Basic Trope: A mystery within a work that goes unresolved or undiscussed.
- Straight: Siblings Alice and Bob have a house party one night and after waking up the following morning, they find that their bathtub is full of pink water, a potato is shoved in their DVR, and their couch is on the roof of their house. While the siblings discover that their friends Chris and Diana were involved with the former two incidents, they never discover how the couch ended up on the roof or who was involved in that incident.
- Exaggerated: Everything about what happened at the party is never properly explained, leaving Alice and Bob to occasionally wonder about that night for years to come.
- Downplayed: Bob and Alice’s other friend Eric is implied to have done the deed, but he denies it and there’s no evidence showing that he did it.
- Justified: Everyone was drunk at the house party and probably didn’t remember who did it or had left by the time the couch had been placed on the roof. Additionally, Alice and Bob had left the party at different points and came back later in the night/early morning, though both failed to notice that the couch was gone until the following morning due to their hangovers.
- Subverted: Chris confesses to putting the couch on the roof through a very complicated scheme involving a forklift, multiple moving straps, and a razor.
- Double Subverted: Chris is an Attention Whore and admits to having lied about being the culprit behind the couch incident, leaving what happened that night an open question again.
- Parodied: The front door is left open after Alice enters the house. When Bob and Chris come over, they notice the door open and wonder about who left it open. Chris then replies with “I guess, that’s one for the ages.”
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob eventually discover how the couch ended up on the roof but they never conclusively discover who did the act, though they strongly suspect Eric, who denies doing it.
- Averted: The siblings discover who put the couch on the roof and how they did it.
- Inverted: Despite initially appearing to be an unsolvable mystery, gradually everyone starts to go through the clues of the case and discover a reasonable and accurate conclusion.
- Enforced:
- The writers wanted to pull a Mind Screw on their audience and leave certain questions unanswered as to fuel fan speculation and engagement with the series.
- The author passed away before he could finish the last (but not necessarily final) volume, which would have resolved the mystery.
- Leaving the In-Universe how/why of a central plot point unexplained but acknowledged, is better than to Voodoo Shark it. note
- Lampshaded: “And that thing about the couch? I still don’t know how that happened!”
- Invoked: Alice is a magician who makes an elephant disappear and reappear. When asked about how she did it, she refuses to tell her secret as to protect the trick’s mystery.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- All the mysteries that occur in the series will get solved eventually, as per the writers and the show runners.
- Alice swears she will solve this mystery even if it kills her, and she does.
- Alice marches right to the writers' room and demands a solution, roughness optional.
- Discussed: “And what was that thing with the couch?” “Sometimes in life you won’t get all the answers.”
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: One way or another, people (In-Universe and out) get angry that the mystery is unsolved, especially if it was a main plot point. In-Universe, people are just going to be frustrated that all of their efforts were fruitless and those who know the answer (if there is anybody who knows the answer) are being trolling bastards by refusing to say it. Out-of-universe, the audience will be quick to invoke The Chris Carter Effect and tune out of the series (and the creators' future projects, too, if they are too attached to this).
- Played For Drama: When Bob is murdered, the case quickly gets cold and is left unsolved, leading his sister Alice to angst who could’ve killed her beloved brother for years afterwards.
- Played For Laughs:
- The couch incident becomes a Running Gag within the series and is even listed with historical Stock Unsolved Mysteries when Alice and Bob bring up unsolved mysteries with their friends.
- The writers of the series make a Self-Deprecation joke by having Alice rant and rave about authors and show runners who can't bother to solve the show's mysteries and think it makes them clever (J.J. Abrams, Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler, Chris Carter, David Lynch before executives meddled with Twin Peaks, etc.)
- The answer to the riddle for the ages is a (deliberately written) Voodoo Shark. Alice decides that it's better off if nobody ever knows it.
- Played For Horror: Nothing Is Scarier
Go back to Riddle for the Ages.
