Ah, plot twists. Whether you love or hate them, they’re absolutely necessary for moving stories forward. The best twists are the ones you never see coming and completely change the course of the plot. Here are ten times we were totally blindsided.
Warning: Spoilers and violence ahead!
10. Dan Scott Killing His Own Brother (One Tree Hill)
One Tree Hill is known to be like a soap opera, but for teenagers, and fans can’t look away. There are several points in the show where you think things can’t get any worse, but then if you wait a few minutes, they do. Between dangerous criminals in town, relationship betrayal, and car accidents, there are many plot twists that put the characters’ lives and friendships at risk. One of the most notable plot twists in the show is when Dan Scott kills his own brother, Keith, right when he finally finds happiness.
In season 3, one of the original cast members is shown to be suicidal and then carries out a school shooting at their local high school. This already heart-wrenching episode seems to wind down when Jimmy realizes the pain and suffering he could cause. However, Keith can’t save him and he ends up tragically killing himself. Just when the audience breathes a sigh of relief, Dan comes in and his resentment takes over. He becomes a murderer. This is definitely not something anyone saw coming.
Also Read: 10 Shows Like One Tree Hill and Where to Stream Them
9. Viserion’s Death and Rebirth (Game of Thrones)
There were actually two shocking plot twists in this episode, as Daenerys decides to fly off to help Jon and the others when they’re being attacked by White Walkers. When she gets there, it looks like the dragons will easily take care of things as they usually do. However, it turns out that the Night King is actually a pretty skilled javelin thrower, and mid-battle, he sends an ice spear soaring and pierces Viserion in the heart. His body lands with a crash and sinks through the ice into the freezing water below.
It seems like the end for our beloved dragon, but after a trip to Home Depot to get some industrial chains and scuba gear, the White Walkers pull Viserion up from the murky deep. He’s resurrected with a touch of the Night King’s icy hand, his eyelid opens to reveal a crystal blue eye, and an ice dragon is born.
8. Jason’s Revelation (The Good Place)
In this show, terrible person Eleanor Shellstrop has somehow ended up in “The Good Place” after she dies. She is quite relieved to be there until she realizes she’s accidentally taken someone else’s place due to a clerical error.
After confiding in her ethics professor Chidi, they conspire to keep the truth from everyone and decide to have Eleanor learn about ethics in hopes she can earn her spot in “The Good Place.”
Things are going well until one night, a note is slipped under her door that says, “I know you don’t belong here.” A few days later, she receives another note asking to meet in town. When she gets there, she’s greeted by her neighbor, a monk named Jianyu who has taken a vow of silence. Except, Jianyu is not a monk at all. He’s an idiotic criminal from Jacksonville, Florida, named Jason Mendoza — and he isn’t supposed to be there either.
There is another plot twist at the end of the first season, but we’ll let you discover that one on your own.
7. Poussey’s Death (Orange Is The New Black)
A model inmate at Litchfield, Poussey Washington, was serving time for a nonviolent offense when she ended up under the knee of Officer Bayley as he tried to hold back Suzanne during a meltdown. Poussey’s sweet nature was ultimately her undoing as she was only trying to get Bayley to let her talk to Suzanne to calm her down. It took just a few moments for things to go wrong as Poussey ended up being accidentally asphyxiated.
Fans were heartbroken even more when her body was left on the floor of the cafeteria until the next day. It was the ultimate degradation of the character viewers had gotten to know as smart, talented, and funny. Poussey’s exit from the show was a total surprise and totally gutted fans.
6. Bruce Willis Is Already Dead (The Sixth Sense)
This is one of the most well-known plot twists in movie history. Everyone remembers Haley Joel Osment’s line about seeing dead people, and audiences were shocked when the child therapist he’d been talking to in order to cope turned out to be dead himself.
If you watch the movie again, you’ll see that the only character who really interacts with Willis is Osment. He speaks to others, but they never answer back. It all feels a little odd until we realize they aren’t talking to him simply because they can’t see him. He’s been a ghost all along.
5. Dan Revealed as Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl)
As a classic in the teen drama genre, Gossip Girl is well known for its plot twists among rich Upper East Siders in New York City. You can expect to be surprised many times between discovering siblings, secret identities, crime, and more. However, the biggest plot twist of all was the final reveal of “Gossip Girl,” the mysterious and almost evil source reporting on their most intimate life details. While fans of the show suspected the source came from within the core group of private school friends, no one could have possibly seen the “underdog” from Brooklyn as the force creating so much drama and tension among rich, prominent families. This ultimate plot twist is revealed in the last season, so it came as a huge shock and left people speechless as to how they didn’t see the clues.
4. Bernard’s Secret Revealed (Westworld)
Bernard is a dedicated employee of Delos Inc., a company that specializes in creating fictitious worlds populated by robotic hosts. If you are among the wealthy and elite, you can pay a large sum to vacation in those worlds while interacting with the hosts as you please. This can include anything from a simple conversation to outright murder because, after all, they’re not real.
As most of us do, Bernard has his skeletons. He’s involved in a clandestine affair with his coworker and is coping with the death of his young son from a lengthy illness. Bernard has his faults. He’s only human, right? Wrong! Bernard is not human at all.
As it turns out, he was created in secret by Dr. Ford as a replication of his long-dead partner. Nobody else knows Bernard is not human, making him the perfect tool to do Ford’s dirty work. This revelation is a surprise to Bernard himself and was a shocking plot twist in a show that has no shortage of surprises.
3. The Red Wedding (Game of Thrones)
You knew this one was coming if you read the Game of Thrones books first, but if you were strictly a viewer, the night of June 2, 2013 probably left you traumatized. In the episode titled “The Rains of Castamere,” Robb Stark and his party arrive at the home of Walder Frey, whom he has insulted by marrying Talisa instead of honoring his agreement to marry one of Frey’s daughters. After an uncomfortable first meeting in which Robb publicly apologizes, old Walder seems placated enough, and Robb’s cousin Edmure agrees to marry Frey’s daughter instead (after much complaining in private). There’s a wedding and all’s well that ends well, right? Not in this show.
After Edmure and his new bride are wedded and bedded, Robb and his newly pregnant wife are left at the party along with his mother. The celebration is beginning to wind down when the band starts playing “The Rains of Castamere,” a song that was written about the Lannisters completely wiping out a rival house. Suddenly, Catelyn Stark becomes very uncomfortable as she turns to see the doors being locked shut and finds chainmail under Roose Bolton’s wedding clothes. She slaps him and screams a warning to her son but it’s too late — the stabbing has already begun. The King of the North is dead, along with his mother, wife, and dire wolf. The screen turns black, and the credits roll.
Luckily, book readers were clever enough to set up cameras at their Game of Thrones parties so they could catch the reactions of their poor, unsuspecting friends. Relive the moment, if you dare.
2. Crowley’s Death (Supernatural)
During his time on Supernatural, Crowley went back and forth between being an antihero and an adversary. Fans loved him (or loved to hate him) as he went through his many transformations, including guiding Dean through the process of becoming a demon until he was finally cured. Crowley was a fan favorite, but the show’s large and devoted audience was stunned after Crowley committed suicide with an angel blade to seal Satan into an alternate reality.
However, as fans are well aware, death on Supernatural can be temporary, and the Twitterverse hoped they’d not seen the last of the beloved king of Hell. Nevertheless, Mark Sheppard (who plays Crowley) tweeted after the episode that there are “no plans for me to return at any juncture.”
1. Darth Vader’s Reveal (The Empire Strikes Back)
Audiences were stunned in May 1980 when the follow-up to “A New Hope” unveiled its biggest secret: the evil Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father! Although it’s now common knowledge, theatre audiences during that first run were reportedly so stunned that many refused to believe it and thought Vader was lying to Luke to tempt him to the Dark Side. However, the reveal turned out to be true, and the public had to face the facts.
If you want to witness pure shock and horror, look no further than YouTube videos in which parents film their kids getting this news for the first time.
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