Basic Trope: A character admits or is coerced into admitting information that only a guilty person could know.
- Straight: Murder suspect Alice is questioned by detective Bob about the death of Charlie. Alice pleads innocent, saying she didn't even know how to make poison — but wait, nobody ever told her how Charlie died...
- Exaggerated: Alice tearfully denies having murdered Charlie by slipping ten ounces of strychnine into his tomato-and-cilantro soup during his 10:39 brunch while he went off to the bathroom down the hall. Detective Bob hadn't even been on that case, and was questioning her about something entirely different.
- Downplayed:
- Alice doesn't reveal anything not released to the public about the murder case, but she does say something that raises Detective Bob's suspicions (e.g. "I was sorry to see him dead" — the killer was known to have murdered the victim personally, and so could have been said to have "seen him dead"). It's not evidence, but it does point Bob in the right direction, and later investigation turns up evidence of Alice's guilt.
- Alice turns out to be an accomplice, not the culprit.
- Alice isn't involved in the crime herself, but the real culprit told her how it happened.
- Justified:
- Detective Bob thinks Alice is the killer, but he doesn't have enough proof. He therefore pressures Alice into slipping up and revealing something that would link her to the murder, which would give him the evidence he needed.
- Alice is nervous about being questioned, and has a habit of Saying Too Much when she's nervous.
- Inverted:
- Alice goes out of her way to only make vague statements that prove nothing. This makes Detective Bob suspicious — why is she being so vague if she has nothing to hide?
- Alice confesses to poisoning Charlie — who was actually shot to death. This incorrect fact makes Detective Bob realize that her confession was false.
- Detective Bob accidentally lets slip that he framed Alice for the murder of Charlie.
- Subverted:
- "I didn't poison Charlie." "How did you know it was poison?" "It was in the newspaper, numbskull."
- Alice was one of the first people who saw Charlie's body. She identified the cause of death as cyanide poisoning because of the smell.
- Alice never intended to hide the fact about poisoning Charlie, because when she tried covering up her tracks, she realized after investigating the body that the poison wasn't what really killed him, and that someone else apparently wanted him dead as well.
- The video played in court makes Alice's statements appear incriminating, but the interview was only conducted after Charlie was dead and all of town knew that Bob died of poison in his soup. Not that the Jurors know this as the trial was held out of town.
- Double Subverted:
- Detective Bob realizes that Alice didn't kill Charlie ... but the reporter who wrote the newspaper article that Alice read did, as the method of death had never been officially released to the public.
- Alternatively, she'd have been right, that it was in the newspaper... if it had come out with the latest issue at that time. As it obviously isn't out yet, this makes Alice look suspicious again.
- Charlie was a man who liked to be left alone while he ate. So why did Alice check on him soon enough after the murder that the smell was still obvious?
- If Alice admits to covering her tracks for what turned out to be her failed attempt at the murder, wouldn't she know about any clues she tried to hide? If she's not the one who really killed him, then she should at least know something about who or what did.
- Additionally, attempted murder is a crime, just like successful murder, so Bob has evidence to put Alice in prison anyway. Alice either way just wanted to explain how she wasn't actually the culprit.
- Even though Alice had a good reason to know that Charlie's soup was poisoned she has no reason to know the exact poison and dosage, as well as how it was administered into the soup.
- Detective Bob realizes that Alice didn't kill Charlie ... but the reporter who wrote the newspaper article that Alice read did, as the method of death had never been officially released to the public.
- Parodied:
- "In fact, I poisoned Charlie by slipping ten ounces of strychnine into his tomato-and-cilantro soup. But I'll never tell you that!"
- "You just told me it was poison, fifteen seconds ago!" "Wait a second, how would you know it was fifteen seconds ago?" "I counted, you idiot!"
- Bob is pedantic enough to take the fact that Alice refers to it as "murder" and not "manslaughter" as evidence.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Alice makes a statement that detective Bob uses as evidence in her trial for murdering Charlie — but defense lawyer Dana argues that the statement was just a lucky guess made under pressure to say anything. This creates enough reasonable doubt that she cannot be convicted of murder. Then, during a break in court, Alice has a chat with a witness — in the process revealing personal information about the victim that she couldn't possibly have known if her alibi was true.
- Alice tells Detective Bob that she was only guessing that the victim was shot, since it's a pretty common murder method. In fact, she only said it so that Bob would confirm it to her. Also, Bob still has to figure out whether Alice is trying to cover her own tracks, or it really was a lucky guess.
- Averted: Alice invokes her right to remain silent and says nothing.
- Enforced: Being as there're only five minutes left in the show, the creators use this trope to wrap up the case quickly.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, I Never Said It Was Poison." "...Oops, I said too much."
- Invoked:
- Alice confesses to a crime, and uses details only the culprit could know to prove that she isn't a serial confessor trying to mislead the police.
- Detective Bob deliberately gives Alice false information about the murder. If Alice corrects him, she will give herself away.
- Exploited: Alice "lets slip" important information, allowing Detective Bob to prosecute her — and her partners-in-crime, who committed the bulk of the crime and who Alice wants in jail. Alice herself eventually walks free in exchange for testifying against them.
- Defied:
- "I plead the Fifth."
- Alice deliberately makes a false assumption about the murder to cover the fact that she really did it.
- Discussed: "He's a tough nut to crack. I'm going to try to trick him into admitting something only the killer would know."
- Conversed: "I've seen this on TV. This Is the Part Where... the detective tricks the killer into showing he knows too much."
- Implied: The scene cuts from Alice about to give her statement to Judge Carol sentencing her for the murder of Charlie.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice gives a Sarcastic Confession, forgetting it's still admissible evidence.
- Alice reveals that Charlie died laughing and that she told him the fateful joke.
- Played for Horror: As in Exaggerated or Parodied, but Alice reveals so many gruesome details that Bob has nightmares about this case for the rest of his life.
- Played for Drama: Alice never wanted to kill Charlie, but Bob stops her before she can explain that it was Accidental Murder and she goes to prison.
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