Best mystery TV plot holes of all time

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Roswell picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Plot hole: In the lab when Liz makes the slides of her cheek cells and the cells from Max's pencil, the first time she doesn't add stain and the second time she does. If she's going to be a molecular biologist she really ought to learn to apply techniques consistently. (00:07:30)

Phoenix

More Roswell plot holes
American Horror Story picture

Season 1 generally

Plot hole: It's been established that if you die on the property, you remain as a ghost for all of eternity. However, in Season 8, Moira's bones are retrieved and buried in a cemetery so that her ghost can escape and join her mother. However not all the ghost's bones are buried on the property, we know for sure that the Black Dahlia was not buried on the property and it's not likely Tate, Vivian, Ben or some of the others are buried on the property as well so they should not be tied to the house.

ctown28

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Tate's victims from the school shooting are ghosts who can move between different locations. There's nothing to suggest that the ghost of the Black Dahlia isn't merely choosing to be in the Murder House rather than being tied to it. The same goes for Vivien and Ben, since Violet is going to stay in the house, so might they.

Tate's victims cannot move around freely to different locations. The only time that they can is on Halloween, when all ghosts can move around freely but then return to their death location at the stroke of midnight. "OP" is a valid mistake.

ctown28

More American Horror Story plot holes
More Psych plot holes
Haven picture

Over My Head - S3-E4

Plot hole: Daphne was able to hurt Duke because his name appears on her cell when he called, but names only show up on a cell phone if the person's number and name are programed into the phone, and Duke has already said he doesn't know her.

brianjr0412

More Haven plot holes
The Twilight Zone picture

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street - S1-E22

Plot hole: The street sign in the beginning is all wrong: it faces the camera rather than the street where the story takes place. In a typical American city, street signs are almost always placed in the direction of the street they are indicating, so drivers on the other street in the intersection know what they are turning onto or passing. In other words, the story is not set on Maple Street! Maple Street is the intersecting street at the end of the road the story is set on.

mirtom

More The Twilight Zone plot holes
Night Gallery picture

The Messiah on Mott Street - S2-E38

Plot hole: No one in Goldman's house finds it at all strange that a mailman arrives at the door with a letter after midnight on Christmas Eve. Nor, a short time later, does the doctor or anyone else passing by at this very odd hour wonder why the same mailman is collecting mail from a street box at dawn on Christmas Day.

Jean G

More Night Gallery plot holes
More Magnum, P.I. plot holes
Dexter picture

Are You...? - S7-E1

Plot hole: It's out of character and against his code for Dexter to kill Viktor at the airport. Airports have security cameras everywhere (you can see one on the ceiling when he is wheeling Viktor into the unclaimed baggage storage), and using the unclaimed baggage storage as the kill room is equally unwise, because any airport employee could walk in at anytime and catch him red-handed. Dexter was caught murdering Travis Marshall by Deb just hours before, so if anything, he should be even more cautious.

Phaneron

More Dexter plot holes
Nowhere Man picture

Doppelganger - S1-E19

Plot hole: Tom discovers Claire's body in the wardrobe of his motel room. He leaves the room, and within a minute returns to the room, accompanied by the police. The body has vanished from the wardrobe, but given how little time Tom was away from the room, it is impossible for someone to have moved it, particularly given the weight of a corpse.

swordfish

More Nowhere Man plot holes
More Tales from the Crypt plot holes
Project Blue Book picture

The Green Fireballs - S1-E6

Plot hole: Captain Quinn interrogates a Sergeant and presumably he is let go. Yet for no reason and against all probabilities, Captain Quinn keeps the Sergeant's wallet, which among other things contains the Sergeant's ID card, not to mention other personal effects. How is he going to get on the base without an ID? There is no legal basis for the Captain to keep it. Why keep it? So he could rifle through it and discover a rent receipt later in the show? This is a poor way to further the plot. (00:16:40 - 00:17:30)

toroscan

More Project Blue Book plot holes
Signora Volpe picture

A Deadly Net - S2-E2

Plot hole: S2E2 A Deadly Net Midway through the episode, Sylvia and others in the cast bid people goodnight, offer after-dinner drinks, but the sun is shining brightly and continues to do so for quite a period of time as events continue to unfold.

bnemirow

More Signora Volpe plot holes
The Avengers picture

The Winged Avenger - S5-E6

Plot hole: The bad guy somehow knows what is going to happen (via the sketches) even though the events haven't happened yet, like knowing Mrs Peel was going to show up at Pool's mansion in that catsuit and hat, and that the scenes were going to play out like the sketches.

More The Avengers plot holes
The Event picture

Show generally

Plot hole: Episode 1: All passengers on cruise ships have a passenger card with their name and cabin number imprinted. They are not just identical key cards like in hotels.

Jacob La Cour

More The Event plot holes
Line of Duty picture

Episode #4.1 - S4-E1

Plot hole: When DCI Roz Huntley kills Forensic Coordinator Tim Ifield the crucial piece of damning evidence is her DNA under his fingernails after scratching her arm. Problem being, at the time of his murder, he was wearing surgical gloves. (00:56:40)

More Line of Duty plot holes
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit picture

Her Negotiation - S14-E24

Plot hole: Although William Lewis burns his fingertips in an attempt to avoid identification, the Special Victims Unit could have identified him early on by examining the remaining unburned area of Lewis' hands, and in good police procedure still record the newly scarred fingerprints, as these new scars actually make his fingerprints more unique. His scarred fingerprints would still be at Alice's apartment crime scene, and during the trial at the end of the episode the prosecution would still have a strong argument for placing Lewis at Alice's apartment, even if the DNA evidence is thrown out because of alleged cross contamination.

More Law & Order: Special Victims Unit plot holes
The Prisoner picture

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Plot hole: When Nadia had been held captive in The Village, how did she get word to her accomplice to be ready at the exact time, in the exact location, and with a packing crate ready, and a whole series of transports arranged? Even if Nadia was in on the ruse of conning Number 6, wouldn't he be suspicious?

More The Prisoner plot holes
Relic Hunter picture

Buddha's Bowl - S1-E1

Plot hole: Sydney is able to surmise from the artwork (we could also say from the writing, but her rival is one step ahead of her for 2/3 of the episode and it is established that he does not know the language) the precise location of the koi in Lumbini. The map is 150 years old, but there's no way even with a big stretch of imagination to buy that they both'd be able to pinpoint with such ease and certainty its location in the basement of a random building in the bustling market center of a town, that surely changed plenty during the past century and that does not bear any special landmark.

Sammo

More Relic Hunter plot holes
Murder on the Orient Express picture

Episode #1.2 - S1-E2

Plot hole: Contrary to any other version (including the novel), here the mastermind behind the murder realises in timely fashion that burning the letter was a mistake, it was not actually part of the plan. With this change, they'd have still all the time in the world to go back to the compartment and get the burnt remains, but they simply do not.

Sammo

More Murder on the Orient Express plot holes
What's New, Scooby-Doo? picture

A Scooby-Doo Valentine - S3-E3

Plot hole: It's never explained how JC Chasez and the Hollywood extras impersonating the gang gained the super strength they possessed to do things like ripping car roofs open or holding up the Mystery Machine.

Rob245

More What's New, Scooby-Doo? plot holes

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