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

* One episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' has the team (minus their [[Morality Pet]]) betray Fifth, a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] and the lone Replicator capable of human emotion, to trap his [[Horde of Alien Locusts|more voracious kin]] and destroy them all. He returns later with an understandably large grudge against Sam.

** This is a recurring element in ''Stargate'', where most of the cast are military, and when people are counting on you for their safety, sometimes the smart choice trumps the right one. On one occasion, Daniel straight up calls Jack a "stupid son of a bitch," and Jack doesn't apologize or make excuses. He just says "it had to go down this way," and leaves it at that.

*** 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.

* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', [[Tomato in the Mirror|Michael]] calls out the team for what they did to him every chance he gets.

** Another episode presented a dilemma for Archer and Phlox, when a pre-warp race was dying from a genetic disease and was desperately looking for a cure. While working on the cure, Phlox meets members of another race that has evolved on the same planet. They're treated as second-class citizens but are not abused. Phlox realizes they have great potential that can't be exploited as long as the other race keeps them down. He finds the cure but has trouble deciding whether or not he should tell Archer. Should he provide the cure, save one species, thereby dooming the other into stagnation and servitude; or should he withhold the cure, dooming the first species to extinction but allowing the other one to flourish. When he eventually tells Archer about the cure, he tries to justify his reluctance by claiming that fighting nature is wrong. Archer immediately calls him out by pointing out that doctors do it all the time. In the end, {{spoiler|Archer admits that non-interference is the better choice in this regard}}.

*** So... It's all right to let one sentient species die so that another one can advance? [[What the Hell, Hero?|What kind of morality is that!?]] Whatever happened to "We'll give you the cure, but treat these guys better, m'kay?"

** Donna turned down an invitation to take a spin around space-time with the Doctor after he wiped out the Racnoss. She continues to call him on his various "Time Lord-y" decisions throughout Series Four, particularly when he states {{spoiler|the destruction of Pompeii}} is a "fixed point in time," and so he decides not to interfere; and how he {{spoiler|neglected to help the enslaved Ood when he last met them.}}

** Joan Redfern calls the Doctor on the consequences of his dalliance as a human in "The Family of Blood": "If the Doctor had never chosen this place, on a whim... would anyone here have died?" And this after a couple of speeches in which various characters gush about how "wonderful" the Doctor is.

** From the classic series, "Resurrection of the Daleks" has the Doctor's companion Tegan leaving as a result of her disgust over the bloodshed she had just witnessed and the Doctor saying he must mend his ways. (He doesn't.) Both these happened in Season 21.

** Queen Victoria also calls him and Rose out for giggling and acting silly immediately after a terrifying adventure. And then she {{spoiler|banishes them from the British Empire and creates the Torchwood Institute to defend against Supernatural threats, specifically naming the Doctor as enemy # 1}} which was slightly ''less'' reasonable.

*** Though she did knight them first, showing that she was at least grateful for them saving her life.

{{quote|'''The Doctor''': Your choice.

'''Rory''': This isn't fair. You're turning me into you! }}

** In "A Good Man Goes to War" {{spoiler|the Doctor realizes too late that the antagonists have stolen Amy and Rory's baby and are going to turn her into a weapon against him. River Song arrives to call him on it:}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Doctor''': You think I wanted this? ''I'' didn't want this! This wasn't ''me.''}}

{{quote|'''Doctor''': River! River! This is ridiculous! That would mean nothing to anyone. It's insane. Worse, it's stupid! You embarrass me.}}

** The Doctor's companions have been calling him on stuff like this since his [[The Nth Doctor|very first incarnation]] - Steven nearly left the TARDIS over the Doctor's refusal to save anyone during ''The Massacre''.

** The Doctor's companions have been calling him on stuff since the very first ''episode''. Remember Susan's freak out when he decides to keep Barbara and Ian prisoner?

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

* In related-to-''[[Doctor Who]]'' news, Jack Harkness gets called hard for his actions towards the end of the ''Children of Earth'' serial of ''[[Torchwood]]''. The look on {{spoiler|Jack's daughter's face when she confronts him after he killed his grandchild to save the rest of Earth's kids}} is painful enough without words. Add to that {{spoiler|Gwen's angry and tearful denunciation of Jack's running away from what he has wrought on Earth}}, and it ends up a brutal assault on Jack's ''modus operandi''.

** 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...]]

* In the ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law and Order SVU]]'' episode "Cold", Eliot thinks Fin has tipped off a suspect (who happens to be their colleague, Chester) to run, and dumps his phone records to check. A correct move for a cop, but an absolute dick move to do to a friend and co-worker (even Olivia thinks he should've just asked Fin). Elliot tries (half-heartedly) to apologize, but Fin's having none of it:

{{quote|'''Fin:''' You're a bulldog, Stabler. Quick to assume, slow to admit when you're wrong. Makes for a good cop, but a lousy human being.

** From the same episode, Casey gets called out by her superior for {{spoiler|blatantly forging the evidence used against the rogue cop she was prosecuting. Yes, the guy was a [[Complete Monster]], but [[Idiot Ball|come on]]...}}

** This happens plenty of times in the series. In the episode "Blinded," Olivia and Casey gets called out by ''each other'' (Casey for throwing the case of the perp of the week, and Olivia for deliberately informing the feds of the perps location, knowing that he would be executed, out of revenge for him blinding Elliot). [[Les Yay|They make up.]]

** "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.}}

* Speaking of ''[[Law and Order]]'', when Jack McCoy goes off into one of his many [[Writer on Board]] crusades, expect him to be called on it by at least his colleagues.

** 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.

* ''[[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.

** Though in that latter case, [[Blue and Orange Morality|Cameron was just doing what her programming told her to do]], and she gets confused by Sarah's response.

* The ''[[MASH the Series|M* A* S* H]]'' episode "Fallen Idol" has Radar call Hawkeye out after the latter reports to surgery after getting drunk (due to his guilt over having urged Radar to visit a Seoul brothel on his R&R leave, leading to Radar getting wounded by mortar fire en route). This leads to a bitter, though temporary, falling-out between the two men.

** 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".

* One of the biggest plot points on ''[[24]]''. Jack Bauer is the one who gets the majority of these, but it happens to other characters as well. Part of what makes the show so superior is that when it comes to consequences for actions there's rarely a [[Reset Button]], and saying [[I Did What I Had to Do]] rarely gets you off the hook.

** Renee gets this for {{spoiler|[[Kick the Son of a Bitch|killing Vladimir Letanin]] when she, according to other characters, could have incapacitated him, as well as for cutting off her informant's hand to remove a tracking bracelet}}.

** Dean almost says it verbatim ("Sam" instead of "hero") in "Clap Your Hands if You Believe" when he finds Sam having sex instead of {{spoiler|trying to find him after Dean had been kidnapped by "aliens."}}

** In season six, {{spoiler|Castiel}} gets one in "My Heart Will Go On" from ''Fate'', over how Balthazar altered history by stopping the ''Titanic'' from sinking, {{spoiler|by Castiel's order, to create 50,000 new souls to aid his side of the civil war in Heaven.}}

** 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.

* In middle season 2 of ''[[Angel]]'' the title character becomes increasingly "dark", to the point that he {{spoiler|lets Dru and Darla kill a bunch of Wolfram & Hart lawyers}}. After this, Cordy, Wes, and Gunn confront him, telling him he has to change the way he's been doing things. {{spoiler|He fires them.}}

** 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.}}

** Angel wasn't alone on this. How about {{spoiler|Fred trying to kill her old professor, Gunn ''succeeding'', Wesley kidnapping Connor, Connor trapping Angel in the ocean, Lorne removing his sleep which caused a Hulk-esque Lorne to be born.}}. The only person that is immune to this would be Cordelia {{spoiler|because she was actually possessed by an [[Eldritch Abomination]] during the story-arc where she was the [[Big Bad]]}}. However, they all eventually get called out on it.

** Cordy calls Angel out in the first season for betraying Lindsey when he was trying to do a [[Face Heel Turn]].

* The second season of ''[[Bones]]'' features some major screw-ups on the part of the team members, especially in "The Man in the Cell" where several nearly die. This comes to a head in "The Man in the Mansion" when Hodgins' keeping secret his prior involvement with a suspect nearly gets the case thrown out of court. The federal prosecutor chews the whole team out over their behavior, although she apparently didn't know about Booth hauling off and shooting an ice cream truck.

* In season 1 of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' the normally moral and good-hearted Ted deliberately decides to cheat on his long distance girlfriend Victoria with Robin, the woman he's been crazy about for months. He trades phone calls with most of his friends, all of them whom tell him that even going to Robin's apartment is a very bad idea. The future version of Ted, narrating the story agrees that it's the stupidest thing he had ever done. There is fallout over this for the next two or three episodes.

** In the season three episode "No Tomorrow" Ted is once again on the receiving end of one of these, this time from Marshall after drunken shenanigans with Barney the night before, involving but not limited to hitting on a married woman.

* [[Everybody Loves Raymond]]: In one episode, Ray discovers that Ally has been bullying a little girl at school, and informs Debra. Debra simply shrugs and brushes the matter away. When Ray presses the issue, Debra replies that she doesn't think it's anything to be upset about. Ray then asks Debra why she doesn't mind the fact that Ally is bullying other kids, and Debra expresses disinterest in the whole thing. When Ray complains about Debra's lack of concern about Ally bullying a little girl, [[Jerkass|Debra actually utters the line "So, you're upset that I've taught my daughter to be self-confident?!"]] When Ray is, quite justifiably, surprised and upset at Debra for saying this, Debra then calls him a wuss and begins making fun of ''him''......[[Draco in Leather Pants|while the studio audience cheers ecstatically for her.]] This bounces between [[What the Hell, Hero?]] and [[Moral Dissonance]], because although [[What the Hell, Hero?|the daughter is being recognized for the bitch she is]], [[Moral Dissonance|the mom isn't]].

* In an episode of ''Galactica 1980'', Dillon and Troy Dillon and Troy don't mind passing stolen money off to honest people, but draw the line at giving money to thieves. In this episode, they are approached by thugs in Central Park. One of them demands that Dillon and Troy give the thugs all of their money. They respond that they can't do that because the money they have is stolen and that this would implicate the thugs in grand larceny. The money actually is stolen, but the problem with this is that Dillon and Troy have been spending that stolen money freely prior to this point. They'd bought camping supplies, paid for meals, bought airline tickets, and paid for taxi rides and every one of these transactions were with honest, law-abiding citizens. What the hell, hero?

** Johnathan pushes a little girl into swimming pools for being a smart ass, but without the benefit of knowing why she was pushed in. Johnathan did it for self-satisfaction.

** Mark also has his moments. In ''The Secret'', Mark's friend Wes finds out that his wife lied to him about their daughter. Wes thinks his wife is a virgin when they met and that his wife can't have kids, but then adopted their daughter. The truth is, his wife slept with a guy before she met Wes, got pregnant, had the baby, and gave it up for adoption. When she met Wes, she hurried up and married him, made up the story about not being able to have children, then went to adopt her own daughter back from the adoption agency. Wes is (reasonably) upset at his wife about her deceit and moves out. Mark spends the rest of the episode trying to convince Wes that it's no big deal and that Wes is over-reacting. In the end, Wes "comes to his senses" and forgives her.

* 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!"

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

* [[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]] breaks down like this: 50% characters angsting about what to do; 10% characters doing something; 40% characters being chewed out by other characters for doing whatever they did

** 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}}.