History Main / CriminalAmnesiac

* In Series/Heroes second season, Adam Monroe convinced an amnesiac Peter to work for him. Somewhat justified in that he lied to Peter, who is something of an IdiotHero.

* In ''Film/{{Unknown2006}}'', the "Jean Jacket man" gets flashes that suggest that he was part of the kidnapping team, which leads him to collude with them. [[spoiler:He's actually an undercover cop. Who engineered the kidnapping in the first place.]]

* In the episode "Ill Gotten Grains" of ''Series/GoodEats'', Alton Brown gets EasyAmnesia, but is still a brilliant cook. He's rescued by Francis Andersen (his "biggest fan" and a dangerously obsessed pastiche of Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Misery}}''), who tells him his name is "Abe," and...

* ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' had DoctorOctopus attempting this with Spidey.

* Happened in ''{{Spider-Man the Animated Series}}'' episode "Make a Wish".
** This is helped thanks to some video of [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Jameson]] bad mouthing him as usual.

!Examples:

* Deconstructed with ''Film/{{Memento}}''.

* Subverted in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Past and Present", in which the amnesiac is discovered to be the evil mad scientist responsible for infecting an entire planet with an amnesia virus. She cured herself of the amnesia, then tried to kill herself when her old, murderous personality conflicted with her new, peaceful one. Eventually, she is re-amnesiaed so she can live a peaceful life on the planet where these whacky adventures took place.

* Superman became one in a ''[[ComicBook/LegendsDC Legends''-related side story when he was abducted by Darkseid and manipulated by Glorious Godfrey's sister Amazing Grace. Fortunately, Orion and Lightray helped restore Superman's memory and true self.

* This happened to The Master in Doctor Who, after he escaped the Time War he rewrote his thoughts, turning himself into a human so the TimeLords couldn't find him. And became the sweethearted and benevolent Professor Yana. Though when Martha realized he was a Time Lord and convinced him to turn back into himself (Before telling the Doctor of course) Yana awakened his Memories and became The Master again, savagely murdering Yana's best friend and leaving The Doctor and his companions to almost die.

* As far as the original manga (and anime?) are concerned, Mamoru is dead when Queen Beryl infuses his corpse with evil in ''SailorMoon''. In the dub, however, they make it clear Darien's still alive as Beryl erases his memories and creates a powerful lackey.

* You could say this happens to Olivia in the third season of ''{{Fringe}}''. Olivia [[spoiler:gets captured by Walternate and through some technical mambo-jumbo that has to do with serums and the blood-brain barrier, manages to give her all of Alternate-Olivia's memories, skills, and emotions convincing her she is from that reality fighting against her own reality]].
* In ''PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'', [[spoiler: Mercury]] has a spell casted on her by Kunzite, causing her to become Dark [[spoiler: Mercury]] for a period of a few episodes, before ThePowerOfFriendship (with the help of the Mystical Silver Crystal) brings her back in the end.

* ''{{Push}}'' features this in the climax

* In [[Literature/JamesBond Ian Fleming's novels]], JamesBond suffered from this for a period -- specifically, starting at the end of the last chapter of ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' and ending at the beginning of the first chapter of ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.

* Ultimately subverted in ''{{Gargoyles}}'' when a well meaning alien, convinced that her Gargoyle companions are of an enemy species he has been fighting, erases Elisa's memory and tells her that the Gargoyles are her enemies. Elisa is of course hostile, but ultimately refuses to cooperate with the alien considering that the Gargoyles evidently have not done anything to deserve being treated like that ("that" being that he was going to execute them in a rather ''messy'' fashion). At that, the alien stands down and restores her memory since any beings who can inspire that kind of personal decision under such circumstances are likely not his enemies either.

* In the episode "Ill Gotten Grains" of ''GoodEats'', Alton Brown gets EasyAmnesia, but is still a brilliant cook. He's rescued by Francis Andersen (his "biggest fan" and a dangerously obsessed pastiche of Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Misery}}''), who tells him his name is "Abe," and...

* There was an episode of ''{{Monk}}'' where Monk gets bonked on the head, and a woman unscrupulously convinces him that he's her husband. This doesn't stop Monk from attempting to solve the mystery of the week, although it causes his OCD to become significantly less serious.

* A variation: In Michael Kurland's [[SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]] novel ''The Empress of India'', there is a gang leader in London with a Chinese name (but he doesn't look Chinese). Turns out [[spoiler: he's Sherlock Holmes. See, he'd been posing as a Chinese gang leader as part of his investigation. After he got a bad knock on the head, he forgot his real identity, but remembered his alter ego, and thought that's who he was. Eventually another knock on the head restores his memory.]]

* A key plot point in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is that [[spoiler: the player]] is actually [[spoiler: Darth Revan, former master to the game's current BigBad]]. The game drops subtle hints and references. [[PlayingWithATrope Interestingly]] the amnesia is [[spoiler: done by the Jedi Council, the good guys of the setting. If you embrace TheDarkSide, then it's [[InvertedTrope inverted]] and EvilAllAlong, if you choose the Light Side ending, then it's HeelFaceTurn via BecomingTheMask. Either way, it's an excellent TomatoInTheMirror]] PlotTwist [[LukeIAmYourFather worthy of]] StarWars.

* Simon Belmont in an episode of ''CaptainNTheGameMaster''.

* In ''[[SuperMarioBrothers Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'', this gets pulled on Bowser, who doesn't turn evil, obviously (since he already was), but gets recruited by a two-bit thief to become half of the game's GoldfishPoopGang.

* Variation in the third ''SlyCooper'' game. After beating the final boss, Sly gets hit and has amnesia. The first person to come up is Carmelita, the police officer who's been after Sly, and learning that he has amnesia, convinces him that he was her partner. The variation comes when [[spoiler: an epilogue scene reveals that Sly doesn't actually have amnesia, and is just faking it to get out of the thieving business, which also leaves the series open enough for a sequel]].

** In TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, Catwoman herself was a CriminalAmnesiac, without even a villain talking her into it. A later {{Retcon}} said she'd made this up to facilitate her HeelFaceTurn.

** In another Mac-Gets-Amnesia episode, the writers play around a bit. Since all the flashes of memory (played by clips from other episodes) he gets are of explosions or other violent acts with him in the middle, Mac almost convinces himself that's he's really a CriminalAmnesiac.

* Subverted in the ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' episode "Past and Present", in which the amnesiac is discovered to be the evil mad scientist responsible for infecting an entire planet with an amnesia virus. She cured herself of the amnesia, then tried to kill herself when her old, murderous personality conflicted with her new, peaceful one. Eventually, she is re-amnesiaed so she can live a peaceful life on the planet where these whacky adventures took place.
** Subverted again in another episode of ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' where a murderer used a device to erase his own memories of the murder. However, since he had been in love with the murder victim, he then helped solve the murder, and then had his memories erased again.

* KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness: Taotie discovers that the Furious Five have lost their memory after being exposed to Po'smemory erasing move. While Po and Master Shifu are away, Taotie took the opportunity to use this to his advantage by having them attack Master Shifu and Po upon their return. When the Furious Five regain their memory, they attacked Taotie causing him to get away.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' has {{Batman}} getting amnesia while in his "Matches Malone" gangster persona and believing he is an actual crime boss.

!!Examples

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* An episode of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' had Princess Jasmine getting amnesia, and HarmlessVillain Abis Mal convinces her that she's in fact his evil daughter, a desert bandit. She upgrades to a [[EvilCostumeSwitch eyebrow-raising black costume]] ([[WhipItGood complete with whip]]) and helps Abis take over the country, but then betrays him and decides to promote herself to main villain after realizing he's an imbecile.