Spotting The Thread / Western Animation

Spotting the Thread in Western Animation

• In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Tails' New Home", Sonic and Tails meet an elderly fox couple who are apparently Tails' long-lost parents. Sonic allows Tails to stay with the couple, and while reminiscing on their first meeting, remembers that Tails is Only Known By His Nickname, and on top of that, it's a nickname that Sonic gave him. If the couple really were Tails' parents, they would have called him "Miles". Sure enough, the 'parents' are actually some of Robotnik's robots in disguise.
• Big City Greens:
  • In "Gloria's Café", Gloria has the customers pose as ghosts to trick Officer Keys into thinking the secret café is haunted so he doesn't arrest her; however, Keys immediately realizes the "ghosts" were fake because none of them said "boo".
  • In "Dirt Jar", Bill has accidentally thrown out Cricket's jar of dirt from the country and destroyed it; not wanting to tell his son the truth, he and Gramma produce a new fake jar with dirt from the backyard topped with paprika. When Cricket receives it not long after, he immediately realizes the dirt jar was fake when he smelled it, something Bill didn't count on when making the jar.
• Beast Wars: Megatron makes a clone of Dinobot that can't transform. Had Dinobot not taken care of the problem, this trope would've resulted.
• In Code Lyoko episode "Franz Hopper", a Polymorphic Clone impersonates Franz Hopper to lure the heroes into a trap. Jeremie realizes he must be an impostor after the fake Franz mentions the destruction of his video diary (which occurred in a previous episode) — something that the real Franz Hopper couldn't have known about, but that XANA certainly did.
  • "XANA's Kiss" features an inversion where Odd figures out that the Yumi yelling at him is the real her because she calls him a peabrain, something XANA and therefore his clones would never do.
  • In "Distant Memory", after being in a simulation bubble, Aelita notices when her father forgets the name Skidbladnir from a book her father read to her as a child, and then adds later that if he knew anything about her, he would materialize her Missing Mom into it, since she'd give anything to see her again. This helps her deduce that "her father" is really XANA. On the opposite side of the coin, Yumi and Jeremie realize that Aelita is in said simulation bubble because of a chat message from her father, having known the fact that he wouldn't risk it with her, since XANA is actively trying to dump her into the Digital Sea to draw him out.
• In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "U.T.O.P.I.A.", Numbuh One crash lands on an island that's a complete kid paradise, which causes him to be suspicious from the start. He finds his team swimming in the island's swimming pool and they all convince him to drop his suspicions and just have fun. Numbuh One is about to, until he remembers, as established in earlier episodes, Numbuh Four can't swim. At that point, it's revealed that he's been trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In "The Muffin King", Dad's first attempt at sampling Mom's muffins before dinner unguarded is disguising himself as Mom and tricking the kids into leaving. Dexter and Dee Dee fall for it at first, but while they are leaving, Dexter points out to Dee Dee that "Mom" looks "awfully stubbly today", causing them to see right through the disguise and catch Dad in the act.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • In "Let's Get Dangerous!", Darkwing Duck reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of Gosalyn Waddlemeyer's grandfather, who was build the R.A.M. Rod device for Taurus Bulba. Bulba claims that Waddlemeyer was dissipated into another dimension when he turned on the device, convinced there was a flaw that Bulba himself assured was non-existent. However, when Gosalyn steals the key to the R.A.M. Rod in an attempt to bring her grandfather back, Taurus claims the device isn't stable enough to search the dimensions for him. Darkwing quickly realizes something is amiss, and points out Bulba said that he told Waddlemeyer the device was perfectly fine, which Bulba hesitantly claims is the case. Darkwing and Gosyaln then decide to use the R.A.M. to find Waddlemeyer...and it's at this point that Bulba shows his true colors...
• DC Animated Universe:
  • Justice League:
    • In the introductory episode of the Secret Society, Clayface attempts to lure Batman into a trap by impersonating The Flash and calling for "help" against a confederate super-villain. Batman arrives on scene to find that "Flash" appears to have things well in hand:
      "Flash": Looks like I didn't need your help after all, yo. But you can help me tie him up—
      Batman: (throws a batarang at Flash) Catch.
      (batarang hits and electrifies Flash, reverting him to Clayface)
      Batman: The real Flash would have been too fast for that.
      Clayface: ...What gave me away?
      Batman: You overplayed your part, "yo".
    • From the same show, Lex Luthor needs barely a glance at the Justice Lords (currently masquerading as the Justice League) to say, "It's not them." Of course, this might have something to do with all of them wearing completely different costumes. The fact that Superman had just lobotomized someone was also a big clue.
    • In Season 1's "In Blackest Night", Green Lantern is accused of blowing up a planet and killing its entire population. Superman and Martian Manhunter go to check it out and quickly realize that something is off: If the planet really was destroyed, then why has its moon maintained its orbit?
    • In "Legends", after the heroes find their first main clue that something is off about Seaboard City, they start noticing smaller imperfections. The local heroes always work with the same two cops, and the exact same ice cream truck is constantly roaming the city without ever stopping.
  • Batman Beyond: In "Shriek", Bruce Wayne realizes that "his" voice in his head is actually somebody else, since this voice calls him "Bruce", while Bruce refers to himself by a different name in his head. When Terry points out that Bruce isn't Batman anymore, Bruce just says "tell that to my subconscious".
  • Superman: The Animated Series: In "Knight Time", similar to the Billy and Mandy example below, Robin figures out that something is wrong with Bruce Wayne when he smiles on a recorded message.
  • Batman: The Animated Series: The Ninja Kyodai Ken realizes Bruce Wayne is Batman after fighting him in both identities; as Batman tells Alfred, to a trained martial artist, a fighting style is "like a fingerprint".
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "A Twist of Ed", the Ed’s plan to get the Kankers to leave them alone once and for all by using Reverse Psychology, pretending to have fallen in love with them and harass them with unwanted affection the same way they have done to them. Ed and Double D both put on a very convincing performance and have the Kankers trembling in fear at their presence, but Eddy continues to be too scared of the Kankers to even try to flirt with them. When Double D forces Eddy to take a turn to seal the deal, the Kankers notice a nervous sweat drop roll down his face. This immediately tips them off that the Eds are only faking their attraction to them, which not only restores their own crushes on the Eds, but has them come up with a plan to trap them and take revenge on them by pretending to still be scared of them.
• Family Guy: Lampshaded in an episode of Season 1 when Peter and Chris attempt to sneak into a carnival in a two-part horse costume, only to end up giving themselves away so obviously that the ticket man takes more than a minute to put it together:
  "Wait a minute, your ass just sneezed! And horses can't talk! No, no nothing about this adds up at all."
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In the episode "Bloo's Brothers", Mac takes Bloo to Show-And-Tell, where he's such a hit that all the other kids at school decide then and there to imagine up their own Bloo knock-offs. Unfortunately, despite all their creative spins on the concept (the Bloo clones tend to look nothing like Bloo, and most are downright bizarre), they're all Jerkasses at heart just like the original and end up getting dropped off at Foster's, where Bloo wastes no time organizing them into an army to take over the world a 100-part choir. However, when Mac shows up with two tickets to the Ice Charades, the other Bloos scramble to impersonate the real one in the hopes of going to the show. In the end, Bloo is pitted against a nigh-perfect clone as Mac grills them both to try and determine which is the real one: the fake gives himself away by launching into a Glurge-filled friendship speech.
• Gargoyles:
  • In one episode, Goliath is plagued by hallucinations, caused by the vengeful spirits of Hakon and the Captain, which culminates in Goliath being confronted with an illusion of his slaughtered clan members who blame him for their deaths. Goliath only begins to see through the facade when Hakon and the Captain make the mistake of introducing an illusion of Goliath's former love Demona, who unbeknownst to them had escaped being massacred, cluing Goliath in that everything he's seen wasn't real.
  • After seemingly being freed from Avalon's power, Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx find themselves forty years in a Bad Future where Manhattan is a Dystopia ruled by Xanatos. Throughout the episode, every attempt to save the city is foiled, allies die in droves, and it all ends with Goliath on the verge of death. The only way to undo the damage is using the Phoenix Gate to travel back in time and Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Too weak to act further, Goliath takes the Gate out of his pouch and tells Elisa to take it. The spotted thread comes from Elisa insisting that Goliath physically hand her the Phoenix Gate rather than just picking it off the ground. This makes Goliath realize the deception and exposes "Elisa" as Puck trying to trick Goliath into giving him the Phoenix Gate, since he is prevented by magical law from stealing it.
• Gravity Falls:
  • "Into the Bunker:" When faced with a shapeshifter pretending to be Wendy, Dipper asks for a sign to decide which Wendy is the impostor. The shapeshifter gives him a suggestive wink, which Dipper knows the real Wendy would not do as of yet, and the real Wendy gives a legitimate sign, so Dipper correctly strikes the impostor.
  • "Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape to Reality:" In Mabeland, a frustrated Dipper talks to Wendy, who says that if Dipper were older, she might have wanted to date him. At first, Dipper gets really happy at the thought, until Wendy yet again gives him a wink, a Call-Back to "Into the Bunker", revealing that this Wendy is just a part of the fantasy world.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Nergal Jr. tries to impersonate Mandy, but Billy can tell it's off because she was smiling. Weird use of this trope, as Nergal Jr. keeps his distinct glasses even when disguised as others. Billy does notice the glasses, too, but it's the smile he brings up first.
• Agent Jay may be the rookie in Men in Black: The Series, but his keen eye for finding anomalies in the many disguises aliens use while on Earth helps him hone in on potential threats more than once:
  • In "The Undercover Syndrome", Jay's pretending to be an alien dignitary's bodyguard for a treaty signing as an assassin is rumored to be gunning for him. On the side, he strikes up a conversation with MIB's translator Vonda who's also there; she mentions a restaurant on Mason Street in Harlem that they could check out afterwards. Later when the signing's about to take place, the disguised Jay sees her approaching and, drawing from his previous stint as an NYPD cop, suddenly realizes there is no Mason Street in Harlem. Turns out the real Vonda was kidnapped by the assassin who took her place and disguised itself as her. Jay acts quickly to save the dignitary from getting killed.
  • In "The Neuralyzer Syndrome", Jay and Elle are driving around trying to find a disguised alien ship. A quick look at the skies over New York, and he singles out a blimp. Elle asks why a blimp over Yankee Stadium was odd — Jay notes there's no game that night.
  • In "The Out To Pasture Syndrome", after Zed had retired from MIB and gotten neuralyzed per standard procedure, Jay gets jumped by Alpha out in the field, who scans his memories (specifically those of Zed's retirement party) to find out where Zed had retired to so that he could go exact revenge. After Alpha leaves Jay gets picked up by Elle who reveals that Zed wasn't actually neuralyzed, he just heard Alpha had escaped Antarctica and took the opportunity to set up a sting operation with a fake retirement to lure Alpha in so that MIB could capture and keep a much closer eye on him. Everyone in MIB was in on The Con except Jay, who was the bait for Alpha to get the faked info from. Jay asks whether the neuralyzer they used on Zed was fake — Elle confirms it and asks if Jay knew. Jay didn't, but he did see that Zed's eyes didn't glaze over like those who are actually neuralyzed usually do. Elle then realizes that if Jay noticed that, so would Alpha. Indeed, Alpha counter-baits the waiting MIB agents into firing on a hologram before taking them out — Jay and Elle have to rush over to help Zed and Kay before they get killed by Alpha.
• The Owl House:
  • In "Labyrinth Runners" has Severine, an Emperor's Coven scout, attempt to capture Gus and Hunter by using illusion magic to disguise herself as Willow. Interestingly enough, it's Hunter who sees through the disguise precisely because he's known her for far less time, and Severine was working with outdated information — she acted like a timid Shrinking Violet who was afraid of Hunter brandishing a staff at her, when Hunter correctly points out that after Willow's character development, there's no way she'd be scared of him.
  • In "Watching and Dreaming", Luz is tormented by visions of her friends and girlfriend blaming her for everything, including getting split up from their families, their homes being destroyed, and Flapjack's death. Luz realizes it's not real when Amity challenges her to a witch's battle — because it's a misquote from The Good Witch Azura, a series both Luz and Amity love, the real quote being "I challenge you to a witch's duel."
• The Proud Family: In "Thelma and Luis", LaCienaga's Papi is moved into a nursing home that is soon revealed to be a front for an okra plantation where the residents are enslaved. The kids learn the truth about the nursing home the next day, but the staff had removed any and all evidence supporting the kids' claims when they return with their parents to show them what's really going on. However, Suga Mama is the only one of the adults who believes the kids; what tips her off that they were telling the truth is the Boulevardezes' family trait of having abnormally large feet, and the feet of the Papi they saw apparently living it up at the nursing home were way too small for it to be really him, as it was really a staff member disguised as him to cover up the operation should visitors show up.
• In an episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, after capturing the ghost of Pervis Parker (an Elvis Presley expy), and revealing it to be the owner of the Pervis Parker museum, Velma states she first became suspicious of him after he made a long complaint to the kids about business being terrible, but when Daphne bought tickets to the museum, he was easily able break her large bill.
• One episode of Regular Show, "Temp Check", features this. Doug, a shapeshifting mole attempting to take over Rigby's identity, is for the most part successful in convincing Mordecai and his coworkers that he's the real Rigby, but Mordecai sees through the facade for two reasons: the real Rigby whining about being "replaced", and the fact that Doug hugged Mordecai just before that (an act established earlier on in the episode that Rigby himself would never do).
• Rick and Morty: In "Total Rickall" the Smith home is invaded by shapeshifting alien parasites which can create or alter peoples' memories, making it seem like they were always part of their lives. Rick and the others are unable to figure out who's real and who's a parasite, until a "Eureka!" Moment where Morty realizes that the parasites can only create pleasant memories, meaning they can tell who's a real family member because they'll have bad memories of them. Turns out it's not a perfect method when Beth shoots Mr. Poopybutthole because she can't remember any bad memories with him, only to find out he was Real After All.
• In the Rugrats episode "The Trial", the babies set up a trial to find out who broke Tommy's clown lamp with Angelica in the role of prosecutor. The babies realize at the end Angelica was the one who broke the lamp when her alibi of taking a nap at the time fell apart because she somehow knew everything the babies were doing. Because of her usual demeanor, Angelica gloats because she knows the babies can't say anything to the adults, but ends up outing herself anyways because she forgot Didi and Betty were in the next room and could hear everything.
• Silver Surfer: The Animated Series: In "Return to Zenn-La", the Surfer discovers what he believes to be his home planet, but gradually realizes that something is amiss. Surfer is welcomed as a hero and his people immediately proclaim him the new Master of Zenn-La, but when the Surfer expresses concern that he does not wish to be worshipped, suddenly everybody accuses him of being responsible for Galactus' curse upon Zenn-La and demand him to answer for his crimes in a Duel to the Death. The Surfer is already confused that his peaceful brethren are suddenly so keen on conflict, but the straw that breaks the camel's back is when the Surfer supposedly loses his powers, but finds that his board still answers his call. That, combined with everybody acting so out of character and even possessing knowledge they shouldn't have causes him to finally realize that it's a Lotus-Eater Machine. The simulation was created by Ego the Living Planet, who was improvising the whole thing on the fly because he wanted to make the Surfer happy but didn't really understand what the Surfer truly desired.
• Sonic Boom:
  • In the episode "Where Have All The Sonics Gone?", after Eggman and Morpho send Sonic to an alternate dimension, Morpho disguises himself as Sonic to keep up the charade for a little while and attempts to charm and invite Amy to a trip to the canyon. It only takes her a split second to realize what's going on (after giggling like a schoolgirl at the idea of going out with Sonic).
  • In the episode "Vector Detector", Vector the Crocodile is brought in to try to figure out who could have stolen Amy's hammer. When they find the culprit, comedian Wolf Sidekick, Amy is overly thrilled and mentions that her hammer is a one-of-a-kind weapon. This makes Vector realize that a comedian wouldn't want to take a mallet like hers when any old one would do. Thanks to some help from Sonic, Vector finds the real culprit — his manager, who had set the whole thing up for ratings.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Captain George Stacy is able to identify that someone is impersonating Spider-Man — twice — by observing the differences in build and height compared to the real thing. J. Jonah Jameson stumbles into the realization during the first instance when the real Spider-Man (who's currently wearing a different costume) immediately begins to push his buttons.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
  • Chameleon duplicates Nick Fury's appearance from his newspaper obituary, but the paper accidentally flipped the photo, putting his eyepatch on the wrong side. Spider-Man notices the difference immediately.
  • Later in the same episode, Chameleon poses as Peter Parker to get into position to kill his target. Spider-Man easily spots him (since Spidey, of course, is Peter Parker) and takes him out. As Chameleon is being taken away, he demands to know what was wrong with his disguise, at which point Spider-Man just makes something up.
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch: In the pilot, the titular team learns of Order 66 upon its immediate issuance, acting confused as to what's going on. Hunter and Crosshair pursue the fleeing Padawan Caleb Dume (the future Kanan Jarrus from Rebels) and try to help him, but the latter tries to execute the order and kill the boy. Caleb escapes, but Hunter claims he shot the kid with a stun blaster as he was trying to jump over a cliff and fell to his death. Crosshair immediately gets suspicious when he sees Hunter looking towards the other side of the cliff, rather than down.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "The Hidden Enemy", Rex and Cody begin investigating a possible traitor in their ranks. Learning that transmissions to the Separatists came from the barrack's of Sergeant Slick's platoon, they question the troops. One of them was cleaning his blaster, two were in the mess hall, and a fourth was in the medical bay. But the fifth, Chopper, lies about being in the mess hall at the same tame as the other two. He finally confesses he was making himself a trophy of battle droid fingers—something of which is against regulations—and his comrades think he's the turncoat. Slick tries to calm him down, leading Chopper to ask of his own whereabouts. Slick tells him they can work things out when the Jedi come back, but only Rex and Cody know that Anakin and Obi-Wan have left. This clues them in that Slick is the real traitor.
• Star Wars Rebels: In "Through Imperial Eyes", Grand Admiral Thrawn is searching for the identity of The Mole in the Imperial ranks. After it seems that Lieutenant Lyste has been revealed as the traitor, having helped a rebel prisoner escape, a stormtrooper brings Thrawn the helmet the prisoner was wearing — which has a stylized lothcat painted on it, which Thrawn recognizes as being in the style of Sabine Wren. This leads him to deduce that Agent Kallus is actually the traitor, because the helmet most likely belongs to Ezra Bridger, who Kallus would have recognized, and the fact that he didn't report Ezra's presence...well.
• Steven Universe: In "The Trial", the Defense Zircon spots several inconsistencies with the story of Rose shattering Pink Diamond. At this point, Rose Quartz was an infamous, wanted criminal, and the only one of her gem type that was active at the time. So how did she get past all of Pink Diamond's entourage without somebody recognizing her and at least sounding the alarm? On top of that, the explanation that Rose's sword shattered Pink Diamond makes no sense, because it was made so it couldn't shatter Gems, much less one of the most powerful Gems in the entire universe. The Defense Zircon concludes that Pink Diamond was killed by someone close to her, someone who could get past Pink's entourage with no interference, someone who'd have the authority to have the entire situation covered up, someone...like another Diamond. Of course, right after this, the Defense Zircon realizes what she just said and tries a Verbal Backspace, but the judge for the trial poofs her immediately.
  • Another instance, related to the same event: In "Your Mother and Mine", Garnet tells Steven the Crystal Gems' side of the story in a silhouetted flashback. Flashback!Rose Quartz wields her sword in her right hand, while the real Rose Quartz wielded her sword in her left hand, keeping her right hand for her shield (which Flashback!Rose didn't have).
  • In "A Single Pale Rose", the reason for the inconsistencies is revealed: Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were one and the same. Her "shattering" was faked, with Pearl shapeshifted into "Rose".
• Supa Strikas: In "Amal 3's a Crowd", as Supa Strikas play the Sultans FC in Dubai, they face a huge obstacle: The Amal 3, soccer-playing triplet brothers who can communicate telepathically...supposedly. Left-winger Cool Joe discovers the flaw; on the yacht after the brothers perform their world-famous "Three Blind Mice" routine during a party, two of the brothers bash heads with each other, temporarily breaking the ruse in front of Cool Joe and defender North Shaw. Initially assuming the threat was a 'three-headed snake', it turns out the threat is merely 'three snakes with one head'.
  Cool Joe: I was looking for clues in the FC Hydra match, our training sessions, and when they did their "Three Blind Mice" routine, but I was looking in all of the wrong places.
  Shakes: What do you mean, bro?
  Cool Joe: Back on the yacht, two of them bashed heads. If they can communicate with each other in their minds, why would they bump into each other like fools?
  North Shaw: So true, dude. Their brains were like, touching, and there was STILL no telepathy.
  Cool Joe: There is NO telepathy, man! Just well practiced routines. And there's only one man who calls all of the moves.
  
• In Young Justice (2010), Aqualad and Garth steal the uniforms of two of Black Manta's henchmen and try Dressing as the Enemy to get close. Black Manta sees through it pretty much immediately when he notices that Aqualad tucked his water-bearers into his belt.