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Summation Gathering: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|
|Dr. Zoidberg, [[Futurama]]}}
A Subtrope of [[The Summation]], this commonly occurs at the end of a murder mystery.
All of the suspects gather together in a room (or, in Japan, at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea), so that the detective can tell them who the murderer is. The detective goes down the list of suspects one by one, explaining why they are innocent - although some of them may be guilty of other, minor, crimes. Eventually he will get to the guilty party, and explain how and why the murder was committed.
Expect at least one embarrassing secret to be unearthed during this scene.
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* "I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here..."
* "Someone in this room... is a murderer!" May be followed by a [[Scare Chord]].
While this is an [[Ending Trope]], there aren't really unmarked spoilers. A Summation Gathering is a form that [[The Reveal]] takes, and common enough in the [[Mystery]] genre that the trope is never a surprise.
{{endingtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[The Kindaichi Case Files]]'' ends every story arc with one of these, although they rarely happen in a parlor, instead usually occurring in the same place where one of the victims was killed. The summation is usually accompanied by a dramatic explanation of exactly how the killer carried out his crimes. Kindaichi will explain
* ''[[Case Closed]]''. Played with a lot since Conan, as a child, has to use Richard as a sort of mask in order to reveal the truth, by knocking him out, slumping him over something for a generic "deep thought" pose, and using a voice-changer to talk like him. Not always the best idea since sometimes, these suspects aren't very willing to just stand and a watch the man reveal everything.
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== [[Film]] ==
* Parodied in Neil Simon's ''[[Murder By Death]]''. Lionel Twain calls together the world's five greatest detectives and issues them a challenge: to solve a murder that hasn't yet occurred. At the end of the movie, they go through this trope five separate times, as each detective claims to have solved the murder and tries to prove that they're right.
* In ''[[The Thin Man (film)|The Thin Man]]'' and ''The Thin Man Returns,'' Nick Charles solves the mystery by this method. In the first movie, by his own admission, he hadn't quite sussed who the murderer was; he'd ruled out most of them, so he laid out the facts until one of the remaining suspects fit, and made an accusation. It's the standard ending throughout the film series, though Nick may have figured it out earlier.
* Happens in each of the Albert Finney/Peter Ustinov [[Hercule Poirot]] movies. This includes ''[[Death on the Nile]]'', even though the book just had Poirot explain his conclusion to the killers and a couple of others, not the whole boat.
* The second [[The Pink Panther|Pink Panther]] film ''A Shot in the Dark''.
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* Used in the [[Forgotten Realms]] novel ''Murder in Cormyr'', when retired wizard Benelaius uses this setup, which his servant Jasper notes as coming from a series of detective novels Benelaius claims to despise, to expose a man guilty of espionage, attempted mass murder, and (of course) murder. Subverted in that Benelaius arranged for the murderer to sit somewhere where he could make an easy escape and flee into exile rather than face death as Benelaius was a pacifist. Also subverted in that {{spoiler|while the first two accusations were true Benelaius knowingly framed the accused for the actual murders so as to cover up the real murderer's guilt.}}
== [[Live
* In the ''[[Angel]]'' episode "Happy Anniversary" Wesley does this to determine which of the family members summoned a demon. Notable because the entire rest of this B plot happens off-screen, although it sounds [[Noodle Incident|absolutely fascinating]].
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" has Agatha Christie herself solving the mystery.
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'''Mechanic:''' They're all gone.
'''George:''' [[Skyward Scream|TWIX!!!]] }}
* A standard feature of ''[[Death in Paradise]]''. When Detective Poole {{spoiler|[[Anyone Can Die|is murdered]]}} and replaced with D.I. Goodman, they rest of the team has to explain to Goodman that a summation is "[[Lampshading|how we do things here]]" on the island of Saint Marie.
== [[Theatre]] ==
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* A teaser to ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' was in set in one of these to discover who stole a gold skull. Turns out almost everyone was lying about something anyway. {{spoiler|It was False Face who took the skull.}}
* Daffy tries this on his neighbors in ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'' episode "Newsapaper Thief." His failure to plan ahead means that he has to constantly intervene to correct errors in his planning.
* Near the end of the ''[[My Little Pony:
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Speeches and Monologues]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
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