Most often, the narrator of a story is unseen, and may not even be a character within it. However, sometimes we do see the narrator, and he seems to be talking to us (the audience) breaking the Fourth Wall; but instead, he or she is actually talking to another character within the story, but we don't realize that until later. This is often done to surprise the audience with the listener's identity. It is, however, a tricky thing to do, as the author must be careful not to have the narrator mention something he couldn't know at any point, or say something that reveals too early whom he is addressing.
Might overlap with Narrator All Along (the narrator is revealed to actually be one of the characters in the story) and Second-Person Narration (the narration addresses the reader directly as they were the main character). Sister Trope of ...And That Little Girl Was Me (a character tells a story about themself in the third person without revealing it until the end).
If this is employed by a character who is not the narrator, especially for comedic effect, then it is a Fourth Wall Psych (a character appears to break the fourth wall, but doesn't).
Not to be confused with Audience? What Audience?.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Haruhi Suzumiya: Whoever Kyon is talking to. This being that series, musing about it would create multiple Epileptic Trees.
Comic Books
- Marvel Universe: The End: Thanos appears to be narrating to the reader, but the ending reveals he was actually telling the story to Adam Warlock.
- What If?: Uatu the Watcher, an alien, seems to be telling the readers about the events he has observed in other alternate universes. It's later revealed, however, that he's actually recording his comments for the people who will exist after this universe is destroyed... whoever they might be.
Fan Works
Crossovers
- Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness: At the end, Yukari is revealed to be telling the story to Renko Usami at an undisclosed point in time, even derailing the author's attempt to end the story prematurely.
Films — Animation
- Coco: Miguel narrates the story's events, filling in the viewers on his family's backstory as well as de la Cruz's. It is eventually revealed that he's talking to the mariachi guitarist in the city's plaza.
Films — Live-Action
- Iron Man 3: Tony narrates bits of the story. The Stinger reveals that he's talking to Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk.
- Journey To Bethlehem: The film ends with the revelation that the narrator was Mary telling the story to a young Jesus, as part of His scripture lessons.
Mary: And that is the story of how You came to us.
- Pirates of Silicon Valley: The mockumentary starts off with what looks like a talking head of Steve Jobs. The camera then revolves around behind Steve, revealing that he's actually talking to someone across the table from him.
Live-Action TV
- Angel: Subverted. Lorne seems to be talking to a literal audience (in a theatre) but is revealed to be talking to nobody but the TV audience (though he doesn't know he's talking to us, either).
- CSI: NY: For at least two-thirds of "The Box," Danny is shown sitting in a room with concrete block walls while narrating the events of the case (shown in flashback) to someone offscreen. Only after he's brought them up to speed is his audience revealed to be the parents of the victim of the week, and that they're all in a room in the precinct that the viewers have never seen before.
- Doctor Who: In "The End of Time", Part 1 is narrated by an ominous voice eventually revealed to be Timothy Dalton as the Lord President of the Time Lords, telling the story to the assembled Time Lords (who had previously been assumed to be dead).
- ER: Luca apparently narrates his thoughts throughout. It looks pretty cheesy and as if he's justified in turning down offers to talk to a therapist. Until the reveal, where you see that he's paid a prostitute just to sit and listen.
- Just Shoot Me!: "My Dinner With Woody"—which has a Whole-Plot Reference to Annie Hall—starts with Maya talking to the camera, as Alvy does at the beginning of Annie. At the end, it is revealed that Maya had been talking to the water delivery guy.
- No Ordinary Family: The pilot episode is told as a flashback by Jim and Stephanie to their marriage counselor.
- Scrubs: One episode is narrated by Dr. Cox, speaking to an initially unknown person (implied but not stated to be his shrink). Partway through the episode, Dr. Cox blames the listener for his going soft, and at the end of the episode it's revealed he's talking to his infant son.
Music
- Kenny Rogers: "Buy Me a Rose" is not only the story of an overworked man neglecting his wife because of it, but also the same man telling that to his wife and wanting to make up for it; hence the last line being "I bought you a rose".
Radio & Podcasts
- Undone: Series 3 finale. Edna has been telling this story to all the other characters, as a part of the Cancellation Point.
Video Games
- Bastion: The entire game is narrated by a character named Rucks, but who he's talking to is unclear until, in one of the later missions, it turns out that Rucks has been recounting The Kid's journey to Zia, who wasn't there for most of it. It also gets Played With, since in the very final mission, it turns out that the entire recounting took place while The Kid was off doing the final mission, and Rucks has nothing to say anymore, since they're caught up to the present, and he's got no idea what's happening or what has already happened for the final mission. The narration once Zia is totally caught up is just them talking about the future should The Kid succeed.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops: The interrogators to whom the Player Character is forced to recount his adventures are Hudson and Weaver.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Sylvia is reduced to working in a seedy peepshow, recounting the game's story over a phone to an unseen, unheard customer. The ending reveals that it's Travis, who's waiting for her to work out exactly why he's there. Once she does, he takes her away from the show.
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: The Prince's voiceover pops up throughout the game. It is revealed near the end that he is recounting his adventures thus far to Farah.
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories: Doctor Kaufmann is presented as a way to justify the game's Schrödinger's Canon, the idea being that he's psychoanalyzing the player and the narrative is changing according to that. In reality, he's psychoanalyzing Cheryl, who is in denial from her father's death in a car crash.
Visual Novels
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: The last case is narrated by Phoenix. At first, it seems like he's addressing the player, then later, it sounds as if he's addressing Apollo and Trucy, but it is finally revealed that he has been addressing the Jurists/Lamiroir this whole time.
Webcomics
- Cuanta Vida: Rojo, who thinks of himself as the hero of the story and thus narrates his actions under that light, reveals on page 94 that he's been talking to another character.
- The Gods of Arr-Kelaan: Done twice in "Consequences." The first time, Inti is the narrator of the first part of the story arc, and his audience turns out to be several of the old gods of Earth, including Thor, Athena, Zeus (who is also Odin), Loki, and Ares. The second time, Ronson is relating later events of the story arc to the mysterious earth-goddess Luranna, who none of the other Traveller gods are even aware exists. And Ronson's not even sure she can hear him because as far as he can tell he's talking to empty air.
