I Never Said It Was Poison: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

 

The usual response to a perp [[Saying Too Much]]. The perp, while maintaining his innocence, reveals information he could not possibly have known if he were innocent, usually the [[Saying Too Much|specific details of a murder]]. It can take the form of a [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]. For full dramatic effect, the interrogator does not immediately point out this discrepancy, but continues the interview, often saving the kicker to the very end, as a sort of [[And Another Thing]] epilogue. Even more dramatically, the interrogator may insist it ''wasn't'' poison and then probe the perp's reaction to this lie.

This trope can be invoked in works during a character's confession. Innocent characters attempting to take the fall for a crime they did not commit will probably guess facts about the crime that may not be true. If the facts are incorrect, they will be most likely be called out on it immediately or in a [[And Another Thing]] manner. If the character is guilty, they could willingly give information only the perpetrator would know. This could be played to induce [[Squick]].

 

 

 

* Happens all the time in ''Case Closed'' aka ''[[Detective Conan]]''. Things like, "I have an alibi for 8 to 9 pm!" "How did you know when the victim died?"

* Sei Arisaka does this in ''[[Hime-chan no Ribon|Himechan no Ribon]]'' by saying that he knew who Pokota was even though Hime-chan had never told him, which is how she realised there was something more to him than original thought.

* ''[[Liar Game]]'' used this too. {{spoiler|The fact that Yuji knew that the stolen money was in the form of a check rather than cash told Akiyama that [[Villainous Crossdresser|"she"]] was Mr. X}}.

* Near the end of the ''[[Patlabor]]'' Manga, three detectives are interrogating the CEO of a company they're almost certain is the maker of the Griffon (which is still known to the general public as "the Black Labor").

{{quote|'''Detective #1''': So, you say you have ''nothing'' to do with the Black Labor?

'''Detective #1''': Sir... How did you know the Black Labor is called "Griffon"? }}

* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' has this during the Kodoku arc. [[Brainwashed and Crazy|Tamahome]] meets Miaka in the place they were supposed to before Nakago placed him under his control. He tells her, quite convincingly, that he only played along with Nakago's plans... at which point he asks her where Tasuki and Chichiri were, in spite of the fact that Miaka never told him Tasuki, whom he didn't even know at that point, would be coming along.

 

* Used in ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', when {{spoiler|Jean Loring mentions the note at Jack Drake's crime scene to Ray Palmer, despite Batman removing the note from the scene before the press found out. Oops.}}

* In ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'', Rob asks who took his package. Bucky says he never saw that sweater, leading Rob to ask "How did you know it was a sweater?" Grounding ensues

** Later, The Smiler's campaign manager refers to the assassin as "he". Spider asks how he can be sure the killer was a man if he or she was disintegrated immediately after taking the shot.

* In ''[[Hellboy]]: Conqueror Worm'', local guide Laura Karnstein is leading Hellboy and Roger to an abandoned castle. While making conversation, Laura casually mentions that she read Hellboy's file and was impressed by his past exploits. As they reach the castle, Laura goes on ahead, but Hellboy stops Roger to warn him that Laura couldn't have read his file. Sure enough, Laura is not who she claims to be.

 

 

* Ed Exley from ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'' likes doing a variant of this in his [[Perp Sweating|interrogations]]. In particular, he tends to say something about them being guilty as if it were a fact, and note that the person never protests or reacts as an innocent person would. For example, in his first interrogation he tells the perp "It's a shame you didn't pull this a few years ago when you were a minor, you being an adult makes it a gas chamber offense." Later, after he's done and is leaving the room, he stops to say, "You know Ray, I'm here talking about you getting the gas chamber, and you never asked me what this is about. You've got a big guilty sign on your forehead." The kicker though is that {{spoiler|the guys he's interrogating are guilty but not of the crime he's investigating.}}

* ''[[Minority Report]]'' has the villain realize the protagonists are onto him when he's caught in one of these. {{spoiler|Anderton's wife asks about Anne Lively's death, and Burgess pretends not to know about it, but says he'll see if "anyone drowned a woman by the name of - what did you say her name was?". "Anne Lively...but I never said she drowned."}}

* In ''Alone with Her'', the tip off that the protagonist has planted surveillance cameras in the house of the girl he's courting is when she rejects him and he starts ranting: "...I did everything for you, but you want to go back? To what? Huh? To being alone? To this empty room? '''To that brush'''?" Earlier in the movie, he'd caught a live feed of her masturbating with the hairbrush.

* Used lightly in ''[[1408]]'' when Mike Enslin calls a hotel for a reservation in the eponymous room, which the staff says is unavailable, despite not knowing ''when'' he'll be visiting, since they don't want anybody staying in the room ever.

* Averted in ''Sleuth''; Wyke mocks Inspector Doppler for trying this tactic on him.

* In ''Godfather 2'', Michael realizes that Fredo betrayed him when they were in a Cuban sleazy nightclub, and Fredo said "Watch this part of the act, it's really something", even though earlier Fredo had told Michael that he had never been to Cuba before.

* In ''[[Basic]]'', this is subverted when {{spoiler|John Travolta's character is chatting with Styles about the death of Kendal. Styles points out that the victim was coughing up blood and that poison is a reasonable guess.}}

{{quote|'''Chekov''': You lie! On Ceti Alpha V there was life. A fair chance-

'''Khan''': [[Large Ham|THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!!!!!!!]]

(A few moments and [[Chewing the Scenery|more exposition from Khan]] later)

'''Khan''': You didn't expect to find me; you thought this was Ceti Alpha VI! Why are you here? }}

 

* This happens in ''[[Encyclopedia Brown]]'' books quite a bit. Not generally for murders, but it happens.

** One story had Encyclopedia figuring out which member of a gang robbed a grocery store, his only piece of evidence being a knife left stuck into a watermelon. When confronting the gang, one of the members says his knife is an inch longer...despite the knife never having been taken out of the melon, and the watermelon specifically having been described as "huge" so that even the longer knife blade would still be completely hidden.

*** We know what you're thinking: [[Encyclopedia Browned|There was a 50/50 chance of him getting the right shoe]].

**** Or he could have just grabbed both shoes, which would probably have been sitting right next to each other.

** Also common in ''Two Minute Mysteries,'' by the same author - things like "Dr. Smith was murdered, where were you at the time?" "I haven't been to a dentist in years."

** Colonel Graff does a slip up on the phone to Bean's caretaker (a very intelligent nun) when he says the name Bean told him about Achilles (pronounced uh-kill-eez). The nun points out that since Bean is from the French section of Rotterdam he would have pronounced it ah-sheel and correctly calls him out for spying on Bean's journal.

* In a short mystery story called "True Lies," starring Lieutenant Johnson and Sgt. Bolton, the genius detective sergeant has narrowed down the possible murderers to two, but doesn't know which one. Since he thinks his lieutenant partner (who is the [[Narrator]], and who would be [[Too Dumb to Live]] if he didn't know how to [[Masquerade|hide it]] from his fellow cops) is the genius detective, and so is dependent on him for his own genius, he asks the lieutenant for the solution. Our narrator doesn't know and is eating dry granola, so he chokes and says (as an excuse) "Tense!" [[Eureka Moment|This gives the sergeant the solution]]; the murderer was the one who referred to the victim in the past tense before it was generally known that she was dead.

* [[Timothy Zahn]]'s last book of ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'', ''The Last Command'', features {{spoiler|Niles Ferrier attempting to accuse Talon Karrde of hiring an imperial assault team to attack a group of smugglers as [[False-Flag Operation|an example of the threat the Empire posed.]] He slips up when he mentions the name of the lieutenant leading the assault team ''before'' it's brought up by the person reading the planted evidence.}}

* In [[Jo Walton]]'s novel ''[[Small Change|Farthing]]'', the murder victim appears to have been stabbed. The police forensic techs figure out that he actually died of carbon monoxide poisoning, but don't reveal this to the press. A bit later, one character reveals that they know that the victim was gassed.

{{quote|'''Moist''': Look, [[Lampshade Hanging|I know how this sort of thing goes]]. You just [[Perp Sweating|sit here and ask questions]] and eventually I slip up and reveal something incriminating, right?

'''Carrot''': Thank you, sir.

'''Carrot''': [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|For telling me that you know how this sort of thing goes, sir.]] }}

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Horus Heresy]]'' novel ''False Gods'', Loken knows that Erebus is lying to him because he pointed out that the interex had accused them of stealing a kinebrach's sword—and in fact, the interex had only accused them of stealing a weapon.

* Used near the beginning of ''[[The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray]]''- the hero finds a young woman in the part of London infested by gribbly things, and asks the governor of a local mental asylum if he's lost any patients- he mentions her being found in the Old Quarter, despite not being told. In this case, it could be a reasonable assumption but the hero decides to be careful and gives a false description- {{spoiler|a good idea, since said governor is part of the cult that had captured the girl...}}

* This is how George Smiley discovers [[The Mole]] in the Secret Intelligence Service in [[John Le Carre]]'s ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'': the man in question turned up at the Circus with not enough information about the unfolding Operation Testify crisis for him to have got it from the radio report, but too much to have overheard it from a phone conversation.

* In the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' book ''First Among Sequels'', Thursday and Spike accuse a plumber of stealing money from a pensioner. His boss joins in with the accusation, saying "A thousand pounds, from a defenceless pensioner? How ''could'' you?" Thursday and Spike had never mentioned the amount.

* In one of the ''Fire Thief'' trilogy, the Avenger almost pulls this off and discovers the boy he is talking to is helping Prometheus when the boy mentions the shopkeeper looking for a spade (to dig up some buried treasure). But the boy quickly says he was running down the street shouting "half a million dollars for a spade."

* A ''[[Nancy Drew]]'' book had a [[Jerkass]] character being poisoned, but ultimately recovering. A few days later, his ex-girlfriend taunts him about as he tries to eat breakfast, stating, "You know, poison doesn't have to be a powder. Something could have been injected into that orange. . ." The only way she could have know what type of poison was used was if she was the assailant. [[Quote Mine|Just change "doesn't have to be" to "wasn't"]] and you've got an admission of guilt that still wouldn't stand in trial.

* At least one of Tom Savage's stories (specifically {{spoiler|''Scavenger''}}) has the ''protagonist'' mention something he shouldn't have known. This leads to a [[Tomato in the Mirror]] scene with a literal mirror.

** Actually, there's some questionable writing here on Savage's part - the protagonist gives information that could easily be explained away, while the antagonist is the one who gives far too much information to authorities - yet the book acts like the protagonist has said something absolutely incriminating.

* At the end of the ''[[A to Z Mysteries]]'' book ''The Lucky Lottery'', the three main kids confront their prime suspect over a stolen lottery ticket.

{{quote|'''Ruth Rose:''' And ''your'' fingerprints are on the mantel where you stole the Christmas card!

* In the ''Waco'' series by [[J. T. Edson]], Waco uses this trick a few times to trip up a killer.

 

* In the various ''[[Law and Order]]'' shows, the detectives will often hold back certain details of the crime from the press, so they can test the veracity of any account from a suspect or witness. As many times as it's used to trip up the guilty, it will also expose someone attempting to confess falsely. For instance, a father taking the rap for his son's crime, not being able to describe at his allocution in court how and where he hit the victim.

** Also [[Truth in Television]] not just for debunking people trying to protect the "real killer," but also, the higher profile a case, the more likely it is to have kooks falsely attempting to confess. Either because they're insane, they want attention, have avoided punishment for something else and want to atone out of guilt or [[Too Stupid to Live|they just enjoy fucking with the police]].

** Avoided in one episode when McCoy decides to go through with a generous plea deal with a suspect that covered "miscellaneous crimes" after the police told him the suspect's partner was dead. He exploited a loophole that allowed him to charge the defendant with crimes the DA didn't know about before making the plea; since the police never said the partner was murdered, [[Blatant Lies|he had no way of knowing his death was a crime]].

** Explicitly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[Law & Order: LA|Law and Order LA]]'' when the prosecutor asks the defendant, a Secret Service agent, if based on his long career and investigations that he'd agree that a suspect displaying knowledge of the crime was probably guilty. Defendant says yes. Prosecutor presents the text messages (sent from a smartphone they'd found concealed in the defendant's cell) to the victims' husband/father revealing information that only someone present in the house just before the attack would have known.

* Standard operating procedure in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' as well.

** The episode "A Real Rain":

{{quote|'''Gideon:''' Is that why you stabbed him in the groin?

'''Suspect:''' It's what he deserved. }}

** In yet another episode, their usual plan of withholding things from the media was thwarted by a leak and they had to find it quickly.

* In one case of ''[[CSI]]'', Brass (after the fact) realizes that he should've been suspicious of the husband of a woman drowned in the bathtub from the beginning when he remembers that, while she is being carted away by the EMTs and it's not yet clear whether she is going to make it or not, the husband says: "[[Suspiciously Specific Tense|I loved my wife.]]" Whoops!

'''Jessica''': What makes you think that man was the security guard? }}

* Happened in the ''[[Bones]]'' episode "Mayhem on a Cross".

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Trash", Mal meets an old friend Monty's new bride, an old enemy. They pull guns on each other and fight. After Monty separates them, Mal explains their mutual history to all present, and then:

{{quote|'''"Bridget":''' You're a liar, Malcolm Reynolds!

::: Had she not made that mistake, she still would have had to explain why their first reaction upon seeing each other was to pull a gun on each other.

** In the episode "Bushwacked" an Alliance official tries to use this one on Mal, telling him they're looking for a brother and sister without mentioning the two are adults. Without batting an eye, Mal pretends to assume he's talking about children.

'''Mal:''' No children on this boat.

'''Harken:''' I didn't say "children." Siblings. Adult siblings.

{{quote|'''Crown Prosecutor Kaye''': Or was it just because he looked like a rapist?

'''Defendant''': [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|This has nothing to do with him being black!]]

* Frequently used in ''[[Columbo]]''.

** One episode had him find a witness, but it was a blind man. So they bring the suspect in, and {{spoiler|have a guy in shades walk in, sit down, and identify the suspect as leaving the murder scene right after the murder. The suspect, a psychologist, claims to be able to use his medical training to tell the man is blind, and hands him a newspaper...which he reads perfectly. Columbo reveals it's actually the blind man's similar-looking brother, and there was no way the suspect should've thought he was blind. Unless, of course, he had seen him while fleeing the scene of the crime.}}

* Debra Morgan from ''[[Dexter]]'' realizes who really {{spoiler|shot her and Lundy}} when the perpetrator asks her what it was like to {{spoiler|watch the life go out of the eyes of the man she loved}}. This was far from common knowledge even in the station. She does consider that the person could have figured it out or been told by another cop, and investigates accordingly, but eventually concedes that there is no other explanation.

* This is how [[Castle]] and Beckett identify Beckett's mother's killer. A man suspected of hiring the same contract killer is trying to cut a deal for full immunity from all charges, by insisting it's the only way she'll ever find the guy who killed her mother. Beckett later realizes that she never told the suspect which of her parents was murdered, and that he ''is'' the contract killer.

{{quote|'''Killer''': Al Mooney is insane! Nobody will believe what he says.

'''Lassiter''': Hang on a minute! I don't believe anyone said the witness' name. You're under arrest. }}

* Subverted in ''[[Terra Nova]]'': after a false confession is revealed to be false despite knowing specific details of a crime, Shannon and Washington realize the actual guilty party made sure that the details were spread around to the colonists to cover any potential slip-ups he might make.

* Played straight in an episode of ''[[JAG]]'' when the team were investigating a failed assassination attempt. Told that the would-be assassin had named him as being behind the plot, the perp protested that it was ridiculous to accept the word of a woman who had been subjected to lengthy police questioning. Of course, nobody had mentioned that the assassin was female...

* ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' featured this often. One episode had Jessica Fletcher tell a group of suspects the murder weapon was found and the killer was identified because he later referred to it as a pizza cutter.

 

 

* Parodied in Season 3, Episode 1 of ''[[Bleak Expectations]]'':

{{quote|'''Pip Bin''': The body was covered in hundreds of tiny stab-wounds?

* In NPR's radio adaptation of ''[[Star Wars]]'', Leia's rebel allies inform her of the Death Star's existence. Later, she's being told about the weapon by an Imperial officer, and accidentally slips the weapon's name even though the officer hadn't mentioned it. Things get ugly from there.

 

* In [[David Mamet]]'s ''[[Glengarry Glen Ross]]'', {{spoiler|Levene}} blows it by admitting he knew Williamson had {{spoiler|already cashed Lingk's check}}, something no one but Williamson and the person who {{spoiler|robbed the office}} would have known.

* From ''[[Rent]]'':

'''Collins''': [[Go Look At the Distraction|CHAMPAGNE!?]] }}

 

** This trope is also [[Inverted Trope]] a couple of times - in ''Apollo Justice'', a killer {{spoiler|makes a seemingly unremarkable comment about cards used in a game at the crime scene having blue backs, when in fact they had red backs.}} This only causes problems for the villain because {{spoiler|Apollo looks at the victim's hand, and one of the cards ''does'' have a blue back. This leads to the deduction that the killer must have swapped a card out in favour of the blue card for some reason, but without having seen what colour the cards were, causing the finger to point at the one person who already claimed the cards to be blue with no provocation.}}

*** That particular villain has a habit of waxing poetic about minor details... which comes back to bite him in the ass ''twice'' during that case. Kind of strange given how chillingly cunning he's seen to be otherwise.

** In the first case of ''Investigations 2'', De Killer refers to the victim by his full name during a cross-examination, while up until then Edgeworth had only ever refered to him by surname. (and, in fact, didn't even ''know'' his first name until that point) {{spoiler|It doesn't mean what you think it means, but it does reveal him as more connected to the case than he claims.}}

* In ''[[Persona 4]]'', {{spoiler|Adachi}} reveals himself by saying that he thought everyone was sure that "{{spoiler|Namatame}} put them in [the television]"—no one but the murderer and the protagonists could have known that that was how the victims were killed. He had also cast suspicion on himself in an earlier instance when the protagonists {{spoiler|find a list of everyone that Namatame had put into the television: Adachi shows no surprise at the contents of the list despite the fact that it included people who were rescued before being murdered (and were therefore classed as mere "disappearances" that had no relation to the murders).}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', when [[Big Bad|Saren]] is facing accusations of attacking a human colony and killing another Spectre, Nihlus, he addresses Shepard as "the one who let the beacon get destroyed." Shepard can respond using this trope, saying the only way he could have known that is if he was there. However, Saren quickly rebuffs him/her, saying that Nihlus' files transferred to him upon his death. Unfortunately there is a bit of [[Fridge Logic]] here, as Nihlus would not have been able to put anything about the beacon being destroyed in his files because he was dead.

** Files actually mean "Cases" IRL. If Saren got Nihlus' case, he would have all the info that went with it - what Nihlus wrote down himself and whatever was pertinent to add after his death. Since Saren and Nihlus were associates, Saren would certainly receive info on the circumstances on Nihlus' death - including the destruction of the beacon. Plus, a number of hours pass between the mission and Anderson formally accusing Saren, giving him plenty of time to look things over.

* In ''[[Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box]]'', {{spoiler|the fake "Flora"}} is revealed when he looks at a photograph of the Elysian Box and mentions {{spoiler|the cute goat on it. The picture was missing a piece that identifies the emblem as a goat (it looks more like a frog without it), meaning "Flora" had seen the mysterious box before, making him the thief}}.

* A kidnapping suspect in ''[[Kara no Shoujo]]'' admits that he has some relation to the person witnessed actually taking the person away before the name of the person is revealed. Woops.

{{quote|'''Courier:''' Can you help me find some missing people?

'''Slave trader:''' [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|I don't know anything about the refugees going missing from the Aerotech Office Park.]] }}

* ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'' uses the "innocent character taking the fall" variation. When Juwar is asked for more details of what he did in the city of Mintaka as [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|the Mourning Mistral]], he tells Sagi that he planted the bomb in a nearby building after the election speeches...not knowing that the real Mourning Mistral broke their pattern of targeting buildings to target an airpod instead.

 

* {{spoiler|Souma Miou}} is outed as the one who had been bullying Rizu in ''[[A Profile]]'' because when confronted with a little evidence blurted out the location the evidence had been found in.

 

* [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1145 Whoopsy spleeny!]

 

 

{{quote|'''Lawyer:''' Will you tell the court your whereabouts at the time of the carjacking?

'''Willie:''' I was alone in me Unabomber-style shack; I had nothing to do with that carjacking.

{{quote|'''Moe/Claudius:''' J'ai pas mis autant de poison!

''[Everyone gasps]''

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' went on trial for throwing eggs at Mr. Anderson's house. They were almost set to be pronounced not guilty when the plaintiff's lawyer noted that Butt-Head had called them "rotten eggs" instead of just "eggs." How did they know they were rotten? They could only stammer, and within a ''minute'' the jury pronounced them guilty. (Can you blame the jurors?)

* Averted in ''[[Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo]]''. A girl who works for the villain approaches Beast Boy and calls him "otaku." Beast Boy takes it to mean that she thinks he's cute, when it actually means "comic book geek", which is something only someone who had been watching him could have known about.

** He was moping around outside a closed comic book factory. One would assume someone moping on the steps of DC or Marvel's printing plants would be declared a comic book geek too. Though it really doesn't matter, as Beast Boy couldn't understand it anyway.

* ''[[Fillmore!]]'': Fillmore is discussing a case with an old friend who's one of the witnesses, and he mentions that 4000 counterfeit baseball cards are still missing. She tells him not to worry, because "it's not like four thousand Cal Ripken cards are gonna just disappear." Fillmore realizes that she must have the cards, because he never told her what player was on them.

* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'': Terry visits Willy Watt in Juvie hall, whom he suspects is the "ghost" terrorizing his high school with telekinetic pranks. During their conversation, Willy brings up the school incidents, even though he's had no visitors or callers since having been locked up (and presumably [[Conviction by Contradiction|the incidents never made the news]]).

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'': In the episode "The Hidden Enemy" one of the clones betrays his brothers. Captain Rex and Commander Cody discover a listening device planted in their command center, and begin to question a squad of suspected clones about it. The turncoat mentions the Jedi had left - something only Rex and Cody knew at the time. Though strangely enough, he wasn't one of the suspects.

* Spoofed in the ''[[American Dad]]!'' episode "Black Mystery Month". A detective quizzes Steve at the scene of a murder and is instantly suspicious when Steve mentions details that are ''clearly visible at the scene''.

 

* This is the reason why newspaper reports about homicides tend to be deliberately vague: The police withhold crucial information until they have had a chance of interrogating the suspects and catch them in these situations.

* As seen on the [[Saying Too Much]] page, where a woman was arrested as a suspect in the murder of a man that had won the jackpot and had disappeared, then turned up dead several days later. She was also under suspicion of embezzling it, and after being released from a round of questioning tearfully professed that she had been falsely accused of shooting another human being. Police had yet to release exactly how the man had died.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]

[[Category:Perp Sweating]]

[[Category:The Oldest Tricks in The Book]]

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]