Top 10 Plot Twists That Created Plot Holes

“Dallas” (1978-91)
The life and times of the wealthy Ewing family had America rapt throughout the 1980s. When Bobby Ewing was killed at the end of the eighth season, it was huge news. Then, after a whole ninth season without him, he just shows up in his wife’s shower. Viewers had to wait for months to learn that everything we’d watched (between his death and his return) had actually only ever been his would-be widow’s extended nightmare. It meant that none of the stories we’d followed for weeks until then even mattered. Not only was the whole thing frustrating, it meant that we had to go back and erase an entire season’s worth of relationships, conflict, and character development from our brains.

S08E30 “Swan Song”
Bobby’s accident: https://youtu.be/EO1_gwNIz4c?si=smyk21tfhl4IdoRV&t=31
S09E31 “Blast From the Past”
I thought you were dead: https://youtu.be/uG6oHIySYI4?si=4hYKrpKkVpd7dMmb&t=26

“Doctor Who” (1963-89, 2005-)
Time travel and interdimensional wormholes can have the potential to get messy. In all iterations, the Doctor in “Doctor Who” battles all manner of supernatural creatures… and typically escapes by the skin of their teeth. But fans had to wonder about the fortuitous solution in the episode “The Big Bang”. Here, the Eleventh Doctor finds himself in a seemingly inescapable situation. But, he quite simply travels back from the future to give his companion, Rory, the sonic screwdriver… that Rory ultimately uses to free him. The day is saved, but the paradox is clear. And we’re left to wonder if there are ever any especially high stakes to the Doctor’s adventures… if they can just time travel and serve up a deus ex machina whenever it’s needed?

S05E13 “The Big Bang”
Screwdriver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-nL05JifoI
S05E12 “The Pandorica Opens”
Pandorica: https://youtu.be/F7KbqE_EzJM?si=y4Bao3MVvLMnMrZW&t=18

“Pretty Little Liars” (2010-17)
The sixth (and penultimate) season finally solves the ongoing mystery around the death of Toby Cavanaugh’s mother, Marion. Or did it? In the show, Bethany Young is revealed to have pushed Marion off a roof years before. The circumstances are fraught and filled with drama, to be sure. But the revelation also poses a significant timing problem. Toby is supposed to have been a child when his mother dies. However, Marion Cavanaugh was seen in a flashback from season four, and Toby is well into his teenage years at that time... and it just doesn’t match up. For a show with this many mysteries and puzzles for viewers to solve, it’s a pretty glaring error.

S06E10 “Game Over, Charles”
Toby’s mother’s death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok9vn7NLufs
S04E01 “A Is for A-l-i-v-e”
Flashback: https://youtu.be/hOuwToKihPo?si=WJIh_z6C43EYcjWv&t=31

“Dexter” (2006-13)
Dexter Morgan almost met his match in Hannah McKay, who becomes his lover and deadly accomplice. By the end of the seventh season, though, Hannah is implicated in a murder and makes a daring escape from justice. You’d think such a high profile fugitive would want to stay undercover for a while. Not so, apparently. The very next season, Dexter awakes from having his drink spiked only to see Hannah standing over him. It’s a pretty fun twist, but it falls apart once you think about it. Not only is Hannah just out in public, but she’s married to a pretty high profile businessman. There’s nothing undercover about her. If this is living life as a fugitive, she’s doing it on hard mode.

S08E06 “A Little Reflection”
Hannah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m3KgZ0oKrU
S07E03 “Buck the System”
Meeting Hannah: https://youtu.be/aD9wF1kQpFs?si=BM2sSCOJt4L7Ary3&t=146

“Grey’s Anatomy” (2005-)
For more than 20 seasons, the physicians at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital haven’t just bent the rules of the medical industry… they’ve broken, mocked, and smashed them to pieces on numerous occasions. Not only that, but the people in power at this hospital seem to believe their doctors are so good, they can just look the other way on major ethical violations. So, when Dr. Bailey fires Meredith Grey, Richard Webber, and Alex Karev over some minor insurance fraud, it feels like a weird time for her to enforce the rules. It’s especially crazy since we’ve literally seen Bailey herself commit insurance fraud in season 5.

S15E25 “Jump Into the Fog”
You’re all fired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJPWGc3094M
S05E02 “Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 2”
Insurance fraud:

“Game of Thrones” (2011-19)
Introduced in the second season, this mysterious enchantress was a major player in the battle for the Iron Throne. It’s revealed in the sixth season that Melisandre’s youthful looks are the result of a magic spell. Once she removes her enchanted choker, she reverts to her true form, taking on a much older, more decrepit appearance. But eagle-eyed viewers were confused. Back in season four, Melisandre was seen in a bath very much without her necklace, and back then she was still her usual, youthful self. Although fans did, at one time, rally to explain theories as to why, Melisandre actress Carice van Houten herself has called this an “oops moment”. It’s still somehow not as bad a mistake as that Starbucks cup, though.

S06E01 “The Red Woman
Reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7SM3x2taiU
S04E07 “Mockingbird”
Bath tub: https://youtu.be/KgjCEVaDZz8?si=SzsiqjD5fll5mm6z&t=25

“Heroes Reborn” (2015-16)
The original “Heroes” went through great pains to show us how Claire Bennet was virtually indestructible. And, of course, there was the often repeated line “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” But, by the time of “Heroes Reborn”, that had all changed. Through a convoluted series of events, Claire ends up dying in childbirth before the events of the ill-conceived revival series. Again, one of the constants of the show was her invincibility, so to see that this was just quickly explained away by off-screen events… was a little too difficult to believe. We’re talking about a character here who had woken up from her own autopsy and walked away from a nuclear blast. But all of that was apparently forgotten.

S01E04 “Collision”
Autopsy: https://youtu.be/kn1bzkKnxZs?si=UqAuw6YGwgfY6RHt&t=73
S03E11 “The Eclipse Part 2”
Claire “dead”: https://youtu.be/_UaJHG2u0qE?si=I5ZjaQZa8XjUm1UL&t=263

S01E03 “Under the Mask”
Claire’s daughter: https://youtu.be/Ypc9GVlMF7g?si=FaqHWEH2-6Sm1lO6&t=12

“Friends” (1994-2004)
This season 2 episode is most fondly remembered as the huge turning point in Ross and Rachel’s endless love story. The plot twist that Ross had gotten ready to be Rachel’s emergency date for prom finally opened up her eyes to how much he cared for her, and for how long. But the prom video tape at the center of the episode opened up a Pandora’s Box of plot holes regarding Chandler Bing’s history with the core friend group. Chandler’s shock over Monica’s weight definitely doesn’t make much sense, as other episodes establish that Chandler met Monica during that period. So, why would he be so surprised here?

S02E14 “The One with the Prom Video”
Chandler’s shock:
Twist: https://youtu.be/PvzA98Zoup4?si=-tlXItk7YFudZ90e&t=231
S05E08 “The One with All the Thanksgivings”
Chandler and Monica meet: https://youtu.be/TA26aE3OyNs?si=JmRDDgwaoB9rXRA_&t=29

“Roseanne” (1988-97; 2018)
In its ninth season, this working class sitcom family won the lottery. But the show stumbled to a frustrating and increasingly surreal series finale. In one of the most bizarre retcons in TV history, Roseanne Conner reveals that the final season, and even much of the later seasons, were actually only plot points in a novel she’s been writing. Stories and characters we’d come to love were then totally rewritten in these last few moments. She swapped her daughters’ real-life partners, undoing years of character development, and even killed off her beloved husband, Dan. It opened up more questions than answers, and when the show returned in 2018, the writers somewhat smartly retconned the retcon.

S09E23/24 “Into That Good Night”
Couples: https://youtu.be/53FCvY6A-zo?si=Q1DazpLUPoA2k0jY&t=118
Dan’s death: https://youtu.be/53FCvY6A-zo?si=n9S9PQwrLMjFQB8g&t=158


Revival promo: https://youtu.be/JBiWGr0ZWjc?si=t9aqnc5N4S-CdZ9X&t=14

“Gossip Girl” (2007-12)
It was a long-anticipated series finale, promising one of modern TV’s most intriguing reveals… but the show’s writers dropped a massive, nonsensical bomb when they finally revealed Dan Humphrey as the eponymous gossip blogger. They tried their best to make this make sense, but anyone who’d paid even a little bit of attention over the years could poke holes in this clumsiest of plot twists. For one thing, Dan was victimized by Gossip Girl as much as anyone. He was as upset by their posts as any other character, even when he was alone. There were moments where Dan was being outright blackmailed by Gossip Girl, too, and communicating with them over text. There were just so many moments that, after the reveal, totally fell apart.

S06E10 “New York, I Love You XOXO”
Dan: https://youtu.be/XbBBV2PFM6w?si=Ln7qag7ZnK_x3lDR&t=113
S01E06 “The Handmaiden’s Tale”
Dan alone: https://youtu.be/lMidEqnhI7w?si=mJSx28Rv7BaQEufd&t=41
S04E11 “The Townie”
Texting himself?: https://youtu.be/lMidEqnhI7w?si=hnjS4w6BhAnFLG3z&t=181

Did any of these plot holes get you upset all over again? Let us know in the comments.