Could Have Avoided This Plot / Live-Action TV

Times where characters realized they "Could Have Avoided This!" in Live-Action TV series.

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• In Angel, Wesley abducted an infant Connor, in order to save him from a prophecy which stated that Angel will kill his own son. Later, as Wesley lies injured in the hospital after his plan led to Connor being kidnapped by Holtz into an unreachable hell dimension, an angry Fred tells him that the prophecy was a fake, and if Wesley had simply talked to anyone else in their team instead of putting all the burden on himself, the tragedy would have never occurred.
• Breaking Bad:
  • In "Say My Name", Mike tells Walter that he wouldn't be in the danger of DEA capturing all of them if Walter had simply done what he was told and not plotted to overthrow Gus, among other things.
  • In the same episode, after shooting Mike, Walter just realized that he could have just gotten the names of Mike's security team from Lydia, thus negating the final conflict between him and Mike.
  • Earlier, Saul even points this out to Mike saying his lawyer the DEA got to flip was unreliable and if Mike stayed with Saul, that wouldn't have happened!
• Bridgerton: Anthony and Kate could've had at least been more on friendly terms had they just opened up to each other earlier; explaining about the reason why he refused to marry for love and why she kept preventing him from courting and marrying her sister, Edwina. In addition, Anthony and Edwina's wedding won't happen had Kate talked to Edwina explicitly about Anthony's refusal to marry for love. Even if Edwina still refuses to believe or comply, at least Kate has tried to warn her.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "When She Was Bad", Buffy, having Took a Level in Jerkass since briefly dying in "Prophecy Girl", leaves Giles, Willow, and Xander alone in the library to confront the Order of Aurelius at the Bronze, insisting she can handle things herself. As it turns out, she walked into a trap, and Giles and Willow are kidnapped by the Order to be used as Human Sacrifices while Buffy's away. When she realizes the trick and goes back to find the library ransacked and Xander beaten and bloody, Xander wastes no time calling her out and invoking this trope:
    Xander: I don't know what your problem is, what your issues are... and as of right now, I officially don't care. If you had worked with us for five minutes, you could've stopped this.
  • In "Lover's Walk", Spike kidnaps Willow and Xander, then forces Buffy and Angel to help him gather the materials for a love spell in exchange for revealing where they are. Buffy quickly guesses that he locked them in the abandoned factory, but Spike convinces her otherwise and she and Angel reluctantly work with Spike. Buffy is infuriated when Spike changes his mind about the spell and admits that she guessed correctly right from the start.
  • In "Blood Ties", when Buffy's little sister Dawn finds out that she's the Key transformed into a person after Spike helps her break into The Magic Box to look for clues about why everyone's acting weird around her, Buffy's immediate response is to storm into his crypt and start beating him up for helping her. Spike immediately turns the tables on her, pointing out that Dawn would have done so anyway and he just went along to keep her safe, and telling Buffy point-blank that if she had just told Dawn the truth in the first place, none of this would be happening. Later, Buffy admits that Spike was right.
    Buffy: She shouldn't have found out like that.
    Spike: You didn't think you could keep the truth from her forever, did you?! Maybe if you had been more honest with her in the first place, you wouldn't be trying to make yourself feel better with a round of "Kick the Spike"!
• In the Community episode "Basic Genealogy", Pierce plays a game of Pictionary with the others. The clue is windmill, so he attempts to draw one. He starts by drawing what appears to be a swastika. Chang's brother, a rabbi, is offended and a fistfight occurs. Afterwards, a police officer points out that the fistfight could have been avoided if Pictionary would just ban the word windmill.
• Corner Gas: While showing a family album, it's noticed Oscar and Emma do not have any wedding photos. They claim they were never married, which makes their son Brent a bastard. Lacey convinces them to get married and spends the rest of the episode preparing a wedding while Brent angsts about being born out of wedlock; Lacey also mistakenly assumes Oscar was illiterate because he was trying to discern the difference between ketchup and catsup. At the end, Oscar and Emma reveal they were married (and Oscar can read, a fact Lacey witnessed before), but were embarrassed because it was an Elvis-themed wedding. Brent points this out.
  Brent: You could have said "we lost the photos". Mind you, that would have been less emotionally scarring.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation:
  • In an episode, "Anatomy of a Lye", a young attorney tried to dodge a DUI hit-and-run by letting the victim die while lodged in his windshield, then soaking his body in lye and burying him in a playground. Just one problem: the investigation found that the victim had actually jumped in front of his car in a suicide attempt. Had he called 9-1-1, the attorney may have gotten off with the DUI charge at worst. Instead, he will face dozens of years in prison for murder if he's lucky.
  Sara: You were off the hook...
  Grissom: ...until you let him die.
  • In another episode, a recently released ex-con is a suspect in the murder of two sisters. As it turns out, the guy had made a real connection with one of the sisters during his time in prison, and when he got out they met at her place for dinner. Her furious sister showed up and in the resulting fight accidentally killed her, at which point she turned on the ex-con and said she was going to blame him for the whole thing. So he killed her. Grissom points out that he hadn't done anything wrong until he killed the other sister, the evidence would have backed him up and if he had just called the cops he would be free, instead of facing a murder charge, and the guilty sister would be in jail. The ex-con points out that he was, well, an ex-con, and "Who would believe me?" Grissom very sadly says, "I would."
• Doctor Who: In "The Beast Below", this is Played for Drama. Starship UK has an imprisoned Star Whale serving as its engine, tortured to keep it moving. It turns out that they didn't need to capture or torture it at all, as the whale voluntarily came to help them all those years ago.
• In Doom Patrol (2019), Niles Caulder does many awful things in search of ways to extend his lifespan so that he'll always be around to protect his slow-aging daughter Dorothy from the world, and it from her. When Cliff time-travels to the past and is trying to get him to give up his talisman of longevity he reveals to Niles that he does die, and she's doing fine without him - better, even, as without his stifling control she's been able to make friends and grow up.
• In the Donkey Hodie episode "Flying Flapjacks", Donkey realizes that had she asked for help from her friends in making the titular dish, she wouldn't have failed twice to make it.
• Frasier: In "Daphne Hates Sherry", Daphne storms out of the apartment after arguing with Martin and Sherry. She ends up at Niles' place where the heatwave almost leads them to act on their Unresolved Sexual Tension before Daphne suddenly realizes she left her medication at home. When they stop by to pick it up Frasier resolves the argument meaning Daphne can stay and doesn't have to go back to Niles' apartment. Niles bitterly "thanks" Frasier for ruining his chance with Daphne. Frasier points out that Niles unconsciously sabotaged himself because he knew it would be wrong to make a move on Daphne under the circumstances.
  Frasier: You're a doctor, why didn't you just use your prescription pad?
  Niles: ...Oh my god.
  Frasier: And isn't there an all-night pharmacy across the street from your building?
  Niles: OH MY GOD!
• Friends:
  • In "The One With All the Haste", Rachel and Monica steal their apartment back from Joey and Chandler (having lost it in a bet several episodes earlier), and get them to agree not to take it again by kissing in front of them. Afterwards, Phoebe points out that if the girls had just done this after losing the original bet, nobody would have had to move at all.
    Monica: [Beat] Let's pretend that's not true.
  • In "The One Where Everybody Finds Out", Phoebe and Rachel have just found out about Monica and Chandler's secret relationship and start messing with them, but Monica and Chandler find out and start messing with them too pulling the I Know You Know I Know plot. Joey, while not usually the brightest, justifiably points out that the entire situation and awkwardness could have been avoided if Phoebe and Rachel had just confronted Monica and Chandler about knowing their relationship in the first place.
• The Full House episode "The Bicycle Thief" turns out to be a case of this. Michelle loses her bicycle and assumes someone must have stolen it, getting the whole family — plus Kimmy and Mrs. Carruthers, the neighborhood "crime catchers" — tangled up in the whole affair, only for Derek to return her bike at the end of the episode, reminding her that she left her bike at his residence while his mother gave her a ride back. Had she asked her peers, of whom Derek is one, about her bike, instead of jumping to the wrong conclusion and getting others for help based on said wrong conclusion, the whole mess in this episode would have been averted. Not surprisingly, everyone else reacts to the news by giving Michelle a look of utter annoyance.
• Game of Thrones: It is frequently noted in Season 2 how much better the Lannisters' prospects would be if Joffrey hadn't had Ned Stark executed and had just sent him to the Wall like Cersei originally planned.
• The first season of The Guest Book has a running story arc where Wilfred goes to the local Bikini Bar and gets photographed there by the proprietor Vivian. She then tries to blackmail Wilfred by threatening to show the picture to his wife Emma. After some drama which gets the police involved, Vivian is forced to back off from her blackmail. Wilfred celebrates by taking Emma to a dance where she reveals that she knew about him going to the bikini bar.
• On How I Met Your Mother Marshall has a weird phobia about going to the bathroom at work; he feels like all his co-workers are judging him as they see him walk to the bathroom. He tries various ways to go to the bathroom secretly, until finally he just gets over his fear and uses the public bathroom at work without shame. Then Barney (who was also his co-worker) reveals he has a private bathroom in his office that Marshall could have used at any time. In this case, however, Barney was well aware of Marshall's bathroom problem; he just never mentioned the solution because he's a Jerkass.
• At the end of the Season 4 premiere of House, Cuddy points out that the case of the week would have been resolved a whole lot faster (and likely with fewer mistakes) if House had had a team helping him.
  Cuddy: You were content with your "people are idiots" theory, but Cameron would never have accepted that this guy knew nothing about the love of his life. And as soon as you claimed it was multiple conditions, Foreman would have done anything to prove you wrong, and then Chase would have done anything to prove you right. Any one of them would have solved this days ago. Hire a team. I don't care how you do it. Just do it.
• Happens a few times on Just Roll With It.
  • Owen is annoyed his dad insists on going through with his ultra-lavish birthday parties which involves taking on a wild rapper character and nutty games. He finally brings himself up to tell Byron he's outgrown this and was never a fan in the first place. A stunned Byron relates that he's hated this whole thing for years and only did it because he thought Owen loved it.
  • Blair is upset Owen is hanging out with Ruth, her one time best friend who, after she jumped a grade ahead, became "too mature" to hang out with Blair. They have a fight with Blair snapping on how she figured Ruth was going to be hanging with older girls so cut her off before Ruth could do it to her. A surprised Ruth relates she never wanted to stop being friends at all and was hurt Blair refused to hang out with her anymore as they both realize they've lost a couple of years of friendship.
  • An episode focuses on the family stuck in an elevator with Rachel, Blair, and Owen all relating how, in some small way, they must have played a part in causing this. At the very end, Byron is forced to admit that the elevator company called him up hours ago to tell him the elevator was broken and shouldn't be used but Byron was too busy with his newly bought robot to pay attention.
• Kamen Rider has a few instances of this, due to multiple instances of Poor Communication Kills
  • Megid end up getting made from humans starting in the second act, as part of the Big Bad's plans to increase their power. Touma, one of the few people who finds this out, ends up getting put through hell trying to find a way to save the person being converted while also keeping his former allies from killing him, not helped by his new ally, Yuri, seemingly apathetic to their plight, stating he simply needed to cut them down. What he fails to mention is that he can actually separate a human from a Megid without killing the human, leading to a very risky plan from Touma and Yuri catching flack for not simply explaining.
• This is what kicks off Leverage. Victor Dubenich hires a pack of crooks (and Nate) to "steal back" some information from a rival. They do it but then find none of them have been paid. They gather together to realize Dubenich is trying to eliminate them to cover up the pure theft. Escaping, the team band together for the first time to take Dubenich down. As the man is about to go to jail, Nate calls him up to openly point out that had Dubenich just paid the gang right off, they'd have gone their separate ways and never given him a second thought. Instead, he created the team that will put him (and scores of other corrupt scumbags) behind bars.
• One episode of Lewis revolves around a twenty-year rivalry between an Oxford professor and her ex-boyfriend, who dumped her for cheating on him while they were students and has spent the past twenty years accumulating wealth so he can bulldoze their old favorite place, while she writes a famous book about why women don't need men. After she's murdered, Lewis discovers in the course of his investigation that she didn't cheat and wrote her ex an explanation of how she was set up by their other friends. Lewis points out that if the man hadn't pridefully refused to open her letters, he could have saved them both two decades of loneliness and bitterness.
• Liv and Maddie: The episode "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney" has Liv accidentally reveal live that she kissed Maddie's boyfriend Diggie during the "Froyo YOLO" video, which makes Maddie angry with her sister and assume Diggie cheated on her. She proceeds to ignore her sister's calls whenever she tries to explain the kiss is not what she thought — it was revealed in the climax that Diggie was playing the robot in the video, and Liv only kissed his robot mask. Had Maddie answered Liv's calls and let her explain, she wouldn't have overreacted and the conflict would've been avoided.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: In Episode 59, after Prima earned Mami Bibir's anger by sending her an Irrevocalable Message by mistake, Juna points out that Prima could have deleted the message from his own phone instead of trying to crack Mami Bibir's. Prima in turn is ired that Juna only comes up with a solution now instead of when Prima asked before Mami Bibir read it.
• Mom: Done unintentionally when the women get a heavy barrel of syrup across a garage to Jill's SUV. They all congratulate themselves and have a You Go, Girl! moment.
  Jill: Stupid men probably would've just backed the car up to the barrel.
• The Series Goal in Monk revolves around Monk trying to figure out who murdered his wife Trudy prior to the series’ start. In the Series Finale it turns out Trudy had quite literally handed him the answer in a box prior to her death; a video tape where she names the man who she believed to want her dead (she was right) and explains why... but since it was her final gift to him, Monk never could bring himself to open the box. When he finally does, he's horrified that he's spent a huge chunk of his adult life (with the killer being free just as long) trying to find clues when the answer was sitting on his bookshelf the entire time. Natalie reassures him that it's not his fault as he'd only even learned that Trudy had been targeted a few seasons ago even then didn't know why; he had no reason to suspect that Trucy would've known someone wanted to kill her and recorded evidence in case of her death, or that her gift would've been said evidence.
• In My Secret Identity, Dr. Jeffcoate, the inventor of the ray that gives Andrew Clements his powers, invokes this on him at the end of the pilot, saying that if he had hired a "real gardener" none of what they both went through would have ever happened (at least, according to the pilot's novelization).
• The documentary miniseries Pepsi, Where's My Jet? tells the story of how a Pepsi commercial for a loyalty programs ended with a Harrier jet supposedly for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points (for instance, an actually obtainable leather jacket was 1,750), leading one person to try and get a military-exclusive jet that costs $30 million for $700,000, and when denied on the grounds it was just a joke, started a Frivolous Lawsuit claiming the commercial was lying. The ad executive responsible for the commercial shows the first draft was 700,000,000 points, but someone asked to reduce the number, supposedly for legibility - and to make matters worse, after the lawsuit started the ad was changed to read 700,000,000, with an added "(Just kidding)" to ensure no one else would take the "offer" seriously.
• Radio Enfer:
  • One episode has Giroux installing a security system following the theft of some equipment at the radio crew's room. Carl, Maria, Germain, and Jean-Lou all end up stuck there because of that. At the end, it's revealed that Galgouri borrowed the equipment and left a note to Giroux, who forgot to read it alongside other notes. When Carl and Maria learn about this, they're not amused in the slightest.
  • Another episode has both Carl and Camille failing at a chemistry exam in Galgouri's class. They then try his newest invention, a helmet that gives you the right answers to an exam. Ultimately, Carl still fails at a history exam, while Camille decides not to use the helmet and still gets an excellent grade at said history exam. At the end, it's revealed that their lower grades were because Galgouri used another machine he invented to automatically correct exam copies in his place and make him save time. After the machine gives a grade of 9,000% to the bully known as Killer Barrette, Galgouri realizes his mistake and gives better grades to Carl and Camille. The latter goes from 42% to 92%, while the former goes from 8% to 38%.
• The Righteous Gemstones: When Kelvin's crew of super-buff, bodybuilding Christians ends up rebelling against him and essentially taking over his home, Kelvin hits psychological rock bottom before rallying and successfully completing an intense, physically demanding ritual that makes him their leader again. He righteously and furiously yells at the crew to get the hell out of his house...only for the leader of the mutinous bodybuilders to point out that it was Kelvin's house, and he could have just told them to leave at any time.
• Red Dwarf:
  • The auto-destruct scare that begins "Bodyswap", and Rimmer's subsequent abuse of mind swap technology that forms the main plot of the episode, could've all been avoided if Holly just admitted she got rid of Red Dwarf's bomb "ages ago" while Lister was in stasis. She claims she didn't mention the lack of a bomb because nobody asked if there was a bomb.
    • Then again, in series VIII Holly mentions s/he engineers certain "diversions" to keep Lister occupied so perhaps this was simply one of them.
  • The entirety of "Duct Soup". When Starbug's engines pack out, the gang spend an evening crawling through the ship's ducts to get to the engine room. Complications ensue when Lister's previously unmentioned claustrophobia starts kicking in, and the ship turns out to be heading towards a nearby star. After many hours they wind up right back in the room they started in, having gotten turned around. Then Kryten reveals he turned off the engines and exempted the doors in case "anything happened [to Lister]". Lister is extremely pissed, and storms off to pilot the ship out of danger, vowing to return with a hot branding iron. Kochanski, meanwhile, gets her own revenge in the form of a spanner.
• On Schitt's Creek David succumbs to Alexis's teasing about his low results on a relationship quiz and invites Patrick on an adventure date to spice up their relationship, despite his fear of heights and Patrick clearly wanting to stay and work at their store. Alexis eventually confesses that the quiz was rigged, and fear-ridden David declares he loves his relationship with Patrick just as it is while Patrick is grateful but also reminds him that this could have been avoided if David had just talked to him.
• The key plot of The Shannara Chronicles is that the druid Allanon was told by his mentor Bremen that he would have a successor who would surpass him. Allanon was convinced Bandon would be that man and soon pushed him to learn more of magic and was frustrated at his lack of progress. All this did was make Bandon turn to darker magics, transform into an evil mage and cause huge destruction. When wounded, Allanon meets the spirit of Bremen who reveals that his successor all along was going to be Mareth. Allanon lampshades how so much trouble could have been avoided if at any point Bremen had simply used a gender pronoun to indicate Allanon's successor would be a woman.
• Perhaps the most stark example in The Sopranos is the episode "Pine Barrens". Paulie and Christopher are ordered by Tony to do a regular money pick-up from a member of The Mafiya because Silvio has a cold. While such an exchange is nothing unusual for the mob and should be over and done with in 5 minutes, Paulie chooses to antagonize the Russian, Valery, for no real reason despite the guy being highly-connected with Tony's money launderer. Their attempts to cover up their unsanctioned murder go horribly wrong, since the Russian turns out to be an ex-Spetsnaz soldier and a badass war hero who survives various attempts to kill him and disappears. Paulie and Christopher get lost in the South Jersey Pine Barrens, nearly freeze to death, and have to be rescued by Tony and Bobby. Since their car goes missing, there is a possibility that Valery escaped, and Tony makes it very clear that whatever consequences follow from Paulie's completely-avoidable mistake, it's his responsibility to deal with.
• In Spaced, Tim, Daisy, and Brian have just finished watching the original Star Wars trilogy, when Tim lampshades that the plot of all three films could have been railroaded if the Star Destroyer Gunner had destroyed the (supposedly) empty life-pod.
• Pointed out in a Stargate Atlantis episode. Dr. Keller has been kidnapped by a Runner (no, not Ronan) who wants her to treat an injured little girl. Keller would have, of course, treated the girl without a problem, and asks the guy why he didn't just ask. He replies that she might have said no, which doesn't seem to satisfy anyone very well.
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Ship" has this trope as its main premise. The main characters (and several Red Shirt characters) capture a Dominion battleship. The rest of the episode involves the Dominion trying to capture the ship by surrounding it, leading to many deaths on both sides. In the end it is revealed that the Dominion were only interested in rescuing a Founder who dies during the siege. They would have gladly given the ship to the heroes in exchange for the Founder, but they were too afraid to ask for fear that the heroes would kill it. The episode ends with the characters lamenting the fact that all of these people died unnecessary deaths because they wouldn't trust each other.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 11001001, the Bynars, a cybernetic and mildly hive-minded Federation species whose "hat" is binary thinking, seize control of the Enterprise in order to save their planetary database, tricking most of the crew into evacuating the ship and then trapping Picard and Riker in the holodeck. When Picard learns about their predicament and asks why they didn't just ask for help, they explain "you might have said no". Riker observes that, as the Bynars only think in all-or-nothing absolutes, the mere possibility of being turned down seemed as bad as a certainty to them.
• In an episode of Two and a Half Men, Jake starts being rude to his mother Judith, having picked up how Alan and Charlie treat their mother, Evelyn. Alan proposes that they start treating her with more respect. After Evelyn takes advantage of this and the caterers for the party cause trouble, Charlie, exasperated, says:
  Charlie: You wanted that clown to be nice to his mother. Did you ever think to tell him, 'Hey, clown! Be nice to your mother!!' No, we have to throw a party for our crazy-ass mother!
• Played for laughs in Season 3 of Van Helsing (2016). Scarlett has been stuck on a small island with a lighthouse its only building. She's there for twenty-seven days and every attempt at building a life raft is Epic Fail as she's reduced to talking to a volleyball. While mulling things over at the lighthouse, she looks under the bed to discover she's been literally sleeping on top of an inflatable raft with oars this entire time.
  Scarlett: You gotta be fucking kidding me.
• In The Walking Dead (2010)'s second season episode "Cherokee Rose", after a solid day of trying (and failing) to pull a bloated walker out of a well to prevent contamination, the group nearly loses Glenn in the process of tying a rope around it and pulling it up... only for it to fall apart and its guts to spill back into the well. Maggie then informs the group that they have five more wells on the Greene family farm, meaning the whole exercise was pointless from the get-go.
• Young Sheldon: In "The Wild and Woolly World of Nonlinear Dynamics", while it was selfish and unreasonable of Missy to bar Sheldon out of his own room, George did warn Sheldon that avoiding Missy is a better trade-off than going into his room. Missy and Sheldon argue as Sheldon calls out Missy that her hostile behavior is what drove away her boyfriend, leading to Missy ripping up his Professor Proton poster out of spite. George chews out Sheldon for this.

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