Big Bad Duumvirate / Live-Action TV

• 24 has done this numerous times:
  • Andre and Alexis Drazen in Day 1, though they may have been acting under the orders of their father, Victor Drazen.
  • The German arms dealer Max, Alexander Trepkos and several other oilmen in Day 2, being the collective men behind Peter Kingsley.
  • Ramon Salazar and his brother Hector Salazar in Day 3. Ramon ends up killing Hector after Hector keeps interfering with his sale to Michael Amador. Amador himself and his partner-in-crime Marcus Alvers form a second duumvirate.
  • Debatably, President Charles Logan and Graem Bauer in Day 5.
  • Abu Fayed and Dimitri Gredenko in Day 6; later replaced by Cheng Zhi and Phillip Bauer. The former become a triumvirate if General Mohmar Habib is counted.
  • Jonas Hodges and General Benjamin Juma in Redemption and Day 7.
  • Briefly, Farhad Hassan and Sergei Bazhaev near the beginning of season 8.
  • Charles Logan and Yuri Suvarov later in Season 8.
• The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts with a Big Bad Ensemble of Daniel Whitehall and Calvin Zabo, but in "A Hen in the Wolf House", they team up to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. Except that Calvin Zabo actually wants revenge on Whitehall for killing his wife, Jiaying years earlier, and the alliance falls apart halfway through the season.
• Angel:
  • Angelus and the Beast in Season 4. He kills the Beast. Except both were subservient (reluctantly, in the case of Angelus) to Jasmine.
  • Drusilla with Darla.
• In Arrow season 6, it's eventually revealed that Team Arrow is facing an alliance of Cayden James, Black Siren, Anatoly Knyazev, Vigilante, and Ricardo Diaz.
• In Battlestar Galactica, Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta briefly team up to attempt to launch a coup against the Roslin-Adama administration. It ends badly.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • At the start of Season 2 Drusilla and Spike filled this role, then when Angelus initially did his Face–Heel Turn, there was more or less an equal partnership going on between him, Spike, and Drusilla. But, with Drusilla becoming more and more enamored with him, and Angelus constantly belittling Spike for his crippled status, it soon becomes pretty clear who the alpha dog is.
  • Simone was this with Severin in Season 9.
  • Ethan Rayne was this with The First Evil in Chaos Bleeds; an odd example, as the Scoobies are technically working for him, as Ethan chose them to be his competitors in a contest he challenged The First Evil to. Ethan will become a Chaos Demon if he wins the contest.
• Burn Notice has Brennan and Larry teaming up in one of the finales.
• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Mary Wardwell/Madame Satan and Father Blackwood, who are both working for Satan and trying to secure Sabrina's soul for him, even if they don't like each other and have very different methods and ideas of how to do so.
• Dark Oracle: Subverted Trope where the apparent Big Bad Duumvirate of Blaze and Violet are revealed to be Co-Dragons to the real Big Bad, The Puppet-Master.
• Subverted in the Doctor Who "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday" two parter. While the Cybermen and Daleks don't team up, the Doctor still has to deal with both threats simultaneously.
• The Flash (2014)
  • The third season of has Dr. Alchemy and Savitar, the heads of a cult focused on restoring the memories and powers of metahumans who lived in the Flashpoint timeline. Dr. Alchemy uses the Philosopher's Stone to summon his targets and turn them into minions, while Savitar provides the muscle. And then it's subverted with The Reveal that Dr. Alchemy is Savitar after all; the speedster had used the Philosopher's Stone to take over the mind of the hapless Julian Albert to help him with his scheme.
  • Season Four has Clifford and Marlize DeVoe, also known as the Thinker and Mechanic. While both scheme against Team Flash, Clifford makes strategies while Marlize builds the inventions they rely on to keep up with the protagonists. Marlize specifically refers to herself as Clifford's "partner" as opposed to "minion." It's subverted again when Clifford starts drugging Marlize and editing her memories, making her his brainwashed dragon.
• Game of Thrones: Jaime with Cersei in Season 1. The two of them are the season's primary threats and antagonists.
• Henshin Ninja Arashi: Halfway through, Majin Sai forms an alliance with Akuma Doujin, offering him and his Western Youkai Army half of Japan in exchange for their help in defeating Arashi.
• In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, several Olympian gods were dedicated to destroying Hercules. They normally worked alone, but at times, they teamed-up. In "Reunions," for example, Hera takes over Olympus with Apollo and Ares siding with her.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Gaim has Mitsuzane Kureshima and Redyue of the Overlord Inves team up later on, though Redyue almost instantly becomes the dominant partner in the pair.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has the Roidmude executives, who are all nominally on the same level. However, in practice it's usually Heart who takes the lead while Brain and Medic follow.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost has the Gammaizers, a group of 15 artificially intelligent slabs that are collectively the wirepullers behind the Gamma and their Emperor. The Gammaizers have no internal discord due to being a Hive Mind, and later fuse into one body for the final showdown.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has one with Parado and Kuroto Dan. Parado is the one in charge of the Bugsters, monsters created from video game characters becoming self aware, who seeks to Kill All Humans by trapping them in Kamen Rider Chronicle as revenge for humanity killing them over and over in their respective video games, while Kuroto is the CEO of the video game developer Genm Corp who seeks to create Kamen Rider Chronicle to be the cure for death, and because he believes himself to be God; unlike Parado, Kuroto does want someone to win at Chronicle, but because Kuroto is insane, the game is so Nintendo Hard that completing it would be essentially impossible. They eventually betray one another, and then both do a Heel–Face Turn once the actual Big Bad rears his head with plans for Chronicle that would see both Bugsters and humans enslaved.
  • Kamen Rider Build features one between Night Rogue, leader of the evil organization Faust, and Juzaburo Nanba, a war profiteer who provides Faust with the funds they need to conduct their underground experiments. Their alliance eventually falls through, although Juzaburo forms another one soon after with Night Rogue's former cohort, Blood Stalk.
    • The crossover film with Ex-Aid features one between Foundation X researcher Kaisei Mogami and his counterpart from Build's Alternate Universe. Like in Ghost, their solution for sticking together is that they plan to merge into one godlike being.
  • Kamen Rider Saber has Isaac, the current leader of the Sword of Logos, and Storious, the de facto leader of the Megid, who instigated and manipulated the entire conflict of the series all in the name of claiming the Great Book for themselves. The two get along well enough, but their differing end goals for the Book make betrayal inevitable.
• Kidou Keiji Jiban: Midway through, Queen Cosmos forms a very tepid one with Doctor Giba, as both have a common enemy in Jiban.
• The second season of Legends of Tomorrow has Damian Darhk (the Big Bad of Arrow Season 4) and Eobard Thawne (the Big Bad of The Flash (2014) Season 1) creating a formal partnership, growing into a full Legion of Doom a little while later with Malcolm Merlyn (the Big Bad of Arrow Season 1). They then add Leonard Snart (from before his recruitment and Heel–Face Turn) and Mick Rory (pushed into a Face–Heel Turn by his team's mistrust and Snart's urging). And, and, for a while, they also have the Brainwashed and Crazy Rip Hunter.
• In Leverage's fourth season, Victor Dubenich and Jack Latimer form one. Latimer needs Dubenich's brains, while Dubenich needs Latimer's resources. The Leverage crew are able to take them down by targeting the far dumber Latimer, leaving Dubenich, a penniless ex-convict, with no way of getting at them.
• Mr. Robot features one between Phillip Price, Whiterose, and the titular Mr. Robot. By season 3, this is ultimately subverted; Whiterose is revealed to be the true Big Bad, while Price becomes her puppet and Mr. Robot undergoes a Heel–Face Turn after he is disillusioned by the massive death toll resulting from the Stage Two attacks.
• Nikita: The Greater-Scope Villain Oversight is composed of a committee, whose members appear to be equal (though Madeleine gets the most screentime, so she's arguably the leader). It was revealed that Amanda is in a secret partnership/relationship with Ari Tasarov to jointly plot against their respective superiors.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Season 2: Tamara and Greg, until it's subverted and revealed that they were actually co-dragons under Peter Pan.
  • Season 4: Mr. Gold and Maleficent initially, and it remains so for most of the arc until the 3rd-to-last episode when she leaves his side after Cruella's death. After this, it becomes a new Big Bad Duumvirate with Gold and Isaac. We also have Zelena as well, who is in league with Gold but doesn't end up doing much for the overall plot.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: The Red Queen and Jafar, though Jafar makes it clear he's the bigger of the two. When the Red Queen makes her Heel–Face Turn, she gets replaced by the Jabberwocky. Jafar ironically ends up in the Red Queen's shoes, as the Jabberwocky is now the bigger of the equation - at first.
• Power Rangers rarely has more than one Big Bad, but when it does, this is expected to happen.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd become this around the time of their marriage. They continue to be the main antagonists till the end of the Mighty Moprhin era.
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: In the crossover episode with the previous series ("Thunder Storm"), previous Big Bad Lothor teams up with current Big Bad Mesogog to attempt to destroy the rangers.
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: In "Follow the Ranger", brothers Flurious and Moltor team up. It doesn't last long due to how much they hate each other.
• The first season of The Punisher (2017) has William Rawlins and Billy Russo. Rawlins is the CIA's Director Of Covert Affairs and the mastermind of the Blacksmith's drug operation, using the money to finance illegal CIA operations. This also makes him the Greater-Scope Villain for the Punisher arc of Daredevil's 2nd season. Russo is an associate who owns a private military company called Anvil and uses his men to help silence anyone who could expose the corruption Rawlins and Russo himself were a part of. While Rawlins' arrogance leads him to believe he is the sole Big Bad who makes the plans, Russo is The Dragon who gets his hands dirty, it's clear by now its a partnership, which is shown when Russo arranges Rawlins' demise upon realizing the latter won't hold up his end of the bargain.
• In Resurrection: Ertuğrul, Karatoygar (Politician who leads the Seljuks) and Petruchio (Master of the Amanus Mountains Templars) have an alliance of some sort in the first handful of episodes of season 1 due to the Seljuks backing the Templars legally and threatening Ertugrul after Ertugrul rescues Halime and her family from a small group of Petruchio's knights. Later, Al Aziz (In charge of the Arabs in Aleppo) and Titus (The latter being The Dragon to Petruchio) are also shown to interact with each other and conspire against Ertugrul despite their differing affiliations.
  • Season 2 does this with Noyan and Sadettin Kopek once the latter arrives, working with one another to impede Ertugrul but neither man being truly subordinate to the other since they are associated with distinct entities.
  • Season 5 has quite an elaborate one: it starts with Emir Bahaddin and The Mongols (The former being backed up by the latter during his tenure in Konya), and later Albasti, who fills in the void after Bahaddin is dispatched. Then, Dragos becomes part of the villain network after Albasti makes an agreement with him to eliminate the Kayis.
• Revolution: In the second half of the first season around episode 11, de facto Big Bad General Monroe allied with Randall Flynn, the apparent leader of the project that caused the Blackout, to secure control of the power-granting Lockets and take over the continent. Randall makes it clear that he's not subservient to Monroe, and Monroe's comments to Major Neville make it clear he's planning on turning on Randall as soon as he's no longer needed.
• Scream: The TV Series follows the tradition of its franchise by having two killers during its first season (though this is only revealed during the second season, when the surviving killer goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the behalf of the slain one).
• Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya: One briefly happens in episode 46 when Space Ninja Demost partners with Dokusai and the Sorcerers Clan, in order to enlist their help in his scheme to frame the Yamaji family for hoarding the Pako.
• The Shadow Line has Commander Khokar, Commander Penney and Sir Richard Halton, the leaders of Counterpoint.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: During the Dominion War arc, Gul Dukat and Weyoun serve as commanders of the two halves of the Dominion fleet, and despise one another. Dukat is later replaced with his Dragon, Damar, who eventually leads Cardassia to break away from the Dominion.
  • Gul Dukat (and later, Damar) and Weyoun serve as Co-Dragons of the Changelings, represented by the Female Shapeshifter.
• Supernatural:
  • Season 6: Crowley and Castiel have been working together to find a way to open Purgatory, and gain access to all the souls within it. Castiel backstabs Crowley at the end, though.
  • Season 10: Crowley and his mother, Rowena, are set up as being this throughout Season 10, but their alliance falls flat midway into the Season. The final episodes make it clear that the Big Bad of the season are Sam and Dean Winchester.
• Super Sentai:
  • Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger: The Three Highness Duke Orgs all work as the leaders of the Org race as a whole, with Org Master being but a mere figurehead they made to serve as an idol to rule over the lesser Orgs.
  • Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger: Turns out Don Armage was not alone in his conquest of the universe in the modern day, helping him out was none other than Quervo, Tsurugi's Old False Friend who had merged with Armage in a bid to gain power. Both use into one of the series' final threats, Don Quervo.
• True Blood: A few seasons had these
  • Season 4: Marnie and Antonia, up until around episode 10 when Antonia has a Heel–Face Turn and Marnie becomes the Big Bad all by herself.
  • Season 5: Salome and Bill. Although, by the finale, they both take the backseat to Lilith, who is the one manipulating them and controlling it all.
  • Season 6: Sarah Newlin and Governor Burrell, until he's killed by Bill.
• The Vampire Diaries: In season one, Richard Lockwood and Jonathan Gilbert. Lockwood is ultimately the leader, Gilbert comes close to the Dragon-in-Chief.
• Wynonna Earp:
  • Season 1 has an alliance between Bobo Del Rey, the leader of the revenants, and Constance Clootie, the Stone Witch. The former wants to free his kind from their imprisonment inside the Ghost River Triangle, while the latter wants to find the remains of her demonic sons so that she can resurrect them, and they're willing to aid each other in achieving their own goals for the sake of reaching their own. When they turn on each other near the end of the season, Bobo comes out on top, leaving him the sole Big Bad.
  • Season 2 has the Widows, a pair of demonic sister-wives, working in concert to resurrect and free their husband Bulshar, the Greater-Scope Villain of the series. At the end of the season, they're also joined by a resurrected Bobo.

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