley has an underplayed example. Jack announces during a board meeting that Laurie's responsibilities to look at nothing beyond the bottom line when casting her vote means that she "can't do a goddamn thing about" his latest gambit. Laurie agrees and votes to support his gambit. When circumstances change, however, the seemingly emotionless Laurie promptly fires Jack for so brazenly telling her what she can and can't do.
• Small Wonder had an episode where the usually stoic Vicki had grown attached to a problematic computer. When the computer is deactivated, a tear trickles down Vicki's cheek.
• Teal'c from Stargate SG-1 has a couple of moments of showing big emotions (example: "Redemption, Part 1"), despite normally being The Stoic.
  • Teal'c's façade actually cracks a little in the very first episode. O'Neill sees that Teal'c is struggling to carry out the vicious acts demanded of him by the Goa'uld. This prompts O'Neill to seek Teal'c's help in escaping, and kicks off the rest of the show.
  • The second time this happens, in "Bloodlines" when he tells his team that he left a family behind on Chulak, is especially moving.
  • It is very subtle, but in "Cor-ai", when Teal'c and Jack are arguing over whether or not he should defend himself while being tried for the many horrible things he did for the Goa'uld, you can see Teal'c's jaw trembling with suppressed anger at himself.
  • Or "Meridian". Teal'c's goodbye to Daniel Jackson is a Tear Jerker in itself as the Proud Warrior Race Guy fights his own tears on the last sentence: "If you are to die, Daniel Jackson, I wish you to know that I believe that the fight against the Goa'uld will have lost one of its greatest warriors. And I will have lost one of my greatest friends." Even better given that it also illustrates his Character Development. He gives Daniel one of the highest compliments he can both in his own culture ("one of its greatest warriors") and in his adopted one ("one of my greatest friends").
  • And it continues into the next episode with this exchange:
    Carter: We were a team, Teal'c. No one can even begin to understand what we went through together, what we mean to each other. So maybe Daniel has achieved something of great cosmic significance, I don't know. And to be honest with you, right now, I don't really care. I'd rather have him back.
    Teal'c: [with obvious emotion] As would I.
• Star Trek:
  • The classic Star Trek: The Original Series example would be "Amok Time", where Spock showed his relief that Kirk wasn't Killed Off for Real. "Jim!" It is notable for coming genuinely from Spock himself, and not being a result of mind control, drugs, or a strange phenomenon.
  • Spock again in "The Naked Time", although that was the result of a strange phenomenon. At least he was able to duck into a room before he fell to pieces.
  • In the ending of "Friday's Child", Spock is visibly shocked to learn that the newborn Teer of Capella IV has been named Leonard James Akaar in honor of Bones and Kirk, and expresses dismay that the two gentlemen will be "insufferably pleased with [them]selves for at least a month... sir."
  • Vulcans developed their culture of tightly controlled emotions to deal with the fact that they are really very emotional, and without strict discipline, they tend to overreact to everything. Indeed, before Surak proposed his philosophy of strict self-control, Vulcan society was about to completely destroy itself. Under sufficiently extreme circumstances, a Vulcan's self-control can be broken (usually only temporarily), and everyone around will be reminded that under that stern calm face lies a turbulent sea of emotions that would drive the less-disciplined completely mad.
    • They also get really violent and horny during Pon Farr, basically Vulcans in heat.
    • Also, Spock is only half-Vulcan, as his mother was human.
    • If you want to imagine what Vulcans would be like if they gave in to their emotions, one need look no further than the highly paranoid and extremely dangerous Romulan Empire, which spawned at least one planet-destroying and truly Ax-Crazy psychopath, Nero.
    • Romulans serve more as evidence that the Vulcan emotional problems may be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Romulans don't suppress their emotions and few of them are shown to be any more volatile than an average human (possibly even less so).
    • Vulcans and Romulans being much stronger than the average human does not help matters either. Kirk has had to provoke Spock into an emotional display in both the original series and the new movie continuity, and both times Spock nearly killed him. Even Khan is no match for a pissed-off Spock in a straight-up fistfight, and he knows it, running away as soon as Spock shows up.
  • Data's lack of emotion is a frequent plot point in Star Trek: The Next Generation — with a few notable exceptions. In "The Most Toys", he's almost driven to murder (and then lies about it to his commanding officer), and again in "Descent: Part I", when manipulated by his more emotional brother, causing him to kill a Borg drone in rage. Even he seems rather bewildered by this just afterward: "I got angry." One of the subplots of The Movie Star Trek: Generations is Data deciding to reinstall the emotion chip given to him in the above episode, and dealing with the resulting outbursts. At the end, he discovers that his pet cat is still alive and begins to cry, which he assumes must be a malfunction of the chip. Troi assures him with a smile that "it's working just fine."
  • The Next Gen episode "Sarek" deals with this with the eponymous character (Spock's father, of course), whose emotional control was breaking down due to a rare illness. Determined to finish his last mission, he melds with Picard, who is normally very emotionally controlled in his own right, allowing Sarek to be himself again long enough to finish the negotiations — but we also see the effects of Sarek's illness in Picard.
    • Part of the effects of the mind meld with Picard are to subject an unprepared human mind to the powerful raw emotions of a Vulcan. Having not been raised from birth to learn to control those emotions, Picard spends the duration of the experience practically rabid, suggesting what pre-Surak Vulcans were like.
    • Look at Sarek in The Search for Spock. He's downright pissed off when he thinks Kirk has Spock's katra and screwed up by leaving Spock's body on Genesis. He's so overtly emotional that it seems to surprise Kirk quite a bit.
  • Picard has his moments as well, particularly in "Family", Generations and First Contact. "Chain of Command, Part II" could be a case of Breaking the Stoic.
  • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", the crew successfully demonstrate that Captain Solok is definitely Not So Stoic. Although Solok was pretty blatant about it from the first, with a permanent air of smug superiority and barely constrained sarcasm more like a typical Romulan than anything. Apparently, he built his entire academic career around bullying Ben Sisko.
  • A more frequent DS9 example might come from the character Odo, particularly concerning his initially unrequited love for Kira.
  • Star Trek: Voyager gives us Tuvok (another Vulcan) and Seven of Nine (a former Borg). The best way to piss off the former is to either endanger Captain Janeway or put him with Neelix for any length of time. As for the latter, disturbing her sense of efficiency or calling her "imperfect" usually does the trick.
• Castiel in Supernatural starts off completely unemotional, and while he gradually picks some up from Dean and Sam he stays as the calm, stoic, Comically Serious Straight Man. When he catches up with Dean after Dean angel-sigils him and goes to say 'yes' to Michael, it comes as quite a surprise.
• Taken has Jacob, a quiet, bookish kid with incredible psychic powers. He reacts to everything, from being kidnapped to being bullied with calm logic. When he has to live away from his mother, he breaks down crying.
• In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron is almost always an emotionless and cold machine, except in a very few select moments where she does show hints of anger or fear. In particular, one scene in the episode "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today" shows her moving through a police station, frantically (in a disturbingly calm way) looking for John, or her pleading for her life in "Samson & Delilah".
  • And then it gets completely flipped in "Allison From Palmdale," where she is shown crying, acting terrified, and in one scene being very angry, very calmly.
  • Then there's Derek, Deadpan Snarker and seen-it-all cynic. Stone cold, to the point of having more in common with a machine like Cameron than either would be comfortable to admit. ...And then moved to Manly Tears at the sight of her doing ballet by herself.
• Captain Jack in Torchwood, especially when you realise the happy-go-lucky flirt act is a defense mechanism and a mask for his true feelings. The major moments are when Ianto and Steven die.
• The opening episode of The Twilight Zone (1985), "A Little Peace and Quiet", during the climactic scene — nuclear war breaking out between the United States and the Soviet Union — features a newscaster trying to keep his emotions in check as he reads an EBS alert live over the air, but his voice is trembling as the threat of the missiles becomes more imminent. (For instance, the alert is supposed to provide instructions for going to the nearest shelter, but he says, "What's the point? It's over! We're finished!" A few seconds later, he begins trembling when he notes that "Soviet missiles have entered U.S. airspace."
• Victorious: One episode had Jade breaking up with Beck. Initially, she acts as if she doesn't care and says she's fine with him seeing other girls. However, this facade is broken when she shows up at Tori's door crying and asking for her help in getting back together with Beck.
• At the start of the March 4, 2016 edition of Washington Week, moderator Gwen Ifill betrayed some stress as she introduced the program in an unusually snarky manner following the announcement of the sponsors^{Full list}Boeing, Prudential, Newman's Own Foundation, Ford Foundation, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.
  Gwen Ifill: Good evening. OK. Deep breath, everybody. We're gonna try to keep it classy here. But it's hard, especially when the leading candidate for the Republican nomination keeps testing us.
• In The Wire's later seasons, Marlo Stanfield is the ruthless kingpin of the entire Baltimore drug market. He and his team kill people at whim and 'disappear' them, hiding the bodies in disused vacants, so as to avoid police attention. Marlo is completely professional at all times - even when he and his team have been arrested and he faces a lengthy prison term he barely seems to care. However, when he learns that a stick-up artist has been insulting and challenging Marlo on the street, he shows true emotion for the first time in the series. "My name is my name!"
  • He shows emotion for the second, and final time, in his last-ever scene. After taking back a corner single-handedly, he expresses genuine happiness.
• In Wolf Hall, Mark Rylance portrays Thomas Cromwell as hardly ever betraying his emotions except occasionally around his apprentices, and even anger is expressed as Tranquil Fury. When his wife and daughters die in the first episode, however, he looks as though he's been hollowed out and becomes distracted in his work. In the fifth episode, he reacts calmly at the moment when Henry explodes and publicly accuses him of treason — after he extracts himself, however, Cromwell's hands shake visibly as he tries to grasp a cup of wine.
• The X-Files' Scully was always portrayed as the stoic, especially compared to Mulder, who freely showed his feelings and wasn't afraid to cry. Very few times does she break down, until season 8. She is pregnant and alone, Mulder having been abducted by aliens. Add to that the fact that she is reassigned to an agent who thinks Mulder is insane, has to train her new partner, has to head a task force to find Mulder pretty much on her own, then finds Mulder dead and has to bury him, sees him come back to life and be distant from her. It is pretty much a stress-filled, non-stoic season for Scully. And never was there anyone more entitled to break down.

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