Batman Gambit/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Objects in Space," River pulls one of these on [[Psycho for Hire|Jubal Early]], using both his insecurities and the rest of the crew to maneuver him into position to be ambushed by Mal. The only thing she didn't factor in was [[Spanner in the Works|her brother's]] rather suicidal devotion to her.

* A standard of many spy stories. There was a top quote from an episode of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' that featured Michael Westen on the unfortunate receiving end of a gambit by a rival spy. This required him to formulate his own gambit to counter how effective the first gambit was. As for Michael himself, despite not having personally killed anyone since the first episode, he's indirectly responsible for 90% of the deaths on the show. Another quote from the show:

** But, when things are just about to go wrong for the gambit (which is usually once an episode right before a commercial break, just to keep viewers glued to their seats), [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] ensues or a [[Deus Ex Machina]] will come around and distract the mark and draw them away from discovering [[The Masquerade]].

'''Doctor:''' Good girl. }}

** Also in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Tenth Doctor is taken to task by Davros for doing precisely this. Davros points out to the Doctor that he makes a big point of how pacifistic he is, while at the same time manipulatively turning those around him into the kind of people who will blow up their own planet to stop an invasion.

** Twice in series 5, {{spoiler|the freakin' ''Daleks''}} pull one on {{spoiler|the Doctor}}.

*** First, in {{spoiler|"Victory of the Daleks", they let him declare himself as the Doctor and identified his enemies. This was exactly what the Daleks wanted, as their Progenator wouldn't recognize their spoiled DNA. They needed their oldest and most powerful enemy to tell the Progenator who they were, setting off the creation of a new bigger, badder, and [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|technicolor]] Dalek race. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]...}}

** In series 6, the Doctor defeats the Silence by {{spoiler|scattering his allies, building a prison and cloaking the TARDIS, all to get a Silent to say ''one phrase''}}.

* The Argentinian series ''[[Los Simuladores]]'' is entirely about pulling Batman Gambits on unsuspecting people to make them change somehow or right a wrong. One episode, for example, features a faked bank robbery meant to delay the purchase of a bank, while another involves staging a date with a [[Paul McCartney]] impostor in order to bring up her self-esteem and make her more socially active.

* ''[[Prison Break]].'' The initial prison break from Fox River was ''one big'' [[Batman Gambit]]. Note how Michael included the reactions of criminals he doesn't even know in his plans. It is also interesting that Michael learns that it ''isn't'' as easy as he thought, leading to some use of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]. However, he also requires dumb luck (if it weren't for circumstances changing for characters included in his [[Batman Gambit]], such as Sucre and Westmoreland, they would never have played along).

** Quark pulled one in the Season 3 episode "The House of Quark." Quark finds himself in charge of a Klingon house, and the only way to save it from being conquered is to face his rival in a duel to the death. Rather than try to fight someone he has no hope of beating, he shows up for the duel, but [[I Surrender, Suckers|immediately surrenders.]] He then goads his opponent into trying to kill him, all while reminding the crowd they all knew the outcome before they even walked into the room. His opponent is more than happy to oblige -- until Gowron stops him and strips him of his honor for trying to kill someone as pathetic and low as Quark. Just as planned.

* Captain Kirk lived for this trope. The aptly titled episode "The Carbomite Maneuver" features Kirk bluffing a powerful alien force. He later reuses this particular ploy in "The Deadly Years". His entire battle with the Romulan commander in "The Balance of Terror" features him and the Romulan commander pulling these on each other in rapid succession. Kirk and the Romulan are able to predict each other's behavior as being "just what they would have done." And in "A Taste of Armegeddon", Kirk is able to stop a centuries-old "clinical war" by destroying the war computers, abrogating the treaty between the two worlds. The two planets were now faced with the prospect of the horrors of real war, or actually working for peace.

** And when Spock points out the possibility that the gambit may have failed:

'''Kirk:''' No. It was a calculated risk. Still, the Emenians keep a very orderly society, and actual war is a very messy business. A very, very messy business. I had a feeling they would do anything to avoid it, even talk peace. }}

** No one brings up the possibility that they will simply rebuild and continue their neater war.

* Ditto ''[[Leverage]]''.

** The Season 1 finale of ''Leverage'', "The Second David Job", specifically draws attention to this:

'''Nathan Ford:''' Yeah, that's a stretch. }}

** One episode revolves around the team working with Nate's ex-wife, Maggie. She points out a flaw in his plan: you can't just ''make'' people do what you want them to. The team reacts with surprise, horror, and amusement to this revelation.

** YMMV on whether it counts as "ingenious" - the fight lasted less than an episode, and directly led them to the idea which helped them destroy the season's [[Big Bad]]. If it was a [[Batman Gambit]], it wasn't a very good one.

*** The fight only ended so quickly because [[Gone Horribly Right|Spike realised that if they weren't talking, Willow wouldn't decode the]] [[MacGuffin]] [[Gone Horribly Right|for the team]] and so he had to remind her to do it, which led to the gang talking, which led to them figuring out that Spike had been manipulating them the whole time. [[For Want of a Nail|If Spike and Adam had given it a little more thought, it would have worked perfectly.]]

* Todd Gack from ''[[Seinfeld]]'' has figured out a "dating loophole" where he makes a bet with a woman about something he knows isn't true, offering to treat her to dinner if he loses. This allows him to essentially go on as many dates as he wants without ever having to actually ask any women out.

** Attempted by Jerry and George to switch Jerry's girlfriend with her roommate by offending her by suggesting a mengé á trios. It all blows up in their faces when it turns out {{spoiler|the girlfriend and roommate were both "into it."}}

* Barney Stinson's Scuba Diver play in The Playbook episode of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. The Scuba Diver, Barney tells a meddlesome female friend, in this case Lily, about the Playbook, a book of schemes he's invented to pick up women. He then uses a scheme from the playbook to hit on her coworker, making Lily angry enough to steal the Playbook and tell her friend all about the scams he pulled. Barney then puts on a scuba suit and tells Lily that he's going to pull one more scam called the Scuba Suit on a hot girl standing at the bar. This causes Lily to go and tell the girl about the Playbook and incensed they both come back to Barney and demand to know what the scheme is. Barney then makes up a spiel about his deep insecurities, causing Lily to feel bad for Barney and eventually convince the girl to go out with him.

** Barney plans another one in {{spoiler|"The Broath" alongside Quinn to freak his friends out and teach them not to meddle in his affairs.}}

* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" has [[Wil Wheaton]] pull off one of these, to win a card game against Sheldon.

** Later Wil returns as a member of a rival bowling team. He talks Penny into dumping Leonard during a vital tournament. Leonard leaves in tears, Sheldon's team is disqualified and [[Wil Wheaton]] is cemented as the [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the series.

'''Wil''': ''[grins]'' Good. Keep thinking that. }}

* Cal Lightman on ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' uses this incredibly often, much to everyone's annoyance.

* Walt does this throughout ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' and he continually gets better at stringing together assassination plans and manipulating those around him as the show progresses. Eventually, he pulls off a huge gambit in the season 4 finale where he manipulates an elaborate set of events and people in order to {{spoiler|arrange for the ''[[Big Bad]]'' of the season, Gus, to be blown up in a retirement home.}}.

* Happens quite frequently on ''[[Corner Gas]]'', occasionally resulting in a [[Gambit Pileup]], although they are probably for the most mundane things on this list, like not owing someone a favor, and most of the humor comes from how well (or not) the characters are able to pull off the gambit, but that shouldn't be surprising given the sitcom's premise.

* Mr. Gold's plan to help Emma win a municipal election in ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]''. While Emma is in the Mayor's office arguing with Regina, he sets fire to City Hall, giving Emma a chance to rescue Regina and be shown to be a hero. When Emma finds out about this, she is furious, but Gold points out that if she denounces him, she loses the election and disappoints everyone. {{spoiler|She does denounce him and wins anyway, which Gold then reveals was [[All According to Plan]]. Saving the rather unpopular Regina wouldn't have been enough to win Emma the election. Showing everyone that she was tough enough to stand up to Gold, the most feared man in town, however, was a different story.}}

** The finale reveals (though doesn't outright state) that {{spoiler|the ''entire Dark Curse'' was caused by him so that he could get to the real world, and once he did he manipulated everything so that he would get his True Love potion and use it to bring magic to Storybrooke so that he could find his son. (Who had been transported to the real world long before the curse).}}

* In ''[[News Radio]]'', Jimmy James has proven himself able to use these upon his employees. Most of the other employees have managed to pull off one or two of their own as well.

* Richard Pryor's "Prison Play" skit involves the play's producer promising [[Deliberate Values Dissonance|the warden that]] [[Black Dude Dies First|"The Nigger gets killed"]] as [[Laser-Guided Karma]] [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|for daring to fall in love with]] [[Where Da White Women At?|a White woman.]] However, it ends with the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|father-in-law accepting the suitor and wanting to becoming a paragon of true love.]] [[Evilly Affable|The]] [[Villainous Breakdown|Warden isn't happy.]]

* Used by "Boston" Rob Mariano on Season 7 of ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', during the four pounds of meat Roadblock. After deciding that eating four pounds of meat was impossible, he quit the task and took the four-hour penalty. Since the penalty did not start until the next team showed up, he used that to his advantage, waiting for his own penalty to start before convincing two other teams to also quit the task, counting on their initial squeamishness at starting the task to cause them to follow his lead. Cue [[Evil Gloating]] about how he could not get eliminated that leg.

** In Season 5, Chip & Kim built up Colin & Christie's egos and made them over-confident, trusting that any sort of struggle later would cause them to [[Villainous Breakdown|self-destruct]]. Earlier in the Season their plan was to encourage the rivalry between Colin and Mirna in order to get them to focus more on each other than the race, however Charla & Mirna got eliminated too quickly for this to come to fruition.

* In ''[[Friends]]'' Chandler pulls one of these off to trick his pregnant friend Phoebe into naming one of her triplets after him, by faking a name-based existential crisis, which Phoebe attempts to resolve by using his name over Joey's.