Hes Back / Live-Action TV

• Jack Bauer has undergone several such occurrences during 24's run, including moving on from the murder of his wife (at the start of Season 2), overcoming a heroin addiction (halfway into Season 3), regaining his job at CTU after being fired for said heroin addiction (start of Season 4), and then returning to his job after going into hiding from the U.S. government (at the start of Season 5 and again at the start of Season 9).
  • 24 pulled off one of the best Hes Back moments in the first episode of Season 2 when Jack Bauer overcomes his grief following the events of Season 1 and sets about saving the world again. Epitomized in the scene where a disheveled Bauer gets a shave and a haircut and once again looks like the official badass he is.
  • Cruelly Subverted in Season 6, after Season 5’s Cliffhanger of him getting tortured by the Chinese government for two years. While he returns to the field to help CTU, he never does have a triumphant moment of getting over his trauma, and he seems just as broken at the end of the season as he did in the beginning. While Season 6 had its share of writing problems, this subversion is widely considered one of the better ideas as it shows that even Jack Bauer can’t get over every trauma he faces.
• Angel in "Epiphany" and again in "You're Welcome", though the second one doesn't become clear until some episodes later.
  • Wesley slowly returned to the Fang Gang after he had his throat cut. There isn't a particular moment, though. He's back all the way by the beginning of Season 5.
• Arrow has a few examples focusing on Oliver Queen.
  • In Season 1, he encounters his Evil Counterpart, the Dark Archer (secretly Malcolm Merlyn), and suffers a brutal beatdown; he escapes alive, but the next episode shows him struggling to regain his confidence and focus. Eventually, his confidant John Diggle gives him a much-needed pep talk about drawing strength from his loved ones, and he recovers in time to don his costume and stop Villain of the Week Firefly.
  • In Season 2, having failed to stop Malcolm from destroying the Glades and watched his best friend Tommy die in front of him, Oliver retreats to the island of Lian Yu, where Diggle and Felicity Smoak have to convince him to come back and save his family's company. Through reconnecting with his mother and sister while confronting his guilt over Tommy viewing him as a murderer, Oliver adopts a new Thou Shalt Not Kill approach, ultimately making a Big Damn Heroes return as the Arrow to save his sister from four murderous copycats.
  • In Season 5, after being thoroughly tortured and broken by Prometheus, Oliver goes into withdrawal, disbanding the team and willing to make a deal with the Bratva to have Prometheus, civilian identity Adrian Chase, killed. John manages to get through to him with a Rousing Speech, reminding him that Oliver helped him out of a similar situation not too long ago. Oliver's spirit gets revitalized and he puts the team back together, complete with uplifting music to signify his return, though it takes several more episodes and some encouragement from Felicity for him to put the Green Arrow suit back on, and just in time to capture Prometheus, too.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead: The pilot, "El Jefe", shows that Ash has spent the thirty-plus years since his first encounter with the Deadites in hiding, spending his days wallowing in survivor's guilt, indulging constantly in drugs, booze, and cheap sex. However, when the Deadites track him down in his trailer and attack him and his friends, he decides he's tired of running and fights back, showing that despite being an arrogant blowhard, he's still one of the most badass demon slayers in human history.
• Garibaldi at the beginning of Season 2 of Babylon 5. He gets shot in the back and left to die by his own second-in-command, in process foiling his chance to save the President from assassination, spends several episodes in a coma, is only brought out by use of a wacky alien healing device, and then is in his room contemplating suicide because he thinks of himself as a failure. Then he overhears a crisis, figures out where the bad guys have stashed Ivanova, brazens his way into the room, and proceeds to kick ass. Yup, he's back.
  • Captain Sheridan does this during the beginning of Season 4 after turning up during a major attempt to break up the coalition the Babylon 5 crew had created and run from a war against two major races. In addition to this, he was actually dead at the time.
• A Villain Protagonist version at the end of "Granite State", the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad. After being rejected by his family and knocking on death's door from the cancer, Walter White calls the police to the bar that he's in to let them track the phone so he can turn himself in. As he orders one final drink, he sees his former friends and co-founders of the company he left, Gray Matter, disowning his contributions to the business, causing him to fill with rage. As the Breaking Bad theme kicks in, the police show up and storm the bar looking for him, with only a half-drunk glass and tip left behind. Heisenberg has returned.
• At the end of Better Call Saul, after tripping on down the Identity Breakdown lane for six seasons, Jimmy McGill asks to be called his actual name instead of "Saul Goodman" and starts admitting to trauma, his damaging choices as a result of that trauma, and crimes he's committed.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer had several:
  • "Welcome to the Hellmouth", deciding to resume slaying after it had gotten her kicked out of her previous school.
  • Then again in "Prophecy Girl" (Season 1 finale) when she heads out to fight the Master after initially being terrified by the prophecy that the fight will kill her.
  • At the beginning of Season 3 ("Anne") a brief trip to hell reminds her of her purpose, and she returns to Sunnydale. This after getting kicked out of her house and killing her boyfriend in the Season 2 finale, at the start of the episode she is hiding out in LA waiting tables.
  • "Beer Bad" near the beginning of Season 4 shows Buffy finding her power again after four episodes of being put way off-balance by College.
  • When Spike discovers he can hurt demons, he promptly cuts loose and beats the shit out of one.
    Spike: That's right! I'm back, and I'm a BLOODY ANIMAL! YEAH!!
  • "Primeval" at the end of Season 4 has Buffy (plus a few other people) destroying Adam after several losing battles that had pretty well convinced her she couldn't win against it.
  • The beginning of the Season 5 finale, "The Gift" has Buffy stepping up to the plate and deciding to go out fighting after spending most of the previous episode catatonic, mentally reliving over and over the moment she gave up on defeating Glory.
  • Subverted in "Bargaining, Part 2" when a traumatised Buffy starts kicking demon ass, causing her friends who are worried that she Came Back Wrong to think the old Buffy has returned. Instead, she's just acting on instinct — Buffy runs away, leaving her friends alone with the demon leader, and tries to commit suicide.
  • Subverted in Season 6 in general; it takes most of the season for Buffy to recover from her depression over having been wrenched back into the real world.
  • After spending most of the second half of Season 7 in denial about all the people she was going to lose going up against the First, "Touched" has her deposed as leader of the potentials and kicked out of her own house by her sister, until Spike pulls her together and she decides she's going to take the Scythe from Caleb.
  • Spike also has one in "Get it Done" when he puts on Nikki's leather duster again for the first time after his re-ensoulment and heads out to kill the demon.
• The revival of Dallas has JR coming out of a semi-comatose state when his son tells him Bobby is selling off the family ranch.
• Dexter: New Blood: In the first episode of New Blood, Dexter Morgan has been living in self-imposed exile for a decade and it's clear it's taken a toll on him. However, he relapses when he kills Matt after he kills a deer that Dexter had bonded with. He himself lampshades this:
  "Welcome back, Dexter Morgan."
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Christmas Invasion": Having spent more than half of the episode in bed feeling ill, the Doctor is revived by a cup of tea and emerges from the TARDIS, in his pajamas, to save the Earth.
    "D'ja miss me?"
  • "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood": The Doctor is turned into a human, with a false life created around him, and no knowledge (save odd dreams) of who he was. Most of "The Family of Blood" involves trying to persuade him to return to being the Time Lord he was. And when he does, he's angry.
  • Perhaps most gratuitously, this occurs in "Last of the Time Lords" however, when the Doctor has been aged almost to death, and is a shriveled, imp-like creature kept by the Master in a birdcage. He doesn't just return to being the Doctor at the end of the story, he turns into a floating, incandescent, godlike being (albeit briefly).
  • The TARDIS and Donna get one in "Journey's End" when the metacrisis Doctor lands it inside the Crucible.
  • "Vincent and the Doctor": Vincent van Gogh gets one after a scene where he's suffering from an episode of depression. Next scene? Back in effect, Badass Longcoat and sweet hat in place, clearly ready to... paint some monsters.
  • The Doctor gets another in "The Big Bang" after he gets brought back into existence by Amy.
  • In "A Good Man Goes to War", Rory gets one returning to his "Last Centurion" persona, attacking the Cyberman fleet asking where his kidnapped wife is.
  • "Let's Kill Hitler": the Doctor is poisoned, Amy and Rory are stuck inside a robot which is about to execute River, and the pain of his organs shutting down one by one is too much for him to try to help. Luckily a hologram of young Amelia Pond inspires him enough to change into a top hat, coat and tails and walking cane, along with a Heroic Second Wind.
  • "The Snowmen": The Doctor goes into a Heroic BSoD after losing Amy and Rory, and even stops wearing his trademark bowties. He gradually regains his senses, and it's when he realises he's wearing a bowtie again that he fully snaps out of it:
    Clara: [noticing the room is getting colder] It's cooler.
    The Doctor: Yeah it is, isn't it? Very cool... Bowties are cool!
  • "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror": After having spent the previous episode in a darker and more aggravated state than usual as a result of something she found out at the end of the season premiere, the Doctor is more cheerful and back to her old self... although the Skithra Queen asking her if she's ever seen a dead planet clearly strikes a nerve.
• Frasier: A worrying variation in Donny, who hits a bad depression after he's jilted by Daphne, and desperately serves her a lawsuit. Frasier manages to talk him out of the latter, which he didn't seem all that committed to... but when he finds out that Frasier was complicit, Donny "the Piranha" Douglas is back on the kind of top, ruthless form as when he was first introduced as Niles' divorce attorney.
• Game of Thrones: When Sandor returns in "The Broken Man", he seems to have renounced violence and is living his life as a peaceful and humble villager. But then the Brotherhood Without Banners slaughters his new friends, and The Hound returns with a vengeance.
  • House of the Dragon: Lord Corlys Velaryon dealt with the loss of both of his children by investing himself with abandon in the seemingly neverending war of the Stepstones against the Triarchy and nearly died from a severe injury. Once he returns, now with his wife on his side, he gets out of his funk, firmly commits his house to the side of Rhaenyra against the Hightower treason, and announces he has routed the Triarchy once and for all and is now able to pull a Naval Blockade on King's Landing.
• Gotham: After being framed by the Riddler, incarcerated, and his fiancée Lee miscarrying their unborn child and subsequently leaving him out of grief and blame, Jim Gordon spends the latter half of Season 2 and the first few episodes of Season 3 off the force, despite being cleared of all charges. Jervis Tetch's hypnosis forces him to confront his suicidal self-loathing head-on, and he realizes that he wants to live, accepting that he — and the GCPD — can still be a force for good.
  • The Penguin spends a few episodes of Season 2 brainwashed and traumatized by Hugo Strange into abandoning his criminal aspirations, even meekly allowing himself to get tarred and feathered by his enemies. It takes his stepmother murdering his father to snap him back to himself, which involves killing the offender's children, feeding her their roasted bodies, and then stabbing her in the throat. The episode ends with him sarcastically toasting her corpse, covered in her blood, having reclaimed his rightful inheritance while his leitmotif blares. He's back.
  • Bruce Wayne spends most of mid-Season 4 in a self-loathing funk due to killing Ra's al Ghul and failing to protect Alex Winthrop, indulging in wild party behaviors and even firing Alfred when they argue about it. It takes a vision induced by one of Poison Ivy's chemicals for him to realize that he's become unrecognizable to his loved ones, and also that despite failing previously, he can still help and save people. The latter revelation, it should be noted, comes in the form of a vision of his future self as BATMAN.
• Grimm: Nick loses his powers at the end of Season 3 and spends several episodes of Season 4 as a normal human until a method is found and enacted that gives him a chance of regaining his powers. Although it initially doesn't appear to work, his abilities return just in time for him to single-handedly save multiple people from being ritually sacrificed by Phansigars. He lampshades it when reuniting with Hank by declaring "I'm back".
• At the end of Season 1 of Homeland, Carrie is convinced that she was wrong about Brody all along; she has also had a manic-depressive episode that has convinced her that she is insane, and in need of electric shock therapy, and she has been fired by the CIA. At the beginning of Season 2, she seems to be recovering mentally and then gets asked by the CIA to go back into the field to deal with a source she had recruited years earlier. She does excellent work, and thinks that this might be her way back in; when she is then humiliatingly dismissed with a pat on the head, she is so depressed she attempts suicide. Then, just when she is at her lowest, Saul shows up with ironclad, smoking-gun proof that she was right all along.
  Carrie: I was right?
  Saul: You were right.
  Carrie: I was right.
• Homicide: Life on the Street: When Bolander and Howard return to work after being shot and nearly killed, they both initially struggle to re-acclimate to detective work (Bolander due to memory loss and Howard due to her own neuroses). Eventually, they manage to solve the respective cases they were working on effortlessly, and the episode ends with the two sitting on the roof of the police station talking about how they've finally got back into the groove.
• When the Jonathan Creek episode "The Case of the Savant's Thumb" opens Jonathan has spent the three years since we last saw him getting married to a woman who doesn't hold with all this conjuring and crime-solving stuff and working as a middle-manager in her father's company. When she gets called to America shortly after a particularly baffling Locked Room Mystery takes place, he says goodbye to her, walks to the wardrobe, shoves all his nice suits out of the way, and pulls out the duffel coat.
• During Season 2 of Leverage, this happens with Sophie. After wondering who she really is due to her life as a grifter, she leaves for the second half of the season only to reemerge in the second season finale to save the team after Nate gets them in over their heads.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Before Galadriel found Sauron in the middle of the ocean, he was a powerful Maia and the right hand of Morgoth. Sometime after the War of Wrath, he spent centuries trying to tap the Power of the Seen and the Unseen world by using Orcs as his lab rats, with the goal of healing Middle-Earth of the destruction he and Morgoth provoked. But he gets betrayed and killed temporarily by Adar. When Galadriel finds him, Sauron pretends to be a human, being at his lowest point emotionally, having given up whatever plans he had before. But Galadriel's determination to hunt down "Sauron", reawakens in him his desire for power and order. He recovers his strength and confidence and tries once again to obtain the power he wants. By the end of Season 1, he is back to his sadistic and deceiving ways and makes a Sarcastic Confession to Galadriel about how she saved him when he gave up on himself and pushed him to heights that no one did before.
• This happens to Reese in one episode of Malcolm in the Middle. Malcolm decks him with a single punch after finally being pushed too far, causing him to behave submissively for much of the episode. At last, however, Reese intervenes when an old woman attempts to bully Malcolm and Dewey.
  Malcolm: All right, Reese is back!
  Reese: Do you want to take your teeth out before we start this, grandma?
  Malcolm: Oh no, Reese is back!
• The Mandalorian: This trope ends up coming into play for Boba Fett himself. As the show takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, he has spent all that time living life in isolation on Tatooine following his less than pleasant encounter inside of the Sarlacc Pit. Even his beloved armor, the last vestige of his father, found its way into the hands of the Marshall Cobb Vanth. It's only when the eponymous lead of the show arrives and is able to bargain his way into obtaining said armor from Vanth that Fett goes after it, with the assassin Fennec Shand (whom he saved from an earlier encounter with Din Djarin) in tow. As he bargains his way into getting it back, the Empire arrives and starts attacking. He quickly makes short work of their mooks. Then he gets his suit back... and the galaxy at large sees just why he's the most notorious bounty hunter of them all.
  • Perhaps one of the biggest examples of this trope in film or television history is seen in Season 2's "The Rescue". Just when it looks like the group will go down fighting against the Dark Troopers, a lone X-Wing arrives. Suddenly, all the Dark Troopers stop trying to get onto the bridge and turn their attention to the newcomer. Everyone is confused as to what (or who) could have made them stop. Who's arrived to save the day? LUKE SKYWALKER, who goes on to show why Jedi were once considered to be a One-Man Army and starts cutting through the Dark Troopers like they're a minor inconvenience. Just the sight of Luke, the man that defeated Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and destroyed the first Death Star, causes Moff Gideon to turn from smug to being absolutely terrified, as he knows that his Dark Troopers are about to be dismantled like children's toys. Just seeing Luke Skywalker in action once again, in his prime, is a thing fans both old- and new-school alike have been dreaming about for nearly 40 years, especially since Luke had only really appeared post-ROTJ in the books and comics before this epic reintroduction.
• The Masked Singer: After the shocking reveal that Nick Cannon had covid-19 and that Niecy Nash would be hosting season 5. No-one saw it coming when the episode 5 wildcard Bulldog was unmasked and revealed to be none other than Nick Cannon himself.
• Throughout Season 9 of Night Court, Dan Fielding began working on a charity organization and went from a lecherous womanizer to a goody two-shoes that made everyone sick to their stomachs. What snaps him out of it is when a woman ends up disappointed after a date because he didn't sleep with her, and she slaps him. The stinging sensation on his face brings back some old memories and he immediately grabs her and carries her to the broom closet. After they both stagger out, Dan looks at Christine, who was standing out in the hallway, and just says "I'm ba-aaaaack!"
• Oz:
  • Tim McManus' return as Unit Manager of Em City (after having being fired after a series of personal and professional humiliations) is actually announced by him saying "I'm baaaaack!"
  • Done in the darkest way possible in Season 2. After Schillinger and the Aryan Brotherhood as whole's feared reputation is damaged, he decides to prove they're still a force to be reckoned with by brutally murdering a gay inmate and displaying his corpse for all to see in the prison gymnasium.
• Anubis "Doggy" Cruger in the Power Rangers S.P.D. episode "Shadow".
  • Tommy Oliver in the first and second seasons when he left the team. The way he played up his last days both times was pretty depressing, leading one to assume he might have stumbled into a heroic ditch...
  • Jason returning to become the Gold Ranger in Zeo was just as surprising as it was was welcome.
    • Also Tommy's big return in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder as The Mentor and Team Dad.
  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Season 3's four-parter "Ninja Quest", Rito Revolto easily hands the Rangers their butts and forces them to find Ninjor and gain the new Ninja powers. When they come back with the new Ninja Zords, Rito squacks out "They're back!"
• The Punisher (2017) opens with Frank Castle trying to live a normal life after hunting down the people responsible for the murders of his wife and children. When a construction worker he befriends is in danger after a heist gone wrong, however, he goes back to doing what he does best; playing judge, jury, and executioner.
• Red Dwarf:
  • Played for Laughs in an episode of The Revival. Lister, who has become slightly more mature and less slobby over the decades, gets all his memories since the crew were killed erased and is essentially rebooted back to his Series 1 self. The final scene shows him annoying Rimmer in the same way he did in the first scene of The Pilot. Rimmer groans "Oh god, he's back".
  • The same joke was previously used when the crew was revived in Season VIII, including Rimmer, who had likewise become less neurotic and sarcastic over the years, but that was just a Virtual Ghost. Lister's reaction to the living Rimmer's snide comments is "Oh god, it's you the way you used to be".
• Smallville: While he first world-jumps in "Luthor", (E-2) Lionel's triumphant "return from the dead" hits this trope full-force in "Beacon", where he shows up, usurps control of LuthorCorp from E-1 Tess, and takes control of Lex's teenage clone Alexander. He utterly decimates any attempts from Tess to fight him in his first episode, basically reducing her to tears and almost winning out in the fight for Alexander during the episode. He was definitely back with a vengeance.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand: After Episode 6, Spartacus is utterly depressed over the death of his wife Sura, so he gives up on trying to escape gladiatorial slavery and plunges into his role as Champion of Capua. After his best friend Varro dies in Episode 10, he gets even worse. In Episode 11, he has a Fever Dream Episode that lets him see that his master caused Sura's death so he would never want to leave. He recovers from his fever stronger than ever, and when his master asks if he's all right, he replies, "Yes, Dominus. I am myself again." As he remembers who he really is, and begins to sow the seeds for the Gladiator Revolt.
• Oddly, Sports Night attempted to do this with Casey in the very first episode. Unfortunately, this causes new viewers to think Casey is just a Jerkass until the very end of the episode.
• Supernatural:
  • Castiel taking on the demons in "The Born Again Identity", Awesome Music in the background.
  • The end of the fifth season has a moment where, after spending the last several episodes in a Heroic BSoD, Dean's ultimately hit an absolute low and is ready to let the angel Michael take over his body. However, thanks the support of both Sam and Bobby, Dean is snap back to his usual self and the reveal that he's back comes via one of his trademark smirks, just before he kills the Smug Snake head angel trying to make him go through the deal.
• In series 3 of The Thick of It, Malcolm Tucker is sacked. We then see him slumped on his sofa looking depressed in between his futile attempts to find a fulfilling career outside politics. When he eventually returns to work in casual clothes and looking like he's spent most of his time off crying it is genuinely disturbing. Happily he's soon charged with managing the party's election campaign, and the minute he gets back into a suit he reverts to his usual intimidating self. His PA Sam's happy face says it all.
  • Also subverted in this scene, where former minister Cliff Lawton wants to stage a political comeback.
    Cliff: To put it simply, I'm back!
    Jamie: Oh fuck off, Cliff!
• Third Watch had several of these: after Sully's battle with alcoholism in Season 4, and after Faith and Bosco got shot in Seasons 5 and 6 respectively and had to take a few months off work.
• The Vampire Diaries: Elijah's return in "The Ties That Bind".
  Damon: So, why don't we talk about this? [shows dagger]
  [a couple minutes later]
  Elijah: So, Niklaus, what'd I miss?
• Josh got his when he turned a political defeat into a resounding victory at the same time in The West Wing episode "Shutdown".
  • The President got his in the first season episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet", when he endangered his own re-election to take a stand on issues like campaign finance reform.
• At the end of Season 1 in The Wire Omar leaves for New York while running from the Barksdale clan. In Episode 3 of Season 2 he comes back. And embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • He does this again in Season 5 against Marlo.