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Karma Houdini/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* Laura Collins in ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'', a phoenix-like being who appears every hundred years and then burns herself to death, preferring to take any offspring with her. She's prevented from killing her son David, but still presumably goes on to try again every hundred years.
* Happens on at least two occasions in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'': Both the Akritirians in "The Chute" and the unnamed alien from "Persistence of Vision" come off none the worse for their crimes.
** Actually, there are countless examples in ''Voyager'' (and a few other of the later ''Trek'' series) of villains being let off with, at most, a severe telling off or minor setback. One of the most obvious examples is Verin in "Friendship One" who ''murders a popular recurring character in cold blood'' and gets off scot free at the end. Well, okay, he gets deposed (although even that's ambiguous) but he still gets cured of radiation poisoning and lives out a long and happy life.
** The Viidians who stole Neelix's lungs. Janeway catches them, but then lets them go with a warning... ''and with the lungs''.
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** Russel Winters in the ''[[Angel]]'' pilot "City Of..." openly brags about being a [[Karma Houdini]] who can, as he puts it, "do whatever I want". Then Angel asks him "Can you fly?" {{spoiler|Unlike some movie vampires, he can't, especially not in the sunlight.}}
** Andrew Wells is an arguable example. His list of crimes include being a willing member of Warren's Trio in Season 6, being willing to abandon Jonathan in one scheme, denying any responsibility throughout the whole arc, and {{spoiler|''stabbing Jonathan in the back'' in Season 7 in a ritual that could have unleashed a caveman vampire apocalypse if Jonathan hadn't been anemic. He was tricked into doing this though}}. But while he doesn't suffer much direct punishment for it, he is forced to confront what he did by Buffy and feels horrible about it, and he works to redeem himself by helping the crew against The First Evil in whatever way he can.
** Willow - she murdered Warren by skinning him alive, tried to kill Andrew and Jonathan despite them not being involved in Tara's death, as well as casually killing a warlock who sold her magic, then tried to ''destroy the world''. She was being influenced by dark magic at the time, but then, she absorbed it on purpose. Her punishment? A couple months in England learning to better use her world-destroying powers.
** A really interesting example is {{spoiler|The First Evil. Being incorporeal and essentially a force of nature, it actually ''cannot'' be defeated. The only thing the Scoobies were able to do was to destroy the Hellmouth, eliminating The First Evil's army, but not The First itself. Oh well.}}
** Spike. He is more popular than the rest of the characters combined and people tend to forgive him everything, but he is arguably the most blatant example of this trope in the entire Buffyverse. Even before he was chipped Buffy let him walk away a few times for no reason (like in the episode "Halloween"). Then he gets chipped and everyone is suddenly trusting this chip literally with their lives, never mind that the organization that made it soon proved to be both evil and incompetent. Willow actually comforts Spike for his "impotence" - i.e. the inability to kill her! He starts killing people once more (against his will) in Season 7 - Buffy's reaction is "He must be being framed". Whatever, "Slayer"...
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** 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.
* In the ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M* A* S* H]]'' series, the exit story of Major Frank Burns is so horrible - for everybody save himself. After acting as the ultimate jerk for five seasons, he got promoted and got his own command - stateside!!!
** 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.
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* Colonel Maybourne in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Initially introduced as a corrupt shadowy figure and the primary opponent of the SGC on Earth, he quickly suffered [[Flanderization]] and finally, after facing a court martial, fleeing to Russia and leaking information about the Stargate program, being brought back, facing a death sentence, being taken out of prison by O'Neill, being put back, escaping, helping SG-1, tricking SG-1 into taking him off-world, being brought back and then exiled by the Tok'ra... he eventually led a primitive nation claiming to be a prophet. And then, even after his deception was exposed (by SG-1, of course), his people left their "King Arkhan I" in power anyway.
** To be fair, Maybourne turned out to be a pretty decent king anyways, and he wasn't "exposed" by SG-1; he confessed and apologized for lying. His people still served him because apparently he was a ''good'' king, despite lying.
** It is implied that he's not that evil and generally wants to help the planet too. (Example: "Foothold") Even at his slimiest, his opposition to the SGC never appeared to be personal, whereas Simmons and Kinsey gave the impression that while they did think their ideas were sound, they also just wanted to belittle and hurt SG-1.
** And Jack did get to shoot him before he got shipped off to the Tok'ra.
** It helps that Maybourne went from being a cowardly [[Jerkass]] and [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] to being an amusing [[Lovable Traitor]] that hedges into [[Magnificent Bastard]] territory. Besides, next to Simmons, Maybourne is positively cuddly.
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* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'' the Vorlons and the Shadows spent thousands - possibly millions - of years manipulating the younger races into fighting their ideological war. Both were willing to (and did!) wipe out entire planets of civilians just to marginally weaken the other's position. And in the end... they get to leave the galaxy and happily reunite with the other First Ones. And they don't even have to clean up any of the messes they made first!
** Also the Minbari, who launch a genocidal war that nearly wipes out humanity only to go all, "Oops, sorry about that," and stop just before frying Earth. {{spoiler|Delenn too, for casting the deciding vote that starts the war in the first place.}}
*** The Minbari weren't really apologetic or remorseful at all, since they stopped the war because {{spoiler|they discovered that Minbari souls were being reincarnated into humans.}} Without that, they would've marched right on to Earth. But what stopped the war was arguably Karmic in the sense that {{spoiler|the Minbari discovered that they'd basically killed a whole bunch of their own. But as a whole, they didn't even do that. Only a handful were informed.}}
*** The Minbari were definitely regretful of their actions. In the prequel movie, even the most hard-lined warrior caste leader is forced to admit that he's begun to loathe the one-sided war, and wishes only that it would be over, in one way or another.
*** Bear in mind that the Minbari surrendered to the Earth Alliance when they stopped at the end of the war, and would have had to accept whatever penalties or restitutions (within reason) that the Earthlings chose to impose on them.
* In season 2 of ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', Paige raped by Dean. After several incidents where he taunts her about the ordeal, she presses charges against him, but the trial doesn't take place until season 4. However, Dean is found not guilty due to the lack of evidence. Paige gets a small measure of revenge by wrecking Dean's car by deliberately crashing Spinner's car into it.
** 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.
* Servalan in ''[[
* In ''[[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.
** A few episodes have had the classic horror-movie "that creature is no threat to us!" character who immediately gets eaten or whatever, but often the Doctor saves the contrarians along with everyone else. The 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" subverts it with a plot where nearly every likable character dies, but rude, unhelpful, selfish coward Rickston Slade not only survives the disaster, but turns out to have financially benefited from it. One character even comments on this to the Doctor, saying it's not fair, but you can't choose who lives and who dies.
* Denise in the ''[[Torchwood]]''' miniseries ''Children of Earth''. The politician who {{spoiler|suggested that the elite protect their own and select the lowest achieving schools}} gets to be in charge at the end.
** Though by taking over, Denise is denying this status to Prime Minister Green (the guy who {{spoiler|willing and quickly agreed to sell out ten percent of the world's children, ordered his loyalist employee to hand over his own children for the sake of the cover up - leading to said employee's familicide/suicide - and attempted to blame everything on the Americans}}). So, it's a glass half-empty sort of situation.
** 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}}.
* Megan on ''[[Drake and Josh]]''. Just one reason [[Creator's Pet|many fans hate her guts]]. Treated her brothers like crap. Managed to hide evidence when Drake and Josh almost got her. Blackmail all over the place. Tricks her parents. Her pranks (which is a 'soft' word for the stuff she inflicts on them) almost always end with her brothers in trouble. When she was exposed in one episode, nothing happened.
** 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.
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