Best TV plot holes of all time

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Battlestar Galactica picture

Saga of a Star World (1) - S1-E1

Plot hole: Apollo takes Adama down to the surface of Caprica aboard his Viper, yet the Viper is a single-seat fighter. This is the only time the single-seat craft is used to carry two people (though there is no shot of the two aboard - it is simply shown landed with the two characters nearby).

johnrosa

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Suggested correction: It was 2 seater Viper training aircraft.

stiiggy

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Remington Steele picture

Thou Shalt Not Steele - S1-E5

Plot hole: Laura successfully knocks out both bad guys, steals their van and crashes through the warehouse doors. The van doesn't stall, but inexplicably, she stops it, gets out and runs away on foot, even though the baddies are coming to and coming after her. Not the option you'd expect a kidnap victim to choose: most people would floor it and keep on driving. (00:23:40)

Jean G

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The Invisible Man picture

Show generally

Plot hole: "Sight Unseen": Wells has the key to Lori's shackles. Weston, who knows this, knocks Wells out, but instead of taking his keys, uses a completely unnecessary (and considerably more difficult) set of bolt cutters to break the leg cuffs. (00:32:30)

Jean G

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Rosemary & Thyme picture

Orpheus in the Undergrowth - S2-E2

Plot hole: When Jeremy stopped to drink his water, which turned out to be vodka and which killed him via a heart attack, why did he hide himself away, surrounded by plants and only found by his mobile ringing? And why would he put the lid back on the bottle in the throes of a heart attack?

kh1616

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine picture

The Die is Cast (2) - S3-E21

Plot hole: Earlier in the season, it was established that The Jem'Hadar are genetically engineered to be loyal to the Changelings, meaning they will not deliberately harm them. With that in mind, the Changelings still care about Odo's well being despite his refusal to return to them. So why didn't the Lovok Changeling send a message to The Jem'Hadar ships to inform them that a Changeling was going to be on the runabout? Given that he took time to offer another chance to return to his people, you would think he'd take time to make sure he returned to the station safely.

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

Suggested correction: Maybe The Jem'Hadar were trying to disable the runabout to try and capture Odo and Garak.

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The Last Ship picture

Phase Six - S1-E1

Plot hole: After the nuclear missile has overshot the ship and is determined to be heading for land, a map on a computer display gives an indication of the missile's trajectory relative to the Nathan James and western Europe. After the nuclear detonation, an external shot shows the blast is to the port side of the ship, giving the impression the ship is on a southern bearing off the west coast of France. At the time of detonation, the bridge crew shield their eyes while facing the front of the bridge, which would give the impression the ship is pointed right at the blast rather than off the port side. Later, Master Chief Jeter reports that the jet stream is pushing the radiation north-northeast, as if to indicate the ship is currently sitting in the fallout zone, when this would actually be pushing the radiation cloud away from the Nathan James.

solarpilot

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CSI: Miami picture

High Octane - S5-E7

Plot hole: When Dex is doing the jack in the box ,he is hanging out the sun roof driving with his feet, using the cruise control. When he is decapitated, the body falls and the car spins out and stops. The car's cruise control was still on. The car should have kept going until the brake was pressed. Even if the body hit the brake on the way down, it would have coasted to a stop and not spun out and screeched to a stop.

Boobra

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Power Rangers in Space picture

Show generally

Plot hole: For the past 5 series, Bulk and Skull have been in every episode. They've seen villains from other galaxies (Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, The Machine Empire, and Divatox) who have all sent monsters to Angel Grove and threatened Bulk and Skull on countless occasions. They've even been turned into monkeys and made invisible by space creatures. Why do they feel the need to spend Series 6 seeing if alien life exists? Surely 5 series worth of aliens is enough proof?

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

Suggested correction: Bulk and Skull are very dim witted and would like to find alien life so they can get famous, not realising everyone knows alien life exists.

Ssiscool

They are very dim-witted but surely not that dim-witted.

Suggested correction: They do not spend the series seeing if alien life exists. Their first scene in the season is them spotting Astronema's ship through a telescope and yelling UFO. They know. It's another one of their kooky schemes to get rich by being the first to discover these aliens and getting rich off it. (they were out looking for an undiscovered comet) They even get Professor Phenomena who's already been doing this before they were. It always felt like a play on Peter Parker getting rich off selling photos of Spiderman. But, dumber. I mean come on they tried catching a rabbit with carrots because they thought it was an alien. Stupid idea yes. Plot hole. No. It tracks with their characters.

DetectiveGadget85

Suggested correction: Think about it They have no reason to believe that they are aliens from space. They look human or could have been created by humans. It could have been a form of magic. Plus we never know what the news or the government is telling the public to normalize these situations. They don't actually know where they came from.

DetectiveGadget85

This is only a theory. Theories never solve mistakes.

No one in Angel Grove, believes them when they say they've seen aliens. It's been a running gag since Zeo. Go back and look at King For a Day Part II, after they got back from being kidnapped. Even the professor is viewed as a kook for believing in the existence of aliens.

DetectiveGadget85

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The Nanny picture

Where's the Pearls? - S3-E21

Plot hole: When Fran is waiting to ambush Elizabeth Taylor, Maxwell says "the kids left for school an hour ago", but Gracie comes running down the stairs right after that with no comment from anyone.

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More The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! plot holes
Twin Peaks picture

Episode Sixteen - S2-E9

Plot hole: In the bait and switch section, why does anyone involved agree to Leland being Ben's attorney when both victims are relatives of Leland? Neither Ben nor any of the police are in on Cooper's plan, and it seems implausible at best that they would agree to this.

pinkwafer

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V (1984)

V picture

The Deception - S2-E4

Plot hole: Ham Tyler doesn't recognise Kyle Bates even though he met him in the internment camp in episode 3. Ham also makes exactly the same remark about Nathan Bates in both episodes. (00:10:30)

Daz

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The Wonder Years picture

How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation - S2-E17

Plot hole: When Kevin is upset about Paul leaving for summer and is just lounging around the house, he asks why they can't go on vacation. His mom says "Maybe next Summer." In the very next episode, which takes place in the same Summer, they are going on a "traditional" Summer vacation.

Knever

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NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service picture

Truth or Consequences - S7-E1

Plot hole: Near the end of the episode when Tony, Ziva and McGee are fleeing from the building where they were held captive, Gibbs appears out of nowhere to save their lives. But just moments before, Gibbs was more than a mile away, acting as a sniper.

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Phineas and Ferb picture

I Scream, You Scream - S1-E15

Plot hole: When Linda (Mom) gets home from her cooking class and greets the boys, she sees nothing out of place. However, just a few moments before, we see the giant laser in the corner of the yard that they forgot to attach to the laser-inator. Wouldn't she have seen this?

logan crews

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Men Behaving Badly picture

Jealousy - S6-E3

Plot hole: In this episode, we learn that Gary has never learnt to drive, and crashes when he attempts to do so. However, he is seen driving to the chemists back in series 3, Episode 2 ('Bed').

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UFO (1970)

UFO picture

The Psychobombs - S1-E12

Plot hole: The alien-possessed Mason steals Captain Lauritzen's fingerprints by pressing his fingertips to the captain's and "heat transferring" the prints. Big problems here: those prints would now be backwards and for the wrong hand. But when the computer later reads the prints, it fails to notice this and passes him through security as "Identity Correct." (00:23:30)

Jean G

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Gilmore Girls picture

The Reigning Lorelai - S4-E16

Plot hole: When Emily is dialing a number for Manny Martelli, to make arrangements for the funeral, she only dials two digits. She just got the number from someone else, so there's no way it was speed-dial.

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Criminal Minds picture

The Inspired - S9-E2

Plot hole: At the beginning of the episode, PD let the suspect go (twin 1) because they accidentally arrested him for the crimes that his twin brother (twin 2) committed. Hotchner still wants to question twin 1, but a lawyer threatens Hotchner to not go near the wrongfully accused twin 1. However, in the previous episode, FBI and cops pursued twin 1 and twin 1 didn't pull over. It would be legal for twin 1 to be detained on a reckless driving or eluding the police charge.

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