Diabolus Ex Machina: Difference between revisions

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* By way of [[Crack Defeat]], an example where the demon is revealed ''after'' the fact: One of ''The Torkelsons'' has made it to the final of a contest whose winner will get to be a foreign exchange student in Paris. After her final interview she comes out and announces that she lost. [[Status Quo Game Show|No biggie, so?]] Well, she recounts her interview and ends with saying that she got the highest score. Why did she lose then? Because the exchange student deal is a homestay (we already knew this), and the French family involved would like a boy ([[Ass Pull|but not this]]). Well, [[Ungvichian|ISTR]] that would have made the final interviews [[Shaggy Dog Story|meaningless]], because there was only one boy amongst the three finalists.

* The ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' franchise loves using this trope to turn a slam-dunk case into an hour-long question of "Will they get away with it". Several [[Egregious]] examples:

** "Marathon" (''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' ~~s10e6~~): Briscoe and Green catch a young Latino thug fresh from mugging and shooting a white housewife. Lenny hears the guy admit it. His word against the perp's. They find physical evidence linking him to the shooting. It gets tossed one piece at a time. When they finally corner him in the end, he [[Karma Houdini]]s his way out by dropping the dime on a notorious serial rapist, cutting himself a sweet deal in the process. (McCoy gets him to admit what he said to Lenny: "I gave that white bitch what she deserved")

** "Marathon" (''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' S10E6): Briscoe and Green catch a young Latino thug fresh from mugging and shooting a white housewife. Lenny hears the guy admit it. His word against the perp's. They find physical evidence linking him to the shooting. It gets tossed one piece at a time. When they finally corner him in the end, he [[Karma Houdini]]s his way out by dropping the dime on a notorious serial rapist, cutting himself a sweet deal in the process. (McCoy gets him to admit what he said to Lenny: "I gave that white bitch what she deserved")

** "Suicide Box" (~~s13e16~~): A young black male shoots a cop outside of a diner, out of anger that his brother's murder had been swept under the rug. They had him dead to rights... then the mitigating factors rolled in: His brother's death had been ruled a suicide, the man who shot him never denied it (by the cops never looked at him). His and his mother's protests were brushed aside by the cops. And, oh yeah, his brother's body? Gone. The funeral home buried a casket full of trash (an ongoing fraud scheme, it turned out).

** "Suicide Box" (S13E16): A young black male shoots a cop outside of a diner, out of anger that his brother's murder had been swept under the rug. They had him dead to rights... then the mitigating factors rolled in: His brother's death had been ruled a suicide, the man who shot him never denied it (by the cops never looked at him). His and his mother's protests were brushed aside by the cops. And, oh yeah, his brother's body? Gone. The funeral home buried a casket full of trash (an ongoing fraud scheme, it turned out).

** "Screwed" ([[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]] ~~s8e22~~)~~'''~~: The episode features the trial of Tutuola's stepson, Darius (crimes committed in the earlier episode, Venom (~~s7e18~~)). Except that ALL the evidence except his confession had been thrown out due to questions about Fin's credibility, also Darius (well played by rapper Ludacris) was only going to trial to hurt and embarrass his mother, Fin's ex (who denied him for most of his life). When Fin's ex got on the stand, Darius (acting as his own council) forced her into dropping her own pain-filled bombshell: Darius was a child of rape... by her father. Acquitted of the murders, in the end, Darius can't even take joy in beating the rap and rubbing Fin and his mother's nose in it.

** "Screwed" ([[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]] S8E22): The episode features the trial of Tutuola's stepson, Darius (crimes committed in the earlier episode, Venom (S7E18)). Except that ALL the evidence except his confession had been thrown out due to questions about Fin's credibility, also Darius (well played by rapper [[Ludacris]]) was only going to trial to hurt and embarrass his mother, Fin's ex (who denied him for most of his life). When Fin's ex got on the stand, Darius (acting as his own council) forced her into dropping her own pain-filled bombshell: Darius was a child of rape... by her father. Acquitted of the murders, in the end, Darius can't even take joy in beating the rap and rubbing Fin and his mother's nose in it.

** "Hell" ([[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]] ~~s10e14~~) This episode has the SVU team tracking down a member of an African terrorist organization who tried to murder a young girl. With the help of Elijah, who turns out to have been forced to be a [[Child Soldier]] in the same organization, and harbors massive guilt over what he was forced to do, they track down the culprit and arrest him. Everything looks like it'll end well...until the [[Smug Snake]] immigration officer reveals that Elijah didn't escape the terrorist organization until ''after'' he turned 18, which means he can be legally held responsible for the crimes he was forced to commit. It [[Downer Ending|doesn't]] [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|end]] [[Tear Jerker|well]].

** "Hell" ([[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]] S10E14) This episode has the SVU team tracking down a member of an African terrorist organization who tried to murder a young girl. With the help of Elijah, who turns out to have been forced to be a [[Child Soldier]] in the same organization, and harbors massive guilt over what he was forced to do, they track down the culprit and arrest him. Everything looks like it'll end well...until the [[Smug Snake]] immigration officer reveals that Elijah didn't escape the terrorist organization until ''after'' he turned 18, which means he can be legally held responsible for the crimes he was forced to commit. It [[Downer Ending|doesn't]] [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|end]] [[Tear Jerker|well]].

** "Damaged" (~~s8e22~~) Three unrepentant teenage boys are on trial for raping a mentally retarded classmate. After a hard fought trial, the jury returns guilty. Everyone's happy. [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Not so fast.]] The judge sets aside the verdict, issues a directed verdict of not guilty saying the prosecution didn't prove its case, and piles on saying the retarded girl knew what she was doing and had "the time of her life." Add in a subplot in which {{spoiler|Det. Briscoe finds out his daughter has been murdered for testifying against a drug lord, }} and this episode winds up [[Downer Ending|wrist]]-[[Tear Jerker|slashingly]] hurtful.

** "Damaged" (S8E22) Three unrepentant teenage boys are on trial for raping a mentally retarded classmate. After a hard fought trial, the jury returns guilty. Everyone's happy. [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Not so fast.]] The judge sets aside the verdict, issues a directed verdict of not guilty saying the prosecution didn't prove its case, and piles on saying the retarded girl knew what she was doing and had "the time of her life." Add in a subplot in which {{spoiler|Det. Briscoe finds out his daughter has been murdered for testifying against a drug lord, }} and this episode winds up [[Downer Ending|wrist]]-[[Tear Jerker|slashingly]] hurtful.

** "Cold" (SVU ~~s9e19~~): It looks like the [[Complete Monster]] [[Dirty Cop]] is about to get convicted, but then, out of nowhere, two bombshells are dropped one after another. The key witness against him? Its revealed that she's an illegal immigrant, rendering her testimony moot. And the autopsy reports that were the key evidence? They couldn't prove the cop raped one of the victims, ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|Novak knew it, and lied about]]''.

** "Cold" (SVU S9E19): It looks like the [[Complete Monster]] [[Dirty Cop]] is about to get convicted, but then, out of nowhere, two bombshells are dropped one after another. The key witness against him? Its revealed that she's an illegal immigrant, rendering her testimony moot. And the autopsy reports that were the key evidence? They couldn't prove the cop raped one of the victims, ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|Novak knew it, and lied about]]''.

*** This Diabolus was essentially just an excuse for Diane Neal and Adam Beach to leave the show, as Novak is disbarred for falsifying the evidence and Lake {{spoiler|shoots the perp in a [[Vigilante Execution]] and is arrested}}.

** "Redemption" (SVU ~~s3e6~~): The real culprit behind the serial rapes has been caught and all that remains to get the innocent man originally convicted for the crimes out of jail is to get the perp to confess. Everything seems to be smooth sailing... until Elliot goes to the bathroom. When he returns, he finds that in that tiny window of time {{spoiler|the [[Cowboy Cop]] guest star (who'd been pursuing the rapist for years and who was also in the interrogation room) has pushed the perp out the window in a [[Vigilante Execution]]}}. Because they can't get a statement from the real perp now, the innocent man stays in jail (it should be noted that [[Artistic License: Law|the justice system doesn't actually work like this]]).

** "Redemption" (SVU S3E6): The real culprit behind the serial rapes has been caught and all that remains to get the innocent man originally convicted for the crimes out of jail is to get the perp to confess. Everything seems to be smooth sailing... until Elliot goes to the bathroom. When he returns, he finds that in that tiny window of time {{spoiler|the [[Cowboy Cop]] guest star (who'd been pursuing the rapist for years and who was also in the interrogation room) has pushed the perp out the window in a [[Vigilante Execution]]}}. Because they can't get a statement from the real perp now, the innocent man stays in jail (it should be noted that [[Artistic License: Law|the justice system doesn't actually work like this]]).

** "Zoontic"(CI). The creepy doctor that had been infecting people with diseases and the sleazeball he hired to rape his old girlfriends are behind bars without a trial. Everything is going swimmingly. And then at the literal last minute, it's revealed that the doctor got 5 grams of anthrax from South America, and he only had 3 grams in his apartment.

** Of course, sometimes the same person will show up a few seasons later where they actually will get what's coming to them.