Not every plot twist is a masterclass in misdirection. For every “Red Wedding” or “I am the one who knocks,” there are a dozen other TV moments where fans called the reveal three episodes or multiple seasons in advance. Whether it’s because of clunky foreshadowing, casting choices that give away too much, or writers following the most obvious breadcrumb trail possible, some twists just don’t land. Sure, the internet doesn’t make it easy for writers trying to shock an audience anymore, but some shows barely even try.
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From “surprising” resurrections of beloved characters to the sudden and nonsensical inclusion of OP family members toward the end, here are the TV plot twists that absolutely didn’t land.
1) Game of Thrones – Jon Snow’s Resurrection
When Jon Snow (Kit Harington) died at the end of Game of Thrones Season 5, fans didn’t exactly break into mourning. Everyone knew he’d be back. The whole thing felt like a calculated fake-out. The fact that HBO kept Harington on the press tour didn’t help the illusion. Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) showing up at Castle Black just before his death practically spelled out what was coming.
And when Season 6 started with entire episodes devoted to Jon’s corpse, it became clear the show was stalling for dramatic effect. When he finally gasped back to life, it landed with a shrug. We’d all been waiting for it. The real twist would’ve been if he had maybe stayed dead. Even in a show that routinely killed off beloved characters, that could have been one we wouldn’t have seen coming.
2) Gossip Girl – Dan Is Gossip Girl
The reveal that Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was Gossip Girl wasn’t so much shocking as it was insulting to anyone who’d been paying attention. Not only did it not make sense based on literally anything he’d said or done in the show, it actively contradicted scenes where he was alone and clearly not in the know. It felt like a twist chosen for shock value rather than narrative cohesion.
Fans had floated the Dan theory for years, but usually dismissed it because it was too illogical. So when the show went with the theory anyway, the reaction was less surprising and more confusing. If Gossip Girl was supposed to be omniscient, Dan was somehow orchestrating posts about things he himself seemed surprised to find out. He even broadcast troublesome secrets about himself and his family. The finale tried to spin it as clever, but it felt more like a last-minute Hail Mary than a well-earned payoff.
3) The Good Place – The Good Place Was the Bad Place
Okay, technically, this twist did surprise some viewers, but maybe not the really observant ones. From the very first episode, The Good Place felt off. The frozen yogurt obsession, the weird censorship of swear words, and the overly sunny aesthetic were all a little too perfect.
Reddit sleuths and eagle-eyed fans picked up on the subtle clues that this utopia was hiding something darker, and by the time it was revealed that the characters had actually been in the Bad Place all along, it was more confirmation than shock for a chunk of the audience. That’s not to say it wasn’t well-executed. It was one of the rare twists that worked even if you did see it coming. Still fun, just not fooling anyone past Episode 3.
4) Game of Thrones – Bran the Broken
Yes, Game of Thrones gets two entries, that’s how many of its twists flopped in the final stretch. When it was announced that Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) would be king of Westeros, the reaction from fans was collective confusion. It just didn’t make any sense.
Bran had spent entire seasons being mysteriously absent, and his “Three-Eyed Raven” storyline made him one of the least emotionally engaging characters on the show. The twist seemed to come out of nowhere, with no real buildup or thematic payoff. If the writers had been hinting at it all along, they did a terrible job at it. For many fans, it felt like the showrunners picked a name out of a hat. Perhaps it was another attempt at subverting expectations, but this one just didn’t work, not when there were a hundred other sensical yet incredible ways they could have gone with this.
5) How I Met Your Mother – Ted’s Wife Dies
The entire premise of How I Met Your Mother was built on the mystery of who the titular mother was. When Tracy (Cristin Milioti) finally showed up, she was smart, funny, warm, and everything fans had been hoping for. And then they killed her off so Ted (Josh Radnor) could end up with Robin (Cobie Smulders).
The showrunners thought this would be a shocking twist, something emotionally profound. Instead, it was one of the most universally hated TV endings ever. Fans had seen it coming because of the way they kept connecting the two, that entire running gag with the blue French horn and the way the narrative kept dragging Robin into the spotlight, even when it no longer made sense. So, when the kids rolled their eyes and admitted that they knew this was about Robin all along, it didn’t feel earned. It felt like a twist for twist’s sake and one that betrayed nine years of buildup and fooled absolutely no one.
6) The Flash – Harrison Wells Is Reverse-Flash
When The Flash introduced Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) as Barry Allen’s (Grant Gustin) brilliant yet mysterious mentor, fans immediately started connecting dots that the show hoped they’d miss. From his too-good-to-be-true intellect to the fact that he always seemed one step ahead of everyone, Wells gave off serious villain energy from the start. And then there were the moments where he would mysteriously rise from his wheelchair and enter his secret futuristic lair. It was hardly subtle stuff.
Add in the fact that fans of the comics already knew Eobard Thawne’s deal, and the so-called twist that Harrison Wells was the Reverse-Flash landed with a dull thud instead of a dramatic gut punch. Even the show’s attempts to keep things ambiguous couldn’t compete with internet theories and YouTube breakdowns. By the time the truth came out, most viewers had already binge-watched ten fan edits pointing it out. Great performance? Sure. But huge twist? Not even close.
7) Friends – Rachel Gets off the Plane
In the finale of the classic sitcom Friends, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) gave away her incredible career opportunity to pursue her relationship with Ross (David Schwimmer). She has the revelation that she was in love with Ross over the phone and gets off the plane to Paris.
Not only was this the most obvious and incredibly cliché ending to their relationship, but it also wiped away all the character development Rachel had in the show. So, not only was this not a surprising twist by any definition, it was also a pretty lame choice for her character, who had spent years and seasons working hard for her career. She had come far from the “daddy’s spoiled princess” image she had in the pilot. Instead, she had turned into a mature, career woman. Also, after all the toxic things that happened in their relationship, the creators still chose to make them seem like they were fated lovers or each other’s lobster, and that making it all okay somehow just felt wrong.
8) Sherlock – The Entire Deal With the Holmes Sister
The entire final season of BBC Sherlock was a bit of a mess. It took an otherwise beloved show and changed it into something completely unrecognizable, much to the chagrin of fans. Out of everything that could and did go wrong, the problem of the Holmes sister (Siân Brooke) is too big to ignore.
While the show tried to turn her inclusion in the show into a massive twist where she was supposed to be the main antagonist all along, her appearance was just bafflingly nonsensical. Her near-supernatural intellect, psychological prowess, and ability to predict nearly everything just turned the show from a cool detective show that had actual deductions to a battle of demigods. Her incarceration, the weird pranks she plays on Holmes, and even the ending where she got to reunite with her siblings after murdering a bunch of people — it still doesn’t make any more sense than the day they revealed her existence.
9) Lucifer – Lucifer’s Daughter
While Aurora “Rory” Decker-Morningstar (Brianna Hildebrand) wasn’t actually that bad a character, her inclusion at the tail end of the show just didn’t make sense.
After spending multiple seasons and years dedicated to multiple great story arcs, I just don’t understand why the show would introduce something completely new instead of focusing on what they had already built. When the ending could have focused on any of the many beloved characters, it instead spent the little time they had toward the end to explore a completely new character and relationship dynamic. All because of what? To make Lucifer (Tom Ellis) go back to Hell to become its healer? They could have chosen any other reasoning for that, especially after spending years building up to it. Overall, the Rory storyline ended up feeling half-baked and way less of a twist than what showrunners perhaps hoped it would be.
10) Sherlock – Moriarty Lives?
Aside from the Eurus problem that the final season of Sherlock is plagued with, the BBC also messed up when it comes to one of the most iconic — if not the most — characters of the series, i.e., Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott). The end of Season 3 teased the return of the main antagonist from the previous seasons, much to the delight and anticipation of the “Sherlocked” viewers.
But instead, it turned out to be another one of Eurus’s pranks/games/plays? The “twist” that Moriarty wasn’t just dead but he was following along with the antics of his apparent archnemesis’s sibling felt flat and reduced a complicated, saucy, deliciously evil, and layered character to a sidekick. And that felt like a personal affront rather than a good twist, to be honest.
What do you think were the least surprising TV twists? Let us know in the comments below!
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