History SadisticChoice / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': [[spoiler:A psychiatrist forces couples to choose to save themselves and kill their spouse or be killed and let their spouse live. He did this ''nine times'' and only an elderly couple choose the "altruistic" choice. Ironically the killer was inspired by the sadistic choice put to his grandfather ''during the Holocaust''. Yes, he was called out on it, and no, he didn't get it ("I'm doing ''real'' science! It's ''documented'' and everything!").]]
** [[spoiler:To some extent, he had a FreudianExcuse. If he could "prove" that it's human nature to choose yourself in that situation, then it would prove his grandfather wasn't a monster for making that same choice. Unfortunately, in trying to absolve his (long-dead) grandfather of responsibility, he ended up going way past the MoralEventHorizon.]]

** This sets up the entire conflict between Oliver Queen/The Arrow and Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in Season 2. [[MadScientist Dr. Ivo]] tells Oliver to choose between Shado (his current love interest) and Sara (his former love interest) or he'll kill them both. Oliver doesn't actually make the choice, but when Ivo points the gun at Sara he instinctively throws himself in front of her--Ivo takes this as an answer and shoots Shado. Slade Wilson--who was secretly in love with Shado, and insane with [[SuperSerum Mirakuru]]--can't understand why the man he loved as a brother would 'choose' Shado over some girl Slade barely knows. Later Slade deliberately sets up the same SadisticChoice by forcing Oliver to choose between his mother Moira and his sister Thea. Moira takes the choice into her own hands by choosing to die to save her children.

* In the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E5AHenInTheWolfHouse "A Hen in the Wolf House"]], Raina offers one to Coulson - give up Skye to her (she hopes doing will have him protect her from Whitehall), or Raina will expose to Comicbook/{{HYDRA}} that Simmons is a ReverseMole for Comicbook/{{SHIELD}}, complete with a timer counting down before Simmons is exposed. She's [[DidntSeeThatComing completely taken aback]] when he refuses to play ball and coldly lets the timer run out [[spoiler:because his ''other'' ReverseMole Bobbie Morse is ready [[TakeAThirdOption to get Simmons out]]]].

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'': In one episode, a mysterious couple kidnaps [[TheScrappy Jimmy]] and Clark's adoptive parents. They then tie Jimmy to a bomb in an undisclosed location, while doing the same with Clark's parents in another location. The bombs are set to go off at the same time. They give Superman a choice of saving his friend or his parents, as he only has enough time to find and disarm one bomb. Sipes decides to TakeAThirdOption and uses a beam splitter to fry both bombs with his [[EyeBeam laser vision]] from the sky. The kidnappers are not happy, as [[spoiler:they are actually [[HumanAliens Kryptonians]] sent to test Kal-El's qualifications for leadership of their LostColony. Their goal was to force him to make a tough choice, as a leader is likely to face many such choices. And there's not always going to be a third option to take. This later ends up biting Clark (and the world) in the ass, when the Kryptonians finally show up with Zod at the helm. Had Clark made the tough choice, he would have probably been the one in charge]].

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E15Afterlife Afterlife]]", Stiles is offered a choice by the US Army: death, or participation in a secret experiment whose details he doesn't know.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
** In Season 2 Oliver is forced to choose between [[spoiler:Shado and Sara]] while on the island. [[spoiler:He chose Sara.]] Later on in the season [[spoiler:Slade]] forces Oliver to once again choose, this time between [[spoiler:Moira and Thea]]. [[spoiler:Moira takes the choice into her own hands.]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In Season 5 Angel and [[spoiler:Spike]] were given the choice to either [[spoiler:sacrifice Fred or let many others die]].

*** The less obvious example: Bareil is the favourite for becoming Kai and was also Kai Opaka's first choice for the position. He is faced with the option of confessing to the collaboration which will destroy him, ensure he never becomes Kai and give the position of Kai to a ruthless, power-hungry woman, or he can exonerate himself and take the position of Kai, but this would probably result in the revalation of who the real collaborator was: ''Kai Opaka'' In the end, he chooses to take the blame for the massacre, both out of respect for Opaka and also to protect the sanctity of the position of Kai, knowing it would be damaged if the truth was ever made public. He withdraws from the running for Kai, leaving Winn to take the position.

*** The less obvious example: Bareil is the favourite for becoming Kai and was also Kai Opaka's first choice for the position. He is faced with the option of confessing to the collaboration which will destroy him, ensure he never becomes Kai and give the position of Kai to a ruthless, power-hungry woman, or he can exonerate himself and take the position of Kai. In the end, he chooses to take the blame for the massacre, withdraws from the running for Kai, leaving Winn to become the new Kai.
*** The twist: The reason Bareil took the blame is because the real collaborator was actually Kai Opaka herself. The Cardassians threatened the lives of 1200 innocent Bajorans if the 43 resistance fighters weren't handed over to Cardassian authorities. Opaka was forced to choose between the lives of 43 people (including her own son) or 1200 people. She chose to sacrifice 43 lives to save 1200. Bareil knew the truth and chooses to take the blame both out of respect for Opaka and also to protect the sanctity of the position of Kai, knowing it would be damaged if the truth was ever made public.

*** In the episode "Children of Time", Ben Sisko discovers a planet inhabited by descendants of his crew as a result of the Defiant being thrown back in time 200 years by a temporal event and crash landing there. Now that he knows what causes the event, he has the opportunity to avoid it and prevent his crew from being marooned on an unoccupied planet 200 years in the past. However, avoiding the accident would cause the current inhabitants of the planet to be erased from existence, since they only exist as a result of the crash. Thus he is faced with the choice of whom to protect. Himself and his 48 crewmen on the Defiant, or the 8,000 people who would be lost if the accident is avoided.

*** The obvious example: Bareil is Kira's lover and Winn forces her to take command of the investigation. The more evidence she gathers, the more it looks like Bareil is guilty. Eventually, she's forced to choose between protecting her lover and revealing the findings of her investigation to the Vedek Assembly which will destroy Bareil if revealed. She chooses to inform the assembly of her findings. However, when she contacts the assembly to present her findings, she learns Bareil's already spoken to the council so she doesn't need to go through with it. She made the choice, however.
*** The less obvious example: Bareil is the favourite for becoming Kai and was also Kai Opaka's first choice for the position. He is faced with the option of confessing to the collaboration which will destroy him, ensure he never becomes Kai and give the position of Kai to a ruthless, power-hungry woman, or he can exonerate himself and take the position of Kai. In the end, he chooses to take the blame for the massacre, withdraws from the running for Kai, leaving Winn to become the new Kai.
*** The twist: The reason Bareil took the blame is because the real collaborator was actually Kai Opaka herself. The Cardassians threatened the lives of 1200 innocent Bajorans if the 43 resistance fighters weren't handed over to Cardassian authorities. Opaka was forced to choose between the lives of 43 people (including her own son) or 1200 people. She chose to sacrifice 43 lives to save 1200. Bareil knew the truth and chooses to take the blame both out of respect for Opaka and also to protect the sanctity of the position of Kai, knowing it would be damaged if the truth was ever made public.

*** And earlier, Sheridan (in the episode "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum"), who was facing the decision of whether or not to release the dangerous [[ManipulativeBastard Mr. Morden]] from the station's holding cells, made a reference to the attack on Coventry in World War II, repeating a rumor of the time that Churchill had deliberately allowed the attack to go through simply to keep their knowledge of the Enigma cipher secret (in actuality, action ''was'' likely taken, but went wrong; Straczynski admitted that the Coventry example wasn't a certain one, but it made for a good story and illustrated his point well). As one character comments in that same episode: "How many lives is a secret worth?" [[spoiler:Sheridan lets him go, as to keep him would have revealed the "secret" and cost billions of lives, as the Minbari decision showed above.]]
*** Army of Light has to choose which planet to try and protect from the Vorlon fleets - Centauri Prime with 3 bln people, or Corianna with 6 bln - for they barely have enough forces for one battle. They choose the latter.

** Willow and Anya have made a powerful troll angry, and he tries to kill them both, and Xander jumps to their defense, but isn't not much of a match for the troll. The troll is however impressed with his bravery, and offers him to spare one of the girls, if Xander chooses which one of them he shall kill. Xander's response: "I'm not gonna choose between my best friend and my girlfriend! That's InsaneTrollLogic!"
** And in the season five finale, Buffy has to chose between [[spoiler:her sister, or the whole of reality. She takes the third option - HeroicSacrifice.]]

** Stannis has a series of these forced upon him in Season 5. He has to march to Winterfell and defeat the Boltons if he wants to help the Night's Watch or he can winter at Castle Black, with little supplies and no political clout and die out during the winter. After Ramsay Bolton leads a raid on Stannis' camp that results in the destruction of his food stores and siege weapons, Stannis is faced with the likely possibly of his entire army starving and freezing to death in the Northern wilderness. The only apparent chance for victory lies in Melisandre's magic, which will create conditions for an impossible victory, but using that option comes at a terrible price: Stannis must give his only daughter up as a blood sacrifice, or all of his army starve out in the snow anyway. It's a brutal lose/lose situation.

** Bounty hunter Jubal Early pulls the variant of the SadisticChoice on Simon in "Objects in Space" -- if Simon doesn't help him find River so that he can take her in for the bounty on her head, Early will go back to the engine room where he has Kaylee tied up and rape her. Sadistic element is taken down a notch by Early reminding him that if he goes along with helping to find River, there ''might'' be an opportunity down the line where Early slips up enough for Simon to take control. This is because Early's goal is to ''control'' Simon, not to make him suffer. He is indifferent to suffering. He just wants this to go smoothly, and jam tomorrow works best for that kind of thing.

*** In "Phage", a pair of aliens steal Nelix's lungs for their own use. After capturing the aliens, Janeway has to decide between letting them keep the lungs or killing one of them to return Nelix's lungs to him.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]]: The Dream Lord forces Amy to choose between her nice, reliable, dull boyfriend Rory and the dashing, unreliable, charismatic Doctor. [[spoiler:When Rory apparently dies, Amy immediately kills herself — either it's a dream world and she'll wake up, or it's not and she ''refuses'' to live in a world without Rory (thankfully, it was a dream)]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]] counts as one of the hardest choices the Doctor was forced to take, as he had to choose between [[spoiler:sacrificing Pompeii or let the villains ruin the world. Worse, ''it was a fixed point in time.'']]

* ''{{Series/Pure}}'': Anne is given one by the Mexican drug lord. She either works as his manager of the Canadian Mennonite drug trade, or he kills both her children. However, even if she agrees, he will keep one of them as a hostage. This leads to another such choice, as he'll let her choose. [[spoiler:She chooses her son]].

* Series/{{Arrow}}: In Season 2 Oliver is forced to choose between [[spoiler:Shado and Sara]] while on the island. [[spoiler:He chose Sara.]] Later on in the season [[spoiler:Slade]] forces Oliver to once again choose, this time between [[spoiler:Moira and Thea]]. [[spoiler:Moira takes the choice into her own hands.]]

* ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'': Near the end, [[spoiler:the insanely massive Zangyack invasion fleet, something that the previous 34 SuperSentai teams could only delay for a few years by sacrificing their powers, returns to Earth. The Gokaiger can either face the fleet by themselves, a task which is the next thing to suicide, or use the Greatest Treasure in the Universe to [[CosmicRetcon retroactively wipe Zangyack from the face of existence]] -- at the cost of doing the same to every Super Sentai. They end up destroying the Treasure and resolving to face the impossible odds, because that's what Super Sentai members do.]]

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': Piper and Phoebe dealt with this when they had to either choose to save their sister Prue, or stop the bad guys...who in this case happened to be the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, meaning that saving Prue would trigger the end of the world. Piper was adamant about doing it anyway, then somehow saving the world after that. Only after seeing a vision of the future did Phoebe realize Prue had to be sacrificed to save everything else. Luckily, they TookAThirdOption in the end.