What the Hell, Hero?/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** The titular [[Secret Agent Super Dragon]] is a good example:

{{quote| '''Joel:''' ''(Super Dragon reveals that he'd already photographed the cure for a harmful drug to the [[Big Bad|mastermind]], who's just taken [[Cyanide Pill|poison]])'' "What a ''jerk''. He just wanted to get the guy's goat right before he died."}}

** In the episode "The Other Side", despite generally operating from a neutral standpoint, SG-1 intervenes in a world war and inevitably causes a massacre of the white supremacist side. Despite the beggings of the faction's leader to be brought with them, Jack returns through the Stargate and closes the iris on him, drawing a shocked and horriffied, and possibly disillusioned or even infuriated, look from Carter.

*** There's also the fact that the leader promised to give them their advanced technology in exchange for letting him come with them. Guess what the primary task of SGC is and why NID has to take matters into their own hands.

** There is also the question as to who authorized the use of biological weapons against the Wraith. If it was Weir, where did she get the authority? From the IOA? Or the US government? Or did she think this one up on her own?

** The IOA or the US government apparently authorized an attack on the Pegasus replicators (Asurans), leading to the practical extermination of the Asurans by the combined forces of the Atlantis Expedition, the Wraith (their primary enemies), and the Travellers (a society composed of a number of advanced starships). One's mileage may vary on this aspect, considering that the Asurans were, for better or for worse (usually for worse) sentient, and thus the actions of the expedition could constitute genocide and/or war crimes. On the other hand, the Asurans, far more so than the replicators of SG-1, are implacable and unambiguously evil (they are never portrayed as emotionless metal spiders, as in SG-1, but as malevolent human-like robots), meaning that the only practical way to actually defeat the replicators is to destroy every single nanite block. Further, the few 'good' Asurans actually survived.

** In one episode, a man infects Jeannie, McKay's sister, with nanites so McKay will figure out how to program them to treat injuries. The guy wanted to cure his otherwise untreatable daughter. McKay does it, but the nanites are indiscriminate and render the kid brain dead (then she dies anyway). To save Jeannie, who will inevitably end up the same way, John Sheppard talked the father into ''[[Driven to Suicide|being willfully fed on by a Wraith]]'' (preventing McKay from doing the same thing) by pointing out how pointless his life was now that his daughter had died. McKay expresses shock for about 30 seconds and then the matter is never brought up again.

** One of the series' clip shows is devoted entirely to this. A newly formed interplanetary coalition puts the Atlantis team on trial, with the clip show highlighting every single plot-relevant fuck-up they had made to that point. They manage to win by bribing of one of the judges (who admittedly was already being bribed by someone else). One ''is'' swayed by their arguments, and the third was going to vote against them no matter what they said or did.

** Sisko has another of these moments in "For the Uniform", where he manages to capture the rogue officer Eddington by ''poisoning a planet'' (the people on it have time to evacuate). It's Eddington who calls him out here. Subverted in the same case in that Sisko's plan is to force Eddington to feel morally superior and surrender to prevent any more such attacks.

** Though in a bit of Solomonic wisdom, Eddington had {{spoiler|poisoned a Cardassian planet in a way not fatal to humans, so Sisko poisoned a Federation planet in a way not fatal to Cardassians. The sides swap planets so that Eddington's earlier attack doesn't cause balance of power issues}} so Sisko's really undoing previous damage and capturing the bad guy here.

** In "The Dogs of War," Odo calls out the entire Federation when he points out to Sisko that even though they all say they hate the methods used by Section 31, they don't mind standing by and reaping the benefits while {{spoiler|the virus engineered by Section 31 kills the Founders.}}

{{quote| '''Sloane:''' I am such an idiot. It's so simple. The Borg ''hurt'' you, and now you're going to ''hurt'' them back!<br />

'''Picard:''' In my century, we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility...<br />

'''Wesley:''' Captain...<br />

'''Picard:''' Dismissed. }}

** Actually, she left him running while she did it. Which might even have been worse, if you think about it.

** Of course, not separating him would mean, essentially, accepting the death of Neelix and Tuvok both.

** Seven of Nine was not very happy when Janeway planned to fix the Doctor's guilt-induced nervous breakdown by giving him what basically amounted to a Holo-Lobotomy.

** In "Virtuoso", the Doctor goes on a rant, claiming that Janeway [[Fantastic Racism|doesn't see him as an equal and never has]]. She does have some valid arguments as to why she wants to refuse his request, but it's clear that he has a point as well.

** Of course, there ''was'' a planet, and by extension, the future at stake. And they did a good job of showing his progression towards that point.

** Then there was the time when {{spoiler|Trip was mortally wounded}}, and Phlox created an accelerated-growth clone of him in order to harvest neural tissue and save {{spoiler|Trip's}} life (the clone would then die). Of course, the clone rapidly became a fully-sentient human with all of his progenitor's memories, and learned that his purpose was to die in order to save another. He was... less than thrilled at the prospect, to say the least. Especially when a guilt-ridden Phlox then thought up an experimental treatment that might save the clone and give him a normal lifespan, which would obviously then mean {{spoiler|Trip}} would die. Archer is unwilling to take the risk and eventually has to ''order the clone to die'', after which both the victim and Phlox immediately call him out on it. {{spoiler|The clone eventually accepts.}}

** And Ian calls him on his refusal to help carry an injured man -- does he expect one of the women to?

*** Considering Barbara (or even Susan) might actually have been in better physical condition than the 1st Doctor, Ian can sound more old-fashioned than reasonable to present-day ears. Much more in line with this trope is when the Doctor moves as if to BASH SAID INJURED MAN'S HEAD IN (because he wanted to escape to the TARDIS and thought they were wasting time), and Ian intercepts him asking what the hell he thought he was doing.

** Gwen's video recording in ''Children of Earth'' also has a bit of "What the Hell, Doctor?" - not because he'd done something wrong, but because there were a number of times when he didn't show up. Then she decided that [[Humans Are Bastards|he must look away from them in shame, given what occurred...]]

** Much earlier in Torchwood, Ianto got called out for keeping his Cyberman girlfriend in the basement. He also got two weeks suspension.

** Elliot Stabler is really a walking 'What The Hell, Hero?'.

** "Screwed" is possibly the most [[Diabolus Ex Machina|notorious]] instance of this. {{spoiler|Elliot is called out for covering up his daughter's DUI charges. Benson is called out for helping a known fugitive escape justice. Fin is called for his actions during his time in the narcotics division.}}

** And an episode where they need to get a suspect out of the Iranian embassy, the characters have two women trick two of the embassy employees into taking their pictures, only to have detectives Lupo and Bernard conveniently show up, examine the camera and find pictures of famous landmarks. They then blackmail the employees into helping them under threatening to arrest them as terrorists. Fortunately for the two employees, they were smart enough to call someone higher up in the US government, who proceeded to chew the main characters a new one for the stunt they pulled.

** Now that Jack is the District Attorney, he gets to throw a few of his own [[WTH Hs]] at Mike Cutter. Although Connie is the one that usually calls Mike out when he's being an idiot.

** McCoy gets another one in the episode ''Gov Lov'' when he succeeds in nullifying gay marriages in the state in order to force a man to testify against his husband (since there are some laws that allow spouses refusal to testify against each other). During the trial, the man bluntly tells McCoy that he ''would have willingly'' testified, [[What the Hell, Hero?|but due to McCoy's actions ruining hundreds of marriages for his own goals]], now refuses despite knowing he'd be held in contempt.

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' does this with Sarah giving up John to foster parents, Derek Reese murdering Andy, and for extra awesome Sarah does it to Cameron. Yes, you heard right, the ''terminator'' gets called out on what she does.

** Another scene regarding Roslin arranging the kidnapping of Hera also provides an example of this trope: it is revealed that Adama was not consulted by Roslin about the kidnapping scheme, and believed along with Helo and Athena that Hera had died. Adama is epically PISSED when Roslin finally tells him what she did, to the point he can barely speak over his own rage.

* Natalie does one of these on Nick in one of the first season [[Forever Knight]] episodes, when he was close to giving up on his humanity quest.

** And then promptly subverted when {{spoiler|Wilson comes back because he realizes that ''being around House is fun and makes his life interesting.''}}

** Also, we see Nathan Petrelli getting this twice, first from Hiro in Season 1 and then from Peter in Season 3.

* In ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', Gabrielle betrays Xena, calls her out for her vengeful murder plot against the Green Dragon, and follows with a healthy dose of [[Why Did You Make Me Hit You?]] in ''The Debt''. Of course, that was likely a reaction to Xena trying to murder Gabrielle's [[Enfant Terrible]].

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'' itself, Sheridan gets called out by Garibaldi over his interrogation of Morden in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum".

** The ending of that episode isn't exactly as satisfying as it is made out to be. Sherdian, despite his usual working moral compass, doesn't release Morden based on Garibaldi's [[What the Hell, Hero?]] or his own conscience but Delenn and Kosh telling him to do otherwise would pretty much screw the pooch on the galaxy.

** In the season 8 episode "Preventative Medicine", Hawkeye performs an unnecessary appendectomy on a battle-happy colonel to put him out of commission who is scheming of how to an unauthorized (and potentially high-casualty) offensive in direct defiance of his orders. B.J. furiously protests this, calling it "mutilation" and a violation of every tenet they're supposed to live by as doctors. This is an interesting parallel/contrast to previous wingman Trapper, who was only too happy to help Hawkeye [[Recycled Script|do the same thing]] in the season 3 episode "White Gold".

** On a lesser scale, you'd be surprised on how many times Hawkeye gets called for his self-righteousness and sanctimony. These two flaws are commonly attributed to [[Seasonal Rot]] but for one, this is early seasons as well, and for two, [[Fridge Brilliance|it might have been deliberate]].

** Lynn McGill gets one when he steps out to deal with his sister, enabling terrorists to get his card and {{spoiler|launch a gas attack on CTU}}. He explains to the security guard watching him that he was scared.

{{quote| '''Harry Swinton''': So we're all going to die... because you were scared?}}

** In a similar fashion, McNulty's scheme to manufacture a super-sexy fake serial killer, preying on the homeless in Baltimore in order to force the asshole Mayor to pump more funds into the Baltimore Police Department's budget after cutting said budget to the bone, led to much "What the Hell" yelling at McNulty.

** The best of all of them in ''The Wire'', however, is Bunk's truly ''epic'' calling out of Omar after {{spoiler|Tosha is killed}}. Seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wmgghlEagA&feature=related here], it is truly powerful.

** A particularly awesome example in season seven episode 1. {{spoiler|Death calls out God!Castiel}}.

** Dean gets a good amount of this from Sam, Bobby, and ''especially'' Castiel, who also gives him one hell of a beatdown, in the fifth season episode "Point of No Return" after they find out that he's willing to let himself become the vessel of Michael.

** Also the entire point of season 5's "You're Welcome". {{spoiler|Cordelia}} returns from {{spoiler|her comatose state after Descending}} in order to set Angel and the rest of the gang straight after they began to lose sight of their original goals {{spoiler|due in part to taking over Wolfram and Hart, as well as Lindsey's manipulation.}}

*** Again in late season 5 when Angel {{spoiler|secretly infiltrates the Black Thorn}} and his friends suspect he has gone evil.

** The Firm became so notorious for their dogged "anything-goes" approach that if a lawyer was caught half-assing their defense of the [[Complete Monster]] of the week, someone (even the opposing counsel) could be counted on to point out the [[Never Live It Down|nun-killer or child-rapist they successfully got acquitted the other day]], call them out on their hypocrisy for daring to allow their disgust at the defendant's crimes to interfere with their efforts and remind them of their legal obligation to use whatever underhanded tactics were at their disposal to get the defendant off.

* Patrick Jane in [[The Mentalist]] frequently gets called out on his more... unorthodox methods. Considering his revelations also tend to crack cases wide open, he usually gets by with little more than a slap on the wrist, except when things go really over the top and/or his antics insult someone with connections. More severe consequences are occasionally in the offing, though, to the point that after a couple incidents he's lucky to still have his job.

* In the finale of ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'', Nick gets called out {{spoiler|by his teammates when he decides to [[Despair Event Horizon|give up]], after being [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomped]] by the Master.}} It didn't help that they had to {{spoiler|pry it out of him since, when asked, he ''didn't even bother to give them a clear answer.''}}

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', this happens all the time. Citing all the [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments would take a whole page. Some of these are solo efforts, others are group interventions, mostly with Xander spearheading them. Buffy is the most common victim of it (due to her tendency to keep secrets from her friends and to underestimate the danger potential of her boyfriends), but Willow gets her share in the later seasons, and not even Giles or Xander are spared from it.

** Buffy's case is mostly the fact that she's still a teenager and isn't emotionally stable half the time, and people seem to forget that, even her own friends. Because of that, nobody supports her very well in the earlier seasons, even though they try to. This is most evident in the episode where she makes her return to Sunnydale after running away, where everyone collectively lectures her. Nevermind the fact that she waited months to kill her [[Complete Monster]] boyfriend; Xander blames her for putting everyone else in danger (the others try to pick up slayer duties), Willow avoids her until Buffy caves again emotionally and tries to run away again, and Joyce tried to give Buffy space, but seemed to have a little difficulty acknowledging that her daughter was home.

* Don't know if this counts as live action TV, but in ''Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'', J.T. gives Russell, the only Survivor villain to exceed Jonny Fairplay, the hidden immunity idol. Granted the Heroes thought the Villains had an all women alliance, but how did they know they could trust Russell after Samoa?

** None of them had seen Samoa. It was airing on TV the same time [[Hv V]] was filming, so they couldn't have known.

{{quote| '''Britta:''' "Way to go!"<br />

'''Abed:''' "I know I'm not Batman; you could try not being a [[Jerkass|jerk]]."<br />

** Holmes has a veiled one at {{spoiler|his brother, for upsetting their mother under [[Noodle Incident|unknown circumstances]].}}

* [[All in The Family]] generally ended its episodes with wrongdoing Archie Bunker learning the error of his ways, being made to look like a buffoon, and becoming lovable to the audience once more despite his actions (such as nearly cheating on Edith with a waitress). That is, except, in the seventh season episode "The Draft Dodger," where at the end of the episode, Archie STILL seems like a ruthless, loud-mouthed, heartless bastard.

* [[Burn Notice|Michael Weston]] gets these pretty regularly, usually from Fiona or Madeleine, when he is forced to endanger friends and innocents to get an operation to work. He got it most often in the 4th Season, when after inadvertantly burning Jesse Porter, Michael recruited him into his investigation without coming clean about his involvement, sometimes even bypassing opportunities to clear Jesse's name for the sake of the mission. More recently he got one after getting Sam involved in a very dangerous operation that nearly got him killed (significantly, Sam himself was okay with it).

* In [[Glee]], Burt Hummel gives Finn a truly [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|epic]] one when he hears Finn calling Kurt homophobic slurs. In another episode, Kurt gets called out, also by Burt, for his slightly stalker-y behavior.

** Smallville is full of [[What the Hell, Hero?]] Clark moments, especially noticeable as his relationship with his "best friend" Lex Luthor declines. In many early episodes, Lex commits minor, explanable offenses, and Clark overreacts, only then to turn around and betray him in much worse ways. In one episode, he allowed a {{spoiler|drugged}} Lex to be {{spoiler|wrongly}} imprisoned in an insane asylum, and {{spoiler|tortured to the point of permanently losing his short term memories}} because {{spoiler|Lex had seen him pull off something extraordinary and realized he was more than human}}.

** Are you talking about Season 3 Episode 9 (Asylum)? Because if so then I should point out that Clark actually tries to prove that Lex doesn't belong in the asylum, and tries to prevent the aforementioned torture despite others like Pete feeling he should leave Lex to suffer - the only reason he doesn't rescue Lex is because he's attacked by old enemies Ian Randall and Eric Summers, which delays him long enough for the shock therapy to begin.

{{quote| Gaius:...You see sorcerers where there are only servants...}}

* Bonnie on [[The Vampire Diaries]] gives one to Elena for having Damon compel Jeremy, her brother, into leaving town and getting away from being put in the line of fire as Klaus and his hybrids wander the town. Bonnie brings up the fact that he should be allowed to choose whether or not he wants to do this, not be made to do it by a vampire's compulsion, even if Elena says she's doing it to protect Jeremy.

* Brass spends much of the [[CSI]] episode "Genetic Disorder" getting these repeatedly, because he lets his own past influence his thinking that Doc's wife really was cheating on Doc. He doesn't let up until the end of the ep, when the evidence shows what really happened.

* ''[[Twisted Tales]]'', a clone of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' hosted by Bryan Brown, also starred Brown in the episode "The Confident Man". Brown's character and his wife are hardware store owners whose store is held up at knife point by a junkie. He picks up a cordless drill and manages to convince the junkie that it's actually a gun - he just thinks it's a cordless drill because he's so high. His wife and the other employee obviously back him up, and someone who later walks in off the street catches on. The police eventually arrive and cuff the junkie. Brown says "just so you don't go out of your mind, mate..." and pulls the trigger. Cut to his wife: [[What the Hell, Hero?|"I don't understand!" It was over! Why did you do it?!"]]. Cut to the junkie, on the floor with a smoking hole in his head. Cut to a gun in Brown's hand. "I thought it was a cordless drill".

** Apart from the fact that the protagonists aren't heroes at all and don't mind being called out.