This is when the entire Plot of a work depends on someone being left out of the loop. It may be that the person or group keeping the secret is holding the Idiot Ball, or is Properly Paranoid, or maybe they simply Cannot Spit It Out. Whatever the reason, they have kept a key player from knowing something crucial, and it is that lack of knowledge that enables the plot to happen. Otherwise, they could simply Just Eat Gilligan.
May result in Poor Communication Kills.
Compare Idiot Plot, Mistaken for Index and Just Eat Gilligan. Also compare Driving Question.
If an Internal Reveal exposes the secret, expect it to be a Game Changer, or even to mean that Nothing Is the Same Anymore. If it's the audience who is the one left out of the loop, then that's a Tomato Surprise.
See also:
- The Con — "Wait, you're not a Nigerian prince who needs help hiding his fortune?"
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage — "You mean our hostage is actually The Hero we took hostages to lure in?"
- Locked Out of the Loop — "You all knew this?" "Yes, but there's a reason we didn't tell you."
- Loves My Alter Ego — "You mean the guy I love and the guy with an unrequited crush on me are the same man?"
- Masquerade — "Dude, they're really vampires?"
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- JoJolion: The early parts of the story involve Josuke trying to solve the mystery of his true identity, especially when the Rock Humans realize who he is and try to eliminate him.
- The JoJoLands: Jodio and the gang become involve with a lava rock that attracts money, which also has the interest of Howler Company for an unknown reason.
Fan Works
- The plot in Nosflutteratu kicks off when Twilight learns what everypony else in Ponyville already knows-that Fluttershy is a vampire.
Film — Animated
- Turning Red: The main plot is kicked off by Meilin Lee discovering that a) she suddenly has the ability to turn into a giant magical red panda, and b) her parents and relatives knew this was going to happen someday, but never told her, so it hits her as a complete shock. To be sure, the panda was going to turn up someday anyway, but the way in which it happens is critical. If she had known about the panda and been prepared for it, her reaction to it, and therefore the story, would have been very different.
Film — Live-Action
- In The Way, Way Back, a lot of things would've been easier if Duncan had just told his mom he'd gotten a job. But then the plot would've had to be quite different.
Literature
- A minor plot point in Akata Witch was that Sunny was the only one in the group whose parents weren't magical and didn't know that she was taking lessons to improve her magic.
- In the Fearless books, the plot was frequently driven by the fact that Gaia was either keeping a secret from someone or having one kept from her.
- Many Harry Potter plots rely on the adults refusing to share some Awful Truth with Harry. This especially comes to the fore in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which Harry's lack of information ultimately has tragic consequences. At the end of that book, Dumbledore admits that he made a mistake keeping Harry in the dark.
Live-Action TV
- Forever: Why can't Henry die? Who is the mysterious caller? What happened to Abigail? Who were Abe's birth parents? (Only about half are resolved by the last episode.)
- Subverted in The Good Place. Each season involves a character hiding something from their superiors (such as Eleanor being sent to The Good Place by mistake, or Michael secretly betraying Shawn), only to have that secret unexpectedly revealed as a Mid-Season Twist that ends one arc and creates another.
- In Lucifer (2016), the Deuteragonist Chloe always disregards Lucifer's Cassandra Truth that he's the Lucifer Morningstar, first among angels, Prince of Hell, and not just a quirky, delusional nightclub owner. She realizes the truth in the Season 3 finale.
- In Pretty Little Liars, "A"'s identity is the main mystery of the entire show.
- The Secret World of Alex Mack would likely have been a much different show if Alex had told her parents about the accident.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: Ann's primary objective is finding and rescuing her missing brother, but overtime she starts to realize a secret organization called The Consortium actually engineered Ryan's disappearance to lure her in for a specific reason. The Reveal of exactly why isn't explained until near the end of the final area within The Consortium's facility.
- Genshin Impact: The Fontaine arc of the game focuses on realizing that the Hydro Archon Furina is hiding some pretty big secrets. The Traveler and Paimon work on getting them to open up about things, but it takes a public trial to learn the truth about Fontaine.
- Octopath Traveler:
- Olberic's path centers around finding Erhardt and discovering why he betrayed them.
- Cyrus' path centers around solving the mystery of the ancient tome missing from the academy's archives.
Visual Novels
- Two different ones in Daughter for Dessert:
- How the protagonist got the money to start his diner.
- Eventually, the sexual nature of the protagonist's relationship with Amanda.
- Two in Double Homework:
- Not only did the protagonist and Tamara cause the avalanche on Barbarossa, but they were forewarned that their actions could cause it.
- Also, Dr. Mosely’s identity as the enigmatic scientist Zeta, and by extension, the sex experiment on the protagonist’s summer school class. Lampshaded with the stipulation that the protagonist not know that he is meant to sleep with all the girls in his class save Johanna.
Western Animation
- Several examples in Gravity Falls:
- Dipper hides the existence of Journal 3 from Grunkle Stan, believing Stan will disbelieve its record of the supernatural elements of Gravity Falls. This prevents Stan from activating the machine for which the Journal contains the schematics until Dipper finally tells Stan at the end of Season 1.
- Likewise, Stan knows from the beginning that the Author of the Journals whom Dipper and Mabel are looking for is really his long-lost twin brother, the real Stanford Pines, and almost all of the first half of Season 2, particularly the series' biggest Wham Episode "Not What He Seems", happens because Stan chooses not to divulge this secret.
