Basic Trope: It's unclear exactly what happened.
- Straight: It looks like the heroes are doomed, but Alice walks off screen for a bit and then the machine that was about to kill them breaks, then she comes back. When Bob asks where she'd been, she says she went for a walk. Alice is known to be good at sabotaging and hacking, but the machine could have just randomly broke or something else could have happened, so nobody knows if Alice sabotaged the machine on her walk.
- Exaggerated:
- We also never find out what Alice's last name is, whether Bob and Charlie are related, if Diane was actually sick or just pretending, and whether the so-called "murder victim" was actually murdered.
- Mind Screw
- Downplayed: Something is heavily implied but can't be proven.
- Justified: Alice is notoriously difficult to get a straight answer from.
- Inverted: The answer on what happened in a certain situation is made very crystal clear and unambiguous.
- Subverted: Eventually, it's revealed that Alice did sabotage the machine.
- Double Subverted: The villains are blaming Alice because they're pretty sure she did it, but they're not certain.Emperor Evulz: "Stupid Alice, foiling my plan by sabotaging my death machine!"Cindy: "How did you know it was Alice?"Emperor Evulz: "I don't! But she was loitering around it and you know how she is with my things."
- Parodied: Charlie claims to know if Alice was involved in the sabotaging or not, but keeps his mouth shut "for the mystery".
- Zigzagged: Alice walks offscreen, the machine breaks, and when it comes back, she says she went for a walk. Emperor Evulz says that Alice sabotaged it, but it turns out he's just blaming her without being entirely certain. And Alice is very cryptic about the whole thing and sometimes implies she did it and sometimes implies she didn't do it.
- Averted: We know what happened.
- Enforced: One writer wanted Alice to sabotage the machine, another didn't, so they decided to leave it ambiguous.
- Lampshaded: "We'd all be dead right now if...what exactly happened?!"
- Invoked: Alice decides not to reveal whether or not she sabotaged the machine and makes sure not to be seen so nobody can confirm she did or didn't do it.
- Exploited: Alice cannot get in trouble with the bad guys, because they can't prove she did it.
- Defied: Alice outright says that she did or didn't sabotage the machine.
- Discussed: "So, did Alice sabotage the machine?"
- Conversed: "What exactly was Alice doing off screen there?"
- Implied: ???
- Deconstructed: The others have no idea whether or not to congratulate Alice.
- Reconstructed: Alice reveals it to them, but not the audience.
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama: ???
Back to Ambiguous Situation. I can't know if you'll actually do it, though.
