10 More TV Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won
2. John Kelly - Brooklyn Nine-Nine
In Brooklyn Nine-Nine's sixth season, Holt (Andre Braugher) loses the NYPD Commissioner gig to John Kelly (Phil Reeves), who proves to be a major thorn in the side of the 99th Precinct and is subsequently revealed to be using an anonymous tip app to spy on the population.
When this is brought to light at the end of the season, Kelly is suspended as commissioner and sent packing from the NYPD. A pretty concrete win for the good guys, right?
Not quite. It's easy to gloss over this, but in one of the episode's closing scenes, interim commissioner Madeline Wuntch (Kyra Sedgwick) briefly tells Holt that Kelly has since gotten a much higher-paying job in the private sector. Kelly isn't seen again, and so one can forget that such a dastardly character is still out there, flourishing in his new, better-paying position, failing upwards as is so maddeningly true to life.