Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Difference between revisions

For example, take the classic [[Cold War]] double agent. A Russian who "[[Fake Defector|defects]]" to the Americans, to supply information back to the Russians. In these examples, the double agent is ''actually'' a spy for a fleet of invading aliens. But the CIA ''know'' about the aliens, thus make the man a mole for them. But the KGB had their suspicions about the aliens anyway, but don't have the tech themselves to infiltrate the aliens so they piggy back on the Americans. But this is all an act for his ''true'' employers, a [[Path of Inspiration]]... and so on.

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== Film ==

* In [[Cypher]], the protagonist is the [[This Loser Is You|plaything]] in a [[Gambit Pileup]]. He ends up a hex-tuple spy, ultimately working for {{spoiler|himself. He pulled a Memory Gambit before the movie began, so he could pass one set of lie-detectors to get into one agency, then fail the same set of lie-detectors to get into the rival agency.}}

* Openly an issue with Captain Jack Sparrow in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''. It's nearly impossible to do a write up of his betraying and side-switching first three films because it's NEVER really made clear exactly who he's helping, who he's fucking over, or even why he's doing it (and, at some points, he doesn't seem to be able to keep track of it himself).

* Arguably, Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader becomes this in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''. After becoming Darth Vader under Palpatine, a.k.a Darth Sideous, he goes on two missions: his first to lead the extermination of the Jedi on Coruscant who don't know he's a Sith. Secondly, in his public guise, Palpatine rules the Republic, but as Darth Sideous, he controls the Separatists. He tells the Separatists he's sending his new apprentice to meet them, who promptly kills them all as they wonder why, and at the same time, announces to the Republic that he's dispatched someone to take down the Separatists, after which he announces beginning of the Empire. Anakin then postulates to Padme that he could kill Palpatine and take over the Empire himself.

* One of these is the main character of [[Keith Laumer]]'s ''Dinosaur Beach'', leading to multiple levels of [[Tomato Surprise]] as he betrays one faction or another. His ultimate allegiance turns out to be to {{spoiler|''none'' of the main factions--all of them wished to "fix" the timestream by eliminating time travelers after their own time period, but none were willing to accept that their own time travel was part of the problem. He set everything up to retroactively prevent the invention of time travel, [[Omnicidal Neutral|at the cost of the existence of everyone who was born after its invention]].}}

* The [[Illuminatus]] novels have Tobias Knight, described as the only quintuple agent in the history of espionage. If this troper remembers correctly he was working for the CIA, KGB, FBI, Illuminati and the Discordians all at the same time, and had reached the point where he was participating in conspiracy for its own sake.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Dr. Jill Roberts (Jordana Brewster) in several episodes of ''[[Chuck]]''. Her apparent loyalty switches back and forth in a dizzying manner.

* The loyalties of Adelle DeWitt in ''[[Dollhouse]]'' dizzyingly switch between Rossum and Echo at least once or twice per episode throughout the second/final season. Eventually, it's revealed {{spoiler|she's working against Rossum}}.

** And then there's Sark, who literally does not care whose side he is on, as long as he ends up on top.

* Dr Kellerman in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S12 E5 Revenge of the Cybermen|Revenge Of The Cybermen]]''

* ''[[Grimm (TV)|Grimm]]'' has Captain Renard, a member of a so-far unknown Wesen royal family. Every single faction he has contacted so far has assumed he's working for some other side. And his actions really aren't helping us decide either.

* Fully and hilariously possible in ''[[Paranoia]]'': secret societies often have agents infiltrate other secret societies, who in turn might use the very same person to spy on yet another secret society, ''ad nauseum''. The rulebook even acknowledges the (very remote) possibility of spying on all of Alpha Complex at once. "[[Deadpan Snarker|Try to keep your cover stories straight.]]"<br /><br />The end result of this is a secret society called The Wobblies. The Computer heard about it and sent a team of Troubleshooters to spy on it. Problem was, it didn't exist (the [[Real Life]] Wobblies had died out long before Alpha Complex was created), and when the Troubleshooters reported this, they were swiftly executed for insubordination. This cycle repeated until one group got smart and [[Take a Third Option|actually founded the society just so they had something to spy on]]. This attracted the attention of other groups, who sent in their own spies, resulting in [[Flock of Wolves|a group made up entirely of spies from other groups]].

* ''[[The Werewolves of Millers Hollow|The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow]]'' will sometime [[Stealth Pun|flirt]] with this. The [[Mole in Charge|mayor]] of the village can secretly be a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]], but more precisely a [[Food Chain of Evil|white werewolf]], as well as the [[Interspecies Romance|lover]] of the [[Magical Flutist|pied piper]]. It works better if there are many players.

== Video Games ==

*** {{spoiler|Both of whom being unaware of the fact that Adam was actually Ocelot.}}

* [[Carmen Sandiego]] is described in some of the game manuals as a ''Triple'' agent. It's not too hard to think she probably reaches [[Double Reverse Quadruple Agent]] status pretty easily, given her legendary stealing prowess.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', you can become this for the two instructors of the Sith Academy on Korriban, pitching them against each other while pretending to work for each of them as a double agent. This can end with them both saying to kill the other, then they feel the effects of the poison you gave to both of them, [[Oh Crap|leading them to realize you are working for yourself.]]

== Web Comics ==

* Professor Tiktoffen in ''[[Girl Genius]]''. Everyone seems to think they are the ones he is really working for. It's been [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110704 revealed] that he was pretty much ''everyone's'' "man inside" the city-state of Mechanicsburg, and his true loyalty was solely to himself - his goal was to take over Mechanicsburg, and by making all the other factions think he was on their side in the struggle for the empire, they wouldn't oppose him when he made his bid for power over a single city.

** Tagon's Toughs occasionally find they have the opportunity to play this role, or at least what looks like the opportunity to do so. Look for the phrase "get paid twice"; it means both sides in a conflict are trying to hire the Toughs, and Tagon is optimistically trying to find a way to satisfy both contracts without letting either one catch on to his game.

** On at least [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-09-29 one] occasion they successfully managed to get paid ''five'' times.

== Western Animation ==

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