Knowing when to fold 'em in Live-Action TV series.
- This is what makes the Dynamic Duo suspicious in the Batman episode "The Greatest Mother of Them All". Not only are all the members of the Parker crime family captured before the end of the first installment of the usual two-parter, but they are all nabbed with ridiculous ease (especially the daughter, who throws her hands up as soon as Batman and Robin see her). Turns out it was too good to be true: the Parkers were not afraid of going to jail because Ma Parker had been slowly infiltrating the penitentiary with criminals disguised as guards until Warden Crichton had been the only non-corrupt person left — and Ma then had the "guards" turn on Crichton and bully him into making her the new warden. The Parkers gain total control of the prison, "breaking out" as often as they wish to commit robberies.
- Battlestar Galactica (2003):
- Practically a catchphrase of Commander Adama. In the miniseries pilot Roslin convinces Adama that retaking The Colonies is hopeless, and their best hope is to escort humanity's survivors somewhere safe from the Cylons. In You Can't Go Home Again, Adama is forced to concede that the search and rescue mission for Starbuck is hopeless. And in Lay Down Your Burdens, Lee makes the point that two ships with skeleton crews cannot hope to hold off a Cylon invasion fleet, so their best chance is to escape with what they can at the moment and come back when they have a clear plan and better odds.
- The reason Tom Zarek was such a thorn in Roslin and Adama's side for all four seasons, is that he recognized when he shouldn't overextend himself, and was simply smart enough to quit while he was relatively ahead. For example he wanted to assassinate Roslin outside the Tomb of Athena, but once Commander Adama and his men showed up he realized it was too risky and simply dropped the plan. One of Zarek's goons even urges that they go through with it anyway, but Zarek cites this trope... the goon tries on his own initiative, and gets killed.
- This comes up in Battlestar Galactica (1978), too. Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges) is in command of the other surviving Battlestar, the Pegasus, and wants to launch an offensive. Cain is brilliant, but wrong; as Adama (Lorne Greene) points out, two Battlestars, encumbered by a refugee fleet that is essentially defenseless and that houses the last survivors of their people, can't win a war against the Cylon Empire. They must run or die, and Cain eventually realizes that Adama is right.
- Breaking Bad:
- Saul Goodman is one morally dubious character who knows exactly how this song goes. He knows when to beg for his life. He knows when to negotiate while holding his ground. He knows when to seemingly give most of that ground up without actually giving anything of real value... and he knows exactly when to drop everything and get the hell out of Dodge. As a result, he's the closest to a Karma Houdini the show has when it comes to core characters.
- Late in the series, Mike Ehrmantraut decides that working with Walt is far too risky: the DEA had seized the hush money for his associates and the trust fund he set aside for his granddaughter, and he is being watched very closely by the authorities. As a result, he decides to call it quits and sell out his share of Walt's business. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to get away with it like Saul does: he is forced to flee without saying goodbye to his family, shot by Walt not long after, and has his body destroyed in acid.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Some of the smarter monsters who know who Buffy is usually skaddle upon either seeing her, or at the least, seeing some of their fellow monsters get killed.
- "School Hard": A newly turned vampire named Sheila Martini tried to ambush Buffy from behind, only to be thwarted by a timely warning from Giles. After seeing Buffy kill a fellow vampire, Sheila wisely turns tail. She just lost her humanity to Drusilla, so likely getting killed again didn't appeal to her.
- In another ep, Buffy and Willow are at a graveyard waiting for a newly turned vampire to climb out of his grave. They get to talking, not noticing said vampire doing exactly that. The vampire is about to attack them... until he notices the stakes near Buffy. Realizing she's the slayer, the vampire quietly leaves the area before he's noticed.
- Buffy makes her way into a den of vampires. They're about to attack her when one of the vamps recognizes her and yells out "Slayer!". To which the whole room clears out.
- In Canada's Worst Driver, two drivers (Jason from Season 3 and Mike from Season 5) gave up driving for good. Aaron from Season 7 came in ready to do so to (as it turned out, he didn't have to).
- In the Finnish version, the judges decided to let one contestant go, because there was absolutely nothing they could do to help him.note
- In Season 4, the panel sent Donna home after learning she had a dangerous heart condition and wasn't safe to be driving.
- Doctor Who:
- Most of the time, "Run Away" is the initial tactic while trying to figure out their plan of defeating the enemy of the week. The Doctor has been known to give this option to aliens as well, politely informing them just who they are dealing with.Eleventh Doctor: Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically... run.
- "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead": The microscopic Vashta Nerada stop their assault on the Doctor and his companions and allow him to free all the people saved in the computer and leave with two sentences.The Tenth Doctor: I'm the Doctor, and we're in the biggest library in the Universe. Look me up.
- "A Good Man Goes to War": The Doctor invokes this as his form of Cruel Mercy to the Colonel leading the army of the Silence at Demons Run. The Doctor wants him to give the order "Run Away", so that for the rest of his life, those infamous words will haunt him and people will mock him for being "Colonel Runaway".Madame Kovarian: Give the order... give the order, "Colonel Runaway!"
- "Extremis": The Doctor again convinces someone to run away by asking them to look him up. In the Fatality Index, under "cause of death", which reveals "a truly remarkable record" that overwhelms the display device. The executioner holding it runs off with, "Have a nice day, then."
- Most of the time, "Run Away" is the initial tactic while trying to figure out their plan of defeating the enemy of the week. The Doctor has been known to give this option to aliens as well, politely informing them just who they are dealing with.
- In the 2019 series of The Demon Headmaster, the Headmaster is ordered to abandon his plans by the original Headmaster, as there is no way to implement their agenda after Lizzie Warren and her gang have exposed his plans on live television and Dinah has contacted her associates at MI6.
- Friends: Ross refuses to pay extra to have his new couch delivered, calling it a scam. After he and his friends destroy the couch trying to get it up to his apartment, he brings it back to the store and tries to return it.Store clerk: Are you trying to tell me that the couch was delivered to you in this condition?
Ross: [obviously avoiding the question] I am a reasonable man; I will accept store credit.
Store clerk: I will give you store credit in the amount of five dollars.
Ross: ...I will take it.- In one Thanksgiving episode Ross fails at a game of listing as many of the States as possible in one minute. He declares that he can get them all before dinner, and doesn't get any food until he's done. By 3AM he's so hungry he decides he no longer cares that his list is still one short and tucks into the leftovers.
- Forged in Fire: This is a very common trait for the contestants, who know when it's a good time to abandon the metal they were working on and start over.
- Game of Thrones:
- In "The Laws of Gods and Men", Yara Greyjoy aborts her mission to rescue Theon when she realizes how utterly broken he is, saying her brother is "dead".
- In "The Children", Mance surrenders when Stannis's army arrives at the Wall. He knows he can't beat Stannis's forces, and he doesn't want to see his people slaughtered.
- In the History and Lore segments, House Tyrell is said to have risen to power in the wake of Aegon's Conquest by agreeing to surrender. They also agreed to surrender without a fight after the sack of King's Landing at the end of Robert's Rebellion. The King in the North Torrhen Stark did likewise to spare his army the same fate as the combined Lannister/Gardener army at the Field of Fire, which had 4000 men burned alive by Aegon's dragons. Henceforth, Torrhen was known as the king who knelt.
- Bronn, ever the pragmatic mercenary, knows that being selective about which fights to pick keeps his chances of death low.
- During a fight with a Dothraki screamer, his bag of Golden Dragons spills onto the floor. He gives it a longing look... before giving it up for lost and focusing his efforts on dispatching the Dothraki.
- He has no shame admitting to Tyrion Lannister he is afraid of the Mountain and decides unless Tyrion can offer a better deal he is not risking a fight with him.
- He emphatically informs his employer Jaime Lannister that "dragons are where our partnership ends." Having seen one of the beasts in action, he knows perfectly well that that confrontation would likely leave him incinerated.
- In "High Sparrow", after beating his rival Alliser Thorne to the position of Lord Commander, Jon Snow graciously promotes him to a key command position. However, Thorne's key ally Janos Slynt refuses a direct order immediately afterward, prompting Snow to order his execution. Thorne stands to block the guards for a moment, clearly thinking about defending Janos, but ultimately decides he has more to lose than gain and steps aside.
- House of the Dragon: During the stolen dragon egg arc in Season 1, Otto Hightower wisely orders his men to stand down from their confrontation with Daemon Targaryen after his rival busts out his dragon Caraxes. Daemon also backs down when Rhaenyra dares him to kill her in order to become Viserys's sole heir. Notably, Rhaenyra had arrived on Syrax, and other than Daemon's personal reservations about harming his niece (he likes Rhaenyra and does not want to be branded a kinslayer, as kinslayers are considered to be the most dishonorable people in Westerosi society), he is not willing to risk Caraxes in a fight against Rhaenyra's dragon Syrax.
- Iditarod: The Toughest Race on Earth shows how important this is to sled-dog mushing. For the mushers, good judgment about this is essential — if mushers push their team too hard, they risk getting stranded in the Alaska wilderness. And, to mushers worth their salt, risking the life and health of their dogs is not worth any race.
- In Island at War, British forces withdraw from an indefensible fictional Channel Island at the approach of the German invasion, without bothering to officially surrender, leaving the civilian population to attack and Nazi occupation. This proves unpopular with the public in England, and the government sends intelligence agents to scout the possibility of retaking the island. The de facto mayor is forced to argue against the liberation of his island, pointing out that it would be a hopeless waste of British lives and end in a harsher German occupation, and counsels the spies (one of whom is his own son) to give themselves up as POWs.
- Many a time on Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay has threatened to leave when an owner acts up. But in the infamous Amy's Baking Company episode, Gordon meets a pair of owners who steal tips from their staff, insult and scream at customers and are in complete denial over their horrible food. Realizing there's absolutely no way these two nutjobs are going to listen to him, Gordon, for the only time in the series, throws up his hands and quits as this place is beyond saving.
- The episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Reese gets driving lessons. The A-plot involves Reese's annoying co-student not letting him have any time behind the wheel — and when he finally gets his chance, someone rear-ends him by mistake. He assumes he caused the crash, panics, and ends up being followed by the police. The B-plot consists of Francis coming up with increasingly paper-thin excuses to get himself out of trouble. When Reese calls Francis for advice, Francis at first encourages him to keep looking for a way out — then, as everyone he's lied to marches into the room, he admits that sometimes the best you can do is end things "with class". This inspires Reese to return to the driving school, complete the obstacle course flawlessly, and then give himself up.
- Master Vile in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. He actually realized fairly quickly that he wasn't going to beat the Power Rangers, and he'd be better off cutting his losses and going home to his galaxy, where evil always wins. Despite this, he actually fared impressively well against the Power Rangers. His first monster had them on the ropes for three episodes until they figured out its weakness, his second monster required the use of a never-before-seen ultrazord configuration to defeat, and his third plan involved a self-destructing time reversal device that didn't have the same pitfalls as Zedd's attempt, which required a long 10 episode arc to fix, and Vile actually left only two episodes into that arc.
- In the John Cleese episode of The Muppet Show, Cleese is refusing to appear on "Pigs in Space", citing his contract, which says he will only work with Kermit, Fozzie and "the ugly, disgusting little one who catches cannonballs" (Gonzo). When a monster eats his contract, Cleese demands to see his agent...at which point the camera shows another monster has eaten the agent. Cleese immediately opts to cut his losses and do "Pigs in Space".
- Obi-Wan Kenobi: in "Part VI" Vader does this after the Emperor implies that Vader will be replaced if he doesn't stop his monomanical pursuit of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even though the threat itself was left unspoken, Vader knows the Emperor won't tolerate him continuing the pursuit, so he declares that Kenobi "means nothing" and affirms his allegiance to Sidious.
- This frequently happens on Pawn Stars to both the customers and the pawnbrokers alike when they're negotiating on a price for the customer's item. One of the parties will make a final offer when it comes to how much they'll pay or accept for the item, and then the other party has to decide whether to accept this final offer or simply break off the negotiations without making a deal.
- Raven: Discussed Trope. Before describing the challenge Treetop Treasure in one episode, the titular character tells the contestants/warriors that it's important to know when to retreat from a battle.
- In the opening scene of the Amazon series Reacher, Jack Reacher is on his way into a diner and witnesses a young man behaving aggressively towards his girlfriend. Noticing Reacher looking on, the man mouths off at him and approaches him as if to start something, but Reacher just stands perfectly still and stares at him icily until he backs down and apologizes.
- Rise of Empires: Ottoman: The historians in the series speculate why Giustiniani left the battle during the siege's final hours. Most likely, he didn't think victory was possible anymore and he was already wounded anyway. He's also a mercenary, not a Roman citizen, so there's no real point to him continuing to fight if his employers won't be there to pay him.
- In The Sopranos, Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. is a clear loser in the mob war, and yet in some ways also the winner; after taking harsh losses, he decides to concede defeat and leave organized crime altogether. He is one of the few characters who ends the series safe and happy.
- In the made-for-TV movie Spenser: Small Vices, a hitman flees after an unsuccessful attempt on Spenser's life. As Spenser explains, it's not about proving who's the bigger man, but rather surviving and remaining free to make another attempt.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Picard and his crew do this a few times when they are clearly outmatched.
- In "The Survivors" Picard orders the Enterprise to retreat when Kevin Uxbridge's re-creation of a Husnock warship totally outclasses them.
- Worf realizes in "Sins of the Father" that even though he has proof Worf's father Mogh did not betray the Empire at Khitomer the High Council will not allow Worf's challenge to their ruling that Mogh was a traitor to succeed. He also realizes that if continued to push the issue he and his brother Kurn would be put to death so he backs down and accepts discommendation as this would allow him and his brother to wait for a better time to clear Mogh's name and restore their honor.
- Then in "Data's Day" Picard enters the Neutral Zone in order to retrieve a woman who appeared to be a Vulcan ambassador from a Romulan ship, believing her to have been kidnapped by the Romulans. She was actually a Romulan spy, and when her deception was revealed the Romulans had a large force in bound to prevent Picard from arresting the spy. Realizing that there was no way the Enterprise could defeat the Romulan force, Picard orders the Enterprise to retreat back to Federation space so the ship is not captured or destroyed by the Romulans. Later on, in "The Drumhead", Lieutenant Worf defends Picard's decision to retreat by saying the Enterprise could have been captured by the Romulans and Picard took the only option open to him. Not that it mattered to the Insane Admiral or her staff attacking him for it.
- Star Trek: Voyager:
- In the season 2 episode "Twisted", a strange energy field begins to overtake the ship, causing crucial systems to fail and the layout of the ship to warp. Crew members who come into contact with the field become delirious. After their efforts to prevent the energy field from expanding only make things worse, Tuvok recommends giving up and seeing what happens. Eventually, the field disperses, everything is returned to normal and the crew find a massive amount of data in their computers — evidence that the energy field was just trying to communicate.
- In "The Raven" Captain Janeway is forced to order Voyager to go around B'omar space instead of through it, adding time on to their journey. This was after the B'omar got very angry with Voyager and send a large force to deal with the Federation ship.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- Garak tells it to Bashir during a James Bond simulation on the holodeck, reinforcing his status as a Magnificent Bastard.Garak: "There comes a time when the odds are against you and the only reasonable course of action is to quit! That's why I managed to stay alive, while most of my colleagues are dead! Because I know when to walk away."
- Starfleet abandoning the Deep Space Nine station.
- Likewise when the Dominion abandoned the station.Weyoun: "Time to start packing!"
- Shortly before the events of the show, the Cardassian Empire took this tack with their occupation of Bajor. A tenacious La Résistance combined with mounting political pressure back home made the planet too hot to hold.
- Despite being Kung-Fu Jesus for a Proud Warrior Race, Kahless himself had this as one of his sayings: "Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory, and ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat."
- Garak tells it to Bashir during a James Bond simulation on the holodeck, reinforcing his status as a Magnificent Bastard.
- Ultraman: Once Alien Mefilas acknowledges that his and Ultraman's powers are too evenly matched, he calls off the fight, declares that he will return to conquer the Earth another time and teleports out.
- Averted and lampshaded in VR Troopers: an unusually tough Monster of the Week named Graybot who disguised himself as a human to gain their trust before betraying them is winning against Ryan Steele. Eventually, Ryan uses the lightning hand command, which generally kills bots, (those who survive it are damaged or weakened and will often retreat to make repairs). Graybot, however, doesn't and continues to battle despite his injuries, Ryan points out that Graybot doesn't know when to quit. Rather than listen to his foe's advice and retreat to the Virtual Dungeon for repairs, he keeps fighting until he eventually wears himself, overheats, collapses from exhaustion, and explodes. Essentially, his own pride prevented him from having a chance at a rematch with Ryan.
