Basic Trope: A Sixth Ranger who reveals to be evil (in the Five-Man Band) or good (in the evil Five-Man Band) all along.
- Straight:
- Charlie, the Sixth Ranger in the Five-Man Band, is actually The Mole sent in by the evil Five-Man Band to send in information to their leader.
- Alternatively, Charlie joins the Five-Man Band as The Sixth Ranger, but feels that Good Is Boring and does a Face–Heel Turn.
- Or, Tony, the Sixth Ranger in the evil Five-Man Band, is The Starscream.
- Alternatively, Tony is The Sixth Ranger in the evil Five-Man Band, but after a while feels that Good Feels Good and does a Heel–Face Turn.
- Exaggerated:
- Charlie is Most Definitely Not a Villain! No sir! He is most definitely not Tony wearing a Paper-Thin Disguise!
- Charlie has been a seemly genuine Sixth Ranger for a long time, only to be revealed as none other than Emperor Evulz himself!
- Even before joining the team, Charlie has a looong history of betraying whatever team he's on to their sworn enemies, whatever side of the good/evil divide they're on.
- Downplayed: Charlie wasn't a traitor to start, he simply deserts instead of defecting after a morally questionable action. He doesn't help them but he doesn't aid their foes either beyond his leaving weakening them.
- Justified:
- As the Sixth Ranger, Charlie is often considered the most useless member of the group and gets comparatively less reward and attention, leading to a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
- As the Sixth Ranger, Charlie is feared by the others and treated as a potential traitor, so he becomes one.
- Charlie is a Fake Defector who pretends to reform, his Undying Loyalty to the original leader does not change.
- Inverted:
- Every member of the team save Tony or Charlie defects to the opposite side, leaving only them.
- Charlie doesn't betray the team, but rather one of the original Five-Man Band members.
- Subverted:
- Charlie realizes that it's better to be good, so he is Becoming the Mask.
- Or, Tony decides not to fight against his leader, since there is a good chance that he will be killed.
- The Five-Man Band suspects that Charlie may really be Tony, The Mole, only to find that, no, despite their distrust, he really is the good guy.
- Double Subverted:
- Turns out Charlie lied about Becoming the Mask just to get closer with the Five-Man Band, making his betrayal all the more effective.
- Or, Tony knows that it would be worth it to fight against the evil Five-Man Band to uphold justice, even if it costs his life.
- But actually he was just pretending so good.
- Parodied: When Charlie joins most of the team starts taking bets as to whether or not he'll turn within two years.
- Zig Zagged: After Tony joines the heroes as The Mole, he starts Becoming the Mask, but then he is blackmailed by the Big Bad and rejoins him. Later Tony decides that Good Feels Good, comes back to the heroes and stays with them even when The Leader switches to evil side. But after some Time he thinks that Good Is Boring and again becomes evil. For a while...
- Averted:
- The Sixth Ranger has nothing to do with betraying.
- Nobody is Sixth Ranger.
- Enforced: Creators want somebody to be a traitor but do not want anybody who audience already knows and likes to be him.
- Lampshaded:
- "We should have suspected that if you had not been with us from the beginning you could betray us."
- "What, you wanted to join us? Of all the timing you picked the moment when we are already full? I knew it, you're the traitor!"
- Invoked: Charlie betrays the party whenever he feels like it.
- Exploited:
- Charlie deliberately betray the party to blend himself into the enemies.
- The party deliberately hire potential traitors for their Uriah Gambit.
- Defied:
- The heroes double check everybody who wants to join them knowing that he may be The Mole.
- The heroes immediately kills whoever wants to reform in case he might be The Mole.
- Discussed: "We only have five seats, I'm pretty sure he's the traitor."
- Conversed: "Thank you for letting me to join you, how generous. Well, Prepare to Die! Over and over again!"
- Deconstructed: Even if he truly wanted to, Charlie, having defected to the Five-Man Band, finds that he is trusted by absolutely no one on the team. In fact, they distrust him so heartily, that routinely give him the most dangerous assignments not to trust him with their success but to occasion his demise.
- Reconstructed: The Five-Man Band realize that they can't function without trust, even if the only one they distrust is Charlie it would sour relations between the original five eventually. So they engineer a series of secret tests to find out whose side Charlie is on, and so that if he really is evil the intelligence he takes back helps them take down the evil Five-Man Band.
- Played For Laughs: Charlie is so comically obvious as a traitor that the rest of the Five-Man Band have to fight to keep a straight face while feeding him false intel.
- Played for Drama: Charlie is genuinely sad about betraying the Five-Man Band, and realizes that afterwards no one will trust him, and his evil associates will probably dispose of him once he's no longer useful. As a result, Charlie pulls a genuine Heel–Face Turn after a lot of convincing.
Back to Sixth Ranger Traitor, thank you for letting me to join you and digging a grave for yourself.
