He Knows Too Much: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Lucille:''' What? [''is machine-gunned by the Death Squad Leader'']|''[[Sin City]]''}}

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* Sent in a message to {{spoiler|Professor Eifman}} in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' just after he figured out the true agenda of {{spoiler|Celestial Being's founder}}, and just before {{spoiler|the Thrones attack the base}}, killing him in the process. Either sent by {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Ribbons Almack]]}} or by {{spoiler|[[Master Computer|Veda itself.]]}}

** {{spoiler|Kinue Crossroad}} is also killed for knowing too much, but in a partial subversion {{spoiler|the guy who killed her is a violent sociopath, and deliberately gave her the information before killing her for knowing too much, apparently just [[For the Evulz|because doing so amused him]].}}

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Hughes}} learns about the [[Ancient Conspiracy]], or at least a little more than the others know. [[Disconnected by Death|We all know what happened to him...]].

** In ''Brotherhood'', so did Isaac McDougall. He also gets offed for his efforts.

** It's not until quite a bit later in the story that the audience is shown exactly what he had uncovered. At first it seemed that he'd discovered little more than that there ''was'' an [[Ancient Conspiracy]], and his knowledge shouldn't really have been a threat to them yet. But in fact, he'd also realized that {{spoiler|all of Amestris was a giant transmutation circle}}, a fact that was the lynchpin of the entire conspiracy.

* In episode 13 of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', {{spoiler|Shirley Fenette}} gets shot to death for knowing that {{spoiler|Rolo Lamperouge isn't Lelouch's brother.}} The fact that {{spoiler|Shirley}} wanted to help {{spoiler|reunite Lelouch with his ''real'' sibling, Nunally, eliciting Rolo's jealousy}} doesn't help, either.

** In the first episodes of both the first and second season, Lelouch is about to be shot for having seen C.C., although {{spoiler|the second time it was intentional.}}

* Defied in ''[[Honor Harrington|Crown of Slaves]]''. Some Solarians suggest offing {{spoiler|Thandi Palane}}, but are warned away by the fact that she is connected to knowledgeable and hardened killers (read: [[Memetic Badass|Victor]] [[God Mode Sue|Cachat]], [[Genius Bruiser|Anton Zilwicki]] and [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|Jeremy X]]) who would take bloody vengeance, compounding the fact that the person who knows too much is the one they would go to for assassinations in the first place.

* ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'': This is the reason why Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land will remain prisoners of the Nautilus and cannot come back to Civilization. Ever. (Captain Nemo lets them abandon the Nautilus and explore land, but is always in uncivilized shores). Captain Nemo explains:

* Hanna gets {{spoiler|hit by a car}} when she recognizes A's number in [[Pretty Little Liars|Perfect]]

 

* River Tam from ''[[Firefly]]''. We don't find out what it is that she knows until [[The Movie]], but we know her handlers paraded her in front of many top-level politics and military leaders... [[Too Dumb to Live|without realizing]] that she is a mind reader, so the government definitely considers it too much. So much so that two government agents killed ''an entire building full of people'' for the crime of having heard her talk ''gibberish''. While she was under arrest.

* ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'':

* ''[[Dollhouse]]'': Rather than being "terminated" (one way or another), a "handler" who has been exposed for raping his assigned "doll" is offered a task more suited to his evident personality: eliminate a woman who has inadvertently learned too much about the Dollhouse from an FBI agent investigating the organization. Only it's {{spoiler|subverted when it's revealed that the target is a doll herself, one with a "killer" sleeper personality, and he's actually being sent to his death as part of a [[The Plan|larger scheme]].}}

* Used several times per season in ''[[24]]'', usually overlapping with [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]].

** Arguably, this is also part of the reason that an airstrike is called upon a research vessel doing some questionable things out in the ocean in "Chimera". Fortunately, Gibbs and his team get away from the ship on a pirate's boat as the missiles are fired.

* Several (main and minor) characters on ''[[The Wire]]'' have been killed off because of this trope. Whether they do or don't know too much, [[Tear Jerker|the results tend to be tragic.]]

* Someone from ''[[Pretty Little Liars]]'' is in great danger in the Summer Finale of the show. A even sends a text to Emily which says 'She knew too much.'

* In ''[[The X-Files]]'', Mulder knows entirely too much right from the start, and then gathers more information along the way. When attempts to get him to come to the dark side fail, the Syndicate try to destroy him instead. Since Mulder is more valuable to them alive than dead, they tend to do terrible things to people he cares about. Arguably the worst was giving Scully an inoperable tumor that spelled a slow and painful death for a season ({{spoiler|until a cure is found by Mulder's snooping ways, of course.}}).