The One That Got Away: Difference between revisions

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* [[Carl Barks]]' creation Glittering Goldie for Scrooge McDuck; future writers like [[Don Rosa]] jumped on the tragic story and made her a [[New Old Flame]] in most adaptations, including ''[[DuckDuckTales Tales(1987)]]''.

{{quote| You wouldn't believe how this country's changed. First time I seen it, there wasn't a mesquite tree on it, or a prickly pear neither. I used to own this land, you know. First time I watered a horse at this tank was - more than forty years ago. I reckon the reason why I always drag you out here is probably I'm just as sentimental as the next fella when it comes to old times. Old times. I brought a young lady swimmin' out here once, more than 20 years ago. Was after my wife had lost her mind and my boys was dead. Me and this young lady was pretty wild, I guess. In pretty deep. We used to come out here on horseback and go swimmin' without no bathing suits. One day, she wanted to swim the horses across this tank. Kind of a crazy thing to do, but we done it anyway. She bet me a silver dollar she could beat me across. She did. This old horse I was ridin' didn't want to take the water. But she was always lookin' for somethin' to do like that. Somethin' wild. I'll bet she's still got that silver dollar.}}

* Famous line from ''[[Citizen Kane (Film)|Citizen Kane]]'':

{{quote| '''Mr. Bernstein''': A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry and as we pulled out there was another ferry pulling in and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.}}

{{quote| '''Harry:''' You know the high school girl you had a crush on? The one that got away, and haunts you for the rest of your life?<br />

* The whole plot of ''[[Chasing Amy]]'' is the unfolding events of how a girl becomes this to the protagonist. The title of the movie itself is presented as another way of saying "[[The One That Got Away]]", and this trope could in fact be renamed to that with little difference in meaning.

{{quote| '''Silent Bob''': So there's me and Amy, and we're all inseparable, right? Just big time in love. And then four months down the road, the idiot gear kicks in, and I ask about the ex-boyfriend. Which, as we all know, is a really dumb move. But you know how it is: you don't wanna know, but you just have to, right? Stupid guy bullshit. So, anyway, she starts telling me about him... how they fell in love, and how they went out for a couple of years, and how they lived together, her mother likes me better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... and I'm okay. But then she drops the bomb on me, and the bomb is this: it seems that a couple of times, while they were going out, he brought some people to bed with them. Menage à trois, I believe it's called. Now this just blows my mind, right? I mean, I am not used to this sort of thing. I mean, I was raised Catholic, for God's sake.<br />

'''Jay''': Saint Shithead.<br />

'''Silent Bob''': So I'm totally weirded out by this, right? And then I just start blasting her. Like... I don't know how to deal with what I'm feeling, so I figure the best way is by calling her a slut, right? And tell her she was used. I'm... I'm out for blood. I really wanna hurt this girl. I'm like, "What the fuck is your problem?", right? And she's just all calmly trying to tell me, like, it was that time and it was that place and she doesn't think she should apologize because she doesn't feel that she's done anything wrong. I'm like, "Oh, really?" That's when I look her straight in the eye, I tell her it's over. I walk.<br />

'''Jay''': Fuckin' A!<br />

{{quote| '''Curly:''' Once. I was driving a herd across the panhandle. Texas. Passed near this little dirt farm right about sundown. Out in the field was this young woman, working down in the dirt. Just about then she stood up to stretch her back. She was wearing a little cotton dress, and the settin' sun was right behind her, showing the shape that God had give her.<br />

'''Mitch:''' What happened?<br />

'''Curly:''' I just turned around and rode away.<br />

'''Mitch:''' Why?<br />

* ''[[The Chronicles of Fate]]'': Josh and Jen throughout the early part of the [[Myth Arc|metaplot]] (mostly only gone heavily into in the novels and a few published adventures, but it's a very intense invoking of this trope). Eventually they ''do'' get back together, and it becomes [[New Old Flame]] (but of the non-[[Put Onon a Bus|putting on a bus]] variety) and then a [[Tangled Family Tree]] sort of deal similar to Zeus and Hera, and, ''oh yeah'', they're both actually two parts of the same person (or God, technically) so it's [[Screw Yourself|Selfcest]] as well, but it definitely starts out with many long years of Josh pining over Jen, The One That Got Away.

* ''[[Thirty30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'': When Floyd came back to visit, Liz tried to [[Invoked Trope|invoke]] this trope ("The next time Floyd brings some corn-pone tranny back to his apartment, all he's going to be thinking about is me standing there in the snow looking like the one that got away."), but largely failed.

* One episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has Wilson tell Taub and Kutner about House's "one that got away". Turns out he was just screwing with them - he even gives the woman's name as "[[Sherlock Holmes|Irene Adler]]." House actually did have a The One Who Got Away in Stacy who he rejected anyway after realizing that he could never love her like her husband Mark could.

* Season 2 of ''[[Californication]]'' features Lew Ashby, a music mogul, who got so wrapped up in the fame and the money that he lost his girlfriend, Janie, who got married to some [[Jerkass]]. Hank even tells Lew that Janie is his "Daisy Buchanan," and the whole season is basically a [[Whole -Plot Reference]] to ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''. {{spoiler|Up to and including Gastby/Ashby's death.}}

* ''One Touch Of Venus'': The reason that modern art collecter Whitlaw Savory buys a 3000-year-old Anatolian statue of a goddess is that it reminds him of "the girl who got away." When Savory runs into the goddess wandering through the [[Big Applesauce]], he recognizes her as [[The One That Got Away]], not as his missing statue.

* In the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "Epilogue" (the [[Fully -Absorbed Finale]] for ''[[Batman Beyond]]''), Selina is given a [[Continuity Nod|nod]] as being this for [[Batman|Bruce]].