Falsely Reformed Villain

"Dr. Eggman: This amusement park was constructed entirely out of a sense of remorse for my past transgressions, and is in no way associated with any sort of evil plot or premeditated misdeeds. Sonic: Well, that's a relief."

- Sonic Colors

Once again, the villain has gotten out of Prison. But this time, they've just served their sentence, with possible time off for good behavior, and guess what? They're no longer interested in crime, they just want to be an upstanding citizen at first.

This is usually just a ruse on the part of the villain, who's plotting his crimes in secret. It may even be part of an elaborate scheme to get the heroes to drop their guard and insinuate the villain.

An important part of this plot is that everyone else will usually believe the villain right away, it's the heroes who are made to look like fools by their paranoid suspicions.

The villain may set up a situation that looks like he's up to his old tricks, so that the heroes will come barging in to stop his perfectly lawful activities. This makes the villain look like an innocent victim of petty harassment and discredits any heroes who continue to suspect that he's still up to no good.

Sometimes the villain is so proficient at leading a normal life that you have to wonder why they even bother with being a villain. This is more plausible if the villain is just insane or motivated by animosity toward the heroes.

In particularly tragic instances of this, the villain really does reform, but the mistrust from their environment (and possibly the hero in particular) convinces them it's not worth it, and they go back to villainy.

Examples

 * Cruella undergoes a genuine Brainwashing so that she loves animals, but it later wears off. However, she then continues to act as a reformed person to hide her new plan to turn the puppies into fur coats.