Karma Houdini/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

** The Viidians who stole Neelix's lungs. Janeway catches them, but then lets them go with a warning... ''and with the lungs''.

** Their second appearance is even worse: They abduct three crewmembers, experiment on one, use them all as slave workers and ''murder'' one of them (the [[Red Shirt|non-regular]]) and Janeway's response? Grab the ones that are left alive and make a run for it, leaving several other guest characters, including one that provided incidental help to the crew, behind as slaves.

** ''[[SVU]]'' doesn't let this happen often. If a criminal does get off, they're going to have a [[Vigilante Execution]] performed on them five seconds later.

*** Actually, it does happen in SVU. Usually with rich folk as well. Perhaps not as common as the other L&O's, but it does happen plenty of times. In "Sick", for example, {{spoiler|Billy Tripley, a rich pedophile}} isn't punished because the ''other'' villains' actions make the case impossible to prosecute. The episode actually ends with the frustrated squad vowing to get him eventually, but the story was never revisited.

** The protagonists go through considerable trouble to make vampire Willow into one of these. Even after she tries to murder dozens of innocent people succeeding with few, the Scooby gang just let her leave back to her own world, even giving goodbye hugs and advice "try not to kill people". The hand of karma is swift in her case, as she gets staked seconds after her return, but not for the lack of trying.

** Wolfram and Hart is the last example of this from the spin-off series ''Angel''. Despite the horrors they commit, the Armageddon they have planned, the misery and devastation they have sowed, all of the team's efforts are only enough to inconvenience them, leading to a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]. To be clear, this refers to the Senior Partners and the organization as a whole, not individual employees. Almost every single evil employee ended up paying for their actions in one way or another.

** Amusingly, the exit story of Major Burns in the book and movie is '''also''' an example of sorts, in the other direction. After Hawkeye, Trapper, and Duke pester him into flipping out and trying to kill them, Major Burns gets hauled away in a straitjacket. After that, Colonel Blake calls them in, tells them flat out that he knows what they did, but the only disciplinary action he's going to give them is not making Trapper chief surgeon for another week because it would look bad. Mostly because he can't afford to lose more people who actually know what they're doing, granted...

*** One of the protagonists (either Hawkeye or Duke, depending on the version of the event) asks if he can go home if he has sex with Hot Lips and punches out Trapper.

* HBO's ''[[Oz]]'', being tilted toward the cynical side of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], had several unrepentant criminals escape any kind of justice for their evil deeds. Notably, Jason Cramer got his murder rap overturned (he'd decapitated his lover and mailed the guy's body via FedEx) and waltzed out of the prison scott-free.

** Conversely, genuinely repentant Miguel Alvarez runs afoul of the vindictive head of the parole board who tells him to his face that he will ''never'' be paroled though they will continue to go through the motions every year.

** Also, he {{spoiler|had some ability (Empathic Mimicry) used on him that forced him to feel all the pain he's caused other people. Which is a lot. Sure, he's not dead, but he's definitely suffered for his crimes.}}

*** Doesn't count. He doesn't suffer permanent consequences, and is right back to being, well, Sylar.

** It became a full blown [[Shaggy Dog Story]] in Chapter Three (first half of Season 3) when {{spoiler|Sylar discovered he had the ability to steal powers through Empathy AND through cutting people's heads open to look at their brains, trying to reform and getting a girlfriend. Then we had a nonsensical flashback episode which dismissed any culpability Sylar had for any of his past crimes since he was pushed into killing more people by his current girlfriend (Elle Bishop) and by Noah "HRG" Bennet.}} Of course all of this was [[Retcon|Ret Conned]] by the end of the chapter and Sylar {{spoiler|killed Elle, went back to his wicked ways with even MORE power and was dead for about five minutes before being brought back, fresh as a daisy for Chapter 4}}

** And then Sylar received full-blown [[Joker Immunity]] in Chapter Four (second half of Season 3) when {{spoiler|he suddenly went back to his Season One motivation of wanting to be the most special person in the world and/or President of the USA after spending half the season angsting over his biological father. Newly motivated, he picked up even more superpowers, gaining the ability to become anyone using a combination of shape-shifting and the power to instantly learn the history of anything and anyone by touching them. He somehow convinced the violent, anti-social and anti-mutant government-sponsored assassin heading the US Government's "specials containment team" to partner up with him.}}

* Despite his [[Heel Face Turn]], Paul Kellerman from ''[[Prison Break]]'' arguably has too much blood in his past to deserve what is probably one of the sweetest ends a character from that series can get, and this is without having needed to go through nearly as much adversity as the rest of the cast.

** T-Bag also counts. While he may not have gotten the "classy" end that he really wanted, the fact remains that almost all of his villainous peers got what's coming to them in one form or another, while he gets to go back to the relative comfort of his Fox River lifestyle that he basked in the start of the series. The fact that he ultimately outlives {{spoiler|Michael Scofield}} is a testament to this injustice.

** Unfortunately, this is a case of [[Truth in Television]], as it is rather rare for a rape victim to see their rapist get convicted.

* Jean Paul in ''[[The West Wing]]''. Introduced in season four as Zoe's new boyfriend from France, he spends a lot of it acting like a smug rich bastard. Things get taken up a notch in the season's second to last episode, when he slips Zoe a roofie after her graduation, either part of his genius plan to date rape the president's daughter, or to aid terrorists that later kidnap her. After he's nearly beaten to within a inch of his life by an enraged Charlie, he's never seen again after, besides a brief mention that he's stonewalling the authorities with info about his dealer, or possible connection to the terrorists. This may be due to Aaron Sorkin leaving the show, and the new producer trying to avoid his old storylines.

* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]],'' back in the first season, (as in, ''[[The Sixties|the first]]'' first season) when they drop in on The Aztecs, the Bad Priest ends up in charge and the Good Priest is exiled. Also, the Doctor's girlfriend gets her heart broken...

** In ''Let's Kill Hitler'' we meet a group dedicated to punishing these. They travel to the end of a war criminal's established timeline and torture them to death. Ironically, they become [[Karma Houdini|Karma Houdinis]] themselves.

** The people in the episode "Meat" who were harvesting the meat of a live alien. They cut off slabs of the alien's meat while the alien was still alive just so that they could profit from it. Their punishment? They had their memories erased and were allowed to return to their normal lives. As Jack remarks, what else could they do?

* ''[[Nip Tuck]]'': The Carver, a masked serial rapist who disfigures his victims after raping them, and even once kills a woman. Most of the third season revolved around catching the Carver. The Carver's last appearance was {{spoiler|lounging around on a beach with his girlfriend/sister, looking for their next victim}}.

** Dan Schneider apparently loves this type of character. Currently, we have Sam in ''iCarly'' and Jade in ''Victorious." Neither of which seem to ever get any kind of retribution despite slowly becoming more and more horrible as time goes on. Sam at least, seems to be frequently put in detention or arrested, but that happens too frequently, she actually seems proud of it. Jade, on the other hand, doesn't seem to even get that.

* ''[[CSI]]'' had an episode dealing with the murder of an unpleasant TV star, where the CSIs figure out the murderer is another actress on the show. When confronted, however, the actress gives a [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] speech about the crime show genre, and points out that the CSIs don't have any real evidence, and if they're hoping for her to panic and confess based on their circumstantial evidence then they're highly mistaken. She then walks away scott free, with the closing line being Brass telling Grissom "[[Chinatown|Forget it Grissom, it's Burbank]]." The whole episode was one big in-joke about TV shows in general.

** Principal Reynolds in Lost episode, "Dr. Linus" lets his school fall into disrepair, carries on an inappropriate relationship with the school nurse, and threatens to ruin Alex's future. He's not punished for any of this.

*** {{spoiler|None of that really happened as it was all a dreamworld constructed by Ben Linus and the rest of the characters, a cosmic "waiting room" of sorts where they waited for the last of their friends to die before they all moved on to whatever comes next.}}

* ''[[One Life to Live]]'' has Todd, whose rap sheet includes three separate rapes, multiple kidnappings, a bombing he tried to pin on someone else, setting another bomb ''at a police station'', and baby theft. No, he's not in jail. And he's just got his kids back...

** And then there's Cole, who had just barely turned 18 and was still in [[High School]] when he got high and caused a car crash that left ''the son of the police chief and the DA'' paraplegic ([[Soap Opera Disease|only for a few months, as it turned out]]) and got a slap-on-the-wrist rehab deal. This kid has a bright future ahead of him!

** He also gets temporarily promoted to interim manager after Dwight screws it up. [[Karma Houdini]] extrodinaire, ladies and gentleman.

* In ''[[The Monkees]]'' episode "The Picture Frame", the boys get off the hook for the robbery they were [[Film Felons]] for, but the real crooks aren't shown getting in trouble for it in the end.

* Happens to several major villains from ''[[The Shadow Line (TV)|The Shadow Line]]''. {{spoiler|Gatehouse, Patterson, Jay Wratten, Ratallack and Lia Honey}} not only all remain at large at the end of the series, they're all in better positions than when they started and {{spoiler|are ready to start over with a new incarnation of Counterpoint}}.

* While they're not villains at all (or even intentionally antagonistic), the kids from [[Outnumbered]] will generally get away with causing general mischief and chaos every episode. One of the bigger offenders is when Karen almost ruins a wedding.

* This trope is most definitely in play when it comes to the wife, Debra, on [[Everybody Loves Raymond]]. While it's true that her mother-in-law Marie was smug towards her, there really was no justification for her to treat her husband Ray the way she did, subjecting him to physical and verbal abuse on many occasions in the mid-to-later seasons of the show. On one occasion, she's annoyed at him and shoves him at full force into a bunch of bookshelves, so hard that the books actually fall off the shelves. On another occasion, she's irritated at him for making a joke about her food, so [[Disproportionate Retribution|she pours piping hot marinara sauce--right off the stove, mind you--onto Ray's crotch.]] But perhaps the worse was the episode where we learn that Debra actually encourages Ray's own kids to make fun of him behind his back and see him as less of an authority figure. Throughout all this, ''Ray'' always ends up being the one to be humiliated in every episode, and keeps coming back to Debra, who maintains a rather smug attitude, bragging about her supposed superiority to Ray on many occasions. [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male|Mind you, if the roles had been reversed, and Ray treated Debra the way she treats him, it clearly would not fly.]]

* Several visitors to [[Gilligans Island]] who know all about the Castaways do nothing to help them get rescued, including the Mosquitoes, Wrong-Way Feldman and Harold Hecuba. Hecuba even steals their idea for a musical Hamlet. None of these people suffer the slightest retribution for their callous treatment of the seven castaways.

* Brittany on Glee. She cheats on Artie with Santana for months in season 2, yet Artie is the one portrayed as a villain after confronting her and calling her 'stupid'. In season 3, she releases flashy campaign posters for Kurt's school president race against his wishes, and then runs herself (and wins!) after he balks. This could be because she's Too Dumb To Live, though.

 

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