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The Irrational

 The Irrational
type
TVTItem
 The Irrational
label
The Irrational
 The Irrational
page
TheIrrational
 The Irrational
comment
The Irrational is a Police Procedural airing on NBC. It stars Jesse L. Martin and Maahra Hill.Renowned behavioral scientist Alex Mercer offers his unique insights into human behavior in order to help solve various cases, often working alongside his ex-wife Marisa Clark, an FBI agent.
 The Irrational
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2024-02-22T23:46:31Z
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2024-02-22T23:46:31Z
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Dropped link to ArmoredClosetGay: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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ArmoredClosetGay
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DBTropes
 The Irrational / int_11630eaa
type
The Gambling Addict
 The Irrational / int_11630eaa
comment
The Gambling Addict: In "Lucky Charms", Alec discovers that one of his former students has gotten into trouble while gambling in Vegas, and owes quite a bit of money.
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The Irrational / int_11630eaa
 The Irrational / int_154aa477
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
 The Irrational / int_154aa477
comment
Big, Screwed-Up Family: In "Zero Sum", Alex and Marisa deal with a working-class black family that has become entangled with a rich white family because the black wife used to work for the white family, but had an affair with the white husband, who felt guilty about the power imbalance between them and thus helped fund her daughter's education to compensate, which irritated his own son, who felt neglected.
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The Irrational / int_154aa477
 The Irrational / int_1616e13
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Ripped from the Headlines
 The Irrational / int_1616e13
comment
Ripped from the Headlines: The plot of "Point and Shoot" borrows heavily from Breonna Taylor case, in which a black nurse was killed by cops serving a no-knock warrant on her boyfriend. The episode also borrows from the case of Anjanette Young, who was terrorized by police who were mistakenly given a no-knock warrant for her address, although that case only ended in a wrongful arrest.
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The Irrational / int_1616e13
 The Irrational / int_2fd1d68a
type
Cool-Down Hug
 The Irrational / int_2fd1d68a
comment
Cooldown Hug: In "Bombshell", Alec, Phoebe, and Rizwan are all being held hostage by Wes Banning, the man who made the bomb that wounded Alec all those years ago. The stress of a hostage crisis sends Phoebe into a panic attack, and she can't get to her medicine. Rizwan suggests that she take a placebo while he gives her a hug so that she associates the placebo with comfort.
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 The Irrational / int_3f0b2f50
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Make It Look Like an Accident
 The Irrational / int_3f0b2f50
comment
Make It Look Like an Accident: Played with. In "Point and Shoot", in order to stop the victim from exposing a multinational company's crimes that the police unit "Viper Squad" works for, they proceed to make his death look like a case of negligence due to a misprinted arrest warrant, making it look like an accidental officer-involved shooting rather than a flat out murder.
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 The Irrational / int_42c9f1ec
type
Downplayed Trope
 The Irrational / int_42c9f1ec
comment
Downplayed. In "Point and Shoot", a pair of patrol officers harass Alec and Kylie following Alec's testimony against Viper Squad. One forces Kylie to perform a sobriety test under the excuse of her swerving over a white line, also making her count backwards from 1001 in multiples of three, even threatening to unholster his gun when she asks if its necessary while taking sadistic pleasure in watching her squirm. Alec quickly realizes the truth, confirming it when the other officer notes his sister was the one they want, despite never revealing they were siblings to the officers. Alec is able to convince the second officer that it's not worth the bad press this would bring, and he manages to get the one harassing Kylie to knock it off.
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 The Irrational / int_483152c4
type
The Resenter
 The Irrational / int_483152c4
comment
The Resenter: In "Zero Sum", Veronica's kidnapper is the son of her mother's ex-paramour, who resents Veronica because his dad took an interest in Veronica's education and he feels that he's being neglected. In "Scorched Earth", the culprit in the arson that killed a young man and badly wounded a young woman is Caroline Rixton, the co-owner of the house that they were in. She was angry that her sisters blocked her plan to turn the property into an animal refuge and thus set fire to the place so that neither of them would be able to enact their own plans for the property.
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The Irrational / int_483152c4
 The Irrational / int_5beef860
type
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?
 The Irrational / int_5beef860
comment
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Alec has an understandable aversion to fire as a result of being so badly burned. In "Scorched Earth", he gets locked in a burning building and very nearly loses his composure.
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The Irrational / int_5beef860
 The Irrational / int_7a1856ba
type
I Reject Your Reality
 The Irrational / int_7a1856ba
comment
I Reject Your Reality: Alec insists that things are still good between him and his ex-wife Marisa, even though he's been reduced to living at his younger sister's house while his wife has already started rearranging their house.
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 The Irrational / int_848153ef
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Viva Las Vegas!
 The Irrational / int_848153ef
comment
Viva Las Vegas!: In "Lucky Charms", Mercer and his team head to Las Vegas when one of his former students gets into trouble.
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 The Irrational / int_8a164766
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Never Got to Say Goodbye
 The Irrational / int_8a164766
comment
Never Got to Say Goodbye: Phoebe's mother died the day after they'd had a terrible fight. The guilt has been haunting Phoebe for years.
 The Irrational / int_8a164766
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The Irrational / int_8a164766
 The Irrational / int_970c790a
type
Big Bad
 The Irrational / int_970c790a
comment
In the first-season finale, Mathias, the man who orchestrated the bombing that scarred Alec, and the man who's been pulling the strings for most of the season, is revealed to be Bob Caswith, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He owed Senator Sanford a favor and thus staged the bombing to cover up the accidental death of one of Sanford's campaign volunteers. He has since used his position in the FBI to stymie Marisa's efforts to investigate the bombing.
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 The Irrational / int_aa58bf92
type
Working with the Ex
 The Irrational / int_aa58bf92
comment
Working with the Ex: Alec frequently works alongside his ex-wife Marisa. He hopes that this will eventually repair their relationship, but Marisa shows signs of already having moved on.
 The Irrational / int_aa58bf92
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The Irrational / int_aa58bf92
 The Irrational / int_ab5eea65
type
Dramatic Irony
 The Irrational / int_ab5eea65
comment
Dramatic Irony: In "Cheating Life", longevity-obsessed Vincent Lee is revealed to have stage-four bone cancer. He faked his death in order to avoid his followers thinking that his nutritional supplements were to blame for his condition.
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The Irrational / int_ab5eea65
 The Irrational / int_aba8065b
type
Fatal Flaw
 The Irrational / int_aba8065b
comment
Fatal Flaw: In "Dead Woman Walking", Mercer and his team solve the case of who poisoned a journalist by goading her would-be killer into confessing, appealing to his desperate desire to have someone know that he pulled off a seemingly perfect crime.
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The Irrational / int_aba8065b
 The Irrational / int_ad1db87c
type
Oh, Crap!
 The Irrational / int_ad1db87c
comment
Oh, Crap!: In "Zero Sum", Rizwan is forced to cover one of Phoebe's lecture while she does work on the latest case. Previously, he'd only served as a teaching assistant for small classes, but Phoebe's lecture has almost 200 students. Naturally, he's horrified. He's even more horrified when, despite his first lecture being a disaster, Mercer decides to send him out again.
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 The Irrational / int_ad94c7a0
type
Scars Are Forever
 The Irrational / int_ad94c7a0
comment
Scars are Forever: Mercer is heavily and visible scarred on the right side of his face; despite treatments for the injuries which caused them they're clearly permanent. He's asked frequently about how he got his scars, which Mercer answers usually by making something up.
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The Irrational / int_ad94c7a0
 The Irrational / int_b4a44588
type
Tough Love
 The Irrational / int_b4a44588
comment
Tough Love: In "Zero Sum", Mercer decides that Rizwan needs to move out of his comfort zone, and thus has him cover some of Phoebe's lectures, despite Rizwan having very little experience with large classes. As he later explains, he does not expect Rizwan to do well, but he expects that he'll learn more about how to give lectures.
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 The Irrational / int_b6d3e6fc
type
Smokescreen Crime
 The Irrational / int_b6d3e6fc
comment
Smokescreen Crime: In "Point and Shoot", it turns out that the murder of the week was intended to cover up several local cops and a judge being on the take from a corrupt multinational corporation. In "Scorched Earth", the culprit of the week sets off a string of fires near unhoused camps in order to make the burning of the Rixton house look like the work of a serial firebug. In "Reciprocity", Alec and Marisa learn the truth about the bombing: Kevin Sanford accidentally killed Natalie Price, a campaign aide, and in a panic, called up Bob Caswith, an old war buddy who worked for the FBI. Caswith helped cover up Natalie's overdose, then arranged for a bombing in which she was supposedly killed.
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 The Irrational / int_b6ec7566
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Twofer Token Minority
 The Irrational / int_b6ec7566
comment
Twofer Token Minority: Kylie Mercer, Alec's sister, is a queer black woman. In "Point and Shoot", Alec testifies in the case of an officer-involved shooting where the victim was a gay black man.
 The Irrational / int_b6ec7566
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 The Irrational / int_be009bbc
type
Alliterative Name
 The Irrational / int_be009bbc
comment
Alliterative Name: "Scorched Earth" features a character named Dara Deacon.
 The Irrational / int_be009bbc
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The Irrational / int_be009bbc
 The Irrational / int_c2676b00
type
Jurisdiction Friction
 The Irrational / int_c2676b00
comment
Jurisdiction Friction: In "Zero Sum", Marisa is forced to work alongside a private security consultant to resolve a kidnapping, and hates it, both because she sees private security as the refuge of failed cops and agents and because the consultant, Rose, happens to be an attractive woman who is also clearly interested in Alec.
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 The Irrational / int_d9cf40fa
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Screw This, I'm Outta Here
 The Irrational / int_d9cf40fa
comment
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the first season finale, Phoebe suddenly receives a job offer from Dr. Myers, one of Alec's colleagues. Still traumatized from her experiences being taken hostage in "Bombshell", plus with Mercer's office having been destroyed at the end of that episode, she reluctantly decides to take the offer, hoping that it will at least provide her with a safer work environment. While she feels guilty about abandoning Alec, he reveals that he had actually reached out to Dr. Myers in the first place, as he felt Phoebe would benefit from a change of scenery.
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 The Irrational / int_dbca2c99
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Red Herring
 The Irrational / int_dbca2c99
comment
Red Herring: In "Dead Woman Walking", the initial suspect in the poisoning of a journalist is a Russian gangster that the journalist and her partner were investigating, but then the gangster is suddenly shot dead.
 The Irrational / int_dbca2c99
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 The Irrational / int_eb251937
type
Dirty Cop
 The Irrational / int_eb251937
comment
Dirty Cop: Downplayed. In "Point and Shoot", a pair of patrol officers harass Alec and Kylie following Alec's testimony against Viper Squad. One forces Kylie to perform a sobriety test under the excuse of her swerving over a white line, also making her count backwards from 1001 in multiples of three, even threatening to unholster his gun when she asks if its necessary while taking sadistic pleasure in watching her squirm. Alec quickly realizes the truth, confirming it when the other officer notes his sister was the one they want, despite never revealing they were siblings to the officers. Alec is able to convince the second officer that it's not worth the bad press this would bring, and he manages to get the one harassing Kylie to knock it off. In the first-season finale, Mathias, the man who orchestrated the bombing that scarred Alec, and the man who's been pulling the strings for most of the season, is revealed to be Bob Caswith, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He owed Senator Sanford a favor and thus staged the bombing to cover up the accidental death of one of Sanford's campaign volunteers. He has since used his position in the FBI to stymie Marisa's efforts to investigate the bombing.
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 The Irrational / int_ec0ce986
type
Spotting the Thread
 The Irrational / int_ec0ce986
comment
Spotting the Thread: In "The Real Deal", Rose detects that a room has a hidden door because the room's dimensions don't match up with the floor plan.
 The Irrational / int_ec0ce986
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 The Irrational / int_f9876f7e
type
Faking the Dead
 The Irrational / int_f9876f7e
comment
Faking the Dead: In "Cheating Life", Vincent Lee killed his look-alike bodyguard in a hit-and-run to fake his own death so that people would not find out about his cancer, which he feared would discredit his vitamin supplement business.
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 The Irrational / int_fed93e1b
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Dark and Troubled Past
 The Irrational / int_fed93e1b
comment
Dark and Troubled Past: Mercer was wounded in a bombing twenty years ago which had killed several people and left him severely scarred. He can't remember most of what happened.
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The Irrational

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Irrational
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African-American Media / int_8df566e1
 The Irrational
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Painful Adhesive Removal / int_8df566e1
 The Irrational
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Scars Are Forever / int_8df566e1
 The Irrational
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Series of the 2020s / int_8df566e1
 The Irrational
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Smokescreen Crime / int_8df566e1
 The Irrational
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Working with the Ex / int_8df566e1